diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16445-0.txt | 8785 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16445-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 212677 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16445-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 254518 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16445-h/16445-h.htm | 9192 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16445-h/images/illus405.png | bin | 0 -> 12623 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 16445-h/images/illus405_full.png | bin | 0 -> 14296 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/16445-8.txt | 8813 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/16445-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 212924 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/16445.txt | 8813 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/16445.zip | bin | 0 -> 212716 bytes |
13 files changed, 35619 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16445-0.txt b/16445-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b1ebc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/16445-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8785 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I, by Hester Lynch Piozzi + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I + +Author: Hester Lynch Piozzi + +Release Date: August 5, 2005 [eBook #16445] +[Most recently updated: June 23, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Robert Connal, Mark Stewart and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS *** + + + + +OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS + +MADE IN THE COURSE OF A + +JOURNEY + +THROUGH + +_FRANCE, ITALY, AND GERMANY_. + + +By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI. + + +IN TWO VOLUMES + +Vol. I. + + +LONDON: + +Printed for A. STRAHAN; and T. CADELL in the Strand, + +MDCCLXXXIX. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +I was made to observe at Rome some vestiges of an ancient custom very +proper in those days--it was the parading of the streets by a set of +people called _Preciæ_, who went some minutes before the _Flamen Dialis_ +to bid the inhabitants leave work or play, and attend wholly to the +procession; but if ill omens prevented the pageants from passing, or if +the occasion of the show was deemed scarcely worthy its celebration, +these _Preciæ_ stood a chance of being ill-treated by the spectators. A +Prefatory introduction to a work like this, can hope little better usage +from the Public than they had; it proclaims the approach of what has +often passed by before, adorned most certainly with greater splendour, +perhaps conducted too with greater regularity and skill: Yet will I not +despair of giving at least a momentary amusement to my countrymen in +general, while their entertainment shall serve as a vehicle for +conveying expressions of particular kindness to those foreign +individuals, whose tenderness softened the sorrows of absence, and who +eagerly endeavoured by unmerited attentions to supply the loss of their +company on whom nature and habit had given me stronger claims. + +That I should make some reflections, or write down some observations, in +the course of a long journey, is not strange; that I should present them +before the Public is I hope not too daring: the presumption grew up out +of their acknowledged favour, and if too kind culture has encouraged a +coarse plant till it runs to seed, a little coldness from the same +quarter will soon prove sufficient to kill it. The flattering partiality +of private partisans sometimes induces authors to venture forth, and +stand a public decision; but it is often found to betray them too; not +to be tossed by waves of perpetual contention, but rather to sink in the +silence of total neglect. What wonder! He who swims in oil must be +buoyant indeed, if he escapes falling certainly, though gently, to the +bottom; while he who commits his safety to the bosom of the +wide-embracing ocean, is sure to be strongly supported, or at worst +thrown upon the shore. + +On this principle it has been still my study to obtain from a humane and +generous Public that shelter their protection best affords from the +poisoned arrows of private malignity; for though it is not difficult to +despise the attempts of petty malice, I will not say with the +Philosopher, that I mean to build a monument to my fame with the stones +thrown at me to break my bones; nor yet pretend to the art of Swift's +German Wonder-doer, who promised to make them fall about his head like +so many pillows. Ink, as it resembles Styx in its colour, should +resemble it a little in its operation too; whoever has been once _dipt_ +should become _invulnerable_: But it is not so; the irritability of +authors has long been enrolled among the comforts of ill-nature, and the +triumphs of stupidity; such let it long remain! Let me at least take +care in the worst storms that may arise in public or in private life, to +say with Lear, + + --I'm one + More sinn'd against, than sinning. + +For the book--I have not thrown my thoughts into the form of private +letters; because a work of which truth is the best recommendation, +should not above all others begin with a lie. My old acquaintance rather +chose to amuse themselves with conjectures, than to flatter me with +tender inquiries during my absence; our correspondence then would not +have been any amusement to the Public, whose treatment of me deserves +every possible acknowledgment; and more than those acknowledgments will +I not add--to a work, which, such as it is, I submit to their candour, +resolving to think as little of the event as I can help; for the labours +of the press resemble those of the toilette, both should be attended to, +and finished with care; but once complete, should take up no more of our +attention; unless we are disposed at evening to destroy all effect of +our morning's study. + + + + +OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS + +MADE IN A JOURNEY THROUGH + +France, Italy, and Germany. + + * * * * * + + + +FRANCE. + + + +CALAIS. + + +September 7, 1784. + +Of all pleasure, I see much may be destroyed by eagerness of +anticipation: I had told my female companion, to whom travelling was +new, how she would be surprized and astonished, at the difference found +in crossing the narrow sea from England to France, and now she is not +astonished at all; why should she? We have lingered and loitered six and +twenty hours from port to port, while sickness and fatigue made her feel +as if much more time still had elapsed since she quitted the opposite +shore. The truth is, we wanted wind exceedingly; and the flights of +shaggs, and shoals of maycril, both beautiful enough, and both uncommon +too at this season, made us very little amends for the tediousness of a +night passed on ship-board. + +Seeing the sun rise and set, however, upon an unobstructed horizon, was +a new idea gained to me, who never till now had the opportunity. It +confirmed the truth of that maxim which tells us, that the human mind +must have something left to supply for itself on the sight of all +sublunary objects. When my eyes have watched the rising or setting sun +through a thick crowd of intervening trees, or seen it sink gradually +behind a hill which obstructed my closer observation, fancy has always +painted the full view finer than at last I found it; and if the sun +itself cannot satisfy the cravings of a thirsty imagination, let it at +least convince us that nothing on this side Heaven can satisfy them, and +_set our affections_ accordingly. + +Pious reflections remind one of monks and nuns; I enquired of the +Franciscan friar who attended us at the inn, what was become of Father +Felix, who did the duties of the quête; as it is called, about a dozen +years ago, when I recollect minding that his manners and story struck +Dr. Johnson exceedingly, who said that so complete a character could +scarcely be found in romance. He had been a soldier, it seems, and was +no incompetent or mean scholar: the books we found open in his cell, +shewed he had not neglected modern or colloquial knowledge; there was a +translation of Addison's Spectators, and Rapin's Dissertation on the +contending Parties of England called Whig and Tory. He had likewise a +violin, and some printed music, for his entertainment. I was glad to +hear he was well, and travelling to Barcelona on foot by orders of the +superior. + +After dinner we set out to see Miss Grey, at her convent of Dominican +Nuns; who, I hoped, would have remembered me, as many of the ladies +there had seized much of my attention when last abroad; they had however +all forgotten me, nor could call to mind how much they had once admired +the beauty of my eldest daughter, then a child, which I thought +impossible to forget: one is always more important in one's own eyes +than in those of others; but no one is of importance to a Nun, who is +and ought to be employed in other speculations. + +When the Great Mogul showed his splendour to a travelling dervise, who +expressed his little admiration of it--"Shall you not often be thinking +of me in future?" said the monarch. "Perhaps I might," replied the +religieux, "if I were not always thinking upon God." + +The women spinning at their doors here, or making lace, or employing +themselves in some manner, is particularly consolatory to a British eye; +yet I do not recollect it struck me last time I was over: industry +without bustle, and some appearance of gain without fraud, comfort one's +heart; while all the profits of commerce scarcely can be said to make +immediate compensation to a delicate mind, for the noise and brutality +observed in an English port. I looked again for the chapel, where the +model of a ship, elegantly constructed, hung from the top, and found it +in good preservation: some scrupulous man had made the ship, it seems, +and thought, perhaps justly too, that he had spent a greater portion of +time and care on the workmanship than he ought to have done; so +resolving no longer to indulge his vanity or fondness, fairly hung it up +in the convent chapel, and made a solemn vow to look on it no more. I +remember a much stronger instance of self-denial practised by a pretty +young lady of Paris once, who was enjoined by her confessor to wring off +the neck of her favourite bullfinch, as a penance for having passed too +much time in teaching him to pipe tunes, peck from her hand, &c.--She +obeyed; but never could be prevailed on to see the priest again. + +We are going now to leave Calais, where the women in long white camblet +clokes, soldiers with whiskers, girls in neat slippers, and short +petticoats contrived to show them, who wait upon you at the +inn;--postillions with greasy night-caps, and vast jack-boots, driving +your carriage harnessed with ropes, and adorned with sheep-skins, can +never fail to strike an Englishman at his first going abroad:--But what +is our difference of manners, compared to that prodigious effect +produced by the much shorter passage from Spain to Africa; where an +hour's time, and sixteen miles space only, carries you from Europe, from +civilization, from Christianity. A gentleman's description of his +feelings on that occasion rushes now on my mind, and makes me half +ashamed to sit here, in Dessein's parlour, writing remarks, in good +time!--upon places as well known as Westminster-bridge to almost all +those who cross it at this moment; while the custom-house officers +intrusion puts me the less out of humour, from the consciousness that, +if I am disturbed, I am disturbed from doing _nothing_. + + + +CHANTILLY. + + +Our way to this place lay through Boulogne; the situation of which is +pleasing, and the fish there excellent. I was glad to see Boulogne, +though I can scarcely tell why; but one is always glad to see something +new, and talk of something old: for example, the story I once heard of +Miss Ashe, speaking of poor Dr. James, who loved profligate conversation +dearly,--"That man should set up his quarters across the water," said +she; "why Boulogne would be a seraglio to him." + +The country, as far as Montreuil, is a coarse one; _thin herbage in the +plains and fruitless fields_. The cattle too are miserably poor and +lean; but where there is no grass, we can scarcely expect them to be +fat: they must not feed on wheat, I suppose, and cannot digest tobacco. +Herds of swine, not flocks of sheep, meet one's eye upon the hills; and +the very few gentlemen's feats that we have passed by, seem out of +repair, and deserted. The French do not reside much in private houses, +as the English do; but while those of narrower fortunes flock to the +country towns within their reach, those of ampler purses repair to +Paris, where the rent of their estate supplies them with pleasures at no +very enormous expence. The road is magnificent, like our old-fashioned +avenue in a nobleman's park, but wider, and paved in the middle: this +convenience continued on for many hundred miles, and all at the king's +expence. Every man you meet, politely pulls off his hat _en passant_; +and the gentlemen have commonly a good horse under them, but certainly a +dressed one. + +Sporting season is not come in yet, but, I believe the idea of sporting +seldom enters any head except an English one: here is prodigious plenty +of game, but the familiarity with which they walk about and sit by our +road-side, shews they feel no apprehensions. + +Harvest, even in France, is extremely backward this year, I see; no +crops are yet got in, nor will reaping be likely to pay its own charges. +But though summer is come too late for profit, the pleasure it brings is +perhaps enhanced by delay: like a life, the early part of which has been +wasted in sickness, the possessor finds too little time remaining for +work, when health _does_ come; and spends all that he has left, +naturally enough, in enjoyment. + +The pert vivacity of _La Fille_ at Montreuil was all we could find there +worth remarking: it filled up my notions of French flippancy agreeably +enough; as no English wench would so have answered one to be sure. She +had complained of our avant-coureur's behaviour. "_Il parle sur le bant +ton, mademoiselle_" (said I), "_mais il à le coeur bon_[A]:" "_Ouydà _" +(replied she, smartly), "_mais c'est le ton qui fait le chanson_[B]." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: He sets his talk to a sounding tune, my dear, but he is an +honest fellow.] + +[Footnote B: But I always thought it was the tune which made the +musick.] + +The cathedral at Amiens made ample amends for the country we passed +through to see it; the _Nef d'Amiens_ deserves the fame of a first-rate +structure: and the ornaments of its high altar seem particularly well +chosen, of an excellent taste, and very capital execution. The vineyards +from thence hither shew, that either the climate, or season, or both, +improve upon one: the grapes climbing up some not very tall +golden-pippin trees, and mingling their fruits at the top, have a mighty +pleasing effect; and I observe the rage for Lombardy poplars is in equal +force here as about London: no tolerable house have I passed without +seeing long rows of them; all young plantations, as one may perceive by +their size. Refined countries always are panting for speedy enjoyment: +the maxim of _carpe diem_[Footnote: Seize the present moment.] came into +Rome when luxury triumphed there; and poets and philosophers lent their +assistance to decorate and dignify her gaudy car. Till then we read of +no such haste to be happy; and on the same principle, while Americans +contentedly wait the slow growth of their columnal chesnut, our hot-bed +inhabitants measure the slender poplar with canes, anxiously admiring +its quick growth and early elegance; yet are often cut down themselves, +before their youthful favourite can afford them either pleasure or +advantage. + +This charming palace and gardens were new to neither of us, yet lovely +to both: the tame fish, I remember so well to have fed from my hand +eleven or twelve years ago, are turned almost all white; can it be with +age I wonder? the naturalists must tell. I once saw a carp which weighed +six pounds and an half taken out of a pond in Hertfordshire, where the +owners knew it had resided forty years at least; and it was not white, +but of the common colour: Quere, how long will they live? and when will +they begin to change? The stables struck me as more magnificent this +time than the last I saw them; the hounds were always dirtily and ill +kept; but hunting is not the taste of any nation now but ours; none but +a young English heir says to his estate as Goliah did to David, _Come to +me, and I will give thee to the beasts of the field, and to the fowls of +the air_; as some of our old books of piety reproach us. Every trick +that money can play with the most lavish abundance of water is here +exhibited; nor is the sight of a _jet d'eau_, or the murmur of an +artificial cascade, undelightful in a hot day, let the Nature-mongers +say what they please. The prince's cabinet, for a private collection, is +not a mean one; but I was sorry to see his quadrant rusted to the globe +almost, and the poor planetarium out of all repair. The great stuffed +dog is a curiosity however; I never saw any of the canine species so +large, and withal so beautiful, living or dead. + +The theatre belonging to the house is a lovely one; and the truly +princely possessor, when he heard once that an English gentleman, +travelling for amusement, had called at Chantilly too late to enjoy the +diversion, instantly, though past twelve o'clock at night, ordered a new +representation, that his curiosity might be gratified. This is the same +Prince of Condè, who going from Paris to his country-seat here for a +month or two, when his eldest son was nine years old, left him fifty +louis d'ors as an allowance during his absence. At his return to town, +the boy produced his purse, crying "_Papa! here's all the money safe, I +have never touched it once_"--The Prince, in reply, took him gravely to +the window, and opening it, very quietly poured all the louis d'ors into +the street; saying, "Now, if you have neither virtue enough to give away +your money, nor spirit enough to spend it, always _do this_ for the +future, do you hear; that the poor may at least have a _chance for it_." + + + +PARIS. + + +The fine paved road to this town has many inconveniencies, and jars the +nerves terribly with its perpetual rattle; the approach however always +strikes one as very fine, I think, and the boulevards and guingettes +look always pretty too: as wine, beer, and spirits are not permitted to +be sold there, one sees what England does not even pretend to exhibit, +which is gaiety without noise, and a crowd without a riot. I was pleased +to go over the churches again too, and re-experience that particular +sensation which the disposition of St. Rocque's altars and ornaments +alone can give. In the evening we looked at the new square called the +Palais Royal, whence the Duc de Chartres has removed a vast number of +noble trees, which it was a sin and shame to profane with an axe, after +they had adorned that spot for so many centuries.--The people were +accordingly as angry, I believe, as Frenchmen can be, when the folly was +first committed: the court, however, had wit enough to convert the place +into a sort of Vauxhall, with tents, fountains, shops, full of frippery, +brilliant at once and worthless, to attract them; with coffeehouses +surrounding it on every side; and now they are all again _merry_ and +_happy_, synonymous terms at Paris, though often disunited in London; +and _Vive le Duc de Chartres_! + +The French are really a contented race of mortals;--precluded almost +from possibility of adventure, the low Parisian leads a gentle humble +life, nor envies that greatness he never can obtain; but either wonders +delightedly, or diverts himself philosophically with the sight of +splendours which seldom fail to excite serious envy in an Englishman, +and sometimes occasion even suicide, from disappointed hopes, which +never could take root in the heart of these unaspiring people. +Reflections of this cast are suggested to one here in every shop, where +the behaviour of the matter at first sight contradicts all that our +satirists tell us of the _supple Gaul_, &c. A mercer in this town shews +you a few silks, and those he scarcely opens; _vous devez +choisir_[Footnote: Chuse what you like.], is all he thinks of saying, to +invite your custom; then takes out his snuff-box, and yawns in your +face, fatigued by your inquiries. For my own part, I find my natural +disgust of such behaviour greatly repelled, by the recollection that the +man I am speaking to is no inhabitant of + + A happy land, where circulating pow'r + Flows thro' each member of th'embodied state-- + + S. JOHNSON. + + +and I feel well-inclined to respect the peaceful tenor of a life, which +likes not to be broken in upon, for the sake of obtaining riches, which +when gotten must end only in the pleasure of counting them. A Frenchman +who should make his fortune by trade tomorrow, would be no nearer +advancement in society or situation: why then should he solicit, by arts +he is too lazy to delight in the practice of, that opulence which would +afford so slight an improvement to his comforts? He lives as well as he +wishes already; he goes to the Boulevards every night, treats his wife +with a glass of lemonade or ice, and holds up his babies by turns, to +hear the jokes of _Jean Pottage_. Were he to recommend his goods, like +the Londoner, with studied eloquence and attentive flattery, he could +not hope like him that the eloquence he now bestows on the decorations +of a hat, or the varnish of an equipage, may one day serve to torment a +minister, and obtain a post of honour for his son; he could not hope +that on some future day his flattery might be listened to by some lady +of more birth than beauty, or riches perhaps, when happily employed upon +a very different subject, and be the means of lifting himself into a +state of distinction, his children too into public notoriety. + +Emulation, ambition, avarice, however, must in all arbitrary governments +be confined to the great; the _other_ set of mortals, for there are none +there of _middling_ rank, live, as it should seem, like eunuchs in a +seraglio; feel themselves irrevocably doomed to promote the pleasure of +their superiors, nor ever dream of sighing for enjoyments from which an +irremeable boundary divides them. They see at the beginning of their +lives how that life must necessarily end, and trot with a quiet, +contented, and unaltered pace down their long, straight, and shaded +avenue; while we, with anxious solicitude, and restless hurry, watch the +quick turnings of our serpentine walk; which still presents, either to +sight or expectation, some changes of variety in the ever-shifting +prospect, till the unthought-of, unexpected end comes suddenly upon us, +and finishes at once the fluctuating scene. Reflections must now give +way to facts for a moment, though few English people want to be told +that every hotel here, belonging to people of condition, is shut out +from the street like our Burlington-house, which gives a general gloom +to the look of this city so famed for its gaiety: the streets are narrow +too, and ill-paved; and very noisy, from the echo made by stone +buildings drawn up to a prodigious height, many of the houses having +seven, and some of them even eight stories from the bottom. The +contradictions one meets with every moment likewise strike even a +cursory observer--a countess in a morning, her hair dressed, with +diamonds too perhaps, a dirty black handkerchief about her neck, and a +flat silver ring on her finger, like our ale-wives; a _femme publique_, +dressed avowedly for the purposes of alluring the men, with not a very +small crucifix hanging at her bosom;--and the Virgin Mary's sign at an +alehouse door, with these words, + + Je suis la mere de mon Dieu, + Et la gardienne de ce lieu[C]. + +[Footnote C: + The mother of my God am I, + And keep this house right carefully. +] + +I have, however, borrowed Bocage's Remarks upon the English nation, +which serve to damp my spirit of criticism exceedingly: She had more +opportunities than I for observation, not less quickness of discernment +surely; and her stay in London was longer than mine in Paris.--Yet, how +was she deceived in many points! + +I will tell nothing that I did not _see_; and among the objects one +would certainly avoid seeing if it were possible, is the deformity of +the poor.--Such various modes of warping the human figure could hardly +be observed in England by a surgeon in high practice, as meet me about +this country incessantly.--I have seen them in the galleries and +outer-courts even of the palace itself, and am glad to turn my eyes for +relief on the Duke of Orleans's pictures; a glorious collection! The +Italian noblemen, in whose company we saw it, acknowledged with candour +the good taste of the selection; and I was glad to see again what had +delighted me so many years before: particularly, the three Marys, by +Annibale Caracci; and Rubens's odd conceit of making Juno's Peacock peck +Paris's leg, for having refused the apple to his mistress. + +The manufacture at the Gobelins seems exceedingly improved; the +colouring less inharmonious, the drawing more correct; but our Parisians +are not just now thinking about such matters; they are all wild for love +of a new comedy, written by Mons. de Beaumarchais, and called, "Le +Mariage de Figaro," full of such wit as we were fond of in the reign of +Charles the Second, indecent merriment, and gross immorality; mixed, +however, with much acrimonious satire, as if Sir George Etherege and +Johnny Gay had clubbed their powers of ingenuity at once to divert and +to corrupt their auditors; who now carry the verses of this favourite +piece upon their fans, pocket-handkerchiefs, &c. as our women once did +those of the Beggar's Opera. + +We have enjoyed some very agreeable society here in the company of Comte +Turconi, a Milanese Nobleman who, desirous to escape all the frivolous, +and petty distinction which birth alone bestows, has long fixed his +residence in Paris, where talents find their influence, and where a +great city affords that unobserved freedom of thought and action which +can scarcely be expected by a man of high rank in a smaller circle; but +which, when once tasted, will not seldom be preferred to the attentive +watchfulness of more confined society. + +The famous Venetian too, who has written so many successful comedies, +and is now employed upon his own Memoirs, at the age of eighty-four, +was a delightful addition to our Coterie, _Goldoni_. He is garrulous, +good-humoured, and gay; resembling the late James Harris of Salisbury in +person not manner, and seems justly esteemed, and highly, by his +countrymen. + +The conversation of the Marquis Trotti and the Abate Bucchetti is +likewise particularly pleasing; especially to me, who am naturally +desirous to live as much as possible among Italians of general +knowledge, good taste, and polished manners, before I enter their +country, where the language will be so very indispensable. Mean time I +have stolen a day to visit my old acquaintance the English Austin Nuns +at the Fossée, and found the whole community alive and cheerful; they +are many of them agreeable women, and having seen Dr. Johnson with me +when I was last abroad, enquired much for him: Mrs. Fermor, the +Prioress, niece to Belinda in the Rape of the Lock, taking occasion to +tell me, comically enough, "That she believed there was but little +comfort to be found in a house that harboured _poets_; for that she +remembered Mr. Pope's praise made her aunt very troublesome and +conceited, while his numberless caprices would have employed ten +servants to wait on him; and he gave one" (said she) "no amends by his +talk neither, for he only sate dozing all day, when the sweet wine was +out, and made his verses chiefly in the night; during which season he +kept himself awake by drinking coffee, which it was one of the maids +business to make for him, and they took it by turns." + +These ladies really live here as comfortably for aught I see as peace, +quietness, and the certainty of a good dinner every day can make them. +Just so much happier than as many old maids who inhabit Milman Street +and Chapel Row, as they are sure not to be robbed by a treacherous, or +insulted by a favoured, servant in the decline of life, when protection +is grown hopeless and resistance vain; and as they enjoy at least a +moral certainty of never living worse than they do to-day: while the +little knot of unmarried females turned fifty round Red Lion Square +_may_ always be ruined by a runaway agent, a bankrupted banker, or a +roguish steward; and even the petty pleasures of six-penny quadrille may +become by that misfortune too costly for their income.--_Aureste_, as +the French say, the difference is small: both coteries sit separate in +the morning, go to prayers at noon, and read the chapters for the day: +change their neat dress, eat their little dinner, and play at small +games for small sums in the evening; when recollection tires, and chat +runs low. + +But more adventurous characters claim my present attention. All Paris I +think, myself among the rest, assembled to see the valiant brothers, +Robert and Charles, mount yesterday into the air, in company with a +certain Pilâtre de Rosier, who conducted them in the new-invented flying +chariot fastened to an air-balloon. It was from the middle of the +Tuilleries that they set out, a place very favourable and well-contrived +for such public purposes. But all was so nicely managed, so cleverly +carried on somehow, that the order and decorum of us who remained on +firm ground, struck me more than even the very strange sight of human +creatures floating in the wind: but I have really been witness to ten +times as much bustle and confusion at a crowded theatre in London, than +what these peaceable Parisians made when the whole city was gathered +together. Nobody was hurt, nobody was frighted, nobody could even +pretend to feel themselves incommoded. Such are among the few comforts +that result from a despotic government. + +My republican spirit, however, boiled up a little last Monday, when I +had to petition Mons. de Calonne for the restoration of some trifles +detained in the custom-house at Calais. His politeness, indeed, and the +sight of others performing like acts of humiliation, reconciled me in +some measure to the drudgery of running from subaltern to subaltern, +intreating, in pathetic terms, the remission of a law which is at last +either just or unjust; if just, no felicitation should, methinks, be +permitted to change it; if unjust, what can be so grating as the +obligation to solicit? + +We mean to quit Paris to-morrow; I therefore enquired this evening, what +was become of our aërial travellers. A very grave man replied, "_Je +crois, Madame, qu'ils sont dejá arrivès ces Messieurs là , au lieu ou +les vents se forment_[D]." + +[Footnote D: I fancy, Ma'am, the gentlemen are gone to see the place +where all the winds blow from.] + + + +LYONS. + + +Sept. 25, 1784. + +We left the capital at our intended time, and put into the carriage, for +amusement, a book seriously recommended by Mr. Goldoni; but which +diverted me only by the fanfaronades that it contained. The author has, +however, got the premium by this performance, which the Academy of +Berlin promised to whoever wrote best this year on any Belles Lettres +subject. This gentleman judiciously chose to give reasons for the +universality of the French language, and has been so gaily insolent to +every other European nation in his flimsy pamphlet, that some will +probably praise, many reply to, all read, and all forget it. I will +confess myself so seized on by his sprightly impertinence, that I wished +for leisure to translate, and wit to answer him at first, but the want +of one solid thought by which to recollect his existence has cured me; +and I now find that he was deliciously cool and sharp, like the ordinary +wine of the country we are passing through, which having _no body_, can +neither keep its little power long, nor even use it while fresh to any +sensible effect. + +The country is really beautiful; but descriptions are _so_ fallacious, +one half despairs of communicating one's ideas as they are: for either +well-chosen words do not present themselves, or being well-chosen they +detain the reader, and fix his mind on _them_, instead of the things +described. Certain it is that I had formed no adequate notion of the +fine river called the Yonne, with cattle grazing on its fertile banks: +those banks not clothed indeed with our soft verdure, but with royal +purple, proceeding from an autumnal daisy of that colour that enamels +every meadow at this season. Here small enclosures seem unknown to the +inhabitants, who are strewed up and down expansive views of a most +productive country; where vineyards swell upon the rising grounds, and +young wheat ornaments the valleys below: while clusters of aspiring +poplars, or a single walnut-tree of greater size and dignity unite in +attracting attention, and inspiring poetical ideas. Here is no tedious +uniformity to fatigue the eye, nor rugged asperities to disgust it; but +ceaseless variety of colouring among the plants, while the cærulean +willow, the yellow walnut, the gloomy beech, and silver theophrastus, +seem scattered by the open hand of lavish Nature over a landscape of +respectable extent, uniting that sublimity which a wide expanse always +conveys to the mind, with that distinctness so desired by the eye; which +cultivation alone can offer and fertility bestow. Every town that should +adorn these lovely plains, however, exhibits, upon a nearer approach, +misery; the more mortifying, as it is less expected by a spectator, who +requires at least some days experience to convince him that the squallid +scenes of wretchedness and dirt in which he is obliged to pass the +night, will prove more than equivalent to the pleasures he has enjoyed +in the day-time, derived from an appearance of elegance and +wealth--elegance, the work of Nature, not of man; and opulence, the +immediate gift of God, and not the result of commerce. He who should fix +his residence in France, lives like Sir Gawaine in our old romance, +whose wife was bound by an enchantment, that obliged her at evening to +lay down the various beauties which had charmed admiring multitudes all +day, and become an object of odium and disgust. + +The French do seem indeed an idle race; and poverty, perhaps for that +reason, forces her way among them, through a climate that might tempt +other mortals to improve its blessings; but, as the motto to the arms +they are so proud of expresses it--"they _toil not, neither do they +spin_." Content, the bane of industry, as Mandeville calls it, renders +them happy with what Heaven has unsolicited shaken into their lap; and +who knows but the spirit of blaming such behaviour may be less pleasing +to God that gives, than is the behaviour itself? + +Let us not, mean time, be forward to suppose, that whatever one sees +done, is done upon principle, as such fancies will for ever mislead one: +much must be left to chance, when we are judging the conduct either of +nations or individuals. And surely I never knew till now, that so little +religion could exist in any Christian country as in this, where they +drive their carts, and keep their little shops open on a Sunday, +forbearing neither pleasure nor business, as I see, on account of +observing that day upon which their Redeemer rose again. They have a +tradition among the meaner people, that when Christ was crucified, he +turned his head towards France, over which he pronounced his last +blessing; but we must accuse them, if so, of being very ungrateful +favourites. + +This stately city, Lyons, is very happily and finely situated; the +Rhone, which flows by its side, inviting mills, manufactures, &c. seems +resolved to contradict and wash away all I have been saying; but we must +remember, it is five days journey from Paris hither, and I have been +speaking only of the little places we passed through in coming along. + +The avenue here, which leads to one of the greatest objects in the +nation, is most worthy of that object's dignity indeed: the marriage of +two rivers, which having their sources at a prodigious distance from +each other, meet here, and together roll their beneficial tribute to the +sea. Howell's remark, "That the Saone resembles a Spaniard in the +slowness of its current, and that the Rhone is emblematic of French +rapidity," cannot be kept a moment out of one's head: it is equally +observable, that the junction adds little in appearance to their +strength and grandeur, and that each makes a better figure _separate_ +than _united_. + +La Montagne d'Or is a lovely hill above the town, and I am told that +many English families reside upon it, but we have no time to make minute +enquiries. L'Hotel de la Croix de Malthe affords excellent +accommodations within, and a delightful prospect without. The Baths too +have attracted my notice much, and will, I hope, repair my strength, so +as to make me no troublesome fellow-traveller. How little do those +ladies consult their own interest, who make impatience of petty +inconveniences their best supplement for conversation!--fancy themselves +more important as less contented; and imagine all delicacy to consist in +the difficulty of being pleased! Surely a dip in this delightful river +will restore my health, and enable me to pass the mountains, of which +our present companions give me a very formidable account. + +The manufacturers here, at Lyons, deserve a volume, and I shall +scarcely give them a page; though nothing I ever saw at London or Paris +can compare with the beauty of these velvets, or with the art necessary +to produce such an effect, while the wrong side is smooth, not struck +through. The hangings for the Empress of Russia's bed-chamber are +wonderfully executed; the design elegant, the colouring brilliant: A +screen too for the Grand Signor is finely finished here; he would, I +trust, have been contented with magnificence in the choice of his +furniture, but Mr. Pernon has added taste to it, and contrived in +appearance to sink an urn or vase of crimson velvet in a back ground of +gold tissue with surprising ingenuity. + +It is observable, that the further people advance in elegance, the less +they value splendour; distinction being at last the positive thing which +mortals elevated above competency naturally pant after. Necessity must +first be supplied we know, convenience then requires to be contented; +but as soon as men can find means after that period to make themselves +eminent for taste, they learn to despise those paltry distinctions +which riches alone can bestow. + +Talking of Taste leads one to speak of gardening; and having passed +yesterday between two villas belonging to some of the most opulent +merchants of Lyons, I gained an opportunity of observing the disposal of +those grounds that are appropriated to pleasure; where the shade of +straight long-drawn alleys, formed by a close junction of ancient elm +trees, kept a dazzling sun from incommoding our sight, and rendering the +turf so mossy and comfortable to one's tread, that my heart never felt +one longing wish for the beauties of a lawn and shrubbery--though I +should certainly think such a manner of laying out a Lancashire +gentleman's seat in the north of England a mad one, where the heat of +the sun ought to be invited in, not shut out; and where a large lake of +water is wanted for his beams to sparkle upon, instead of a fountain to +trickle and to murmur, and to refresh one with the idea of coolness +which it excites. Here, however, where the Rhone is navigable up to the +very house, I see not but it is rational enough to form jet d'eaux of +the superfluous water, and to content one's self with a Bird Cage Walk, +when we are sure at the end of it to find ourselves surrounded by an +horizon, of extent enough to give the eye full employment, and of a +bright colouring which affords it but little relief. That among the gems +of Europe our island holds the rank of an _emerald_, was once suggested +to me, and I could never part with the idea; surely France must in the +same scale be rated as the _ruby_; for here is no grass, no verdure to +repose the sight upon, except that of high forest trees, the vineyards +being short cut, and supported by white sticks, the size of those which +in our flower gardens support a favourite carnation; and these placed +close together by thousands on a hill rather perplex than please a +spectator of the country, who must wait till he recollects the +superiority of their produce, before he prefers them to a Herefordshire +orchard or a Kentish hop-ground. + +Well! well! it is better to waste no more words on places however, where +the people have done so much to engage and to deserve our attention. + +Such was the hospitality I have here been witness to, and such the +luxuries of the Lyonnois at table, that I counted six and thirty dishes +where we dined, and twenty-four where we supped. Every thing was served +up in silver at both places, and all was uniformly magnificent, except +the linen, which might have been finer. We were not a very numerous +company--from eighteen to twenty-two, as I remember, morning and +evening; but the ladies played upon the pedal harp, the gentlemen sung +gaily, if not sweetly after supper: I never received more kindness for +my own part in any fortnight of my life, nor ever heard that kindness +more pleasingly or less coarsely expressed. These are merchants, I am +told, with whom I have been living; and perhaps my heart more readily +receives and repays their caresses for having heard so. Let princes +dispute, and soldiers reciprocally support their quarrels; but let the +wealthy traders of every nation unite to pour the oil of commerce over +the too agitated ocean of human life, and smooth down those asperities +which obstruct fraternal concord. + +The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland lodge here at our hotel; I saw them +treated with distinguished respect to-night at the theatre, where _a +force de danser_[Footnote: By dint of dancing alone], I actually was +moved to shed many tears over the distresses of _Sophie de Brabant_. +Surely these pantomimes will very soon supplant all poetry, when, as +Gratiano says, "Our words will suddenly become superfluous, and +discourse grow commendable in none but parrots." + +Some conversation here, however, struck me as curious; the more so as I +had heard the subject slightly touched upon at Paris; but faintly there, +as the last sounds of an echo, while here they are all loud, all in +earnest, and all their heads seemed turned, I think, about something, or +nothing, which they call _animal magnetism_. I cannot imagine how it has +seized them so: a man who undertakes to cure disorders by the touch, is +no new thing; our Philosophical Transactions make mention of Gretrex the +stroaker, in Charles the Second's reign. The present mountebank, it is +true, seems more hardy in his experiments, and boasts of being able to +cause disorders in the human frame, as well as to remove them. A +gentleman at yesterday's dinner-party mentioned, that he took pupils; +and, before I had expressed the astonishment I felt, professed himself a +disciple; and was happy to assure us, he said, that though he had not +yet attained the desirable power of putting a person into a catalepsy at +pleasure, he could throw a woman into a deep swoon, from which no arts +but his own could recover her. How difficult is it to restrain one's +contempt and indignation from a buffoonery so mean, or a practice so +diabolical!--This folly may possibly find its way into England--I should +be very sorry. + +To-morrow we leave Lyons. I should have liked to pass through +Switzerland, the Derbyshire of Europe; but I am told the season is too +far advanced, as we mean to spend Christmas at Milan. + + + + +ITALY + + + +TURIN. + + +October 17, 1784. + +We have at length passed the Alps, and are safely arrived at this lovely +little city, whence I look back on the majestic boundaries of Italy, +with amazement at his courage who first profaned them: surely the +immediate sensation conveyed to the mind by the sight of such tremendous +appearances must be in every traveller the same, a sensation of fulness +never experienced before, a satisfaction that there is something great +to be seen on earth--some object capable of contenting even fancy. Who +he was who first of all people pervaded these fortifications, raised by +nature for the defence of her European Paradise, is not ascertained; but +the great Duke of Savoy has wisely left his name engraved on a monument +upon the first considerable ascent from Pont Bonvoisin, as being author +of a beautiful road cut through the solid stone for a great length of +way, and having by this means encouraged others to assist in +facilitating a passage so truly desirable, till one of the great wonders +now to be observed among the Alps, is the ease with which even a +delicate traveller may cross them. In these prospects, colouring is +carried to its utmost point of perfection, particularly at the time I +found it, variegated with golden touches of autumnal tints; immense +cascades mean time bursting from naked mountains on the one side; +cultivated fields, rich with vineyards, on the other, and tufted with +elegant shrubs that invite one to pluck and carry them away to where +they would be treated with much more respect. Little towns flicking in +the clefts, where one would imagine it was impossible to clamber; light +clouds often sailing under the feet of the high-perched inhabitants, +while the sound of a deep and rapid though narrow river, dashing with +violence among the insolently impeding rocks at the bottom, and bells in +thickly-scattered spires calling the quiet Savoyards to church upon the +steep sides of every hill--fill one's mind with such mutable, such +various ideas, as no other place can ever possibly afford. + +I had the satisfaction of seeing a chamois at a distance, and spoke with +a fellow who had killed five hungry bears that made depredation on his +pastures: we looked on him with reverence as a monster-tamer of +antiquity, Hercules or Cadmus; he had the skin of a beast wrapt round +his middle, which confirmed the fancy--but our servants, who borrowed +from no fictitious records the few ideas that adorned their talk, told +us he reminded _them_ of _John the Baptist_. I had scarce recovered the +shock of this too sublime comparison, when we approached his cottage, +and found the felons nailed against the wall, like foxes heads or spread +kites in England. Here are many goats, but neither white nor large, like +those which browze upon the steeps of Snowdon, or clamber among the +cliffs of Plinlimmon. + +I chatted with a peasant in the Haute Morienne, concerning the endemial +swelling of the throat, which is found in seven out of every ten persons +here: he told me what I had always heard, but do not yet believe, that +it was produced by drinking the snow water. Certain it is, these places +are not wholesome to live in; most of the inhabitants are troubled with +weak and sore eyes: and I recollect Sir Richard Jebb telling me, more +than seven years ago, that when he passed through Savoy, the various +applications made to him, either for the cure or prevention of blindness +by numberless unfortunate wretches that crowded round him, hastened his +quitting a province where such horrible complaints prevailed. One has +heard it related that the goîstre or gozzo of the throat is reckoned a +beauty by those who possess it; but I spoke with many, and all agreed to +lament it as a misfortune. That it does really proceed merely from +living in a snowy country, would be well confirmed by accounts of a +similar sickness being endemial in Canada; but of an American goîstre I +have never yet heard--and Wales, methinks, is snowy enough, and +mountainous enough, God knows; yet were such an excrescence to be seen +_there_, the people would never have done wondering, and blessing +themselves. + +The mines of Derbyshire, however, do not very unfrequently exhibit +something of the same appearance among those who work in _them_; and as +Savoy is impregnated with many minerals, I should be apter to attribute +this extension of the gland to their influence over the constitution, +than to that of snow water, which can scarcely be efficacious in a +degree of power equal to the producing so very violent an effect. + +The wolves do certainly come down from these mountains in large troops, +just as Thomson describes them: + + Burning for blood; boney, and gaunt, and grim.-- + +But it is now the fashionable philosophy every where to consider this +creature as the original of our domestic friend, the dog. It was a long +time before my heart assented to its truth, yet surely their hunting +thus in packs confirms it; and the Jackall's willingness to connect with +either race, shews one that the species cannot be far removed, and that +he makes the shade between the wolf and rough haired shepherd's cur. + +Of the longevity of man this district affords us no pleasing examples. +The peasants here are apparently unhealthy, and they say--short-lived. +We are told by travellers of former days, that there is a region of the +air so subtle as to extinguish the two powers of taste and smell; and +those who have crossed the Cordilleras of the Andes say, that situations +have been explored among their points in South America, where those +senses have been found to suffer a temporary suspension. Our _voyageurs +aeriens_[Footnote: Our aerostatic travellers] may now be useful to +settle that question among others, and Pambamarca's heights may remain +untrodden. + +As for Mount Cenis, I never felt myself more hungry, or better enjoyed a +good dinner, than I did upon it's top: but the trout in the lake there +have been over praised; their pale colour allured me but little in the +first place, nor is their flavour equal to that of trout found in +running water. Going down the Italian side of the Alps is, after all, an +astonishing journey; and affords the most magnificent scenery in nature, +which varying at every step, gives new impression to the mind each +moment of one's passage; while the portion of terror excited either by +real or fancied dangers on the way, is just sufficient to mingle with +the pleasure, and make one feel the full effect of sublimity. To the +chairmen who carry one though, nothing can be new; it is observable that +the glories of these objects have never faded--I heard them speak to +each other of their beauties, and the change of light since they had +passed by last time, while a fellow who spoke English as well as a +native told us, that having lived in a gentleman's service twenty years +between London and Dublin, he at length begged his discharge, chusing to +retire and finish his days a peasant upon these mountains, where he +first opened his eyes upon scenes that made all other views of nature +insipid to his taste. + +If impressions of beauty remain, however, those of danger die away by +frequent reiteration; the men who carried me seemed amazed that I should +feel any emotions of fear. _Qu'est ce donc, madame_?[Footnote: What's +the matter, my lady?] was the coldly-asked question to my repeated +injunction of _prenez garde_[Footnote: Take care.]: not very apparently +unnecessary neither, where the least slip must have been fatal both to +them and me. + +Novalesa is the town we stopped at, upon entering Piedmont; where the +hollow sound of a heavy dashing torrent that has accompanied us +hitherto, first grows faint, and the ideas of common life catch hold of +one again; as the noise of it is heard from a greater distance, its +stream grows wider, and its course more tranquil. For compensation of +danger, ease should be administered; but one's quiet is here so +disturbed by insects, and polluted by dirt, that one recollects the +conduct of the Lapland rein-deer, who seeks the summit of the hill at +the hazard of his life, to avoid those gnats which sting him to madness +in the valley. + +Suza shewed nothing that I took much interest in, except its name; and +nobody tells me why it is honoured with that old Asiatick appellation. +At the next town, called St. Andrè, or St. Ambroise, I forget which, we +got an admirable dinner; and saw our room decorated with a large map of +London, which I looked on with sensations different from those ever +before excited by the same object, Amsterdam and Constantinople covered +the other sides of the wall; and over the door of the chamber itself was +written, as our people write the Lamb or the Lion, "_Les trois Villes +Heretiques_[Footnote: The three Heretical Cities]." + +The avenue to Turin, most magnificently planted, and drawn in a wide +straight line, shaded like the Bird-cage walk in St. James's Park, for +twelve miles in length, is a dull work, but very useful and convenient +in so hot a country; it has been completed by the taste, and at the sole +expence, of his Sardinian majesty, that he may enjoy a cool shady drive +from one of his palaces to the other. The town to which this long +approach conveys one does not disgrace its entrance. It is built in form +of a star, with a large stone in its centre, on which you are desired to +stand, and see the streets all branch regularly from it, each street +terminating with a beautiful view of the surrounding country, like spots +of ground seen in many of the old-fashioned parks in England, when the +etoile and vista were the mode. I think there is[5] still one +subsisting even now, if I remember right, in Kensington Gardens. Such +symmetry is really a soft repose for the eye, wearied with following a +soaring falcon through the half-sightless regions of the air, or darting +down immeasurable precipices, to examine if the human figure could be +discerned at such a depth below one. Model of elegance, exact Turin! +where Italian hospitality first consoled, and Italian arts first repaid, +the fatigues of my journey: how shall I bear to leave my new-obtained +acquaintance? how shall I consent to quit this lovely city? where, from +the box put into my possession by the Prince de la Cisterna, I first saw +an Italian opera acted in an Italian theatre; where the wonders of +Porporati's hand shewed me that our Bartolozzi was not without a +competitor; and where every pleasure which politeness can invent, and +kindness can bestow, was held out for my acceptance. Should we be +seduced, however, to waste time here, we should have reason in a future +day to repent our choice; like one who, enamoured of Lord Pembroke's +great hall at Wilton, should fail to afford himself leisure for looking +over the better-furnished apartments. + +This charming town is the _salon_ of Italy; but it is a +finely-proportioned and well-ornamented _salon_ happily constructed to +call in the fresh air at the end of every street, through which a rapid +stream is directed, that _ought_ to carry off all nuisances, which here +have no apology from want of any convenience purchasable by money; and +which must for that reason be the choice of inhabitants, who would +perhaps be too happy, had they a natural taste for that neatness which +might here be enjoyed in its purity. The arches formed to defend +passengers from the rain and sun, which here might have even serious +effects from their violence, deserve much praise; while their +architecture, uniting our ideas of comfort and beauty together, form a +traveller's taste, and teach him to admire that perfection, of which a +miniature may certainly be found at Turin, when once a police shall be +established there to prevent such places being used for the very +grossest purposes, and polluted with smells that poison all one's +pleasure. + +It is said, that few European palaces exceed in splendour that of +Sardinia's king; I found it very fine indeed, and the pictures +dazzling. The death of a dropsical woman well known among all our +connoisseurs detained my attention longest: the value set on it here is +ten thousand pounds. The horse cut out of a block of marble at the +stairs-foot attracted me not a little; but we are told that the +impression it makes will soon be effaced by the sight of greater +wonders. Mean time I go about like Stephano and his ignorant companions, +who longed for all the glittering furniture of Prospero's cell in the +Tempest, while those who know the place better are vindicated in crying, +"_Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash_." + +Some letters from home directed me to enquire in this town for Doctor +Charles Allioni, who kindly received, and permitted me to examine the +rarities, of which he has a very capital collection. His fossil fish in +slate--blue slate, are surprisingly well preserved; but there is in the +world, it seems, a chrystalized trout, not flat, nor the flesh eaten +away, as I understand, but round; and, as it were, cased in chrystal +like our _aspiques_, or _fruit in jelly_: the colour still so perfect +that you may plainly perceive the spots upon it, he says. To my +enquiries after this wonderful petrefaction, he replied, "That it might +be bought for a thousand pounds;" and added, "that if he were a _Ricco +Inglese_[Footnote: Rich Englishman], he would not hesitate for the +price:" "Where may I see it, Sir?" said I; but to that question no +intreaties could produce an answer, after he once found I had no mind to +buy. + +That fresh-water fish have been known to remain locked in the flinty +bosom of Monte Uda in Carnia, the Academical Discourse of Cyrillo de +Cremona, pronounced there in the year 1749, might have informed us; and +we are all familiar, I suppose, with the anchor named in the fifteenth +book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Strabo mentions pieces of a galley found +three thousand stadii from any sea; and Dr. Allioni tells me, that Monte +Bolca has been long acknowledged to contain the fossils, now diligently +digging out under the patronage of some learned naturalists at +Verona.--The trout, however, is of value much beyond these productions +certainly, as it is closed round as if in a transparent case we find, +hermetically sealed by the soft hand of Nature, who spoiled none of her +own ornaments in preserving them for the inspection of her favourite +students. + +The amiable old professor from whom these particulars were obtained, and +who endured my teizing him in bad Italian for intelligence he cared not +to communicate, with infinite sweetness and patience grew kinder to me +as I became more troublesome to him: and shewing me the book upon botany +to which he had just then put the last line; turned his dim eyes from +me, and said, as they filled with tears, "You, Madam, are the last +visitor I shall ever more admit to talk upon earthly subjects; my work +is done; I finished it as you were entering:--my business now is but to +wait the will of God, and die; do you, who I hope will live long and +happily, seek out your own salvation, and pray for mine." Poor dear +Doctor Allioni! My enquiries concerning this truly venerable mortal +ended in being told that his relations and heirs teized him cruelly to +sell his manuscripts, insects, &c. and divide the money amongst _them_ +before he died. An English scholar of the same abilities would be apt +enough to despise such admonitions, and dispose at his own liking and +leisure of what his industry alone had gained, his learning only +collected; but there seems to be much more family fondness on the +Continent than in our island; more attention to parents, more care for +uncles, and nephews, and sisters, and aunts, than in a commercial +country like ours, where, for the most part, each one makes his own way +separate; and having received little assistance at the beginning of +life, considers himself as little indebted at the close of it. + +Whoever takes a long journey, however he may at his first commencement +be tempted to accumulate schemes of convenience and combinations of +travelling niceties, will cast them off in the course of his travels as +incumbrances; and whoever sets out in life, I believe, with a crowd of +relations round him, will, on the same principle, feel disposed to drop +one or two of them at every turn, as they hang about and impede his +progress, and make his own game single-handed. I speak of _Englishmen_, +whose religion and government inspire rather a spirit of public +benevolence, than contract the social affections to a point; and +co-operate, besides, to prompt that genius for adventure, and taste of +general knowledge, which has small chance to spring up in the +inhabitants of a feudal state; where each considers his family as +himself, and having derived all the comfort he has ever enjoyed from his +relations, resolves to return their favours at the end of a life, which +they make happy, in proportion as it _is_ so: and this accounts for the +equality required in continental marriages, which are avowedly made here +without regard to inclination, as the keeping up a family, not the +choice of a companion, is considered as important; while the lady bred +up in the same notions, complies with her _first_ duties, and considers +the _second_ as infinitely more dispensable. + + + +GENOA. + + +Nov. 1, 1784. + +It was on the twenty-first of last month that we passed from Turin to +Monte Casale; and I wondered, as I do still, to see the face of Nature +yet without a wrinkle, though the season is so far advanced. Like a +Parisian female of forty years old, dressed for court, and stored with +such variety of well-arranged allurements, that the men say to each +other as she passes.--"Des qu'elle à cessée d'estre jolie, elle n'en +devient que plus belle, ce me semble[E]." + +[Footnote E: She's grown handsomer, I think, since she has left off +being pretty.] + +The prospect from St. Salvadore's hill derives new beauties from the +yellow autumn; and exhibits such glowing proofs of opulence and +fertility, as words can with difficulty communicate. The animals, +however, do not seem benefited in proportion to the apparent riches of +the country: asses, indeed, grow to a considerable size, but the oxen +are very small, among pastures that might suffice for Bakewell's bulls; +and these are all little, and almost all _white_; a colour which gives +unfavourable ideas either of strength or duration. + +The blanche rose among vegetables scatters a less powerful perfume than +the red one; whilst in the mineral kingdom silver holds but the second +place to gold, which imbibing the bright hues of its parent-sun, becomes +the first and greatest of all metallic productions. One may observe too, +that yellow is the earliest colour to salute the rising year, the last +to leave it: crocuses, primroses, and cowslips give the first earnest of +resuscitating summer; while the lemon-coloured butterfly, whose name I +have forgotten, ventures out, before any others of her kind can brave +the parting breath of winter's last storms; stoutest to resist cold, and +steadiest in her manner of flying. The present season is yellow indeed, +and nothing is to be seen now but sun-flowers and African marygolds +around us; _one_ bough besides, on every tree we pass--_one_ bough at +least is tinged with the golden hue; and if it does put one in mind of +that presented to Proserpine, we may add the original line too, and say, + + Uno avulfo, non deficit alter[F]. + +[Footnote F: + Pluck one away, another still remains. +] + +The sure-footed and docile mule, with which in England I was but little +acquainted, here claims no small attention, from his superior size and +beauty: the disagreeable noise they make so frequently, however, hinders +one from wishing to ride them--it is not braying somehow, but worse; it +is neighing out of tune. + +I have put nothing down about eating since we arrived in Italy, where no +wretched hut have I yet entered that does not afford soup, better than +one often tastes in England even at magnificent tables. Game of all +sorts--woodcocks in particular. Porporati, the so justly-famed engraver, +produced upon his hospitable board, one of the pleasant days we passed +with him, a couple so exceedingly large, that I hesitated, and looked +again, to see whether they were really woodcocks, till the long bill +convinced me. + +One reads of the luxurious emperors that made fine dishes of the little +birds brains, phenicopter's tongues, &c. and of the actor who regaled +his guests with nightingale-pie, with just detestation of such curiosity +and expence: but thrushes, larks, and blackbirds, are so _very_ frequent +between Turin and Novi, I think they might serve to feed all the +fantastical appetites to which Vitellius himself could give +encouragement and example. + +The Italians retain their tastes for small birds in full force; and +consider beccafichi, ortolani, &c. as the most agreeable dainties: it +must be confessed that they dress them incomparably. The sheep here are +all lean and dirty-looking, few in number too; but the better the soil +the worse the mutton we know, and here is no land to throw away, where +every inch turns to profit in the olive-yards, vines, or something of +much higher value than letting out to feed sheep. + +Population seems much as in France, I think: but the families are not, +in either nation, disposed according to British notions of propriety; +all stuffed together into little towns and large houses, _entessées_, as +the French call it; one upon another, in such a strange way, that were +it not for the quantity of grapes on which the poor people live, with +other acescent food enjoined by the church, and doubtless suggested by +the climate, I think putrid fevers must necessarily carry off crowds of +them at once. + +The head-dress of the women in this drive through some of the northern +states of Italy varied at every post; from the velvet cap, commonly a +crimson one, worn by the girls in Savoia, to the Piedmontese plait round +the bodkin at Turin, and the odd kind of white wrapper used in the +exterior provinces of the Genoese dominions. Uniformity of almost any +sort gives a certain pleasure to the eye, and it seems an invariable +rule in these countries that all the women of every district should +dress just alike. It is the best way of making the men's task easy in +judging which is handsomest; for taste so varies the human figure in +France and England, that it is impossible to have an idea how many +pretty faces and agreeable forms would lose and how many gain admirers +in those nations, were a sudden edict to be published that all should +dress exactly alike for a year. Mean time, since we left Deffeins, no +such delightful place by way of inn have we yet seen as here at Novi. My +chief amusement at Alexandria was to look out upon the _huddled_ +marketplace, as a great dramatic writer of our day has called it; and +who could help longing there for Zoffani's pencil to paint the lively +scene? + +Passing the Po by moon-light near Casale exhibited an entertainment of a +very different nature, not unmixed with ill-concealed fear indeed; +though the contrivance of crossing it is not worse managed than a ferry +at Kew or Richmond used to be before our bridges were built. Bridges +over the rapid Po would, however, be truly ridiculous; when swelled by +the mountain snows it tears down all before it in its fury, and +inundates the country round. + +The drive from Novi on to Genoa is so beautiful, so grand, so replete +with imagery, that fancy itself can add little to its charms: yet, after +every elegance and every ornament have been justly admired, from the +cloud which veils the hill, to the wild shrubs which perfume the valley; +from the precipices which alarm the imagination, to the tufts of wood +which flatter and sooth it; the sea suddenly appearing at the end of +the Bocchetta terminates our view, and takes from one even the hope of +expressing our delight in words adequate to the things described. + +Genoa la Superba stands proudly on the margin of a gulph crowded with +ships, and resounding with voices, which never fail to animate a British +hearer--the Tailor's shout, the mariner's call, swelled by successful +commerce, or strengthened by newly-acquired fame. + +After a long journey by land, such scenes are peculiarly delightful; but +description tangles, not communicates, the sensations imbibed upon the +spot. Here are so many things to describe! such churches! such palaces! +such pictures! one would imagine the Genoese possessed the empire of the +ocean, were it not well known that they call but fix galleys their own, +and seventy years ago suffered all the horrors of a bombardment. + +The Dorian palace is exceedingly fine; the Durazzo palace, for ought I +know, is finer; and marble here seems like what one reads of silver in +King Solomon's time, which, says the Scripture, "_was nothing counted +on in the days of Solomon_" Casa Brignoli too is splendid and +commodious; the terraces and gardens on the house-tops, and the fresco +paintings outside, give one new ideas of human life; and exhibits a +degree of luxury unthought-on in colder climates. But here we live on +green pease and figs the first day of November, while orange and lemon +trees flaunt over the walls more common than pears in England. + +The Balbi mansion, filled with pictures, detained us from the churches +filled with more. I have heard some of the Italians confess that Genoa +even pretends to vie with Rome herself in ecclesiastical splendour. In +devotion I should think she would be with difficulty outdone: the people +drop down on their knees in the street, and crowd to the church doors +while the benediction is pronouncing, with a zeal which one might hope +would draw down stores of grace upon their heads. Yet I hear from the +inhabitants of other provinces, that they have a bad character among +their neighbours, who love not the _base Ligurian_ and accuse them of +many immoralities. They tell one too of a disreputable saying here, how +there are at Genoa men without honesty, women without modesty, a sea +with no fish, and a wood with no birds. Birds, however, here certainly +are by the million, and we have eaten fish since we came every day; but +I am informed they are neither cheap nor plentiful, nor considered as +excellent in their kinds. Here is macaroni enough however!--the people +bring in such a vast dish of it at a time, it disgusts one. + +The streets of the town are much too narrow for beauty or +convenience--impracticable to coaches, and so beset with beggars that it +is dreadful. A chair is therefore, above all things, necessary to be +carried in, even a dozen steps, if you are likely to feel shocked at +having your knees suddenly clasped by a figure hardly human; who perhaps +holding you forcibly for a minute, conjures you loudly, by the sacred +wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, to have compassion upon _his_; shewing +you at the same time such undeniable and horrid proofs of the anguish he +is suffering, that one must be a monster to quit him unrelieved. Such +pathetic misery, such disgusting distress, did I never see before, as I +have been witness to in this gaudy city--and that not occasionally or +by accident, but all day long, and in such numbers that humanity shrinks +from the description. Sure, charity is not the virtue that they pray +for, when begging a blessing at the church-door. + +One should not however speak unkindly of a people whose affectionate +regard for our country shewed itself so clearly during the late war: a +few days residence with the English consul here at his country seat gave +me an opportunity of hearing many instances of the Republic's generous +attachment to Great Britain, whose triumphs at Gibraltar over the united +forces of France and Spain were honestly enjoyed by the friendly +Genoese, who gave many proofs of their sincerity, more solid than those +clamorous ones of huzzaing our minister about wherever he went, and +crying _Viva il General_ ELIOTT; while many young gentlemen of +high station offered themselves to go volunteers aboard our fleet, and +were with difficulty restrained. + +We have been shewed some beautiful villas belonging to the noblemen of +this city, among which Lomellino's pleased me best; as the water there +was so particularly beautiful, that he had generously left it at full +liberty to roll unconducted, and murmur through his tasteful pleasure +grounds, much in the manner of our lovely Leasowes; happily uniting with +English simplicity, the glowing charms that result from an Italian sky. +My eyes were so wearied with square edged basons of marble, and jets +d'eaux, surrounded by water nymphs and dolphins, that I felt vast relief +from Lomellino's garden, who, like me, + + Tir'd with the joys parterres and fountains yield, + Finds out at last he better likes a field. + +Such felicity of situation I never saw till now, when one looks upon the +painted front of this gay mansion, commanding from its fine balcony a +rich and extensive view at once of the sea, the city, and the snow-topt +mountains; while from the windows on the other side the house, one's eye +sinks into groves of cedar, ilex, and orange trees, not apparently +cultivated with incessant care, or placed in pots, artfully sunk under +ground to conceal them from one's sight, but rising into height truly +respectable. + +The sea air, except in particular places where the land lies in some +direction that counteracts its influence, is naturally inimical to +timber; though the green coasts of Devonshire are finely fringed with +wood; and here, at Lomellino's villa, in the Genoese state, I found two +plane trees, of a size and serious dignity, that recalled to my mind the +solemn oak before our duke of Dorset's seat at Knowle--and chesnuts, +which would not disgrace the forests of America. A rural theatre, cut in +turf, with a concealed orchestra and sod seats for the audience, with a +mossy stage, not incommodious neither, and an admirable contrivance for +shifting the scenes, and savouring the exits, entrances, &c. of the +performers, gave me a perfect idea of that refined luxury which hot +countries alone inspire--while another elegantly constructed spot, meant +and often used for the entertainment of tenants and dependants who come +to rejoice on the birth or wedding day of a kind landlord, make one +suppress one's sighs after a free country--at least suspend them; and +fill one's heart with tenderness towards men, who have skill to soften +authority with indulgence, and virtue to reward obedience with +protection. + +A family coming last night to visit at a house where I had the honour +of being admitted as an intimate, gave me another proof of my present +state of remoteness from English manners. The party consisted of an old +nobleman, who could trace his genealogy unblemished up to one of the old +Roman emperors, but whose fortune is now in a hopeless state of +decay:--his lady, not inferior to himself in birth or haughtiness of air +and carriage, but much impaired by age, ill health, and pecuniary +distress; these had however no way lessened her ideas of her own +dignity, or the respect of her cavalier servente and her son, who waited +on her with an unremitted attention; presenting her their little dirty +tin snuff-boxes upon one knee by turns; which ceremony the less +surprised me, as having seen her train made of a dyed and watered +lutestring, borne gravely after her up stairs by a footman, the express +image of Edgar in the storm-scene of king Lear--who, as the fool says, +"_wisely reserv'd a blanket, else had we all been 'shamed_." + +Our conversation was meagre, but serious. There was music; and the door +being left at jar, as we call it, I watched the wretched servant who +staid in the antichamber, and found that he was listening in spight of +sorrow and starving. + +With this slight sketch of national manners I finish my chapter, and +proceed to the description of, or rather observations and reflections +made during a winter's residence at + + + +MILAN. + + +For we did not stay at Pavia to see any thing: it rained so, that no +pleasure could have been obtained by the sight of a botanical garden; +and as to the university, I have the promise of seeing it upon a future +day, in company of some literary friends. Truth to tell, our weather is +suddenly become so wet, the roads so heavy with incessant rain, that +king William's departure from his own foggy country, or his welcome to +our gloomy one, where this month is melancholy even, to a proverb, could +not have been clouded with a thicker atmosphere surely, than was mine to +Milan upon the fourth day of dismal November, 1784. + +Italians, by what I can observe, suffer their minds to be much under the +dominion of the sky; and attribute every change in their health, or even +humour, as seriously to its influence, as if there were no nearer causes +of alteration than the state of the air, and as if no doubt remained of +its immediate power, though they are willing enough here to poison it +with the scent of wood-ashes within doors, while fires in the grate seem +to run rather low, and a brazier full of that pernicious stuff is +substituted in its place, and driven under the table during dinner. It +is surprising how very elegant, not to say magnificent, those dinners +are in gentlemen's or noblemen's houses; such numbers of dishes at once; +not large joints, but infinite variety: and I think their cooking +excellent. Fashion keeps most of the fine people out of town yet; we +have therefore had leisure to establish our own household for the +winter, and have done so as commodiously as if our habitation was fixed +here for life. This I am delighted with, as one may chance to gain that +insight into every day behaviour, and common occurrences, which can +alone be called knowing something of a country: counting churches, +pictures, palaces, may be done by those who run from town to town, with +no impression made but on their bones. I ought to learn that which +before us lies in daily life, if proper use were made of my +demi-naturalization; yet impediments to knowledge spring up round the +very tree itself--for surely if there was much wrong, I would not tell +it of those who seem inclined to find all right in me; nor can I think +that a fame for minute observation, and skill to discern folly with a +microscopic eye, is in any wise able to compensate for the corrosions of +conscience, where such discoveries have been attained by breach of +confidence, and treachery towards unguarded, because unsuspecting +innocence of conduct. We are always laughing at one another for running +over none but the visible objects in every city, and for avoiding the +conversation of the natives, except on general subjects of +literature--returning home only to tell again what has already been +told. By the candid inhabitants of Italian states, however, much honour +is given to our British travellers, who, as they say, _viaggiono con +profitto_[Footnote: Travel for improvement], and scarce ever fail to +carry home with them from other nations, every thing which can benefit +or adorn their own. Candour, and a good humoured willingness to receive +and reciprocate pleasure, seems indeed one of the standing virtues of +Italy; I have as yet seen no fastidious contempt, or affected rejection +of any thing for being what we call _low_; and I have a notion there is +much less of those distinctions at Milan than at London, where birth +does so little for a man, that if he depends on _that_, and forbears +other methods of distinguishing himself from his footman, he will stand +a chance of being treated no better than him by the world. _Here_ a +person's rank is ascertained, and his society settled, at his immediate +entrance into life; a gentleman and lady will always be regarded as +such, let what will be their behaviour.--It is therefore highly +commendable when they seek to adorn their minds by culture, or pluck out +those weeds, which in hot countries will spring up among the riches of +the harvest, and afford a sure, but no immediately pleasing proof of the +soil's natural fertility. But my country-women would rather hear a +little of our _interieur_, or, as we call it, family management; which +appears arranged in a manner totally new to me; who find the lady of +every house as unacquainted with her own, and her husband's affairs, as +I who apply to her for information.--No house account, no weekly bills +perplex _her_ peace; if eight servants are kept, we will say, six of +these are men, and two of those men out of livery. The pay of these +principal figures in the family, when at the highest rate, is fifteen +pence English a day, out of which they find clothes and eating--for +fifteen pence includes board-wages; and most of these fellows are +married too, and have four or five children each. The dinners drest at +home are, for this reason, more exactly contrived than in England to +suit the number of guests, and there are always half a dozen; for dining +_alone_ or the master and mistress _tête-à -tête_ as _we_ do, is unknown +to them, who make society very easy, and resolve to live much together. +No odd sensation then, something like shame, such as _we_ feel when too +many dishes are taken empty from table, touches them at all; the common +courses are eleven, and eleven small plates, and it is their sport and +pleasure, if possible, to clear all away. A footman's wages is a +shilling a day, like our common labourers, and paid him, as they are +paid, every Saturday night. His livery, mean time, changed at least +_twice a year_, makes him as rich a man as the butler and valet--but +when evening comes, it is the comicallest sight in the world to see them +all go gravely home, and you may die in the night for want of help, +though surrounded by showy attendants all day. Till the hour of +departure, however, it is expected that two or three of them at least +sit in the antichamber, as it is called, to answer the bell, which, if +we confess the truth, is no light service or hardship; for the stairs, +high and wide as those of Windsor palace, all stone too, run up from the +door immediately to that apartment, which is very large, and very cold, +with bricks to set their feet on only, and a brazier filled with warm +wood ashes, to keep their fingers from freezing, which in summer they +employ with cards, and seem but little inclined to lay them down when +ladies pass through to the receiving room. The strange familiarity this +class of people think proper to assume, half joining in the +conversation, and crying _oibò_[Footnote: Oh dear!], when the master +affirms something they do not quite assent to, is apt to shock one at +beginning, the more when one reflects upon the equally offensive +humility they show on being first accepted into the family; when it is +exposed that they receive the new master, or lady's hand, in a half +kneeling posture, and kiss it, as women under the rank of Countess do +the Queen of England's when presented at our court.--This +obsequiousness, however, vanishes completely upon acquaintance, and the +footman, if not very seriously admonished indeed, yawns, spits, and +displays what one of our travel-writers emphatically terms his flag of +abomination behind the chair of a woman of quality, without the +slightest sensation of its impropriety. There is, however, a sort of odd +farcical drollery mingled with this grossness, which tends greatly to +disarm one's wrath; and I felt more inclined to laugh than be angry one +day, when, from the head of my own table, I saw the servant of a +nobleman who dined with us cramming some chicken pattés down his throat +behind the door; our own folks humorously trying to choak him, by +pretending that his lord called him, while his mouth was full. Of a +thousand comical things in the same way, I will relate one:--Mr. +Piozzi's valet was dressing my hair at Paris one morning, while some man +sate at an opposite window of the same inn, singing and playing upon the +violoncello: I had not observed the circumstance, but my perrucchiere's +distress was evident; he writhed and twisted about like a man pinched +with the cholic, and pulled a hundred queer faces: at last--What is the +matter, Ercolani, said I, are you not well? Mistress, replies the +fellow, if that beast don't leave off soon, I shall run mad with rage, +or else die; and so you'll see an honest Venetian lad killed by a French +dog's howling. + +The phrase of _mistress_ is here not confined to servants at all; +gentlemen, when they address one, cry, _mia padrona_[Footnote: My +mistress], mighty sweetly, and in a peculiarly pleasing tone. Nothing, +to speak truth, can exceed the agreeableness of a well-bred Italian's +address when speaking to a lady, whom they alone know how to flatter, +so as to retain her dignity, and not lose their own; respectful, yet +tender; attentive, not officious; the politeness of a man of fashion +_here_ is _true_ politeness, free from all affectation, and honestly +expressive of what he really feels, a true value for the person spoken +to, without the smallest desire of shining himself; equally removed from +foppery on one side, or indifference on the other. The manners of the +men here are certainly pleasing to a very eminent degree, and in their +conversation there is a mixture, not unfrequent too, of classical +allusions, which strike one with a sort of literary pleasure I cannot +easily describe. Yet is there no pedantry in their use of expressions, +which with us would be laughable or liable to censure: but Roman notions +here are not quite extinct; and even the house-maid, or _donna di gros_, +as they call her, swears by _Diana_ so comically, there is no telling. +They christen their boys _Fabius_, their daughters _Claudia_, very +commonly. When they mention a thing known, as we say, to _Tom o'Styles +and John o'Nokes_, they use the words, _Tizio and Sempronio_. A lady +tells me, she was at a loss about the dance yesterday evening, because +she had not been instructed in the _programma_; and a gentleman, +talking of the pleasures he enjoyed supping last night at a friend's +house, exclaims, _Eramo pur jeri sera in Appolline[G]!_ alluding to +Lucullus's entertainment given to Pompey and Cicero, as I remember, in +the chamber of Apollo. But here is enough of this--more of it, in their +own pretty phrase, _seccarebbe pur Nettunno_[H]. It was long ago that +Ausonius said of them more than I can say, and Mr. Addison has +translated the lines in their praise better than I could have done. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote G: We passed yester evening as if we had been in the Apollo.] + +[Footnote H: Would dry up old Neptune himself.] + + "Et Mediolani mira omnia copia rerum: + Innumeræ cultæque domus facunda virorum + Ingenia et mores læti." + + Milan with plenty and with wealth overflows, + And numerous streets and cleanly dwellings shows; + The people, bless'd by Nature's happy force, + Are eloquent and cheerful in discourse. + +What I have said this moment will, however, account in some measure for +a thing which he treats with infinite contempt, not unjustly perhaps; +yet does it not deserve the ridicule handed down from his time by all +who have touched the subject. It is about the author, who before his +theatrical representation prefixes an odd declaration, that though he +names Pluto, and Neptune, and I know not who, upon the stage, yet he +believes none of those fables, but considers himself as a Christian, a +Catholick, &c. All this _does_ appear very absurdly superfluous to _us_; +but as I observed, _they_ live nearer the original feats of paganism; +many old customs are yet retained, and the names not lost among them, or +laid up merely for literary purposes as in England. They swear _per +Bacco_ perpetually in common discourse; and once I saw a gentleman in +the heat of conversation blush at the recollection that he had said +_barba Fove_, where he meant God Almighty. + +It is likewise unkind enough in Mr. Addison, perhaps unjust too, to +speak with scorn of the libraries, or state of literature, at Milan. The +collection of books at Brera is prodigious, and has been lately much +increased by the Pertusanian and Firmian libraries falling into it: a +more magnificent repository for learning, a more comfortable situation +for students, so complete and perfect a disposition of the books, will +scarcely be found in any other city not professedly a university, I +believe; and here are professors worthy of the highest literary +stations, that do honour to learning herself. I will not indulge myself +by naming any one, where all deserve the highest praise; and it is so +difficult to restrain one's pen upon so favourite a subject, that I +shall only name some rarities which particularly struck me, and avoid +further temptations, where the sense of obligation, and the recollection +of partial kindness, inspire an inclination to praises which appear +tedious to those readers who could not enter into my feelings, and of +course would scarcely excuse them. + +Thirteen volumes of MS. Psalms, written with wonderful elegance and +manual nicety, struck me as very curious: they were done by the +Certosini monks lately eradicated, and with beautiful illuminations to +almost every page. A Livy, printed here in 1418, fresh and perfect; and +a Pliny, of the Parma press, dated 1472; are extremely valuable. But the +pleasure I received from observing that the learned librarian had not +denied a place to Tillotson's works, was counteracted by finding +Bolingbroke's philosophy upon the same shelf, and enjoying exactly the +same reputation as to the truth of the doctrine contained in either; for +both were English, and of course _heretical_. + +But I must not live longer at Milan without mentioning the Duomo, first +in all Europe of the Gothic race; whose solemn sadness and gloomy +dignity make it a most magnificent cathedral; while the rich treasures +it conceals below exceeded my belief or expectation. + +We came here just before the season of commemorating the virtues of the +immortal Carlo Borromeo, to whose excellence all Italy bears testimony, +and Milan _most_; while the Lazaretto erected by him remains a standing +monument of his piety, charity, and peculiar regard to this city, which +he made his residence during the dreadful plague that so devasted it; +tenderly giving to its helpless inhabitants the consolation of seeing +their priest, provider, and protector, all united under one incomparable +character, who fearless of death remained among them, and comforted +their sorrows with his constant presence. It would be endless to +enumerate the schools, hospitals, infirmaries, erected by this +surprising man. The peculiar excellence of his lazaretto, however, +depends on each habitation being nicely separated from every other, so +as to keep infection aloof; while uniformity of architecture is still +preserved, being built in a regular quadrangle, with a chapel in the +middle, and a fresh stream flowing round, so as to benefit every +particular house, and keep out all necessity of connection between the +sick. I am become better acquainted with these matters, as this is the +precise time when the immortal Carlo Borromeo's actions are rehearsed, +and his praises celebrated, by people appointed in every church to +preach his example and record his excellence. + +A statue of solid silver, large as life, and resembling, as they hope, +his person, decorated with rings, &c. of immense value, is now exposed +in church for people to venerate; and the subterranean chapel, where his +body lies, is all wainscoted, as I may say, with silver; every separate +compartment chased, like our old-fashioned watch-cases, with some story +out of his life, which lasted but forty-seven years, after having done +more good than any other person in ninety-four; as a capuchin friar said +this morning, who mounted the pulpit to praise him, and seemed to be +well thought on by his auditors. The chanting tone in which he spoke +displeased me, however, who can be at last no competent judge of +eloquence in any language but my own. + +There is a national rhetoric in every country, dependant on national +manners; and those gesticulations of body, or depressions of voice, +which produce pity and commiseration in one place, may, without censure +of the orator or of his hearers, excite contempt and oscitancy in +another. The sentiments of the preacher I heard were just and vigorous; +and if that suffices not to content a foreign ear, woe be to me, who now +live among those to whom I am myself a foreigner; and who at best can +but be expected to forgive, for the sake of the things said, that accent +and manner with which I am obliged to express them. + +By the indulgence of private friendship, I have now enjoyed the uncommon +amusement of seeing a theatrical exhibition performed by friars in a +convent for their own diversion, and that of some select friends. The +monks of St. Victor had, it seems, obtained permission, this carnival, +to represent a little odd sort of play, written by one of their +community chiefly in the Milanese dialect, though the upper characters +spoke Tuscan. The subject of this drama was taken, naturally enough, +from some events, real or fictitious, which were supposed to have +happened in, the environs of Milan, about a hundred years ago, when the +Torriani and Visconti families disputed for superiority. Its +construction was compounded of comic and distressful scenes, of which +the last gave me most delight; and much was I amazed, indeed, to feel my +cheeks wet with tears at a friar's play, founded on ideas of parental +tenderness. The comic part, however, was intolerably gross; the jokes +coarse, and incapable of diverting any but babies, or men who, by a kind +of intellectual privation, contrive to perpetuate babyhood, in the vain +hope of preferring innocence: nor could I shelter myself by saying how +little I understood of the dialect it was written in, as the action was +nothing less than equivocal; and in the burletta which was tacked to it +by way of farce, I saw the soprano fingers who played the women's parts, +and who see more of the world than these friars, blush for shame, two or +three times, while the company, most of them grave ecclesiastics, +applauded with rapturous delight. + +The wearisome length of the whole would, however, have surfeited me, had +the amusement been more eligible; but these dear monks do not get a +holiday often, I trust; so in the manner of school-boys, or rather +school-girls in England (for our boys are soon above such stuff), they +were never tired of this dull buffoonery, and kept us listening to it +till one o'clock in the morning. + +Pleasure, when it does come, always bursts up in an unexpected place; I +derived much from observing in the faces of these cheerful friars, that +intelligent shrewdness and arch penetration so visible in the +countenances of our Welch farmers, and curates of country villages in +Flintshire, Caernarvonshire, &c. which Howel (best judge in such a case) +observes in his Letters, and learnedly accounts for; but which I had +wholly forgotten till the monks of St. Victor brought it back to my +remembrance. + +The brothers who remained unemployed, and clear from stage occupations, +formed the orchestra; those that were left _then_ without any immediate +business upon their hands, chatted gaily with the company, producing +plenty of refreshments; and I was really very angry with myself for +feeling so cynically disposed, when every thing possible was done to +please me. Can one help however sighing, to think that the monastic +life, so capable of being used for the noblest purposes, and originally +suggested by the purest motives, should, from the vast diversity of +orders, the increase of wealth and general corruption of mankind, +degenerate into a state either of mental apathy, as among the +sequestered monks, or of vicious luxury, as among the more free and open +societies? + +Yet must one still behold both with regret and indignation, that rage +for innovation which delights to throw down places once the retreats of +Piety and Learning--Piety, who fought in vain to wall and fortify +herself against those seductions which since have sapped the venerable +fabric that they feared to batter; and Learning, who first opened the +eyes of men, that now ungratefully begin to turn them only on the +defeats of their benefactress. + +The Christmas functions here were showy, and I thought well-contrived; +the public ones are what I speak of: but I was present lately at a +private merrymaking, where all distinctions seemed pleasingly thrown +down by a spirit of innocent gaiety. The Marquis's daughter mingled in +country-dances with the apothecary's prentice, while her truly noble +parents looked on with generous pleasure, and encouraged the mirth of +the moment. Priests, ladies, gentlemen of the very first quality, romped +with the girls of the house in high good-humour, and tripped it away +without the incumbrance of petty pride, or the mean vanity of giving +what they expressively call _foggezzione_, to those who were proud of +their company and protection. A new-married wench, whose little fortune +of a hundred crowns had been given her by the subscription of many in +the room, seemed as free with them all, as the most equal distribution +of birth or riches could have made her: she laughed aloud, and rattled +in the ears of the gentlemen; replied with sarcastic coarseness when +they joked her, and apparently delighted to promote such conversation as +they would not otherwise have tried at. The ladies shouted for joy, +encouraged the girl with less delicacy than desire of merriment, and +promoted a general banishment of decorum; though I do believe with full +as much or more purity of intention, than may be often met with in a +polished circle at Paris itself. + +Such society, however, can please a stranger only as it is odd and as it +is new; when ceremony ceases, hilarity is left in a state too natural +not to offend people accustomed to scenes of high civilization; and I +suppose few of us could return, after twenty-five years old, to the +coarse comforts of _a roll and treacle._ + +Another style of amusement, very different from this last, called us +out, two or three days ago, to hear the famous Passione de Metastasio +sung in St. Celso's church. The building is spacious, the architecture +elegant, and the ornaments rich. A custom too was on this occasion +omitted, which I dislike exceedingly; that of deforming the beautiful +edifices dedicated to God's service with damask hangings and gold lace +on the capitals of all the pillars upon days of gala, so very +perversely, that the effect of proportion is lost to the eye, while the +church conveys no idea to the mind but of a tattered theatre; and when +the frippery decorations fade, nothing can exclude the recollection of +an old clothes shop. St. Celso was however left clear from these +disgraceful ornaments: there assembled together a numerous and +brilliant, if not an attentive audience; and St. Peter's part in the +oratorio was sung by a soprano voice, with no appearance of peculiar +propriety to be sure; but a satirical nobleman near me said, that +"Nothing could possibly be more happily imagined, as the mutilation of +poor St. Peter was continuing daily, and in full force;" alluding to the +Emperor's rough reformations: and he does not certainly spare the coat +any more than Jack in our Tale of a Tub, when he is rending away the +embroidery. Here, however, the parallel must end; for Jack, though +zealous, was never accused of burning the lace, if I remember right, +and putting the gold in his pocket. It happened oddly, that chatting +freely one day before dinner with some literary friends on the subject +of coat armour, we had talked about the Visconti serpent, which is the +arms of Milan; and the spread eagle of Austria, which we laughingly +agreed ought to _eat double _ because it had _two necks_: when the +conversation insensibly turned on the oppressions of the present hour; +and I, to put all away with a joke, proposed the _fortes Homericæ_ to +decide on their future destiny. Somebody in company insisted that _I_ +should open the book--I did so, at the omen in the twelfth book of the +Iliad, and read these words: + + Jove's bird on sounding pinions beat the skies; + A bleeding serpent of enormous size + His talons trussed; alive and curling round + She stung the bird, whose throat receiv'd the wound. + Mad with the smart he drops the fatal prey, + In airy circles wings his painful way, + Floats on the winds, and rends the heavens with cries: + Amid the hosts the fallen serpent lies; + They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll'd, + And Jove's portent with beating hearts behold. + +It is now time to talk a little of the theatre; and surely a receptacle +so capacious to contain four thousand people, a place of entrance so +commodious to receive them, a show so princely, so very magnificent to +entertain them, must be sought in vain out of Italy. The centre front +box, richly adorned with gilding, arms, and trophies, is appropriated to +the court, whose canopy is carried up to what we call the first gallery +in England; the crescent of boxes ending with the stage, consist of +nineteen on a side, _small boudoirs_, for such they seem; and are as +such fitted up with silk hangings, girandoles, &c. and placed so +judiciously as to catch every sound of the fingers, if they do but +whisper: I will not say it is equally advantageous to the figure, as to +the voice; no performers looking adequate to the place they recite upon, +so very stately is the building itself, being all of stone, with an +immense portico, and stairs which for width you might without hyperbole +drive your chariot up. An immense sideboard at the first lobby, lighted +and furnished with luxurious and elegant plenty, as many people send for +suppers to their box, and entertain a knot of friends there with +infinite convenience and splendour. A silk curtain, the colour of your +hangings, defends the closet from intrusive eyes, if you think proper to +drop it; and when drawn up, gives gaiety and show to the general +appearance of the whole: while across the corridor leading to these +boxes, another small chamber, numbered like _that_ it belongs to, is +appropriated to the use of your servants, and furnished with every +conveniency to make chocolate, serve lemonade, &c. + +Can one wonder at the contempt shewn by foreigners when they see English +women of fashion squeezed into holes lined with dirty torn red paper, +and the walls of it covered with a wretched crimson fluff? Well! but +this theatre is built in place of a church founded by the famous +Beatrice de Scala, in consequence of a vow she made to erect one if God +would be pleased to send her a son. The church was pulled down and the +playhouse erected. The Arch-duke lost a son that year; and the pious +folks cried, "A judgment!" but nobody minded them, I believe; many, +however, that are scrupulous will not go. Meantime it is a beautiful +theatre to be sure; the finest fabric raised in modern days, I do +believe, for the purposes of entertainment; but we must not be partial. +While London has twelve capital rooms for the professed amusement of the +Public, Milan has but one; there is in it, however, a ridotto chamber +for cards, of a noble size, where some little gaming goes on in carnival +time; but though the inhabitants complain of the enormities committed +there, I suppose more money is lost and won at one club in St. James's +street during a week, than here at Milan in the whole winter. + +Every nation complains of the wickedness of its own inhabitants, and +considers them as the worst people in the world, till they have seen +others no better; and then, like individuals with their private sorrows, +they find change produces no alleviation. The Mount of Miseries, in the +Spectator, where all the people change with their neighbours, lay down +an undutiful son, and carry away with them a hump-back, or whatever had +been the source of disquiet to another, whom he had blamed for bearing +so ill a misfortune thought trifling till he took it on himself, is an +admirably well constructed fable, and is applicable to public as well +as private complaints. + +A gentleman who had long practised as a solicitor, and was retired from +business, stored with a perfect knowledge of mankind so far as his +experience could inform him, told me once, that whoever died before +sixty years old, if he had made his own fortune, was likely to leave it +according as friendship, gratitude, and public spirit dictated: either +to those who had served, or those who had pleased him; or, not +unfrequently, to benefit some charity, set up some school, or the like: +"but let a man once turn sixty," said he, "and his natural heirs _are +sure of him_:" for having seen many people, he has likewise been +disgusted by many; and though he does not love his relations better than +he did, the discovery that others are but little superior to them in +those excellencies he has sought about the world in vain for, he begins +to enquire for his nephew's little boy, whom as he never saw, never +could have offended him; and if he does not break the chain of a +favourite watch, or any other such boyish trick, the estate is his for +ever, upon no principle but this in the testator. + +So it is by those who travel a good deal; by what I have seen, every +country has so much in it to be justly complained of, that most men +finish by preferring their own. + +That neither complaints nor rejoicings here at Milan, however, proceed +from affectation, is a choice comfort: the Lombards possess the skill to +please you without feigning; and so artless are their manners, you +cannot even suspect them of insincerity. They have, perhaps for that +very reason, few comedies, and fewer novels among them: for the worst of +every man's character is already well known to the rest; but be his +conduct what it will, the heart is commonly right enough--_il luon cuor +Lombardo_ is famed throughout all Italy, and nothing can become +proverbial without an excellent reason. Little opportunity is therefore +given to writers who carry the dark lanthorn of life into its deepest +recesses--unwind the hidden wickedness of a Maskwell or a Monkton, +develope the folds of vice, and spy out the internal worthlessness of +apparent virtue; which from these discerning eyes cannot be cloked even +by that early-taught affectation which renders it a real ingenuity to +discover, if in a highly polished capital a man or woman has or has not +good parts or principles--so completely are the first overlaid with +literature, and the last perverted by refinement. + + * * * * * + +April 2, 1785. + +The cold weather continues still, and we have heavy snows; but so +admirable is the police of this well-regulated town, that when +over-night it has fallen to the height of four feet, no very uncommon +occurrence, no one can see in the morning that even a flake has been +there, so completely do the poor and the prisoners rid us of it all, by +throwing immense loads of it into a navigable canal that runs quite +round the city, and carries every nuisance with it clearly away--so that +no inconveniencies can arise. + +Italians seem to me to have no feeling of cold; they open the +casements--for windows we have none (now in winter), and cry, _che bel +freschetto_![Footnote: What a fresh breeze!] while I am starving +outright. If there is a flash of a few faggots in the chimney that just +scorches one a little, no lady goes near it, but sits at the other end +of a high-roofed room, the wind whistling round her ears, and her feet +upon a perforated brass box, filled with wood embers, which the +_cavalier fervente_ pulls out from time to time, and replenishes with +hotter ashes raked out from between the andirons. How sitting with these +fumes under their petticoats improves their beauty of complexion I know +not; certain it is, they pity _us_ exceedingly for our manner of +managing ourselves, and enquire of their countrymen who have lived here +a-while, how their health endured the burning _fossils_ in the chambers +at London. I have heard two or three Italians say, _vorrei anch' io +veder quell' Inghilterra, ma questo carbone fossile_![Footnote: I would +go see this same England myself I think, but that fuel made of minerals +frights me!] To church, however, and to the theatre, ladies have a great +green velvet bag carried for them, adorned with gold tassels, and lined +with fur, to keep their feet from freezing, as carpets are not in use +here. Poor women run about the streets with a little earthen pipkin +hanging on their arm, filled with fire, even if they are sent on an +errand; while men of all ranks walk wrapped up in an odd sort of white +riding coat, not buttoned together, but folded round their body after +the fashion of the old Roman dress that one has seen in statues, and +this they call _Gaban_, retaining many Spanish words since the time that +they were under Spanish government. _Buscar_, to seek, is quite familiar +here as at Madrid, and instead of Ragazzo, I have heard the Milanese say +_Mozzo_ di Stalla, which is originally a Castilian word I believe, and +spelt by them with the _c con cedilla_, Moço. They have likewise Latin +phrases oddly mingled among their own: a gentleman said yesterday, that +he was going to Casa _Sororis_, to his sister's; and the strange word +_Minga_, which meets one at every turn, is corrupted, I believe, from +_Mica_, a crumb. _Piaz minga_, I have not a crumb of pleasure in it, &c. + +The uniformity of dress here pleases the eye, and their custom of going +veiled to church, and always without a hat, which they consider as +profanation of the _temple_ as they call it, delights me much; it has an +air of decency in the individuals, of general respect for the place, and +of a resolution not to let external images intrude on devout thoughts. +The hanging churches, and even public pillars, set up in the streets or +squares for purposes of adoration, with black, when any person of +consequence dies, displeases me more; it is so very dismal, so paltry a +piece of pride and expiring vanity, and so dirty a custom, calling bugs +and spiders, and all manner of vermin about one so in those black +trappings, it is terrible; but if they remind us of our end, and set us +about preparing for it, the benefit is greater than the evil. + +The equipages on the Corso here are very numerous, in proportion to the +size of the city, and excessively showy: the horses are long-tailed, +heavy, and for the most part black, with high rising forehands, while +the sinking of the back is artfully concealed by the harness of red +Morocco leather richly ornamented, and white reins. To this magnificence +much is added by large leopard, panther, or tyger skins, beautifully +striped or spotted by Nature's hand, and held fast on the horses by +heavy shining tassels of gold, coloured lace, &c. wonderfully handsome; +while the driver, clothed in a bright scarlet dress, adorned and trimmed +with bear's skin, makes a noble figure on the box at this season upon +days of gala. The carnival, however, exhibits a variety unspeakable; +boats and barges painted of a thousand colours, drawn upon wheels, and +filled with masks and merry-makers, who throw sugar-plums at each other, +to the infinite delight of the town, whose populousness that show +evinces to perfection, for every window and balcony is crowded to +excess; the streets are fuller than one can express of gazers, and +general mirth and gaiety prevail. When the flashing season is over, and +you are no longer to be dazzled with finery or stunned with noise, the +nobility of Milan--for gentry there are none--fairly slip a check case +over the hammock, as we do to our best chairs in England, clap a coarse +leather cover on the carriage top, the coachman wearing a vast brown +great coat, which he spreads on each side him over the corners of his +coach-box, and looks as somebody was saying--like a sitting hen. + +The paving of our streets here at Milan is worth mentioning, only +because it is directly contrary to the London method of performing the +same operation. They lay the large flag stones at this place in two +rows, for the coach wheels to roll smoothly over, leaving walkers to +accommodate themselves, and bear the sharp pebbles to their tread as +they may. In every thing great, and every thing little, the diversity of +government must perpetually occur; where that is despotic, small care +will be taken of the common people; where that is popular, little +attention will be paid to the great ones. I never in my whole life heard +so much of birth and family as since I came to this town; where blood +enjoys a thousand exclusive privileges, where Cavalier and Dama are +words of the first, nay of the only importance; where wit and beauty are +considered as useless without a long pedigree; and virtue, talents, +wealth, and wisdom, are thought on only as medals to hang upon the +branch of a genealogical tree, as we tie trinkets to a watch in England. + +I went to church, twenty yards from our own door, with a servant to wait +on me, three or four mornings ago; there was a lady particularly well +dressed, very handsome, two footmen attending on her at a distance, took +my attention. Peter, said I, to my own man, as we came out, _chi è +quella dama? who is that lady? Non è dama_, replies the fellow, +contemptuously smiling at my simplicity--_she is no lady_. I thought +she might be somebody's kept mistress, and asked him whose? _Dio ne +liberi_, returns Peter, in a kinder accent--for there _heart_ came in, +and he would not injure her character--God forbid: _è moglie d'un ricco +banchiere_--she is a rich banker's wife. You may see, added he, that she +is no lady if you look--the servants carry no velvet stool for her to +kneel upon, and they have no coat armour in the lace to their liveries: +_she_ a lady! repeated he again with infinite contempt. + +I am told that the Arch-duke is very desirous to close this breach of +distinction, and to draw merchants and traders with their wives up into +higher notice than they were wont to remain in. I do not _think_ he will +by that means conciliate the affection of any rank. The prejudices in +favour of nobility are too strong to be shaken here, much less rooted +out so: the very servants would rather starve in the house of a man of +family, than eat after a person of inferior quality, whom they consider +as their equal, and almost treat him as such to his face. Shall we then +be able to refuse our particular veneration to those characters of high +rank here, who add the charm of a cultivated mind to that situation +which, united even with ignorance, would ensure them respect? When +scholarship is found among the great in Italy, it has the additional +merit of having grown up in their own bosoms, without encouragement from +emulation, or the least interested motive. His companions do not think +much the more of him--for _that_ kind of superiority. I suppose, says a +friend of his, he must be fond of study; for _chi pensa di una maniera, +chi pensa d' un altra, per me sono stato sempre ignorantissimo_[I]. + +[Footnote I: One man is of one mind, another of another: I was always a +sheer dunce for my own part.] + +These voluntary confessions of many a quality, which, whether possessed +or not by English people, would certainly never be avowed, spring from +that native sincerity I have been praising--for though family +connections are prized so highly here, no man seems ashamed that he has +no family to boast: all feigning would indeed be useless and +impracticable; yet it struck me with astonishment too, to hear a +well-bred clergyman who visits at many genteel houses, say gravely to +his friend, no longer ago than yesterday--that friend a man too eminent +both for talents and fortune--"Yes, there is a grand invitation at such +a place to-night, but I don't go, because _I am not a gentleman--perche +non sono cavaliere_; and the master desired I would let you know that +_it was for no other reason_ that you had not a card too, my good +friend; for it is an invitation of none but _people of fashion you +see_." At all this nobody stares, nobody laughs, and nobody's throat is +cut in consequence of their sincere declarations. + +The women are not behind-hand in openness of confidence and comical +sincerity. We have all heard much of Italian cicisbeism; I had a mind to +know how matters really stood; and took the nearest way to information +by asking a mighty beautiful and apparently artless young creature, _not +noble_, how that affair was managed, for there is no harm done _I am +sure_, said I: "Why no," replied she, "no great _harm_ to be sure: +except wearisome attentions from a man one cares little about: for my +own part," continued she, "I detest the custom, as I happen to love my +husband excessively, and desire nobody's company in the world but his. +We are not _people of fashion_ though you know, nor at all rich; so how +should we set fashions for our betters? They would only say, see how +jealous he is! if _Mr. Such-a-one_ sat much with me at home, or went +with me to the Corso; and I _must_ go with some gentleman you know: and +the men are such ungenerous creatures, and have such ways with them: I +want money often, and this _cavaliere servente_ pays the bills, and so +the connection draws closer--_that's all_." And your husband! said +I--"Oh, why he likes to see me well dressed; he is very good natured, +and very charming; I love him to my heart." And your confessor! cried +I.--"Oh, why he is _used to it_"--in the Milanese dialect--_è assuefaà _. + +Well! we will not send people to Milan to study delicacy or very refined +morality to be sure; but were the crust of British affectation lifted +off many a character at home, I know not whether better, that is +_honester_, hearts would be found under it than that of this pretty +girl, God forbid that I should prove an advocate for vice; but let us +remember, that the banishment of all hypocrisy and deceit is a vast +compensation for the want of _one great virtue_.--The certainty that +the worst, whatever that worst may be, meets your immediate inspection, +gives great repose to the mind: you know there is no latent poison +lurking out of sight; no colours to come out stronger by throwing water +suddenly against them, as you do to old fresco paintings: and talking +freely with women in this country, though you may have a chance to light +on ignorance, you are never teized by folly. + +The mind of an Italian, whether man or woman, seldom fails, for ought I +see, to make up in _extent_ what is wanted in _cultivation_; and that +they possess the art of pleasing in an eminent degree, the constancy +with which they are mutually beloved by each other is the best proof. + +Ladies of distinction bring with them when they marry, besides fortune, +as many clothes as will last them seven years; for fashions do not +change here as often as at London or Paris; yet is pin-money allowed, +and an attention paid to the wife that no Englishwoman can form an idea +of: in every family her duties are few; for, as I have observed, +household management falls to the master's share of course, when all +the servants are men almost, and those all paid by the week or day. +Children are very seldom seen by those who visit great houses: if they +_do_ come down for five minutes after dinner, the parents are talked of +as _doting_ on them, and nothing can equal the pious and tender return +made to fathers and mothers in this country, for even an apparently +moderate share of fondness shewn to them in a state of infancy. I saw an +old Marchioness the other day, who had I believe been exquisitely +beautiful, lying in bed in a spacious apartment, just like ours in the +old palaces, with the tester touching the top almost: she had her three +grown-up sons standing round her, with an affectionate desire of +pleasing, and shewing her whatever could sooth or amuse her--so that it +charmed me; and I was told, and observed indeed, that when they quitted +her presence a half kneeling bow, and a kind kiss of her still white +hand, was the ceremony used. I knew myself brought thither only that she +might be entertained with the sight of the foreigner--and was equally +struck at her appearance--more so I should imagine than she could be at +mine; when these dear men assisted in moving her pillows with emulative +attention, and rejoiced with each other apart, that their mother looked +so well to-day. Two or three servants out of livery brought us +refreshments I remember; but her maid attended in the antichamber, and +answered the bell at her bed's head, which was exceedingly magnificent +in the old style of grandeur--crimson damask, if I recollect right, with +family arms at the back; and she lay on nine or eleven pillows, laced +with ribbon, and two large bows to each, very elegant and expensive in +any country:--with all this, to prove that the Italians have little +sensation of cold, here was no fire, but a suffocating brazier, which +stood near the door that opened, and was kept open, into the maid's +apartment. + +A woman here in every stage of life has really a degree of attention +shewn her that is surprising:--if conjugal disputes arise in a family, +so as to make them become what we call town-talk, the public voice is +sure to run against the husband; if separation ensues, all possible +countenance is given to the wife, while the gentleman is somewhat less +willingly received; and all the stories of past disgusts are related to +_his_ prejudice: nor will the lady whom he wishes to serve look very +kindly on a man who treats his own wife with unpoliteness. _Che cuore +deve avere!_ says she: What a heart he must have! _Io non mene fido +sicuro_: I shall take care not to trust him sure. + +National character is a great matter: I did not know there had been such +a difference in the ways of thinking, merely from custom and climate, as +I see there is; though one has always read of it: it was however +entertaining enough to hear a travelled gentleman haranguing away three +nights ago at our house in praise of English cleanliness, and telling +his auditors how all the men in London, _that were noble_, put on a +clean shirt every day, and the women washed the street before his +house-door every morning. "_Che schiavitù mai!_" exclaimed a lady of +quality, who was listening: "_ma natural mente farà per commando del +principe_."--"_What a land of slavery!_" says Donna Louisa, I heard her; +"_but it is all done by command of the sovereign, I suppose_." + +Their ideas of justice are no less singular than of delicacy: but those +are more easily accounted for; so is their amiable carriage towards +inferiors, calling their own and their friends servants by tender names, +and speaking to all below themselves with a graciousness not often used +by English men or women even to their equals. The pleasure too which the +high people here express when the low ones are diverted, is +charming.--We think it vulgar to be merry when the mob is so; but if +rolling down a hill, like Greenwich, was the custom here, as with us, +all Milan would run to see the sport, and rejoice in the felicity of +their fellow-creatures. When I express my admiration of such +condescending sweetness, they reply--_è un uomo come un altro;--è +battezzato come noi_; and the like--Why he is a man of the same nature +as we: he has been christened as well as ourselves, they reply. Yet do I +not for this reason condemn the English as naturally haughty above their +continental neighbours. Our government has left so narrow a space +between the upper and under ranks of people in Great Britain--while our +charitable and truly Christian religion is still so constantly employed +in raising the depressed, by giving them means of changing their +situation, that if our persons of condition fail even for a moment to +watch their post, maintaining by dignity what they or their fathers have +acquired by merit, they are instantly and suddenly broken in upon by the +well-employed talents, or swiftly-acquired riches, of men born on the +other side the thin partition; whilst in Italy the gulph is totally +impassable, and birth alone can entitle man or woman to the society of +gentlemen and ladies. This firmly-fixed idea of subordination (which I +once heard a Venetian say, he believed must exist in heaven from one +angel to another) accounts immediately for a little conversation which I +am now going to relate. + +Here were two men taken up last week, one for murdering his +fellow-servant in cold blood, while the undefended creature had the +lemonade tray in his hand going in to serve company; the other for +breaking the new lamps lately set up with intention to light this town +in the manner of the streets at Paris. "I hope," said I, "that they will +hang the murderer." "I rather hope," replied a very sensible lady who +sate near me, "that they will hang the person who broke the lamps: for," +added she, "the first committed his crime only out of revenge, poor +fellow! because the other had got his mistress from him by treachery; +but this creature has had the impudence to break our fine new lamps, all +for the sake of spiting _the Arch-duke_." The Arch-duke meantime hangs +nobody at all; but sets his prisoners to work upon the roads, public +buildings, &c. where they labour in their chains; and where, strange to +tell! they often insult passengers who refuse them alms when asked as +they go by; and, stranger still! they are not punished for it when they +do. + +Here is certainly much despotic power in Italy, but, I fancy, very +little oppression; perhaps authority, once acknowledged, does not +delight itself always by the fatigue of exertion. _Sat est prostrasse +leoni_ is an old adage, with which perhaps I may be the better +acquainted, as it is the motto to my own coat of arms; and unless +sovereignty is hungry, for ought I see, he does not certainly _devour_. + +The certainty of their irrevocable doom, softened by kind usage from +their superiors, makes, in the mean time, an odd sort of humorous +drollery spring up among the common people, who are much happier here at +Milan than I expected to find them: every great house giving meat, +broth, &c. to poor dependents with liberal good-nature enough, so that +mighty little wandering misery is seen in the streets; unlike those of +Genoa, who seem mocked with the word _liberty_, while sorrow, sickness, +and the most pinching want, pine at the doors of marble palaces, whose +owners are unfeeling as their walls. + +Our ordinary people here in Lombardy are well clothed, fat, stout, and +merry; and desirous to divert themselves, and their protectors, whom +they love at their hearts. There is however a degree of effrontery among +the women that amazes me, and of which I had no idea, till a friend +shewed me one evening from my own box at the opera, fifty or a hundred +low shop-keepers wives, dispersed about the pit at the theatre, dressed +in men's clothes, _per disimpegno_ as they call it; that they might be +more _at liberty_ forsooth to clap and hiss, and quarrel and jostle, +&c. I felt shocked. "_One who comes from a free government need not +wonder so_," said he: "On the contrary, Sir," replied I, "where every +body has hopes, at least possibility, of bettering his station, and +advancing nearer to the limits of upper life, none except the most +abandoned of their species will wholly lose sight of such decorous +conduct as alone can grace them when they have reached their wish: +whereas your people know their destiny, future as well as present, and +think no more of deserving a higher post, than they think of obtaining +it." Let me add, however, that if these women _were_ a little riotous +during the Easter holidays, they are _dilletantes_ only. In this city no +female _professors_ of immorality and open libertinage, disgraceful at +once, and pernicious to society, are permitted to range the streets in +quest of prey; to the horror of all thinking people, and the ruin of all +heedless ones. + +With which observation, to continue the tour of Italy, we this day +leave, for a twelvemonth at least, Milano il grande, after having spent, +though not quite finished the winter in it; as there fell a very heavy +snow last Saturday, which hindered our setting out a week ago, though +this is the sixth of April; and exactly five months have now since last +November been passed among those who have I hope approved our conduct +and esteemed our manners. That they should trouble themselves to examine +our income, report our phrases, and listen, perhaps with some little +mixture of envy, after every instance of unshakable attachment shewn to +each other, would be less pleasing; but that I verily believe they have +at last dismissed us with general good wishes, proceeding from innate +goodness of heart, and the hope of seeing again, in a year's time or so, +two people who have supplied so many tables here with materials for +conversation, when the fountain of talk was stopt by deficiencies, and +the little stream of prattle ceased to murmur for want of a few pebbles +to break its course. + +We are going to Venice by the way of Cremona, and hope for amusement +from external objects: let us at least not deserve or invite +disappointment by seeking for pleasure beyond the limits of innocence. + + + +FROM MILAN TO PADUA. + + +The first evening's drive carried us no farther than Lodi, a place +renowned through all Europe for its excellent cheese, as out well-known +ballad bears testimony: + + Let Lodi or Parmesan bring up the rear. + +Those verses were imitated, I fancy, from a French song written by +Monsieur des Yveteaux, of whose extraordinary life and death much has +been said by his cotemporary wits, particularly how some of them found +him playing at shepherd and shepherdess in his own garden with a pretty +Savoyard wench, at seventy-eight years old, _en habit de berger, avec un +chapeau couleur de rose_[Footnote: In a pastoral habit, and a hat turned +up with pink], &c. when he shewed them the famous lines, _Avoir peu de +parens, moins de train que de rente_, &c. which do certainly bear a very +near affinity to our Old Man's Wish, published in Dryden's +Miscellanies; who, among other luxuries, resolves to eat Lodi cheese, I +remember. + +The town, however, bringing no other ideas either new or old to our +minds, we went to the opera, and heard Morichelli sing: after which they +gave us a new dramatic dance, made upon the story of Don John, or the +Libertine; a tale which, whether true or false, fact or fable, has +furnished every Christian country in the world, I believe, with some +subject of representation. It makes me no sport, however; the idea of an +impenitent sinner going to hell is too seriously terrifying to make +amusement out of. Let mythology, which is now grown good for little +else, be danced upon the stage; where Mr. Vestris may bounce and +struggle in the character of Alcides on his funeral pile, with no very +glaring impropriety; and such baubles serve beside to keep old classical +stories in the heads of our young people; who, if they _must_ have +torches to blaze in their eyes, may divert themselves with Pluto +catching up Ceres's daughter, and driving her away to Tartarus; but let +Don John alone. I have at least _half a notion_ that the horrible +history is _half true_; if so, it is surely very gross to represent it +by dancing. Should such false foolish taste prevail in England (but I +hope it will not), we might perhaps go happily through the whole book of +God's Revenge against Murder, or the Annals of Newgate, on the stage, as +a variety of pretty stories may be found there of the same cast; while +statues of Hercules and Minerva, with their insignia as heathen deities, +might be placed, with equal attention to religion, costume, and general +fitness, as decorations for the monuments of _Westminster Abbey_. + +The country we came through to Cremona is rich and fertile, the roads +deep and miry of course; very few of the Lombardy poplars, of which I +expected to see so many: but Phaeton's sisters seem to have danced all +away from the odoriferous banks of the Po, to the green sides of the +Thames, I think; meantime here is no other timber in the country but a +few straggling ash, and willows without end. The old Eridanus, however, +makes a majestic figure at Cremona, and frights the inhabitants when it +overflows. There are not many to be frighted though, for the town is +thinly peopled; but exquisitely clean, perhaps for that very reason; +and the cathedral, of a mixed Grecian and Gothic architecture, has a +respectable appearance; while two enormous lions, of red marble, frown +at its door, and the crucifixion, painted by Pordenone, with a rough but +powerful pencil, strikes one at the entrance: I have seen nothing finer +than the figure of the Centurion upon the fore-ground, who seems to cry +out, with soldier-like courage and apostolic fervour, Truly this is the +Son of God. + +The great clock here too is very curious: having, besides the +twenty-four hours, a minute and second finger, like a stop watch, and +shews the phases of the moon, with her triple rotation clearly to all +who walk across the piazza. Yet I trust the dwellers at Cremona are no +better astronomers than those who live in other places; to what purpose +then all these representations with which Italy is crowded; processions, +paintings, &c. besides the moral dances, as they call them now? One word +of solid instruction to the ear, conveys more knowledge to the mind at +last, than all these marionettes presented to the eye. + +The tower of Cremona is of a surprising height and elegant form; we +climbed, not without some difficulty, to its top, and saw the flat +plains of Lombardy stretched out all round us. Prospects, however, and +high towers have I seen; that in Mr. Hoare's grounds, dedicated to King +Alfred, is a much finer structure than this, and the view from it much +more variegated certainly; I think of greater extent; though there is +more dignity in these objects, while the Po twists through them, and +distant mountains mingle with the sky at the end of a lengthened +horizon. + +What I have never seen till now, we were made to observe in the octagon +gallery which crowns this pretty structure, where in every compartment +there are channels cut in the stone to guide the eye or rest the +telescope, that so a spectator need not be fruitlessly teized, as one +almost always is, by those who shew one a prospect, with _Look there! +See there!_ &c. At this place nothing needs be done but lay the glass or +put the eye even with the lines which point to Bergamo, Mantua, or where +you please; and _look there_ becomes superfluous as offensive. + +The bells in the tower amused us in another way: an old man who has the +care of them, delighted much in telling us how he rung tunes upon them +before the Duke of Parma, who presented him with money, and bid him ring +again: and not a little was the good man amazed, when one of our company +sate down and played on them himself: a thing he had never before been +witness to, he said, except once, when a surprising musician arrived +from England, and performed the like seat: by his description of the +person, and the time of his passing through Cremona, we conjectured he +meant Dr. Burney. + +The most dreadful of all roads carried us next morning to Mantua, where +we had letters for an agreeable friend, who neglected nothing that could +entertain or instruct us. He shewed me the field where it is supposed +the house stood in which Virgil was born, and told me what he knew of +the evidence that he was born there: certain it is that much care is +taken to keep the place fenced, from an idea of its being the identical +spot, and I hope it is so. + +The theatres here are beautiful beyond all telling: it is a shame not to +take the model of the small one, and build a place of entertainment on +the plan. There cannot surely be any plan more elegant. + +We had a concert of admirable music at the house of our new +acquaintance, in the evening, and were introduced by his means to many +people of fashion; the ladies were pretty, and dressed with much taste; +no caps at all, but flowers in their heads, and earrings of silver +fillagree finely worked; long, light, and thin: I never saw such before, +but it would be an exceeding pretty fashion. They hung down quite low +upon the neck and shoulders, and had a pleasing effect. + +Mantua stands in the middle of a deep swampy marsh, that sends up a +thick foggy vapour all winter, a stench intolerable during the summer +months. Its inhabitants lament the want of population; and indeed I +counted but five carriages in the streets while we remained in the town. +Seven thousand Jews occupy a third part of the city, founded by old +Tiresias's daughter, where they have a synagogue, and live after their +own fashion. The dialect here is closer to that Italian which foreigners +learn, and the ladies speak more Tuscan, I think, than at Milan, but it +is a _lady's_ town as I told them. + + "Ille etiam patriis agmen ciet Ocnus ab oris + Fatidicæ _Mantûs_ et Tusci filius amnis, + Qui muros matrisque dedit tibi. _Mantua_ nomen." + + Ocnus was next, who led his native train + Of hardy warriors thro' the wat'ry plain, + The son of Manto by the Tuscan stream, + From whence the _Mantuan_ town derives its name. + + DRYDEN. + +The annual fair is what contributes most to keeping their folks alive +though, for such are the roads it is scarce possible any strangers +should come near them, and our people complain that the inns are very +extortionate: here is one building, however, that promises wonders from +its prodigious size and magnificence; I only wonder such accommodation +should be thought necessary. + +The gentleman who shewed us the Ducal palace, seemed himself much struck +with its convenience and splendour; but I had seen Versailles, Turin, +and Genoa. What can be seen here, and here alone, are the numerous and +incomparable works of Giulio Romano; of which no words that I can use +would give my readers any adequate idea.--For such excellence language +has no praise, and of such performances taste will admit no criticism. +The giants could scarcely have been more amazed at Jupiter's thunder, +than I was at their painted fall. If Rome is to exhibit any thing beyond +this, I shall really be more dazzled than delighted; for imagination +will stretch no further, and admiration will endure no more. + + * * * * * + +Sunday, April 10. + +Here is no appearance of spring yet, though so late in the year; what +must it be in England? One almond and one plum tree have I seen in +blossom; but no green leaf out of the bud: so cheerless has been the +road between Mantua and Verona, which, however, makes amends for all on +our arrival. How beautiful the entrance is of this charming city, how +grand the gate, how handsome the drive forward, may all be read here in +a printed book called _Verona illustrata_: but my felicity in finding +the amphitheatre so well preserved, can only be found in my own heart, +which began sensibly to dilate at the seeing an old Roman colisseum kept +so nicely, and repaired so well. It is said that the arena here is +absolutely perfect; and if the galleries are a little deficient, there +can be no dispute concerning the _podium_, or lower seats, which remain +exactly as they were in old times: while I have heard that the building +of the same kind now existing at Nismes, shews the manner of entering +exceeding well; and the great one built by Vespasian has every thing +else: so that an exact idea of the old Circus may be obtained among them +all. That something should always be left to conjecture, is however not +unpleasing; various opinions animate the arguments on both sides, and +bring out fire by collision with the understanding of others engaged in +the same researches. + +A bull-feast given here to divert the Emperor as he passed through, must +have excited many pleasing sensations, while the inhabitants sate on +seats once occupied by the masters of the world; and what is more worth +wonder, sate at the feet of a Transalpine _Cæsar_, for so the sovereign +of Germany is even now called by his Milanese subjects in common +discourse; and when one looks upon the arms of Austria, a spread eagle, +and recollects that when the Roman empire was divided, the old eagle was +split, one face looking toward the East, the other toward the West, in +token of shared possession, it affects one; and calls up classic imagery +to the mind. + +The collection of antiquities belonging to the Philharmonic society is +very respectable; they reminded me of the Arundel marbles at Oxford, and +I said so. "_Oh!_" replied the man who shewed these, "_that collection +was very valuable to be sure, but the bad air, and the smoke of coal +fires in England, have ruined them long ago_." I suspected that my +gentleman talked by rote, and examining the book called _Verona +illustrata_, found the remark there; but that is _malasede_, and a very +ridiculous prejudice. I will confess however, if they please, that our +original treaty between Mardonius and the Persian army, at the end of +which the Greek general Aristides, although himself a Sabian, attested +the fun as witness, in compliance with their religion who worshipped +that luminary, at least held it in the highest veneration, as the +residence of Oromasdes the good Principle, who was considered by the +Magians as for ever clothed with light: I will consider _that_, I say, +if they insist upon it, as a marble of less consequence than the last +will and testament of an old inhabitant of Sparta which is shewn at +Verona, and which _they say_ disposes of the iron money used during the +first of many years that the laws of Lycurgus lasted. + +Here is a very fine palace belonging to the Bevi-l'acqua family, besides +the Casa Verzi, as famous for its elegant Doric architecture, as the +charming mistress of it for her Attic wit. + +St. Zeno is the church which struck me most: the eternal and all-seeing +eye placed over the door; Fortune's wheel too, composed of six figures +curiously disposed, and not unlike our man alphabet, two mounting, two +sitting, and two tumbling, over against it: on the outside of the wheel +this distich, + + En ego Fortuna moderor mortalibus usum, + Elevo, depono, bona cunctis vel mala dono[J]-- + +this other on the inside of the wheel, less plainly to be read: + + Induo nudatos, denudo veste paratos, + In me confidit, si quis derisus abibit[K]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote J: + Here I Madam Fortune my favours bestow, + Some good and some ill to the high and the low. +] + +[Footnote K: + The naked I clothe, and the pompous I strip; + If in me you confide, I may give you the slip. +] + +This is a town full of beauties, wits, and rarities: numberless persons +of the first eminence have always adorned it, and the present +inhabitants have no mind to degenerate; while the Nobleman that is +immediately descended from that house which Giambattista della Torre +made famous for his skill in astronomy, employs himself in a much more +useful, if not a nobler study; and is completing for the press a new +system of education. It was very petulantly, and very spitefully said by +Voltaire, that Italy was now no more than _la boutique_[Footnote: The +old clothes shop.], and the Italians, _les merchands fripiers de +l'Europe_[Footnote: The slop-sellers of Europe]. The Greek remains here +have still an air of youthful elegance about them, which strikes one +very forcibly where so good opportunity offers of comparing them with +the fabrics formed by their destructive successors, the Goths; who have +left some fine old black-looking monuments (which look as if they had +stood in our _coal smoke_ for centuries) to the memory of the Scaligers; +and surely the great critic of that name could not have taken a more +certain method of proving his descent from these his barbarous +ancestors, than that which his relationship to them naturally, I +suppose, inspired him with--the avowed preference of birth to talents, +of long-drawn genealogy to hardly-acquired literature. We will however +grow less prejudiced ourselves; and since there are still whole nations +of people existing, who consider the counting up many generations back +as a felicity not to be exchanged for any other without manifest loss, +we may possibly reconcile the opinion to common sense, by reflecting +that one preconception of the sovereign good is, that it should +certainly be _indeprivable_ and except birth, what is there earthly +after all that may not drop, or else be torn from its possessor by +accident, folly, force, or malice? + +James Harris says, that virtue answers to the character of +indeprivability, but one is left only to wish that his position were +true; the continuance of virtue depends on the continuance of reason, +from which a blow on the head, a sudden fit of terror, or twenty other +accidents may separate us in a moment. Nothing can make us not one's +father's child however, and the advantages of _blood_, such as they are, +may surely be deemed _indeprivable_. + +Gothic and Grecian architecture resembles Gothic and Grecian manners, +which naturally do give their colour to such arts as are naturally the +result of them. Tyranny and gloomy suspicion are the characteristics of +the one, openness and sociability strongly mark the other--when to the +gay portico succeeded the sullen drawbridge, and to the lively corridor, +a secret passage and a winding staircase. + +It is difficult, if not impossible however, to withhold one's respect +from those barbarians who could thus change the face of art, almost of +nature; who could overwhelm courage and counteract learning; who not +only devoured the works of wisdom and the labours of strength, but left +behind them too a settled system of feudatorial life and aristocratic +power, still undestroyed in Europe, though hourly attacked, battered by +commerce, and sapped by civilization. + +When Smeathman told us about twelve years ago, how an immense body of +African ants, which appeared, as they moved forwards, like the whole +earth in agitation--covered and suddenly arrested a solemn elephant, as +he grazed unsuspiciously on the plain; he told us too that in eight +hours time no trace was left either of the devasters or devasted, +excepting the skeleton of the noble creature neatly picked; a standing +proof of the power of numbers against single force. + +These northern emigrants the Goths, however, have done more; they have +fixed a mode of carrying on human affairs, that I think will never be so +far exterminated as to leave no vestiges behind: and even while one +contemplates the mischief they have made--even while one's pen engraves +one's indignation at their success; the old baron in his castle, +preceded and surrounded by loyal dependants, who desired only to live +under his protection and die in his defence, inspires a notion of +dignity unattainable by those who, seeking the beautiful, are by so far +removed from the sublime of life, and affords to the mind momentary +images of surly magnificence, ill exchanged perhaps by _fancy_, though +_truth_ has happily substituted a succession of soft ideas and social +comforts: knowledge, virtue, riches, happiness. Let it be remembered +however, that if the theme is superior to the song, we always find those +poets who live in the second class, celebrating the days past by those +who had their existence in the first. These reflections are forced upon +me by the view of Lombard manners, and the accounts I daily pick up +concerning the Brescian and Bergamase nobility; who still exert the +Gothic power of protecting murderers who profess themselves their +vassals; and who still exercise those virtues and vices natural to man +in his semi-barbarous state: fervent devotion, constant love, heroic +friendship, on the one part; gross superstition, indulgence of brutal +appetite, and diabolical revenge, on the other. + +In all hot countries, however, flowers and weeds shoot up to enormous +growth: in colder climes, where poison can scarce be feared, perfumes +can seldom be boasted. + +Verona is the gayest looking town I ever lived in; beautifully +situated, the hills around it elegant, the mountains at a distance +venerable: the silver Adige rolling through the Valley, while such a +glow of blossoms now ornament the rising grounds, and such cheerfulness +smiles in the sweet countenances of its inhabitants, that one is tempted +to think it the birth-place of Euphrosyne, where + + Zephyr with Aurora playing, + As he met her once a maying, &c. + Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair, + So buxom, blythe, and debonair-- + +as Milton says. Here are vines, mulberries, olives; of course, wine, +silk, and oil: every thing that can seduce, every thing that ought to +satisfy desiring man. Here then in consequence do actually delight to +reside mirth and good-humour in their holiday dress. _A verona mezzi +matti_[Footnote: The people at Verona are half out of their wits], say +the Italians themselves of them, and I see nothing seemingly go forward +here but Improvisatori, reciting stories or verses to entertain the +populace; boys flying kites, cut square like a diamond on the cards, and +called Stelle; men amusing themselves at a game called Pallamajo, +something like our cricket, only that they throw the ball with a hollow +stick, not with the hand, but it requires no small corporal strength; +and I know not why our English people have such a notion of Italian +effeminacy: games of very strong exertion are in use among them; and I +have not yet felt one hot day since I left France. + +They shewed us an agreeable garden here belonging to some man of +fashion, whose name I know not; it was cut in a rock, yet the grotto +disappointed me: they had not taken such advantages of the situation as +Lomellino would have done, and I recollected the tasteful creations in +my own country, _Pains Hill_ and _Stour Head_. + +The Veronese nobleman shewed however the spirit of _his_ country, if we +let loose the genius of _ours_. The emperor had visited his improvements +it seems, and on the spot where he kissed the children of the house, +their father set up a stone to record the honour. + +Our attendant related a tender story to _me_ more interesting, which +happened in this garden, of an English gentleman, who having hired the +house, &c. one season, found his favourite servant ill there, and like +to die: the poor creature expressed his concern at the intolerant +cruelty of that fact which denies Christians of any other denomination +but their own a place in consecrated ground, and lamented his distance +from home with an anxious earnestness that hastened his end: when the +humanity of his master sent him to the landlord, who kindly gave +permission that he might lie undisturbed under his turf, as one places +one's lap-dog in England; and _there_, as our Laquais de place observed, +_he did no harm_, though _he was a heretic_; and the English gentleman +wept over his grave. + +I never saw cypress trees of such a growth as in this spot--but then +there are no other trees; _inter viburna cypressi_ came of course into +one's head: and this noble plant, rich in foliage, and bright, not dusky +in colour, looked from its manner of growing like a vast evergreen +poplar. + +Our equipages here are strangely inferior to those we left behind at +Milan. Oil is burned in the conversation rooms too, and smells very +offensively--but they _lament our suffocation in England, and black +smoke_, while what proceeds from these lamps would ruin the finest +furniture in the world before five weeks were expired; I saw no such +used at Turin, Genoa, or Milan. + +The horses here are not equal to those I have admired on the Corso at +other great towns; but it is pleasing to observe the contrast between +the high bred, airy, elegant English hunter, and the majestic, docile, +and well-broken war horse of Lombardy. Shall we fancy there is Gothic +and Grecian to be found even among the animals? or is not that _too_ +fanciful? + +That every thing useful, and every thing ornamental, first revived in +Italy, is well known; but I was never aware till now, though we talk of +Italian book-keeping, that the little cant words employed in +compting-houses, took their original from the Lombard language, unless +perhaps that of Ditto, which every moment recurs, meaning Detto or +Sudetto, as that which was already said before: but this place has +afforded me an opportunity of discovering what the people meant, who +called a large portion of ground in Southwark some years ago a _plant_, +above all things. The ground was destined to the purposes of extensive +commerce, but the appellation of a _plant_ gave me much disturbance, +from my inability to fathom the meaning of it. I have here found out, +that the Lombards call many things a _plant_; and say of their cities, +palaces, &c. in familiar discourse--_che la pianta è buona, la pianta è +cattiva_[Footnote: The _plant_ is a good or a bad one], &c. + +Thus do words which carry a forcible expression in one language, appear +ridiculous enough in another, till the true derivation is known. Another +reflection too occurs as curious; that after the overthrow of all +business, all knowledge, and all pleasure resulting from either, by the +Goths, Italy should be the first to cherish and revive those +money-getting occupations, which now thrive better in more Northern +climates: but the chymists say justly, that fermentation acts with a +sort of creative power, and that while the mass of matter is fermenting, +no certain judgment can be made what spirit it will at last throw up: so +perhaps we ought not to wonder at all, that the first idea of banking +came originally from this now uncommercial country; that the very name +of _bankrupt_ was brought over from their money-changers, who sat in +the market-place with a bench or _banca_ before them, receiving and +paying; till, unable sometimes to make the due returns, the enraged +creditors broke their little board, which was called making +_bancarotta_, a phrase but too well known in the purlieus, which because +they first settled there in London was called _Lombard Street_, where +the word is still in full force I believe. + + --oh word of fear! + Unpleasing to commercial ear. + +A visit to the collection of Signor Vincenzo Bozza best assisted me in +changing, or at least turning the course of my ideas. Nothing in natural +history appears more worthy the consideration of the learned world, than +does this repository of petrefactions, so uncommon that scarcely any +thing except the testimony of one's own eyes could convince one that +flying fish, natives, and intending to remain inhabitants, of the +Pacific Ocean, are daily dug out of the bowels of Monte Bolca near +Verona, where they must doubtless have been driven by the deluge, as no +less than omnipotent power and general concussion could have sufficed to +seize and fix them for centuries in the hollow cavities of a rock at +least seventy-two miles from the nearest sea. Their learned proprietor, +however, who was obligingly desirous to shew me every attention, +answering a hundred troublesome questions with much civility, told us, +that few of his numerous visitants gave that plain account of the +phenomenon, shewing greater disposition to conjure up more difficult +causes, and attribute the whole to the world's eternity: a notion not +less contrary to found philosophy and common sense, than it is repugnant +to faith, and the doctrines of Revelation; which prophesied long ago, +that in the last days should come _scoffers, walking after their own +lusts_, and saying, _Where is now the promise of his coming? for since +the time that our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were +from the beginning of the creation._ + +Well! these are unpleasant reflections: I would rather, before leaving +the plains of Lombardy, give my country-women one reason for detaining +them so long there: it cannot be an uninteresting reason to us, when we +reflect that our first head-dresses were made by _Milaners_; that a +court gown was early known in England by the name of a _mantua_, from +_Manto,_ the daughter of Teresias, who founded the city so called; and +that some of the best materials for making these mantuas is still named +from the town it is manufactured in--a _Padua_ soy. + +We are going thither immediately through Vicenza; where the works of +Palladio's immortal hand appear in full perfection; and nothing sure can +add to the elegancies of architecture displayed in its environs. I +fatigued myself to death almost by walking three miles out of town, to +see the famous villa from whence Merriworth Castle in Kent was modelled; +and drew incessant censures on his taste who built at the bottom of a +deep valley the imitation of a house calculated for a hill. Here I +pleased my eyes by glancing them over an extensive prospect, bounded by +mountains on the one side, on another by the sea, at so prodigious a +distance however as to be wholly undiscoverable by the naked eye; nor +could I, or any other unaccustomed spectator, have seen, as my Italian +companions did, the effect produced by marine vapours upon the +intermediate atmosphere, which they made me remark from the windows of +the palace, inferior in every thing _but_ situation to Merriworth, and +with that patriotic consolation I leave Vincenza. + +Padua la dotta afforded me much pleasure, from the politeness of the +Countess Ferres, born a German; of the House of Starenberg: she thought +proper to shew me a thousand civilities, in consequence of a kind letter +which we carried her from Count Wiltseck, the Austrian minister at +Milan; called the literati of the town about us, and gave me the +pleasure of conversing with the Abate Cefarotti, who translated Offian; +and the Professor Statico, whose attentions I ought never to forget. I +was surprised at length to hear kind inquiries after English +acquaintance made in my native language by the botanical professor, who +spoke much of Doctor Johnson, and with great regard: he had, it seems, +spent much time in our island about thirty years before. When we were +shewn the physic garden, nicely kept and excellently furnished, the +Countess took occasion to observe, that transplanted trees never throve, +and strongly expressed her unfaded attachment to her native soil: though +she had more good sense than to neglect every opportunity of +cultivating that in which fortune had placed her. + +The tomb of Antenor, supposed to be preserved in this town, has, I find, +but slight evidence to boast with regard to its authenticity: whosever +tomb it is, the antiquity of the monument, and dignity of the remains, +are scarcely questionable; and I see not but it _may_ be Antenor's. + +There is no place assigned for it but the open street, because it could +not (say they) have contained a baptized body, as there are proofs +innumerable of its being fabricated many and many years before the birth +of Jesus Christ: yet I never pass by without being hurt that it should +have no better situation assigned it, till I recollect that the old +Romans always buried people by the highway, which made the _siste +viator_[Footnote: Stop traveller] proper for their tomb-stones, as Mr. +Addison somewhere remarks; which are foolishly enough engraven upon +ours: and till I consider too that the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the +Patriarch of Antioch, where Christians were first called such, would lie +no nearer a Christian Church than old Antenor does, were they +unfortunate enough to die, and be put under ground at Padua. + +The shrine of St. Antonio is however sufficiently venerated; and the +riches of his church really amazed me: such silver lamps! such votive +offerings! such glorious sculpture! the bas relievos, representing his +life and miracles, are beyond any thing we have yet seen; one +compartment particularly, the workmanship, I think, of Sansovino, where +an old woman is represented to a degree of finished nicety and curiosity +of perfection which I knew not that marble could express. + +The hall of justice, which they oppose to our Westminster-hall, but +between which there is no resemblance, is two hundred and fifty-six feet +long, and eighty-six broad; the form, of it a _rhomboid_: the walls +richly ornamented by Pietro d'Abano, who originally designed, and began +to paint the figures round the sides: they have however been retouched +by Giotto, who added the signs of the Zodiac to Peter's mysterious +performances, which meant to explain the planetary influences, as he was +a man deeply dipped in judicial astrology; and there is his own portrait +among them, dressed like a Zoroastrian priest, with a planet in the +corner. At the bottom of the hall hangs the famous crucifixion, for the +purpose of doing which completely well, it is told that Giotto fastened +up a real man, and justly incurred the Pope's displeasure, who coming +one day unawares to see his painter work, caught the unhappy wretch +struggling in the closet, and threatened immediately to sign the +artist's death; who with Italian promptness ran to the picture, and +daubed it over with his brush and colours;--by this method obliging his +sovereign to delay execution till the work was repaired, which no one +but himself could finish; mean time the man recovers of his wounds, and +the tale ends, whether true or false, according to the hearer's wish. + +The debtor's stone at the opposite end of the hall has likewise many +entertaining stories annexed to it: the bankrupt is obliged to sit there +in presence of his creditors and judges, in a very disgraceful state; +and many accounts are told one, of the various effects such distresses +have had on the mind: but suicide is a crime rarely committed out of +England, and the Italians look with just horror on our people for being +so easily incited to a sin, which takes from him that commits it all +power and possibility of repentance. + +A Frenchman whom I sent for once at Bath to dress my hair, gave me an +excellent trait of his own national character, speaking upon that +subject, when he meant to satirise ours. "You have lived some years in +England, friend, said I, do you like it?"--"Mais non, madame, pas +parfaitement bien[L]"--"You have travelled much in Italy, do you like +that better?"--"Ah, Dieu ne plaise, madame, je n'aime guères messieurs +les Italiens[M]." "What do they do to make you hate them so?"--"Mais +c'est que les Italiens se tuent l'un l'autre (replied the fellow), et +les Anglois se font un plaisir de se tuer eux mesmes: pardi je ne me +sens rien moins qu'un vrai gout pour ces gentillesses la, et j'aimerois +mieux me trouver a _Paris, pour rire un peu_."[N] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote L: Why no truly ma'am, not much.] + +[Footnote M: Oh, God forbid--no, I cannot endure those Italians.] + +[Footnote N: Why, really, the Italians have such a passion for murdering +each other, ma'am, and the English such an odd delight in killing +themselves, that I, who have acquired no taste for such agreeable +amusements, grow somewhat impatient to return to Paris, and get a good +laugh among my old acquaintance.] + +The Lucrezia Padovana, who has a monument erected here in this justice +hall to her memory, is the only instance of self-murder I have been told +yet; and her's was a very glorious one, and necessary to the +preservation of her honour, which was endangered by the magistrate, who +made that the barter for her husband's life, in defence of which she was +pleading; much like the story of Isabella, Angelo, and Claudio, in +Shakespear's Measure for Measure. This lady, whole family name I have +forgotten, stabbed herself in presence of the monster who reduced her to +such necessity, and by that means preserved her husband's life, by +suddenly converting the heart of her hateful lover, who from that +dreadful day devoted himself to penitence and prayer. + +The chastity of the Patavian ladies is celebrated by some old Latin +poet, but I cannot recollect which. Lucrezia, however, was a Christian. +I could not much regard the monument of Livy though, for looking at +her's, which attracted and detained my attention more particularly. + +The University of Padua is a noble institution; and those who have +excelled among the students, are recorded on tablets, for the most part +brass, hung round the walls, made venerable by their arms and +characters. It was pleasing to see so many British names among +them--Scotchmen for the most part; though I enquired in vain for the +admirable Crichton. Sir Richard Blackmore was there, but not one native +of France. We were spiteful enough to fancy, that was the reason that +Abbè Richard says nothing of the establishment. + +Besides the civilities shewn us here by Mr. Bonaldi and his agreeable +lady, Signora Annetta, we were recommended by letters from the Venetian +resident at Milan, to Abate Toaldo, professor of astronomy; who wished +to do all in his power to oblige and entertain us. His observatory is a +good one; but the learned amiable scholar, who resides in the first +floor of it, complained to us that he was sickly, old, and poor; three +bad qualifications, as he observed, for the amusement of travellers, who +commonly arrive hungry for novelty, and thirsty for information. His +quadrant was very fine, the planetarium or orrery quite out of repair; +and his references of course were obliged to be made to a sort of map or +chart of the heavenly bodies (a solar system at least with comets) that +hung up in his room as a substitute. He had little reverence for the +petrefactions of Monte Bolca I perceived, which he considered as mere +_lufus naturæ_. He shewed me poor Petrarch's tomb from his observatory, +bid me look on Sir Isaac's full-length picture in the room, and said, +the world would see no more such men. Of our Maskelyne, however, no man +could speak with more esteem, or expressions of generous friendship. His +sitting chamber was a pleasant one; and I should not have left it so +soon, but in compassion to his health, which our company was more likely +to injure than assist. He asked me, if I did not find _Padua la dotta_ a +very stinking nasty town? but added, that literature and dirt had long +been intimately acquainted, and that this city was commonly called among +the Italians, _"Porcil de Padua," Padua the pig-stye._ + +Fire is supposed to be the greatest purifier, and Padua has gone through +that operation twice completely, being burned the first time by Attila; +after which, Narses the famous eunuch rebuilt and settled it in the year +558, if my information is good: but after her protector's death, the +Longobards burned her again, and she lay in ashes till Charlemagne +restored her to more than original beauty. Under Otho she, like many +other cities of Italy, was governed by her own laws, and remained a +republic till the year 1237, when she received the German yoke, +afterwards broken by the Scaligers; nor was their treacherous +assassination followed by less than the loss both of Verona and this +city, which was found in possession of the Emperor Maximilian some years +after: but when the State of Venice recovered their dominion over it in +1409, they fortified it so strongly that the confederate princes united +in the league of Cambray assaulted it in vain. + +Santa Giustina's church is the most beautiful place of worship I have +ever yet seen; so regularly, so uniformly noble, uncrowded with figures +too: the entrance strikes you with its simple grandeur, while the small +chapels to the right and left hand are kept back behind a colonade of +pillars, and do not distract attention and create confusion of ideas, +as do the numerous cupolas of St. Anthony's more magnificent but less +pleasing structure. The high altar here at Santa Giustina's church +stands at the end, and greatly increases the effect on entering, which +always suffers when the length is broken. Nothing, however, is to be +perfect in this world, and Paul Veronese's fine view of the suffering +martyr has not size enough for the place; and is beside crowded with +small unconsequential figures, which cannot be distinguished at a +distance. Some carvings round the altar, representing, in wooden +bas-reliefs, the history of the Old and New Testament, are admirable in +their kind; and I am told that the organ on which Bertoni, a blind +nephew of Ferdinand, our well-known composer, played to entertain us, is +one of the first in Italy: but an ordinary instrument would have charmed +us had he touched it. + +I must not leave the Terra Firma, as they call it, without mentioning +once more some of the animals it produces; among which the asses are so +justly renowned for their size and beauty, that _come un afino di Padua_ +is proverbial when speaking of strength among the Italians: how should +it be otherwise indeed, where every herb and every shrub breathes +fragrance; and where the quantity as well as quality of their food +naturally so increases their milk, that I should think some of them. +might yield as much as an ordinary cow? + +When I was at Genoa, I remember remarking something like this to Doctor +Batt, an English physician settled there; and expressed my surprise that +our consumptive country-folks, with whom the Italians never cease to +reproach us, do not, when they come here for health, rely much on the +beneficial produce of these asses for a cure; which, if it is hastened +by their assistance in our island, must surely be performed much quicker +in this. The answer would have been better recollected, I fancy, had it +appeared to me more satisfactory; but he knew what he was talking of, +and I did not; so conclude he despised me accordingly. + +The Carinthian bulls too, that do all the heavy work in this rich and +heavy land, how wonderfully handsome they are! Such symmetry and beauty +have I never seen in any cattle, scarcely in those of Derbyshire, where +so much attention has been bestowed upon their breeding. The colour +here is so elegant; they are almost all blue roans, like Lord +Grosvenor's horses in London, or those of the Duke of Cestos at Milan: +the horns longer, and much more finely shaped, than those of our bulls, +and white as polished ivory, tapering off to a point, with a bright +black tip at the end, resembling an ermine's tail. As this creature is +not a native, but only a neighbour of Italy, we will say no more about +him. + +A transplanted Hollander, carried thither originally from China, seems +to thrive particularly well in this part of the world; the little pug +dog, or Dutch mastiff, which our English ladies were once so fond of, +that poor Garrick thought it worth his while to ridicule them for it in +the famous dramatic satire called Lethe, has quitted London for Padua, I +perceive; where he is restored happily to his former honours, and every +carriage I meet here has a _pug_ in it. That breed of dogs is now so +near extirpated among us, that I recoiled: only Lord Penryn who +possesses such an animal; and I doubt not but many of the under-classes +among brutes do in the same manner extinguish and revive by chance, +caprice, or accident perpetually, through many tracts of the inhabited +world, so as to remain out of sight in certain districts for centuries +together. + +This town, as Abbé Toaldo observed, is old, and dirty, and +melancholy-looking, _in itself_; but Terence told us long ago, and +truly, "that it was not the walls, but the company, made every place +delightful:" and these inhabitants, though few in number, are so +exceedingly cheerful, so charming, their language is so mellifluous, +their manners so soothing, I can scarcely bear to leave them without +tears. + +Verona was the first place I felt reluctance to quit; but the Venetian +state certainly possesses uncommon, and to me almost unaccountable, +attractions. Be that as it will, we leave these sweet Paduans to-morrow; +the coach is disposed of, and we are to set out upon our watry journey +to their wonderfully-situated metropolis, or as they call it prettily, +_La Bella Dominante_. + + + +VENICE. + + +We went down the Brenta in a barge that brought us in eight hours to +Venice, the first appearance of which revived all the ideas inspired by +Canaletti, whose views of this town are most scrupulously exact; those +especially which one sees at the Queen of England's house in St. James's +Park; to such a degree indeed, that we knew all the famous towers, +steeples, &c. before we reached them. It was wonderfully entertaining to +find thus realized all the pleasures that excellent painter had given us +so many times reason to expect; and I do believe that Venice, like other +Italian beauties, will be observed to possess features so striking, so +prominent, and so discriminated, that her portrait, like theirs, will +not be found difficult to take, nor the impression she has once made +easy to erase. British charms captivate less powerfully, less certainly, +less suddenly: but being of a softer sort increase upon acquaintance; +and after the connexion has continued for some years, will be +relinquished with pain, perhaps even in exchange for warmer colouring +and stronger expression. + +St. Mark's Place, after all I had read and all I had heard of it, +exceeded expectation: such a cluster of excellence, such a constellation +of artificial beauties, my mind had never ventured to excite the idea of +within herself; though assisted with all the powers of doing so which +painters can bestow, and with all the advantages derived from verbal and +written description. It was half an hour before I could think of looking +for the bronze horses, of which one has heard so much; and from which +when one has once begun to look, there is no possibility of withdrawing +one's attention. The general effect produced by such architecture, such +painting, such pillars; illuminated as I saw them last night by the moon +at full, rising out of the sea, produced an effect like enchantment; and +indeed the more than magical sweetness of Venetian planners, dialect, +and address, confirms one's notion, and realizes the scenes laid by +Fenelon in their once tributary island of Cyprus. The pole set up as +commemorative of their past dominion over it, grieves one the more, when +every hour shews how congenial that place must have been to them, if +every thing one reads of it has any foundation in truth. + +The Ducal palace is so beautiful, it were worth while almost to cross +the Alps to see that, and return home again: and St. Mark's church, +whose Mosaic paintings on the outside are surpassed by no work of art, +delights one no less on entering, with its numberless rarities; the +flooring first, which is all paved with precious stones of the second +rank, in small squares, not bigger than a playing card, and sometimes +less. By the second rank in gems I mean, carnelion, agate, jasper, +serpentine, and verd antique; on which you place your feet without +remorse, but not without a very odd sensation, when you find the ground +undulated beneath them, to represent the waves of the sea, and +perpetuate marine ideas, which prevail in every thing at Venice. We were +not shewn the treasury, and it was impossible to get a sight of the +manuscript in St. Mark's own hand-writing, carefully preserved here, and +justly esteemed even beyond the jewels given as votive offerings to his +shrine, which are of immense value. + +The pictures in the Doge's house are a magnificent collection; and the +Noah's Ark by Bassano would doubtless afford an actual study for natural +historians as well as painters, and is considered as a model of +perfection from which succeeding artists may learn to draw animal life: +scarcely a creature can be recollected which has not its proper place in +the picture; but the pensive cat upon the fore-ground took most of my +attention, and held it away from the meeting of the Pope and Doge by the +other brother Bassano, who here proves that his pencil is not divested +of dignity, as the connoisseurs sometimes tell us that he is. But it is +not one picture, or two, or twenty, that seizes one's mind here; it is +the accumulation of various objects, each worthy to detain it. Wonderful +indeed, and sweetly-satisfying to the intellectual appetite, is the +variety, the plenty of pleasures which serve to enchain the imagination, +and fascinate the traveller's eye, keeping it ever on this _little +spot_; for though I have heard some of the inhabitants talk of its +vastness, it is scarcely bigger than our Portman Square, I think, not +larger at the very most than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. + +It is indeed observable that few people know how to commend a thing so +as to make their praises enhance its value. One hears a pretty woman not +unfrequently admired for her wit, a woman of talents wondered at for her +beauty; while I can think on no reason for such perversion of language, +unless it is that a small share of elegance will content those whose +delight is to hear declamation; and that the most hackeyed sentiments +will seem new, when uttered by a pair of rosy lips, and seconded by the +expression of eyes from which every thing may be expected. + +To return to St. Mark's Place, whence _we have never strayed_: I must +mention those pictures which represent his miracles, and the carrying +his body away from Alexandria: events attested so as to bring them +credit from many wise men, and which have more authenticity of their +truth, than many stories told one up and down here. So great is the +devotion of the common people here to their tutelar saint, that when +they cry out, as we do _Old England for ever_! they do not say, _Viva +Venezia_! but _Viva San Marco_! And I doubt much if that was not once +the way with _us_; in one of Shakespear's plays an expiring prince being +near to give all up for gone, is animated by his son in these words, +"_Courage father_, cry _St. George_!" + +We had an opportunity of seeing _his_ day celebrated with a very grand +procession the other morning, April 23, when a live boy personated the +hero of the show; but fate so still upon his painted courser, that it +was long before I perceived him to breathe. The streets were vastly +crowded with spectators, that in every place make the principal part of +the _spectacle_. + +It is odd that a custom which in contemplation seems so unlikely to +please, should when put in practice appear highly necessary, and +productive of an effect which can be obtained no other way. Were the +houses in Parliament Street to hang damask curtains, worked carpets, +pieces of various coloured silks, with fringe or lace round them, out of +every window when the King of England goes to the House, with numberless +well-dressed ladies leaning out to see him pass, it would give one an +idea of the continental towns upon a gala day. But our people would be +apt to cry out, _Monmouth Street!_ and look ashamed if their neighbours +saw the same deckerwork counterpane or crimson curtain produced at +Easter, which made a figure at Christmas the December before; so that no +end would be put to expence in our country, were such a fancy to take +place. The rainy weather beside would spoil all our finery at once; and +_here_, though it is still cold enough to be sure, and the women wear +sattins, yet still one shivers over a bad fire only because there is no +place to walk and warm one's self; for I have not seen a drop of rain. +The truth is, this town cannot be a wholesome one, for there is scarcely +a possibility of taking exercise; nor have I been once able to circulate +my blood by motion since our arrival, except perhaps by climbing the +beautiful tower which stands (as every thing else does) in St. Mark's +Place. And you may drive a garden-chair up _that_, so easy is the +ascent, so broad and luminous the way. From the top is presented to +one's sight the most striking of all prospects, water bounded by +land--not land by water.--The curious and elegant islets upon which, and +into which, the piles of Venice are driven, exhibiting clusters of +houses, churches, palaces, every thing--started up in the midst of the +sea, so as to excite amazement. + +But the horses have not been spoken of, though one pair drew Apollo's +car at Delphos. The other, which we call modern, and laugh while we call +them so, were made however before the days of Constantine the Great. +They are of bright yellow brass, not black bronze, as I expected to find +them, and grace the glorious church I am never weary of admiring; where +I went one day on purpose to find out the red marble on which Pope +Alexander III. sate, and placed his foot upon the neck of the Emperor: +the stone has this inscription half legible round it, _Super aspidem et +basiliscum ambulabis_[Footnote: Thou shalt tread on the asp and the +basilisk]. How does this lovely Piazza di San Marco render a +newly-arrived spectator breathless with delight! while not a span of it +is unoccupied by actual beauty; though the whole appears uncrowded, as +in the works of nature, not of art. + +It was upon the day appointed for making a new chancellor, however, that +one ought to have looked at this lovely city; when every shop, adorned +with its own peculiar produce, was disposed to hail the passage of its +favourite, in a manner so lively, so luxuriant, and at the same time so +tasteful--there's no telling. Milliners crowned the new dignitary's +picture with flowers, while columns of gauze, twisted round with +ribband, in the most elegant style, supported the figure on each side, +and made the prettiest appearance possible. The furrier formed his skins +into representations of the animal they had once belonged to; so the +lion was seen dandling the kid at one door, while the fox stood courting +a badger out of his hole at the other. The poulterers and fruiterers +were by many thought the most beautiful shops in town, from the variety +of fancies displayed in the disposal of their goods; and I admired at +the truly Italian ingenuity of a gunsmith, who had found the art of +turning his instruments of terror into objects of delight, by his +judicious manner of placing and arranging them. Every shop was +illuminated with a large glass chandelier before it, besides the wax +candles and coloured lamps interspersed among the ornaments within. The +senators have much the appearance of our lawyers going robed to +Westminster Hall, but the _gentiluomini_, as they are called, wear red +dresses, and remind me of the Doctors of the ecclesiastical courts in +Doctors Commons. + +It is observable that all long robes denote peaceful occupations, and +that the short cut coat is the emblem of a military profession, once the +disgrace of humanity, now unfortunately become its false and cruel +pride. + +When the enemies of King David meant to declare war against him, they +cut the skirts of his ambassador's clothes off, to shew him he must +prepare for battle; and the Orientals still consider short dresses as a +disgraceful preparation for hostile proceedings; nor could any thing +have reconciled Europe to the custom, except our horror of Turkish +manners, and desire of being distinguished from the Saracens at the time +of the Holy War. + +I have said nothing yet about the gondolas, which every body knows are +black, and give an air of melancholy at first sight, yet are nothing +less than sorrowful; it is like painting the lively Mrs. Cholmondeley +in the character of Milton's + + Pensive Nun, devout and pure, + Sober, stedfast, and demure-- + +As I once saw her drawn by a famous hand, to shew a Venetian lady in her +gondola and zendaletto, which is black like the gondola, but wholly +calculated like that for the purposes of refined gallantry. So is the +nightly rendezvous, the coffee-house, and casino; for whilst Palladio's +palaces serve to adorn the grand canal, and strike those who enter +Venice with surprise at its magnificence; those snug retreats are +intended for the relaxation of those who inhabit the more splendid +apartments, and are fatigued with exertions of dignity, and necessity of +no small expence. They breathe the true spirit of our luxurious Lady +Mary, who probably learned it here, or of the still more dissolute +Turks, our present neighbours; who would have thought not unworthy a +Testa Veneziana, her famous stanza, beginning, + + But when the long hours of public are past, + And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last; + +Surely she had then present to her warm imagination a favourite Casino +in the Piazza St. Marco. That her learned and highly-accomplished son +imbibed her taste and talents for sensual delights, has been long known +in England; it is not so perhaps that there is a showy monument erected +to his memory at Padua, setting forth his variety and compass of +knowledge in a long Latin inscription. The good old monk who shewed it +me seemed generously and reasonably shocked, that such a man should at +last expire with somewhat more firm persuasions of the truth of the +Mahometan religion than any other; but that he doubted greatly of all, +and had not for many years professed himself a Christian of any sect or +denomination whatever. + + So have I seen some youth set out, + Half Protestant, half Papist; + And wand'ring long the world about, + Some new religion to find out, + Turn Infidel or Atheist. + +We have been told much of the suspicious temper of Venetian laws; and +have heard often that every discourse is suffered, except such as tends +to political conversation, in this city; and that whatever nobleman, +native of Venice, is seen speaking familiarly with a foreign minister, +runs a risque of punishments too terrible to be thought on. + +How far that manner of proceeding may be wise or just, I know not; +certain it is that they have preserved their laws inviolate, their city +unattempted, and their republic respectable, through all the concussions +that have shaken the rest of Europe. Surrounded by envious powers, it +becomes them to be vigilant; conscious of the value of their unconquered +state, it is no wonder that they love her; and surely the true _Amor +Patriæ_ never glowed more warmly in old Roman bosoms than in theirs, who +draw, as many families here do, their pedigree from the consuls of the +Commonwealth. Love without jealousy is seldom to be met with, especially +in these warm climates--let us then permit them to be jealous of a +constitution which all the other states of Italy look on with envy not +unmixed with malice, and propagate strange stories to its disadvantage. + +That suspicion should be concealed under the mask of gaiety is neither +very new nor very strange: the reign of our Charles the Second was +equally famous for plots, perjuries, and cruel chastisements, as for +wanton levity and indecent frolics: but here at Venice there are no +unpermitted frolics; her rulers love to see her gay and cheerful; they +are the fathers of their country, and if they _indulge_, take care not +to _spoil_ her. + +With regard to common chat, I have heard many a liberal and eloquent +disquisition upon the state of Europe in general, and of Venice in +particular, from several agreeable friends at their own Casino, who did +not appear to have more fears upon them than myself, and I know not why +they should. Chevalier Emo is deservedly a favourite with them, and we +used to talk whole evenings of him and of General Elliott; the +bombarding of Tunis, and defence of Gibraltar. The news-papers spoke of +some fireworks exhibited in England in honour of their hero; they were +"vrayment _feux de joye_" said an agreeable Venetian, they were not +_feux d'artifice._ + +The deep secrecy of their councils, however, and unrelenting steadiness +of their resolutions, cannot be better explained than by telling a +little story, which will illustrate the private virtue as well as the +public authority of these extraordinary people; for though the tale is +now in abler hands (intending as I am told, to form a tragedy upon its +basis), the summary may serve to adorn my little work; as a landscape +painter refuses not to throw the story of Phaeton's petition for +Apollo's car into his picture, for the purpose of illuminating the back +ground, though Ovid has written the story and Titian has painted it. + +Some years ago then, perhaps a hundred, one of the many spies who ply +this town by night, ran to the state inquisitor, with information that +such a nobleman (naming him) had connections with the French ambassador, +and went privately to his house every night at a certain hour. The +_messergrando_, as they call him, could not believe, nor would proceed, +without better and stronger proof, against a man for whom he had an +intimate personal friendship, and on whose virtue he counted with very +particular reliance. Another spy was therefore set, and brought back the +same intelligence, adding the description of his disguise; on which the +worthy magistrate put on his mask and bauta, and went out himself; when +his eyes confirming the report of his informants, and the reflection on +his duty stifling all remorse, he sent publicly for _Foscarini_ in the +morning, whom the populace attended all weeping to his door. + +Nothing but resolute denial of the crime alleged could however be forced +from the firm-minded citizen, who, sensible of the discovery, prepared +for that punishment he knew to be inevitable, and submitted to the fate +his friend was obliged to inflict: no less than a dungeon for life, that +dungeon so horrible that I have heard Mr. Howard was not permitted to +see it. + +The people lamented, but their lamentations were vain. The magistrate +who condemned him never recovered the shock: but Foscarini was heard of +no more, till an old lady died forty years after in Paris, whose last +confession declared she was visited with amorous intentions by a +nobleman of Venice whose name she never knew, while she resided there as +companion to the ambassadress. So was Foscarini lost! so died he a +martyr to love, and tenderness for female reputation! Is it not +therefore a story fit to be celebrated by that lady's pen, who has +chosen it as the basis of her future tragedy?--But I will anticipate no +further. + +Well! this is the first place I have seen which has been capable in any +degree of obliterating the idea of Genoa la superba, which has till now +pursued me, nor could the gloomy dignity of the cathedral at Milan, or +the striking view of the arena at Verona, nor the Sala de Giustizia at +lettered Padua, banish her beautiful image from my mind: nor can I now +acknowledge without shame, that I have ceased to regret the mountains, +the chesnut groves, and slanting orange trees, which climbed my chamber +window _there_, and at _this_ time too! when + + Young-ey'd Spring profusely throws + From her green lap the pink and rose. + +But whoever sees St. Mark's Place lighted up of an evening, adorned with +every excellence of human art, and pregnant with pleasure, expressed by +intelligent countenances sparkling with every grace of nature; the sea +washing its walls, the moon-beams dancing on its subjugated waves, sport +and laughter resounding from the coffee-houses, girls with guitars +skipping about the square, masks and merry-makers singing as they pass +you, unless a barge with a band of music is heard at some distance upon +the water, and calls attention to sounds made sweeter by the element +over which they are brought--whoever is led suddenly I say to this scene +of seemingly perennial gaiety, will be apt to cry out of Venice, as Eve +says to Adam in Milton, + + With thee conversing I _forget all time_, + All _seasons_, and their _change_--all please _alike_. + +For it is sure there are in this town many astonishing privations of all +that are used to make other places delightful: and as poor Omai the +savage said, when about to return to Otaheite--_No horse there! no ass! +no cow, no golden pippins, no dish of tea!--Ah, missey! I go without +every thing--I always so content there though_. + +It is really just so one lives at this lovely Venice: one has heard of a +horse being exhibited for a show there, and yesterday I watched the poor +people paying a penny a piece for the sight of a _stuffed one_, and am +more than persuaded of the truth of what I am told here, That +numberless inhabitants live and die in this great capital, nor ever find +out or think of enquiring how the milk brought from Terra Firma is +originally produced. When such fancies cross me I wish to exclaim, Ah, +happy England! whence ignorance is banished by the diffusion of +literature, and narrowness of notions is ridiculed even in the lowest +class of life. Candour must however confess, that while the possessor of +a Northern coal-mine riots in that variety of adulation which talents +deserve and riches contrive to obtain, those who labour in it are often +natives of the dismal region; where many have been known to be born, and +work, and die, without having ever seen the sun, or other light than +such as a candle can bestow. Let such dark recollections give place to +more cheerful imagery. + +We have just now been carried to see the so justly-renowned arsenal, and +unluckily missed the ship-launch we went thither chiefly to see. It is +no great matter though! one comes to Italy to look at buildings, +statues, pictures, people! The ships and guns of England have been such +as supported her greatness, established her dominion, and extended her +commerce in such a manner as to excite the admiration and terror of +Europe, whose kingdoms vainly as perfidiously combined with her own +colonies against that power which _they_ maintained, in spite of the +united efforts of half the globe. I shall hardly see finer ships and +guns till I go home again, though the keeping all together on one island +so--that island walled in too completely with only a single door to come +in and out at--is a construction of peculiar happiness and convenience; +while dock, armoury, rope-walk, all is contained in this space, exactly +two miles round I think. + +What pleased me best, besides the _whole_, which is best worth being +pleased with, was the small arms: there are so many Turkish instruments +of destruction among them quite new to me, and the picture commemorating +the cruel death of their noble gallant leader Bragadin, so inhumanly +treated by the Saracens in 1571. With infinite gratitude to his amiable +descendant, who shewed me unmerited civility, dining with us often, and +inviting us to his house, &c. I leave this repository of the Republic's +stores with one observation, That however suspicious the Venetians are +said to be, I found it much more easy for Englishmen to look over +_their_ docks, than for a foreigner to find his way into ours. + +Another reflection occurs on examination of this spot; it is, that the +renown attached to it in general conversation, is a proof that the world +prefers convenience to splendour; for here are no superfluous ornaments, +and I am apt to think many go away from it praising beauties by which +they have been but little struck, and utilities they have but little +understood. + +From this show you are commonly carried to the glass manufactory at +Murano; once the retreat of piety and freedom, when the Altinati fled +the fury of the Huns: a beautiful spot it is, and delightfully as oddly +situated; but these are _gems which inlay the bosom of the deep_, as +Milton says--and this perhaps, the prettiest among them, is walked over +by travellers with that curiosity which is naturally excited, in one +person by the veneration of religious antiquity; in another, by the +attention justly claimed by human industry and art. Here may be seen a +valuable library of books, and here may be seen glasses of all colours, +all sorts, and all prices, I believe: but whoever has looked much upon +the London work in this way, will not be easily dazzled by the lustre of +Venetian crystal; and whoever has seen the Paris mirrors, will not be +astonished at any breadth into which glass can be spread. + +We will return to Venice, the view of which from the Zueca, a word +contracted from Giudecca, as I am told, would invite one never more to +stray from it--farther at least than to St. George's church, on another +little opposite island, whence the prospect is surely wonderful; and one +sits longing for a pencil to repeat what has been so often exquisitely +painted by Canaletti, just as foolishly as one snatches up a pen to tell +what has been so much better told already by Doctor Moore. It was to +this church I was sent, however, for the purpose of seeing a famous +picture painted by Paul Veronese, of the marriage at Cana in +Galilee--where our Saviour's first miracle was performed; in which +immense work the artist is well known to have commemorated his own +likeness, and that of many of his family, which adds value to the piece, +when we consider it as a collection of portraits, besides the history it +represents. When we arrived, the picture was kept in a refectory +belonging to friars (of what order I have forgotten), and no woman could +be admitted. My disappointment was so great that I was deprived even of +the powers of solicitation by the extreme ill-humour it occasioned; and +my few intreaties for admission were completely disregarded by the good +old monk, who remained outside with me, while the gentlemen visited the +convent without molestation. At my return to Venice I met little +comfort, as every body told me it was my own fault, for I might put on +men's clothes and see it whenever I pleased, as nobody then would stop, +though perhaps all of them would know me. + +If such slight gratifications however as seeing a favourite picture, can +be purchased no cheaper than by violating truth in one's own person, and +encouraging the violation of it in others, it were better surely die +without having ever procured to one's self such frivolous enjoyments; +and I hope always to reject the temptation of deceiving mistaken piety, +or insulting harmless error. + +But it is almost time to talk of the Rialto, said to be the finest +single arch in Europe, and I suppose it is so; very beautiful too when +looked on from the water, but so dirtily kept, and deformed with mean +shops, that passing over it, disgust gets the better of every other +sensation. The truth is, our dear Venetians are nothing less than +cleanly; St. Mark's Place is all covered over in a morning with +chicken-coops, which stink one to death; as nobody I believe thinks of +changing their baskets: and all about the Ducal palace is made so very +offensive by the resort of human creatures for every purpose most +unworthy of so charming a place, that all enjoyment of its beauties is +rendered difficult to a person of any delicacy; and poisoned so +provokingly, that I do never cease to wonder that so little police and +proper regulation are established in a city so particularly lovely, to +render her sweet and wholesome. It was at the Rialto that the first +stone of this fair town was laid, upon the twenty-fifth of March, as I +am told here, with ideal reference to the vernal equinox, the moment +when philosophers have supposed that the sun first shone upon our earth, +and when Christians believe that the redemption of it was first +announced to _her_ within whose womb it was conceived. + +The name of _Venice_ has been variously accounted for; but I believe our +ordinary people in England are nearest to the right, who call it _Venus_ +in their common discourse; as that goddess was, like her best beloved +seat of residence, born of the sea's light froth, according to old +fables, and partook of her native element, the gay and gentle, not rough +and boisterous qualities. It is said too, and I fear with too much +truth, that there are in this town some permitted professors of the +inveigling arts, who still continue to cry _Veni etiam_, as their +ancestors did when flying from the Goths they sought these sands for +refuge, and gave their lion wings. Till once well fixed, they kindly +called their continental neighbours round to share their liberty, and to +accept that happiness they were willing to bestow and to diffuse; and +from this call--this _Veni etiam_ it is, that the learned men among them +derive the word _Venetia_. + +I have asked several friends about the truth of what one has been always +hearing of in England, that the Venetian gondoliers sing Tasso and +Ariosto's verses in the streets at night; sometimes quarrelling with +each other concerning the merit of their favourite poets; but what I +have been told since I came here, of their attachment to their +respective masters, and secrecy when trusted by them in love affairs, +seems far more probable; as they are proud to excess when they serve a +nobleman of high birth, and will tell you with an air of importance, +that the house of Memmo, Monsenigo, or Gratterola, has been served by +their ancestors for these eighty or perhaps a hundred years; +transmitting family pride thus from generation to generation; even when +that pride is but reflected only like the mock rainbow of a summer +sky.--But hark! while I am writing this peevish reflection in my room, I +hear some voices under my window answering each other upon the Grand +Canal. It is, it _is_ the gondolieri sure enough; they are at this +moment singing to an odd sort of tune, but in no unmusical manner, the +flight of Erminia from Tasso's Jerusalem. Oh, how pretty! how pleasing! +This wonderful city realizes the most romantic ideas ever formed of it, +and defies imagination to escape her various powers of enslaving it. + +Apropos to singing;--we were this evening carried to a well-known +conservatory called the Mendicanti; who performed an oratorio in the +church with great, and I dare say deserved applause. It was difficult +for me to persuade myself that all the performers were women, till, +watching carefully, our eyes convinced us, as they were but slightly +grated. The sight of girls, however, handling the double bass, and +blowing into the bassoon, did not much please _me_; and the deep-toned +voice of her who sung the part of Saul, seemed an odd unnatural thing +enough. What I found most curious and pretty, was to hear Latin verses, +of the old Leonine race broken into eight and six, and sung in rhyme by +these women, as if they were airs of Metastasio; all in their dulcified +pronunciation too, for the _patois_ runs equally through every language +when spoken by a Venetian. + +Well! these pretty syrens were delighted to seize upon us, and pressed +our visit to their parlour with a sweetness that I know not who would +have resisted. We had no such intent; and amply did their performance +repay my curiosity, for visiting Venetian beauties, so justly +celebrated for their seducing manners and soft address. They accompanied +their voices with the forte-piano, and sung a thousand buffo songs, with +all that gay voluptuousness for which their country is renowned. + +The school, however is running to ruin apace; and perhaps the conduct of +the married women here may contribute to make such _conservatorios_ +useless and neglected. + +When the Duchess of Montespan asked the famous Louison D'Arquien, by way +of insult, as she pressed too near her, "_Comment alloit le metier_[O]?" +"_Depuis que les dames sen mélent_" (replied the courtesan with no +improper spirit,) "_il ne vaut plus rien_[P]." It may be these syrens +have suffered in the same cause; I thought the ardency of their manners +an additional proof of their hunger for fresh prey. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote O: How goes the profession?] + +[Footnote P: Why since the _quality_ has taken to it ma'am, it brings +_us_ in very little indeed.] + +Will Naples, the original seat of Ulysses's seducers, shew us any thing +stronger than this? I hardly expect or wish it. The state of music in +Italy, if one may believe those who ought to know it best, is not what +it was. The _manner of singing_ is much changed, I am told; and some +affectations have been suffered to encroach upon their natural graces. +Among the persons who exhibited their talents at the Countess of +Rosenberg's last week, our country-woman's performance was most +applauded; but when I name Lady Clarges, no one will wonder. + +It is said that painting is now but little cultivated among them; Rome +will however be the place for such enquiries. Angelica Kauffman being +settled there, seems a proof of their taste for living merit; and if one +thing more than another evinces Italian candour and true good-nature, it +is perhaps their generous willingness to be ever happy in acknowledging +foreign excellence, and their delight in bringing forward the eminent +qualities of every other nation; never insolently vaunting or bragging +of their own. Unlike to this is the national spirit and confined ideas +of perfection inherent in a Gallic mind, whose sole politeness is an +_appliquè_ stuck _upon_ the coat, but never _embroidered into it_. + +The observation made here last night by a Parisian lady, gave me a +proof of this I little wanted. We met at the Casino of the Senator +Angelo Quirini, where a sort of literary coterïe assemble every evening, +and form a society so instructive and amusing, so sure to be filled with +the first company in Venice, and so hospitably open to all travellers of +character, that nothing can _now_ be to me a higher intellectual +gratification than my admittance among them; as _in future_ no place +will ever be recollected with more pleasure, no hours with more +gratitude, than those passed most delightfully by me in that most +agreeable apartment. + +I expressed to the French lady my admiration of St. Mark's Place. +"_C'est que vous n'avez jamais vue la foire St. Ovide_," said she; "_je +vous assure que cela surpasse beaucoup ces trifles palais qu'on +vantetant_[Q]." And _this could_ only have been arrogance, for she was a +very sensible and a very accomplished woman; and when talked to about +the literary merits of her own countrymen, spoke with great acuteness +and judgment. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote Q: You admire it, says she, only because you never saw the +fair at St. Ovid's in Paris; I assure you there is no comparison between +those gay illuminations and these dismal palaces the Venetians are so +fond of.] + +General knowledge, however, it must be confessed (meaning that general +stock that every one recurs to for the common intercourse of +conversation), will be found more frequently in France, than even in +England; where, though all cultivate the arts of table eloquence and +assembly-room rhetoric, few, from mere shyness, venture to gather in the +profits of their plentiful harvest; but rather cloud their countenances +with mock importance, while their hearts feel no hope beat higher in +them, than the humble one of escaping without being ridiculed; or than +in Italy, where nobody dreams of cultivating conversation at all--_as an +art_; or studies for any other than the natural reason, of informing or +diverting themselves, without the most distant idea of gaining +admiration, or shining in company, by the quantity of science they have +accumulated in solitude. _Here_ no man lies awake in the night for +vexation that he missed recollecting the last line of a Latin epigram +till the moment of application was lost; nor any lady changes colour +with trepidation at the severity visible in her husband's countenance +when the chickens are over-roasted, or the ice-creams melt with the +room's excessive heat. + +Among the noble Senators of Venice, meantime, many good scholars, many +Belles Lettres conversers, and what is more valuable, many thinking men, +may be found, and found hourly, who employ their powers wholly in care +for the state; and make their pleasure, like true patriots, out of _her +felicity_. The ladies indeed appear to study but _one_ science; + + And where the lesson taught + Is but to please, can pleasure seem a fault? + +Like all sensualists, however, they fail of the end proposed, from hurry +to obtain it; and consume those charms which alone can procure them +continuance or change of admirers; they injure their health too +irreparably, and _that_ in their earliest youth; for few remain +unmarried till fifteen, and at thirty have a wan and faded look. _On ne +goute pas ses plaisirs icy, on les avale_[Footnote: They do not taste +their pleasures here, they swallow them whole.], said Madame la +Presidente yesterday, very judiciously; yet it is only speaking +popularly that one can be supposed to mean, what however no one much +refuses to assert, that the Venetian ladies are amorously inclined: the +truth is, no check being put upon inclination, each acts according to +immediate impulse; and there are more devotees, perhaps, and more +doating mothers at Venice than any where else, for the same reason as +there are more females who practise gallantry, only because there are +more women there who _do their own way_, and follow unrestrained where +passion, appetite, or imagination lead them. + +To try Venetian dames by English rules, would be worse than all the +tyranny complained of when some East Indian was condemned upon the +Coventry act for slitting his wife's nose; a common practice in _his_ +country, and perfectly agreeable to custom and the _usage du pays_. Here +is no struggle for female education as with us, no resources in study, +no duties of family-management; no bill of fare to be looked over in the +morning, no account-book to be settled at noon; no necessity of reading, +to supply without disgrace the evening's chat; no laughing at the +card-table, or tittering in the corner if a _lapsus linguæ_ has +produced a mistake, which malice never fails to record. A lady in Italy +is _sure_ of applause, so she takes little pains to obtain it. A +Venetian lady has in particular so sweet a manner naturally, that she +really charms without any settled intent to do so, merely from that +irresistible good-humour and mellifluous tone of voice which seize the +soul, and detain it in despite of Juno-like majesty, or Minerva-like +wit. Nor ever was there prince or shepherd, Paris I think was both, who +would not have bestowed his apple _here_. + +Mean while my countryman Howel laments that the women at Venice are so +little. But why so? the diminutive progeny of _Vulcan_, the _Cabirs_, +mysteriously adored of old, were of a size below that of the least +living woman, if we believe Herodotus; and they were worshipped with +more constant as well as more fervent devotion, than the symmetrical +goddess of Beauty herself. + +A custom which prevails here, of wearing little or no rouge, and +increasing the native paleness of their skins, by scarce lightly wiping +the very white powder from their faces, is a method no Frenchwoman of +quality would like to adopt; yet surely the Venetians are not +behind-hand in the art of gaining admirers; and they do not, like their +painters, depend upon _colouring_ to ensure it. + +Nothing can be a greater proof of the little consequence which dress +gives to a woman, than the reflection one must make on a Venetian lady's +mode of appearance in her zendalet, without which nobody stirs out of +their house in a morning. It consists of a full black silk petticoat, +sloped just to train, a very little on the ground, and flounced with +gauze of the same colour. A skeleton wire upon the head, such as we use +to make up hats, throwing loosely over it a large piece of black mode or +persian, so as to shade the face like a curtain, the front being trimmed +with a very deep black lace, or souflet gauze infinitely becoming. The +thin silk that remains to be disposed of, they roll back so as to +discover the bosom; fasten it with a puff before at the top of their +stomacher, and once more rolling it back from the shape, tie it +gracefully behind, and let it hang in two long ends. + +The evening ornament is a silk hat, shaped like a man's, and of the +same colour, with a white or worked lining at most, and sometimes _one +feather_; a great black silk cloak, lined with white, and perhaps a +narrow border down before, with a vast heavy round handkerchief of black +lace, which lies over neck and shoulders, and conceals shape and all +completely. Here is surely little appearance of art, no craping or +frizzing the hair, which is flat at the top, and all of one length, +hanging in long curls about the back or sides as it happens. No brown +powder, and no rouge at all. Thus without variety does a Venetian lady +contrive to delight the eye, and without much instruction too to charm, +the ear. A source of thought fairly cut off beside, in giving her no +room to shew taste in dress, or invent new fancies and disposition of +ornaments for to-morrow. The government takes all that trouble off her +hands, knows every pin she wears, and where to find her at any moment of +the day or night. + +Mean time nothing conveys to a British observer a stronger notion of +loose living and licentious dissoluteness, than the sight of one's +servants, gondoliers, and other attendants, on the scenes and circles +of pleasure, where you find them, though never drunk, dead with sleep +upon the stairs, or in their boats, or in the open street, for that +matter, like over-swilled voters at an election in England. One may +trample on them if one will, they hardly _can_ be awakened; and their +companions, who have more life left, set the others literally on their +feet, to make them capable of obeying their master or lady's call. With +all this appearance of levity, however, there is an unremitted attention +to the affairs of state; nor is any senator seen to come late or +negligently to council next day, however he may have amused himself all +night. + +The sight of the Bucentoro prepared for Gala, and the glories of Venice +upon Ascention-day, must now put an end to other observations. We had +the honour and comfort of seeing all from a galley belonging to a noble +Venetian Bragadin, whose civilities to us were singularly kind as well +as extremely polite. His attentions did not cease with the morning show, +which we shared in common with numbers of fashionable people that filled +his ship, and partook of his profuse elegant refreshments; but he +followed us after dinner to the house of our English friends, and took +six of us together in a gay bark, adorned with his arms, and rowed by +eight gondoliers in superb liveries, made up for the occasion to match +the boat, which was like them white, blue and silver, a flag of the same +colours flying from the stern, till we arrived at the Corso; so they +call the place of contention where the rowers exert their skill and +ingenuity; and numberless oars dashing the waves at once, make the only +agitation of which the sea seems capable; while ladies, now no longer +dressed in black, but ornamented with all their jewels, flowers, &c. +display their beauties unveiled upon the water; and covering the lagoons +with gaiety and splendour, bring to one's mind the games in Virgil, and +the galley of Cleopatra, by turns. + +Never was locality so subservient to the purposes of pleasure as in this +city; where pleasure has set up her airy standard, and which on this +occasion looked like what one reads in poetry of Amphitrite's court; and +I ventured to tell a nobleman who was kindly attentive in shewing us +every possible politeness, that had Venus risen from the Adriatic sea, +she would scarcely have been tempted to quit it for Olympus. I was upon +the whole more struck with the evening's gaiety, than with the +magnificence in which the morning began to shine. The truth is, we had +been long prepared for seeing the Bucentoro; had heard and read every +thing I fancy that could have been thought or said upon the subject, +from the sullen Englishmen who rank it with a company's barge floating +up the Thames upon my Lord Mayor's day, to the old writers who compare +it with Theseus's ship; in imitation of which, it is said, this calls +itself the very identical vessel wherein Pope Alexander performed the +original ceremony in the year 1171; and though, perhaps, not a whole +plank of that old galley can be now remaining in this, so often +careened, repaired, and adorned since that time, I see nothing +ridiculous in declaring that it is the same ship; any more than in +saying the oak I planted an acorn thirty years ago, is the same tree I +saw spring up then a little twig, which not even a moderate sceptic will +deny; though he takes so much pains to persuade plain folks out of their +own existence, by laughing us out of the dull notion that he who dies a +withered old fellow at fourscore, should ever be considered as the same +person whom his mother brought forth a pretty little plump baby eighty +years before--when, says he cunningly, you are forced yourself to +confess, that his mother, who died four months afterwards, would not +know him again now; though while she lived, he was never out of her +arms. + + Vain wisdom all! and false Philosophy, + Which finds no end, in wandering mazes lost. + +And better is it to travel, as Dr. Johnson says Browne did, from one +place where he saw little, to another where he saw no more--than write +books to confound common sense, and make men raise up doubts of a Being +to whom they must one day give an account. + +We will return to the Bucentoro, which, as its name imports, holds two +hundred people, and is heavy besides with statues, columns, &c. The top +covered with crimson velvet, and the sides enlivened by twenty-one oars +on each hand. Musical performers attend in another barge, while +foreigners in gilded pajots increase the general show. Mean time, the +vessel that contains the doge, &c. carries him slowly out to sea, where +in presence of his senators he drops a plain gold ring into the water, +with these words, _Desponfamus te mare, in fignum veri perpetuique +dominii_.[Footnote: We espouse thee, O sea! in sign of true and +perpetual dominion.] + +Our weather was favourable, and the people all seemed happy: when the +ceremony is put off from day to day, it naturally damps their spirits, +and produces superstitious presages of an unlucky year: nor is that +strange, for the season of storms ought surely to be past in a climate +so celebrated for mildness and equanimity. The praises of Italian +weather, though wearisomely frequent among us, seem however much +confined to this island for aught I see; who am often tired with hearing +their complaints of their own sky, now that they are under it: always +too cold or too hot, or a seiroc wind, or a rainy day, or a hard frost, +_che gela fin ai pensieri_[Footnote: Which freezes even one's fancy.]; +or something to murmur about, while their only great nuisances pass +unnoticed, the heaps of dirt, and crowds of beggars, who infest the +streets, and poison the pleasures of society. While ladies are eating +ice at a coffee-house door, while decent people are hearing mass at the +altar, while strangers are surveying the beauties of the place--no +peace, no enjoyment can one obtain for the beggars; numerous beyond +credibility, fancy and airy, and odd in their manners; and exhibiting +such various lamenesses and horrible deformities in their figure, that I +can sometimes hardly believe my eyes--but am willing to be told, what is +not very improbable, that many of them come from a great distance to +pass the season of ascension here at Venice. I never indeed saw any +thing so gently endured, which it appeared so little difficult to +remedy; but though I hope it would be hard to find a place where more +alms are asked, or less are given, than in Venice; yet I never saw +refusals so pleasingly softened, as by the manners of the high Italians +towards the low. Ladies in particular are so soft-mouthed, so tender in +replying to those who have their lot cast far below them, that one feels +one's own harsher disposition corrected by their sweetness; and when +they called my maid _sister_, in good time--pressing her hand with +affectionate kindness, it melted me; though I feared from time to time +there must be hypocrisy at bottom of such sugared words, till I caught a +lady of condition yesterday turning to the window, and praying fervently +for the girl's conversion to christianity, all from a tender and pious +emotion of her gentle heart: as notwithstanding their caresses, no man +is more firmly persuaded of a mathematical truth than they are of mine, +and my maid's living in a state of certain and eternal reprobation--_ma +fanno veramente vergogna a noi altri_[Footnote: But they really shame +_even us_.], say they, quite in the spirit of the old Romans, who +thought all nations _barbarous_ except their own. + +A woman of quality, near whom I sate at the fine ball Bragadin made two +nights ago in honour of this gay season, enquired how I had passed the +morning. I named several churches I had looked into, particularly that +which they esteem beyond the rest as a favourite work of Palladio, and +called the Redentore. "You do very right," says she, "to look at our +churches, as you have none in England, I know--but then you have so +many other fine things--such charming _steel buttons_ for example;" +pressing my hand to shew that she meant no offence; for, added she, _chi +pensa d'una maniera, chi pensa d'un altra_[Footnote: One person is of +one mind you know, another of another.]. + +Here are many theatres, the worst infinitely superior to ours; the best, +as far below those of Milan and Turin: but then here are other +diversions, and every one's dependance for pleasure is not placed upon +the opera. They have now thrown up a sort of temporary wall of painted +canvass, in an oval form, within St. Mark's Place, profusely illuminated +round the new-formed walk, which is covered in at top, and adorned with +shops round the right hand side, with pillars to support the canopy; the +lamps, &c. on the left hand. This open Ranelagh, so suited to the +climate, is exceedingly pleasing:--here is room to sit, to chat, to +saunter up and down, from two o'clock in the morning, when the opera +ends, till a hot sun sends us all home to rest--for late hours must be +complied with at Venice, or you can have no diversion at all, as the +earliest Casino belonging to your soberest friends has not a candle +lighted in it till past midnight. + +But I am called from my book to see the public library; not a large one +I find, but ornamented with pieces of sculpture, whose eminence has not, +I am sure, waited for my description: the Jupiter and Leda particularly, +said to be the work of Phidias, whose Ganymede in the same collection +they tell us is equally excellent. Having heard that Guarini's +manuscript of the Pastor Fido, written in his own hand, was safely kept +at this place, I asked for it, and was entertained to see his numberless +corrections and variations from the original thought, like those of +Pope's Homer preserved in the British Museum; some of which I copied +over for Doctor Johnson to print, at the time he published his Lives of +the English Poets. My curiosity led me to look in the Pastor Fido for +the famous passage of _Legge humana_, _inhumana_, _&c._ and it was +observable enough that he had written it three different ways before he +pitched on that peculiar expression which caused his book to be +prohibited. Seeing the manuscript I took notice, however, of the +beautiful penmanship with which it was written: our English hand-writing +cotemporary to his was coarse, if I recollect, and very angular;--but +_Italian hand_ was the first to become elegant, and still retains some +privileges amongst us. Once more, every thing small, and every thing +great, revived after the dark ages--in Italy. + +Looking at the Mint was an hour's time spent with less amusement. The +depuration of gold may be performed many ways, and the proofs of its +purity given by various methods: I was gratified well enough upon the +whole however, in watching the neatness of their process, in weighing +the gold, &c. and keeping it more free from alloy than any other coin of +any other state:--a zecchine will bend between your fingers from the +malleability of the metal--we may try in vain at a guinea, or louis +d'or. The operation of separating silver ore from gold by the powers of +aqua fortis, precipitating the first-named metal by suspension of a +copper plate in the liquid, and called _quartation_; was I believe +wholly unknown to the ancients, who got much earlier at the art of +weighing gold in water, testified by the old story of _King Hiero's +crown_. + +Talking of kings, and crowns, and gold, reminds me of my regret for not +seeing the treasure kept in St. Mark's church here, with the motto +engraven on the chest which contains it: + + Quando questo scrinio s'aprirà , + Tutto il mondo tremerà [R]. + +[Footnote R: + When this scrutoire shall open'd be, + The world shall all with wonder flee. +] + +Of this it was said in our Charles the First's time, that there was +enough in it to pay six kings' ransoms: when Pacheco, the Spanish +ambassador, hearing so much of it, asked in derision, If the chest had +any _bottom_? and being answered in the affirmative, made reply, That +_there_ was the difference between his master's treasures and those of +the Venetian Republic, for the mines of Mexico and Potosi had _no_ +bottom.--Strange! if all these precious stones, metals, &c. have been +all spent since then, and nothing left except a few relics of no +intrinsic value. + +It is well enough known, that in the year 1450, one of the natives of +the island of Candia, who have never been men of much character, made a +sort of mine, or airshaft, or rather perhaps a burrow, like those +constructed by rabbits, down which he went and got quite under the +church, stealing out gems, money, &c. to a vast amount; but being +discovered by the treachery of his companion, was caught and hanged +between the two columns that face the sea on the Piazzetta. + +It strikes a person who has lived some months in other parts of Italy, +to see so very few clergymen at Venice, and none hardly who have much +the look or air of a man of fashion. Milan, though such heavy complaints +are daily made there of encroachments on church power and depredations +on church opulence, still swarms with ecclesiastics; and in an assembly +of thirty people, there are never fewer than ten or twelve at the very +least. But here it should seem as if the political cry of _fuori i +preti_[Footnote: Out with the clergy.], which is said loudly in the +council-chamber before any vote is suffered to pass into a law, were +carried in the conversation rooms too, for a priest is here less +frequent than a clergyman at London; and those one sees about, are +almost all ordinary men, decent and humble in their appearance, of a +bashful distant carriage, like the parson of the parish in North Wales, +or _le curé du village_ in the South of France; and seems no way related +to an _Abate of Milan or Turin_ still less to _Monsieur l' Abbé at +Paris_. + +Though this Republic has long maintained a sort of independency from the +court of Rome, having shewn themselves weary of the Jesuits two hundred +years before any other potentate dismissed them; while many of the +Venetian populace followed them about, crying _Andate, andate, niente +pigliate, emai ritornate_[Footnote: Begone, begone; nothing take, nor +turn anon.]; and although there is a patriarch here who takes care of +church matters, and is attentive to keep his clergy from ever meddling +with or even mentioning affairs of state, as in such a case the Republic +would not scruple punishing them as laymen; yet has Venice kept, as they +call it, St. Peter's boat from sinking more than once, when she saw the +Pope's territories endangered, or his sovereignty insulted: nor is there +any city more eminent for the decency with which divine service is +administered, or for the devout and decorous behaviour of individuals +at the time any sacred office is performing. She has ever behaved like +a true Christian potentate, keeping her faith firm, and her honour +scrupulously clear, in all treaties and conventions with other +states--fewer instances being given of Venetian falsehood or treachery +towards neighbouring nations, than of any other European power, +excepting only Britain, her truly-beloved ally; with whom she never had +a difference, and whose cause was so warmly espoused last war by the +inhabitants of this friendly state, that numbers of young nobility were +willing to run a-volunteering in her defence, but that the laws of +Venice forbid her nobles ranging from home without leave given from the +state. It was therefore not an ill saying, though an old one perhaps, +that the government of Venice was rich and consolatory like its treacle, +being compounded nicely of all the other forms: a grain of monarchy, a +scruple of democracy, a dram of oligarchy, and an ounce of aristocracy; +as the _teriaca_ so much esteemed, is said to be a composition of the +four principal drugs--but can never be got genuine except _here_, at the +original _Dispensary_. + +Indeed the longevity of this incomparable commonwealth is a certain +proof of its temperance, exercise, and cheerfulness, the great +preservatives in every body, _politic_ as well _natural_. Nor should the +love of peace be left out of her eulogium, who has so often reconciled +contending princes, that Thuanus gave her, some centuries ago, due +praise for her pacific disposition, so necessary to the health of a +commercial state, and called her city _civilis prudentiæ officina_. + +Another reason may be found for the long-continued prosperity of Venice, +in her constant adherence to a precept, the neglect of which must at +length shake, or rather loosen the foundations of every state; for it is +a maxim here, handed down from generation to generation, that change +breeds more mischief from its novelty, than advantage from its +utility:--quoting the axiom in Latin, it runs thus: _Ipsa mutatio +consuetudinis magis perturbat novitate, quam adjuvat utilitate_. And +when Henry the Fourth of France solicited the abrogation of one of the +Senate's decrees, her ambassador replied, That _li decreti di Venezia +rassomigli avano poca i Gridi di Parigi_[Footnote: The decrees of Venice +little resemble the _edicts_ of Paris.], meaning the declaratory +publications of the Grand Monarque,--proclaimed to-day perhaps, repealed +to-morrow--"for Sire," added he, "our senate deliberates long before it +decrees, but what is once decreed there is seldom or ever recalled." + +The patriotism inherent in the breads of individuals makes another +strong cause of this state's exemption from decay: they say themselves, +that the soul of old Rome has transmigrated to Venice, and that every +galley which goes into action considers itself as charged with the fate +of the commonwealth. _Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori_, seems a +sentence grown obsolete in other Italian states, but is still in full +force here; and I doubt not but the high-born and high-fouled ladies of +this day, would willingly, as did their generous ancestors in 1600, part +with their rings, bracelets, every ornament, to make ropes for those +ships which defend their dearer country. + +The perpetual state of warfare maintained by this nation against the +Turks, has never lessened nor cooled: yet have their Mahometan +neighbours and natural enemies no perfidy to charge them with in the +time of peace or of hostility: nor can Venice be charged with the mean +vice of sheltering a desire of depredation, under the hypocritical cant +of protecting that religion which teaches universal benevolence and +charity to all mankind. Their vicinity to Turkey has, however, made them +contract some similarity of manners; for what, except being imbued with +Turkish notions, can account for the people's rage here, young and old, +rich and poor, to pour down such quantities of coffee? I have already +had seven cups to-day, and feel frighted lest we should some of us be +killed with so strange an abuse of it. On the opposite shore, across the +Adriatic, opium is taken to counteract its effects; but these dear +Venetians have no notion of sleep being necessary to their existence I +believe, as some or other of them seem constantly in motion; and there +is really no hour of the four and twenty in which the town seems +perfectly still and quiet; no moment in which it can be said, that + + Night! fable goddess! from her ebon throne, + In rayless majesty here stretches forth + Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumb'ring world. + +Accordingly I never did meet with any description of Night in the +Venetian poets, so common with other authors; and I am persuaded if one +were to live here (which could not be _long_ I think) he should forget +the use of sleep; for what with the market folks bringing up the boats +from Terra Firma loaded with every produce of nature, neatly arranged in +these flat-bottomed conveyances, the coming up of which begins about +three o'clock in a morning and ends about six;--the Gondoliers rowing +home their masters and ladies about that hour, and so on till +eight;--the common business of the town, which it is then time to +begin;--the state affairs and _pregai_, which often like our House of +Commons sit late, and detain many gentlemen from the circles of morning +amusements--that I find very entertaining;--particularly the street +orators and mountebanks in Piazza St. Marco;--the shops and stalls where +chickens, ducks, &c. are sold by auction, comically enough, to the +highest bidder;--a flourishing fellow, with a hammer in his hand, +shining away in character of auctioneer;--the crowds which fill the +courts of judicature, when any cause of consequence is to be tried;--the +clamorous voices, keen observations, poignant sarcasms, and acute +contentions carried on by the advocates, who seem more awake, or in +their own phrase _svelti_ than all the rest:--all these things take up +so much time, that twenty-four hours do not suffice for the business and +diversions of Venice; where dinner must be eaten as in other places, +though I can scarcely find a minute to spare for it, while such fish +wait one's knife and fork as I most certainly did never see before, and +as I suppose are not to be seen in any sea but this, in such perfection. +Fresh sturgeon, _ton_ as they call it, and fresh anchovies, large as +herrings, and dressed like sprats in London, incomparable; turbots, like +those of Torbay exactly, and plentiful as there, with enormous pipers, +are what one principally eats here. The fried liver, without which an +Italian can hardly go on from day to day, is so charmingly dressed at +Milan, that I grew to like it as well as they; but at Venice it is sad +stuff, and they call it _fegao_. + +Well! the ladies, who never hardly dine at all, rise about seven in the +evening, when the gentlemen are just got ready to attend them; and sit +sipping their chocolate on a chair at the coffee-house door with great +tranquillity, chatting over the common topics of the times: nor do they +appear half so shy of each other as the Milanese ladies, who seldom +seem to have any pleasure in the soft converse of a female friend. But +though certainly no women can be more charming than these Venetian +dames, they have forgotten the old mythological fable, _that the +youngest of the Graces was married to Sleep._ By which it was intended +we should consider that state as necessary to the reparation not only of +beauty but of youth, and every power of pleasing. + +There are men here however who, because they are not quite in the gay +world, keep themselves awake whole nights at study; and much has been +told me, of a collection of books belonging to a private scholar, +Pinelli, who goes very little out, as worthy attentive examination. + +All literary topics are pleasingly discussed at Quirini's Casino, where +every thing may be learned by the conversation of the company, as Doctor +Johnson said of his literary Club; but more agreeably, because women are +always half the number of persons admitted here. + +One evening our society was amused by the entrance of a foreign +nobleman, exactly what we should in London emphatically call a +_Character_,--learned, loud, and overbearing; though of a carriage that +impressed great esteem. I have not often listened to so well-furnished a +talker; nor one more capable of giving great information. He had seen +the Pyramids of Egypt, he told us; had climbed Mount Horeb, and visited +Damascus; but possessed the art of detaining our attention more on +himself, than on the things or places he harangued about; for +conversation that can scarcely be called, where one man holds the +company suspended on his account of matters pompously though +instructively related. He staid here a very little while among us; is a +native of France, a grandee of Spain, a man of uncommon talents, and a +traveller. I should be sorry never to meet him more. + +The Abate Arteaga, a Spanish ecclesiastic of the same agreeable coterie, +seemed of a very different and far more pleasing character;--full of +general knowledge, eminent in particular scholarship, elegant in his +sentiments, and sound in his learning. I liked his company exceedingly, +and respected his opinions. + +Zingarelli, the great musical composer, was another occasional member +of this charming society: his wit and repartie are famous, and his bons +mots are repeated wherever one runs to. I cannot translate any of them, +but will write one down, which will make such of my readers laugh as +understand Italian.--The Emperor was at Milan, and asked Zingarelli his +opinion of a favourite singer? "_Io penso maestà che non è cattivo +suddito del principi,_" replied the master, "_quantunque farà gran +nemico di giove._" "How so?" enquired the King.--"_Maestà ,_" answered +our lively Neapolitan, "_ella sà naturalmente che Giove_ tuona, _ma +questo_ stuona." This we see at once was _humour_ not _wit_; and sallies +of humour are scarcely ever capable of translation. + +An odd thing to which I was this morning witness, has called my thoughts +away to a curious train of reflections upon the animal race; and how far +they may be made companionable and intelligent. The famous Ferdinand +Bertoni, so well known in London by his long residence among us, and +from the undisputed merit of his compositions, now inhabits this his +native city, and being fond of _dumb creatures_, as we call them, took +to petting a pigeon, one of the few animals which can live at Venice, +where, as I observed, scarcely any quadrupeds can be admitted, or would +exist with any degree of comfort to themselves. This creature has, +however, by keeping his master company, I trust, obtained so perfect an +ear and taste for music, that no one who sees his behaviour, can doubt +for a moment of the pleasure he takes in hearing Mr. Bertoni play and +sing: for as soon as he sits down to the instrument, Columbo begins +shaking his wings, perches on the piano-forte, and expresses the most +indubitable emotions of delight. If however he or any one else strike a +note false, or make any kind of discord upon the keys, the dove never +fails to shew evident tokens of anger and distress; and if teized too +long, grows quite enraged; pecking the offender's legs and fingers in +such a manner, as to leave nothing less doubtful than the sincerity of +his resentment. Signora Cecilia Giuliani, a scholar of Bertoni's, who +has received some overtures from the London theatre lately, will, if she +ever arrives there, bear testimony to the truth of an assertion very +difficult to believe, and to which I should hardly myself give credit, +were I not witness to it every morning that I chuse to call and confirm +my own belief. A friend present protested he should feel afraid to touch +the harpsichord before so nice a critic; and though we all laughed at +the assertion, Bertoni declared he never knew the bird's judgment fail; +and that he often kept him out of the room, for fear of his affronting +of tormenting those who came to take musical instructions. With regard +to other actions of life, I saw nothing particular in the pigeon, but +his tameness, and strong attachment to his master: for though never +winged, and only clipped a very little, he never seeks to range away +from the house or quit his master's service, any more than the dove of +Anacreon: + + While his better lot bestows + Sweet repast and soft repose; + And when feast and frolic tire, + Drops asleep upon his lyre. + +All the difficulty will be indeed for us _other_ two-legged creatures to +leave the sweet societies of charming Venice; but they begin to grow +fatiguing now, as the weather increases in warmth. + +I do think the Turkish sailor gave an admirable account of a carnival, +when he told his Mahometan friends at his return, That those poor +Christians were all disordered in their senses, and nearly in a state of +actual madness, while he remained among them, till one day, on a sudden, +they luckily found out a certain grey powder that cured such symptoms; +and laying it on their heads one Wednesday morning, the wits of all the +inhabitants were happily restored at _a stroke_: the people grew sober, +quiet, and composed; and went about their business just like other +folks. He meant the ashes strewed on the heads of all one meets in the +streets through many a Catholic country; when all masquerading, +money-making, &c. subside for forty days, and give, from the force of +the contrast, a greater appearance of devotion and decorous behaviour in +Venice, than almost any where else during Lent. + +I do not for my own part think well of all that violence, that strong +light and shadow in matters of religion; which requires rather an even +tenour of good works, proceeding from sound faith, than any of these +staring testimonials of repentance, as if it were a work to be done +_once a year only_. But neither do I think any Christian has a right to +condemn another for his opinions or practice; when St. Paul expressly +says, that "_One man esteemeth one day above another, another man +esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own +mind. But who art thou, that judgest another man's servant[Footnote: +Romans, chap. xiv.]?_" + +The Venetians, to confess the truth, are not quite so strenuously bent +on the unattainable felicity of finding every man in the same mind, as +others of the Italians are; and one great reason why they are more gay +and less malignant, have fewer strong prejudices than others of their +countrymen, is merely because they are happier. Most of the second rank, +and I believe _all_ of the first rank among them, have some share in +governing the rest; it is therefore necessary to exclude ignorance, and +natural to encourage social pleasures. Each individual feels his own +importance, and scorns to contribute to the degradation of the whole, by +indulging a gross depravity of manners, or at least of principles. Every +person listed one degree from the lowest, finds it his interest as well +as duty to love his country, and lend his little support to the general +fabric of a state they all know how to respect; while the very vulgar +willingly perform the condition exacted, and punctually pay obedience +for protection. They have an unlimited confidence in their rulers, who +live amongst them; and can desire only their utmost good. _How_ they are +governed, comes seldom into their heads to enquire; "_Che ne pensa +lù_[Footnote: Let _him_ look to that.]," says a low Venetian, if you ask +him, and humourously points at a Clarissimo passing by while you talk. +They have indeed all the reason to be certain, that where the power is +divided among such numbers, one will be sure to counteract another if +mischief towards the whole be intended. + +Of all aristocracies surely this is the most rationally and happily, as +well as most respectably founded; for though one's heart revolts +against the names of Baron and Vassal, while the petty tyrants live +scattered far from each other, as in Poland, Russia, and many parts of +Germany, like lions in the desert, or eagles in the rock, secure in +their distance from equals or superiors; yet _here_ at Venice, where +every nobleman is a baron, and all together inhabit one city, no subject +can suffer from the tyranny of the rest, though all may benefit from the +general protection: as each is separately in awe of his neighbour, and +desires to secure his client's tenderness by indulgence, instead of +wishing to disgust him by oppression: unlike the state so powerfully +delineated by our incomparable poet in his Paulina, + + Where dwelt in haughty wretchedness a lord, + Whose rage was justice, and whose law his word: + Who saw unmov'd the vassal perish near, + The widow's anguish, and the orphan's tear; + Insensible to pity--stern he stood, + Like some rude rock amid the Caspian flood, + Where shipwreck'd sailors unassisted lie, + And as they curse its barren bosom, die. + +And it is, I trust, for no deeper reason that the subjects of this +republic resident in the capital, are less savage and more happy than +those who live upon the Terra Firma; where many outrages are still +committed, disgraceful to the state, from the mere facility offenders +find, either in escaping to the dominion of other princes, or of finding +shelter at home from the madly-bestowed protection these old barons on +the Continent cease not yet to give, to ruffians who profess their +service, and acknowledge dependence upon _them_. In the _town_, however, +little is known of these enormities, and less is talked on; and what +information has come to my ears of the murders done at Brescia and +Bergamo, was given me at _Milan_; where Blainville's accounts of that +country, though written so long ago, did not fail to receive +confirmation from the lips of those who knew perfectly well what they +were talking about. And I am told that _Labbia_, Giovanni Labbia, the +new Podestà sent to Brescia, has worked wonderful reformation among the +inhabitants of that territory; where I am ashamed to relate the +computation of subjects lost to the state, by being killed in cold blood +during the years 1780 and 1781. + +The following sonnet, addressed to the new Magistrate, by the elegant +and learned Abbé Bettolini, will entertain such of my readers as +understand Italian: + + No, Brenne, il popol tuo non è spietato, + Colpa non è di clima, o fuol nemico: + Ma gli inulti delitti, e'l vezzo antico + D'impune andar coi ferro e fuoco a lato, + + Ira noi finor nudriro un branco irato + D'Orsi e di lupi, il malaccorto amico + Ti svenava un fellon sgherro mendico, + E per cauto timor n'era onorato. + + Al primiero spuntar d'un fausto lume + Tutto cangiò: curvansi in falci i teh, + Mille Pluto perdè vittime usate. + + Viva l'Eroe, il comun padre, il nume + Gridan le gentè a si bei dì ferbate. + E sia ché ardisca dir che siam crudelé. + +_Imitation_. + + No, Brennus, no longer thy sons shall retain + Of their founder ferocious, th'original stain; + It cannot be natural cruelty sure, + The reproaches for which from all men we endure; + Nor climate nor soil shall henceforth bear the blame, + 'Tis custom alone, and that custom our shame: + While arm'd at all points men were suffer'd to rove, + And brandish the steel in defence of their love; + What wonder that conduct or caution should fail, + And horrid Lycanthropy's terrors prevail? + Now justice resumes her insignia, we find + New light breaking in on each nebulous mind; + While commission'd from Heaven, a parent, a friend + Sees our swords at his nod into reaping-hooks bend, + And souls snatch'd from death round the hero attend. + +From these verses, written by a native of Brescia, one may see how +matters stood there very, _very_ little while ago: but here at Venice +the people are of a particularly sweet and gentle disposition, +good-humoured with each other, and kind to strangers; little disposed to +public affrays (which would indeed be punished and put a sudden end to +in an instant), nor yet to any secret or hidden treachery. They watch +the hour of a Regatta with impatience, to make some merit with the woman +of their choice, and boast of their families who have won in the manly +contest forty or fifty years ago, perhaps when honoured with the badge +and livery of some noble house; for here almost every thing is +hereditary, as in England almost every thing is elective; nor had I an +idea how much state affairs influence the private life of individuals in +a country, till I left trusting to books, and looked a little about me. +The low Venetian, however, knows that he works for the commonwealth, +and is happy; for things go round, says he, _Il Turco magna St. Marco; +St. Marco magna mi, mi magna ti, e ti tu magna un'altro_[S]. + +[Footnote S: The Turk feeds on St. Mark, St. Mark devours me; I eat +thee, neighbour, and thou subsistest on somebody else.] + +Apropos to this custom of calling Venice (when they speak of it) San +Marco; I heard so comical a story yesterday that I cannot refuse the +pleasure of inserting it; and if my readers do not find it as pleasant +as I did, they may certainly leave it out, without the smallest +prejudice either to the book, the author, or themselves. + +The procurator Tron was at Padua, it seems, and had a fancy to drive +forward to Vicenza that afternoon, but being particularly fond of a +favourite pair of horses which drew his chariot that day, would by no +means venture if it happened to rain; and took the trouble to enquire of +Abate Toaldo, "Whether he thought such a thing likely to happen, from +the appearance of the sky?" The professor, not knowing why the question +was asked, said, "he rather thought it would _not_ rain for four hours +at most." In consequence of this information our senator ordered his +equipage directly, got into it, and bid the driver make haste to +Vicenza: but before he was half-way on his journey, such torrents came +down from a black cloud that burst directly over their heads, that his +horses were drenched in wet, and their mortified master turned +immediately back to Padua, that they might suffer no further +inconvenience. To pass away the evening, which he did not mean to have +spent there, and to quiet his agitated spirits by thinking on something +else, he walked under the Portico to a neighbouring coffee-house, where +fate the Abate Toaldo in company of a few friends; wholly unconscious +that he had been the cause of vexing the Procuratore; who, after a short +pause, cried out, in a true Venetian spirit of anger and humour oddly +blended together, "_Mi dica Signor Professore Toaldo, chi è il più gran +minchion di tutti i fanti in Paradiso?_" Pray tell me Doctor (we should +say), who is the greatest blockhead among all the saints of Heaven? The +Abbé looked astonished, but hearing the question repeated in a more +peevish accent still, replied gravely, "_Eccelenza non fon fatto io per +rispondere a tale dimande_"--My lord, I have no answer ready for such +extraordinary questions. Why then, replies the Procuratore Tron, I will +answer this question myself.--_St. Marco ved'ella--"e'l vero minchion: +mentre mantiene tanti professori per studiare (che so to mi) delle +stelle; roba astronomica che non vale un fico; è loro non sanno dirli +nemmeno s'hà da piovere o nò._"--"Why it is St. Mark, do you see, that +is the true blockhead and dupe, in keeping so many professors to study +the stars and stuff; when with all their astronomy they cannot tell him +whether it will rain or no." + +Well, _pax tibi, Marce!_ I see that I have said more about Venice, where +I have lived five weeks, than about Milan, where I stayed five months; +but + + Si placeat varios hominum cognoscere vultus, + Area longa patet, sancto contermina Marco, + Celsus ubi Adriacas, Venetus Leo despicit undas, + Hic circum gentes cunctis e partibus orbis, + Æthiopes, Turcos, Slavos, Arabésque, Syrósque, + Inveniésque Cypri, Cretæ, Macedumque colonos, + Innumerósque alios varia regione profectos: + Sæpe etiam nec visa prius, nec cognita cernes, + Quæ si cuncta velim tenui describere versu, + Heic omnes citiùs nautas celeresque Phaselos, + Et simul Adriaci pisces numerabo profundi. + +_Imitated loosely_. + + If change of faces please your roving sight, + Or various characters your mind delight, + To gay St. Mark's with eagerness repair; + For curiosity may pasture there. + Venetia's lion bending o'er the waves, + There sees reflected--tyrants, freemen, slaves. + The swarthy Moor, the soft Circassian dame, + The British sailor not unknown to fame; + Innumerous nations crowd the lofty door, + Innumerous footsteps print the sandy shore; + While verse might easier name the scaly tribe, } + That in her seas their nourishment imbibe, } + Than Venice and her various charms describe. } + +It is really pity ever to quit the sweet seducements of a place so +pleasing; which attracts the inclination and flatters the vanity of one, +who, like myself, has received the most polite attentions, and been +diverted with every amusement that could be devised. Kind, friendly, +lovely Venetians! who appear to feel real fondness for the inhabitants +of Great Britain, while Cavalier Pindemonte writes such verses in its +praise. Yet _must_ the journey go forward, no staying to pick every +flower upon the road. + +On Saturday next then am I to forsake--but I hope not for ever--this +gay, this gallant city, so often described, so certainly admired; seen +with rapture, quitted with regret: seat of enchantment! head-quarters of +pleasure, farewell! + + Leave us as we ought to be, + Leave the Britons rough and free. + +It was on the twenty-first of May then that we returned up the Brenta in +a barge to _Padua_, stopping from time to time to give refreshment to +our conductors and their horse, which draws on the side, as one sees +them at Richmond; where the banks are scarcely more beautifully adorned +by art, than here by nature; though the Brenta is a much narrower river +than the Thames at Richmond, and its villas, so justly celebrated, far +less frequent. The sublimity of their architecture however, the +magnificence of their orangeries, the happy construction of the cool +arcades, and general air of festivity which breathes upon the banks of +this truly _wizard stream_, planted with _dancing_, not _weeping_ +willows, to which on a bright evening the lads and lasses run for +shelter from the sun beams, + + Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri[T]; + + +[Footnote T: + While tripping to the wood my wanton hies, + She wishes to be seen before she flies. +] + + +are I suppose peculiar to itself, and best described by Monsieur de +Voltaire, whose Pococurante the Venetian senator in Candide that +possesses all delights in his villa upon the banks of the Brenta, is a +very lively portrait, and would be natural too; but that Voltaire, as a +Frenchman, could not forbear making his character speak in a very +unItalian manner, boasting of his felicity in a style they never use, +for they are really no puffers, no vaunters of that which they possess; +make no disgraceful comparisons between their own rarities and the want +of them in other countries, nor offend you as the French do, with false +pity and hateful consolations. + +If any thing in England seem to excite their wonder and ill-placed +compassion, it is our coal fires, which they persist in thinking +strangely unwholesome--and a melancholy proof that we are grievously +devoid of wood, before we can prevail upon ourselves to dig the bowels +of old earth for fewel, at the hazard of our precious health, if not of +its certain loss; nor could I convince the wisest man I tried at, that +wood burned to chark is a real poison, while it would be difficult by +any process of chemistry to force much evil out of coal. They are +steadily of opinion, that consumptions are occasioned by these fires, +and that all the subjects of Great Britain are consumptively disposed, +merely because those who are so, go into Italy for change of air: though +I never heard that the wood smoke helped their breath, or a brazierfull +of ashes under the table their appetite. Mean time, whoever seeks to +convince instead of persuade an Italian, will find he has been employed +in a Sisyphean labour; the stone may roll to the top, but is sure to +return, and rest at his feet who had courage to try the experiment. +Logic is a science they love not, and I think steadily refuse to +cultivate; nor is argument a style of conversation they naturally +affect--as Lady Macbeth says, "_Question enrageth him_;" and the +dialogues of Socrates would to them be as disgusting as the violence of +Xantippe. + +Well, here we are at Padua again! where I will run, and see once more +the places I was before so pleased with. The beautiful church of Santa +Giustina, the ancient church adorned by Cimabue, Giotto, &c. where you +fancy yourself on a sudden transported to Dante's Paradiso, and with for +Barry the painter, to point your admiration of its sublime and +extraordinary merits; but not the shrine of St. Anthony, or the tomb of +Antenor, one rich with gold, the other venerable with rust, can keep my +attention fixed on _them_, while an Italian _May_ offers to every sense, +the sweets of nature in elegant perfection. One view of a smiling +landschape, lively in verdure, enamelled with flowers, and exhilarating +with the sound of music under every tree, + + Where many a youth and many a maid + Dances in the chequer'd shade; + And young and old come forth to play, + On a sun-shine holiday; + +drives Palladio and Sansovino from one's head; and leaves nothing very +strongly impressed upon one's heart but the recollection of kindness +received and esteem reciprocated. Those pleasures have indeed pursued +me hither; the amiable Countess Ferris has not forgotten us; her +attentions are numerous, tender, and polite. I went to the play with +her, where I was unlucky enough to miss the representation of Romeo and +Juliet, which was acted the night before with great applause, under the +name of _Tragedia Veronese_. Monsieur de Voltaire was then premature in +his declarations, that Shakespear was unknown, or known only to be +censured, except in his native country. Count Kinigl at Milan took +occasion to tell me that they acted Hamlet and Lear when he was last at +Vienna; and I know not how it is, but to an English traveller each place +presents ideas originally suggested by Shakespear, of whom nature and +truth are the perpetual mirrors: other authors remind one of things +which one has seen in life--but the scenes of life itself remind one of +Shakespear. When I first looked on the Rialto, with what immediate +images did it supply me? Oh, the old long-cherished images of the +pensive merchant, the generous friend, the gay companion, and their +final triumph over the practices of a cruel Jew. Anthonio, Gratiano, +met me at every turn; and when I confessed some of these feelings before +the professor of natural history here, who had spent some time in +London; he observed, that no native of our island could sit three hours, +and not speak of Shakespear: he added many kind expressions of partial +liking to our nation, and our poets: and l'Abate Cesarotti +good-humouredly confessed his little skill in the English language when +he translated their so much-admired Ossian; but he had studied it pretty +hard since, he said, and his version of Gray's Elegy is charming. + +Gray and Young are the favourite writers among us, as far as I have yet +heard them talked over upon the continent; the first has secured them by +his residence at Florence, and his Latin verses I believe; the second, +by his piety and brilliant thoughts. Even Romanists are disposed to +think dear Dr. Young very _near_ to Christianity--an idea which must +either make one laugh or cry, while + + Sweet peace, and heavenly hope, and humble joy, + Divinely beam on _his_ exalted soul. + +But I must tell what I have been seeing at the theatre, and should tell +it much better had not the charms of Countess Ferris's conversation +engaged my mind, which would otherwise perhaps have been more seized on +than it _was_, by the sight of an old pantomime, or wretched farce (for +there was speaking in it, I remember), exploded long since from our very +lowest places of diversion, and now exhibited here at Padua before a +very polite and a very literary audience; and in a better theatre by far +than our newly-adorned opera-house in the Hay-market. Its subject was no +other than the birth of Harlequin; but the place and circumstances +combined to make me look on it in a light which shewed it to uncommon +advantage. The storm, for example, the thunder, darkness, &c. which is +so solemnly made to precede an incantation, apparently not meant to be +ridiculous, after which, a huge egg is somehow miraculously produced +upon the stage, put me in mind of the very old mythologists, who thus +desired to represent the chaotic state of things, when Night, Ocean, and +Tartarus disputed in perpetual confusion; till _Love_ and _Music_ +separated the elements, and as Dryden says, + + Then hot and cold, and moist and dry, + In order to their stations leap, + And music's power obey. + +For _Cupid_, advancing to a slow tune, steadies with his wand the +rolling mass upon the stage, that then begins to teem with its _motley +inhabitant_, and just representative of the _created world_, active, +wicked, gay, amusing, which gains your heart, but never your esteem: +tricking, shifting, and worthless as it is--but after all its _frisks_, +all its _escapes_, is condemned at last to burn in _fire, and pass +entirely away_. Such was, I trust, the idea of the person, whoever he +was, that had the honour first to compose this curious exhibition, and +model this mythological device into a pantomime! for the _mundane_, or +as Proclus calls it, the _orphick_ egg, is possibly the earliest of all +methods taken to explain the rise, progress, and final conclusion of our +earth and atmosphere; and was the original _theory_ brought from Egypt +into Greece by Orpheus. Nor has that prodigious genius, Dr. Thomas +Burnet, scorned to adopt it seriously in his _Telluris Theoria sacra_, +written less than a century ago, adapting it with wonderful ingenuity +to the Christian system and Mosaical account of things; to which it +certainly does accommodate itself the better, as the form of an egg well +resembles that of our habitable globe; and the internal divisions, our +four elements, leaving the central fire for the yolk. I therefore +regarded our pantomime here at Padua with a degree of reverence I should +have found difficult to excite in myself at Sadler's Wells; where ideas +of antiquity would have been little likely to cross my fancy. Sure I am, +however, that the original inventor of this old pantomime had his head +very full at the time of some very ancient learning. + +Now then I must leave this lovely state of Venice, where if the paupers +in every town of it did not crowd about one, tormenting passengers with +unextinguishable clamour, and surrounding them with sights of horror +unfit to be surveyed by any eyes except those of the surgeon, who should +alleviate their anguish, or at least conceal their truly unspeakable +distresses--one should break one's heart almost at the thoughts of +quitting people who show such tenderness towards their friends, that +less than ocular conviction would scarce persuade me to believe such +wandering misery could remain disregarded among the most amiable and +pleasing people in the world. His excellency Bragadin half promised me +that some steps should be taken at Venice at least, to remove a nuisance +so disgraceful; and said, that when I came again, I should walk about +the town in white sattin slippers, and never see a beggar from one end +of it to the other. + +On the twenty-sixth of May then, with the senator Quirini's letters to +Corilla, with the Countess of Starenberg's letters to some Tuscan +friends of her's; and with the light of a full moon, if we should want +it, we set out again in quest of new adventures, and mean to sleep this +night under the pope's protection:--may God but grant us his! + + + +FERRERA. + + +We have crossed the Po, which I expected to have found more magnificent, +considering the respectable state I left it in at Cremona; but scarcely +any thing answers that expectation which fancy has long been fermenting +in one's mind. + +I took a young woman once with me to the coast of Sussex, who, at +twenty-seven years old and a native of England, had never seen the sea; +nor any thing else indeed ten miles out of London:--And well, child! +said I, are not you much surprised?--"It is a fine sight, to be sure," +replied she coldly, "but,"--but what? you are not disappointed are +you?--"No, not disappointed, but it is not quite what I expected when I +saw the ocean." Tell me then, pray good girl, and tell me quickly, what +did you expect to see? "_Why I expected_," with a hesitating accent, "_I +expected to see a great deal of water_." This answer set me _then_ into +a fit of laughter, but I have _now_ found out that I am not a whit +wiser than Peggy: for what did I figure to myself that I should find the +Po? only a great deal of water to be sure; and a very great deal of +water it certainly is, and much more, God knows, than I ever saw before, +except between the shores of Calais and Dover; yet I did feel something +like disappointment too; when my imagination wandering over all that the +poets had said about it, and finding earth too little to contain their +fables, recollected that they had thought Eridanus worthy of a place +among the constellations, I wished to see such a river as was worthy all +these praises, and even then, says I, + + O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow. + And trees weep amber on the banks of Po. + +But are we sure after all it was upon the _banks_ these trees, not now +existing, were ever to be found? they grew in the Electrides if I +remember right, and even there Lucian laughingly said, that he spread +his garments in vain to catch the valuable distillation which poetry had +taught him to expect; and Strabo (worse news still!) said that there +were no Electrides neither; so as we knew before--fiction is false: and +had I not discovered it by any other means, I might have recollected a +comical contest enough between a literary lady once, and Doctor Johnson, +to which I was myself a witness;--when she, maintaining the happiness +and purity of a country life and rural manners, with her best eloquence, +and she had a great deal; added as corroborative and almost +incontestable authority, that the _Poets_ said so: "and didst thou not +know then," replied he, my darling dear, that the _Poets lye_? + +When they tell us, however, that great rivers have horns, which twisted +off become cornua copiæ, dispensing pleasure and plenty, they entertain +us it must be confessed; and never was allegory more nearly allied with +truth, than in the lines of Virgil; + + Gemina auratus taurino cornua vultu, + Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta, + In mare purpureuin violentior influit amnis[U]; + +[Footnote U: + Whence bull-fac'd, so adorn'd with gilded horns, + Than whom no river through such level meads, + Down to the sea in swifter torrents speeds. +] + +so accurately translated by Doctor Warton, who would not reject the +epithet _bull-faced_, because he knew it was given in imitation of the +Thessalian river Achelous, that fought for Dejanira; and Servius, who +makes him father to the Syrens, says that many streams, in compliment to +this original one, were represented with horns, because of their winding +course. Whether Monsieur Varillas, or our immortal Addison, mention +their being so perpetuated on medals now existing, I know not; but in +this land of rarities we shall soon hear or see. + +Mean time let us leave looking for these weeping Heliades, and enquire +what became of the Swan, that poor Phaeton's friend and cousin turned +into, for very grief and fear at seeing him tumble in the water. For my +part I believe that not only now he + + Eligit contraria flumina flammis, + +but that the whole country is grown disagreeably hot to him, and the +sight of the sun's chariot so near frightens him still; for he certainly +lives more to his taste, and sings sweeter I believe on the banks of the +Thames, than in Italy, where we have never yet seen but _one_; and that +was kept in a small marble bason of water at the Durazzo palace at +Genoa, and seemed miserably out of condition. I enquired why they gave +him no companion? and received for answer, "That it would be wholly +useless, as they were creatures who never bred _out if their own +country_." But any reply serves any common Italian, who is little +disposed to investigate matters; and if you tease him with too much +ratiocination, is apt to cry out, "_Cosa serve sosistieare cosi? ci farà +andare tutti matti_[V]." They have indeed so many external amusements in +the mere face of the country, that one is better inclined to pardon +_them_, than one would be to forgive inhabitants of less happy climates, +should they suffer _their_ intellectual powers to pine for want of +exercise, not food: for here is enough to think upon, God knows, were +they disposed so to employ their time; where one may justly affirm that, + +[Footnote V: What signifies all this minuteness of inquiry?--it will +drive us mad.] + + On every thorn delightful wisdom grows, + And in each rill, some sweet instruction flows; + But some untaught o'erhear the murmuring rill, + In spite of sacred leisure--blockheads still. + +The road from Padua hither is not a good one; but so adorned, one cares +not much whether it is good or no: so sweetly are the mulberry-trees +planted on each side, with vines richly festooning up and down them, as +if for the decoration of a dance at the opera. One really expects the +flower-girls with baskets, or garlands, and scarcely can persuade one's +self that all is real. + +Never sure was any thing more rejoicing to the heart, than this lovely +season in this lovely country. The city of Ferrara too is a fine one; +Ferrara _la civile_, the Italians call it, but it seems rather to merit +the epithet _solenne_; so stately are its buildings, so wide and uniform +its streets. My pen was just upon the point of praising its cleanliness +too, till I reflected there was nobody to dirty it. I looked half an +hour before I could find one beggar, a bad account of poor Ferrara; but +it brought to my mind how unreasonably my daughter and myself had +laughed seven years ago, at reading in an extract from some of the +foreign gazettes, how the famous Improvisatore Talassi, who was in +England about the year 1770, and entertained with his justly-admired +talents the literati at London; had published an account of his visit to +Mr. Thrale, at a villa eight miles from Westminster-bridge, during that +time, when he had the good fortune, he said, to meet many celebrated +characters at his country-seat; and the mortification which nearly +overbalanced it, to miss seeing the immortal Garrick then confined by +illness. In all this, however, there was nothing ridiculous; but we +fancied his description of Streatham village truly so; when we read that +he called it _Luogo assai popolato ed ameno_[Footnote: A populous and +delightful place.], an expression apparently pompous, and inadequate to +the subject: but the jest disappeared when I got into _his_ town; a +place which perhaps may be said to possess every other excellence but +that of being _popolato ed ameno_; and I sincerely believe that no +Ferrara-man could have missed making the same or a like observation; as +in this finely-constructed city, the grass literally grows in the +street; nor do I hear that the state of the air and water is such as is +likely to tempt new inhabitants. How much then, and how reasonably must +he have wondered, and how easily must he have been led to express his +wonder, at seeing a village no bigger than that of Streatham, contain a +number of people equal, as I doubt not but it does, to all the dwellers +in Ferrara! + +Mr. Talassi is reckoned in his own country a man of great genius; in +ours he was, as I recollect, received with much attention, as a person +able and willing to give us demonstration that improviso verses might be +made, and sung extemporaneously to some well-known tune, generally one +which admits of and requires very long lines; that so alternate rhymes +may not be improper, as they give more time to think forward, and gain a +moment for composition. Of this power, many, till they saw it done, did +not believe the existence; and many, after they had seen it done, +persisted in _saying_, perhaps in _thinking_, that it could be done only +in Italian. I cannot however believe that they possess any exclusive +privileges or supernatural gifts; though it will be hard to find one who +thinks better of them than I do: but Spaniards can sing sequedillas +under their mistresses window well enough; and our Welch people can +make the harper sit down in the church-yard after service is over, and +placing themselves round him, command the instrument to go over some old +song-tune: when having listened a while, one of the company forms a +stanza of verses, which run to it in well-adapted measure; and as he +ends, another begins: continuing the tale, or retorting the satire, +according to the style in which the first began it. All this too in a +language less perhaps than any other melodious to the ear, though Howell +found out a resemblance between their prosody and that of the Italian +writer in early days, when they held agnominations, or the inforcement +of consonant words and syllables one upon the other, to be elegant in a +more eminent degree than they do now. For example, in Welch, _Tewgris, +todykris, ty'r derrin, gwillt_, &c. in Italian, _Donne, O danno che selo +affronto affronta: in selva salvo a me_, with a thousand more. The whole +secret of improvisation, however, seems to consist in this; that +extempore verses are never written down, and one may easily conceive +that much may go off well with a good voice in singing, which no one +would read if they were once registered by the pen. + +I have already asserted that the Italians are not a laughing nation: +were ridicule to step in among them, many innocent pleasures would soon +be lost; and this among the first. For who would risque the making +impromptu poems at Paris? _pour s'attirer persiflage_ in every _Coterie +comme il faut_[Footnote: To draw upon one's self the ridicule of every +polite assembly.]? Or in London, at the hazard of being _taken off, and +held up for a laughing-stock at every print-seller's window_? A man must +have good courage in England, before he ventures at diverting a little +company by such devices: while one would yawn, and one would whisper, a +third would walk gravely out of the room, and say to his friend upon the +stairs, "Why sure we had better read our old poets at home, than be +called together, like fools, to hear what comes uppermost in +such-a-one's head, about his _Daphne_! In good time! Why I have been +tired of _Daphne_ since I was fourteen years old." But the best jest of +all would be, to see an ordinary fellow, a strolling player for example, +set seriously to make or repeat verses in our streets or squares +concerning his sweetheart's _cruelty_; when he would be in more danger +from that of the mob and the magistrates; who, if the first did not +throw dirt at him, and drive him home quickly, would come themselves, +and examine into his sanity, and if they found him not _statutably mad_, +commit him for a vagrant. + +Different amusements, like different sorts of food, suit different +countries; and this is among the efforts of those who have learned to +refine their _pleasures_ without so refining their _ideas_ as to be able +no longer to hit on any pleasure subtle enough to escape their own power +of ridiculing it. + +This city of Ferrara has produced some curious and opposite characters +in times past, however empty it may now be thought: one painter too, and +one singer, both super-eminent in their professions, have dropped their +own names, and are best known to fame by that of _Il_ and _La +Ferrarese_. Nor can I leave it without some reflections on the +extraordinary life of Renée de France, daughter of Louis XII surnamed +the Just, and Anne de Bretagne, his first wife. This lady having married +the famous Hercules D'Este, one of the handsomest men in Europe, lived +with him here in much apparent felicity as Duchess of Ferrara; but took +such an aversion to the church and court of Rome, from the superstitions +she saw practised in Italy, that though she resolved to dissemble her +opinions during the life of her husband, whom she wished not to disgust, +at the instant of his death she quitted all her dignities; and retiring +to France, was protected by her father in the open profession of +Calvinism, living a life of privacy and purity among the Huguenots in +the southern provinces. This _Louis le Juste_ was he who gave the French +what little pretensions they have ever obtained on which to fix the +foundations of future liberty: he first established a parliament at +Rouen, another at Aix; but while thus gentle to his subjects, he was a +scourge to Italy, made his public entry into Genoa as Sovereign, and +tore the Milanese from the Sforza family, somewhat before the year 1550. + +The well-known Franciscus Ferrariensis, whose name was Silvester, is a +character very opposite to that of fair Renée: he wrote the best apology +for the Romanists against Luther, and gained applause from both sides +for his controversial powers; while the strictness of his life gave +weight to his doctrine, and ornamented the sect which he delighted to +defend. + +By a native of Ferrara too were first collected the books that were +earliest placed in the Ambrosian library at Milan, Barnardine Ferrarius, +whose deep erudition and simple manners gained him the favour of +Frederick Borromeo, who sent him to Spain to pick up literary rarities, +which he bestowed with pleasure on the place where he had received his +education. His treatise on the rites of sepulture used by the ancients +is in good estimation; and Sir Thomas Brown, in his _Urn Burial_, owes +him much obligation. + +The custom of wearing swords here seems to proceed from some connection +they have had with the Spaniards; and Dr. Moore has given us an +admirable account of why the Highland broad-sword is still called an +_Andrew Ferrara_. + +The Venetians, not often or easily intimidated by Papal power, having +taken this city in the year 1303, were obliged to restore it, for fear +of the consequences of Pope Boniface the Eighth's excommunications; his +displeasure having before then produced dreadful effects in the +conspiracy of Bajamonti Tiepulo; which was suppressed, and he killed, by +a woman, out of a flaming zeal for the honour and tranquillity of her +country: and so disinterested too was her spirit of patriotism, that the +only reward she required for a service so essential, was that a constant +memorial of it might be preserved in the dress of the Doge; who from +that moment obliged himself to wear a woman's cap under the state +diadem, and so his successors still continue to do. + +But Ferrara has other distinctions.--Bonarelli here, at the academy of +gl'Intrepidi, read his able defence of that pastoral comedy so much +applauded and censured, called _Filli di Sciro_; and here the great +Ariosto lived and died. + +Nothing leads however to a less gloomy train of thought, than the tomb +of a celebrated man; where virtue, wit, or valour triumph over death, +and wait the consummation of all sublunary things, before the +remembrance of such superiority shall be lost. Italy must be shaken from +her deepest foundation, and England made a scene of general ruin, when +Shakespear and Ariosto shall be forgotten, and their names confounded +among deedless nobility, and worthless wasters of treasure, long ago +passed from hand to hand, perhaps from the dwellers in one continent to +the inhabitants of another. It has been equally the fate of these two +heroes of modern literature, that they have pleased their countrymen +more than foreigners; but is that any diminution of their merit? or +should it serve as a reason for making disgraceful comparisons between +Ariosto and Virgil, whom he scorned to imitate? A dead language is like +common ground;--all have a right to pasture, and all a claim to give or +to withhold admiration. Virgil is the old original trough at the corner +of the road, where every passer-by pays, drinks, and goes on his journey +well refreshed. But the clear spring in the meadow sure, though private +property, and lately dug, deserves attention: and confers delight not +only on the actual master of the ground, but on all his visitants who +can climb the style, and lift the silver cup to their lips which hangs +by the fountain-side. + +I am glad, however, to be gone from a place where they are thinking less +of all these worthies just at present, than of a circumstance which +cannot redound to their honour, as it might have happened to any other +town, and could do great good to none: no less than the happy arrival of +Joseph, and Leopold, and Maximilian of Austria, on the thirtieth of May +1775; and this wonderful event have they recorded in a pompous +inscription upon a stone set at the inn door. But princes can make +poets, and scatter felicity with little exertion on their own parts. + +At Tuillemont, an English gentleman once told me he had the misfortune +to sleep one night where all the people's heads were full of the +Emperor, who had dined there the day before; and some _wise_ fellow of +the place wrote these lines under his picture: + + Ingreditur magnus magno de Cæsare Cæsar, + Thenas, sub signo Cervi, sua prandia sumit. + +He immediately set down this distich under them: + + Our poor little town has no little to brag, + The Emperor was here, and he dined at the Stag. + +The people of the inn concluding that this must be a high-strained +compliment, it produced him many thanks from all, and a better breakfast +than he would otherwise have obtained at Tuillemont. + +To-morrow we go forward to Bologna. + + + +BOLOGNA + + +SEEMS at first sight a very sorrowful town, and has a general air of +melancholy that surprises one, as it is very handsomely and regularly +built; and set in a country so particularly beautiful, that it is not +easy to express the nature of its beauty, and to express it so that +those who inhabit other countries can understand me. + +The territory belonging to Bologna la Grassa concenters all its charms +in a happy _embonpoint_, which leaves no wrinkle unfilled up, no bone to +be discerned; like the fat figure of Gunhilda at Fonthill, painted by +Chevalier Cafali, with a face full of woe, but with a sleekness of skin +that denotes nothing less than affliction. From the top of the only +eminence, one looks down here upon a country which to me has a new and +singular appearance; the whole horizon appearing one thick carpet of the +softest and most vivid green, from the vicinity of the broad-leaved +mulberry trees, I trust, drawn still closer and closer together by +their amicable and pacific companions the vines, which keep cluttering +round, and connect them so intimately that no object can be separately +or distinctly viewed, any more than the habitations formed by animals +who live in moss, when a large portion of it is presented to the +philosopher for speculation. One would not therefore, on a flight and +cursory inspection, suspect this of being a painter's country, where no +prominence of features arrests the sight, no expression of latent +meaning employs the mind, and no abruptness of transition tempts fancy +to follow, or imagination to supply, the sudden loss of what it +contemplated before. + +Here however the great Caraccis kept their school; here then was every +idea of dignity and majestic beauty to be met with; and if _I_ meet with +nothing in nature near this place to excite such ideas, it is _my_ +fault, not Bologna's. + + If vain the toil, + We ought to blame the culture,--not the soil. + +Wonderful indeed! yet not at all distracting is the variety of +excellence that one contemplates here; such matters! and such scholars! +The sweetly playful pencil of Albano, I would compare to Waller among +our English poets; Domenichino to Otway, and Guido Rheni to Rowe; if +such liberties might be permitted on the old notion of _ut pictura +poesis_. But there is an idea about the world, that one ought in +delicacy to declare one's utter incapacity of understanding pictures, +unless immediately of the profession.--And why so? No man protests, that +he cannot read poetry, he can make no pleasure out of Milton or +Shakespear, or shudder at the ingratitude of Lear's daughters on the +stage. Why then should people pretend insensibility, when divine +Guercino exerts his unrivalled powers of the pathetic in the fine +picture at Zampieri palace, of Hagar's dismission into the desert with +her son? While none else could have touched with such truth of +expression the countenances of each; leaving him most to be pitied, +perhaps, who issues the command against his will; accompanying it +however with innumerable benedictions, and alleviating its severity with +the softest tenderness. + +He only among our poets could have planned such a picture, who penned +the Eloisa, and knew the agonies of a soul struggling against +unpermitted passions, and conquering from the noblest motives of faith +and of obedience. + +Glorious exertion of excellence! This is the first time my heart has +been made really alive to the powers of this magical art. Candid +Italians! let me again exclaim; they shewed us a Vandyke in the same +palace, surrounded by the works of their own incomparable countrymen; +and _there_ say they, "_Quasi quasi si può circondarla_[Footnote: You +may almost run round her.]." You may almost run round it, was the +expression. The picture was a very fine one; a single figure of the +Madona, highly painted, and happily placed among those who knew, because +they possessed his perfections who drew it. Were Homer alive, and +acquainted with our language, he would admire that Shakespear whom +Voltaire condemns. Twice in this town has Guido shewed those powers +which critics have denied him: the power of grouping his figures with +propriety, and distributing his light and shadow to advantage: as he +has shewn it _but twice_, however, it is certain the connoisseurs are +not very wrong, and even in those very performances one may read their +justification: for Job, though surrounded by a crowd of people, has a +strangely insulated look, and the sweet sufferer on the fore-ground of +his Herodian cruelty seems wholly uninterested in the general distress, +and occupies herself and every spectator completely and solely with her +own particular grief. + +The boasted Raphael here does not in my eyes triumph over the wonders of +this Caracci school. At Rome, I am told, his superiority is more +visible. _Nous verrons_[Footnote: We shall see.]. + +The reserved picture of St. Peter and St. Paul, kept in the last chamber +of the Zampieri palace, and covered with a silk curtain, is valued +beyond any specimen of the painting art which can be moved from Italy to +England. We are taught to hope it will soon come among us; and many say +the sale cannot be now long delayed. Why Guido should never draw another +picture like that, or at all in the same style, who can tell? it +certainly does unite every perfection, and every possible excellence, +except choice of subject, which cannot be happy I think, when the +subject itself is left disputable. + +I will mention only one other picture: it is in an obscure church, not +an unfrequented one by these pious Bolognese, who are the most devout +people I ever lived amongst, but I think not much visited by travellers. +It is painted by Albano, and represents the Redeemer of mankind as a boy +scarce thirteen years old: ingenuous modesty, and meek resignation, +beaming from each intelligent feature of a face divinely beautiful, and +throwing out luminous rays round his sacred head, while the blessed +Virgin and St. Joseph, placed on each side him, adore his goodness with +transport not unmixed with wonder: the instruments of his future passion +cast at his feet, directing us to consider him as in that awful moment +voluntarily devoting himself for the sins of the whole world. + +This picture, from the sublimity of the subject, the lively colouring, +and clear expression, has few equals; the pyramidal group drops in as of +itself, unsought for, from the raised ground on which our Saviour +stands; and among numberless wild conceits and extravagant fancies of +painters, not only permitted but encouraged in this country, to deviate +into what _we_ justly think profane representations of the deity:--this +is the most pleasing and inoffensive device I have seen. + +The august Creator too is likewise more wisely concealed by Albano than +by other artists, who daringly presume to exhibit that of which no +mortal man can give or receive a just idea. But we will have done for a +while with connoisseurship. + +This fat Bologna has a tristful look, from the numberless priests, +friars, and women all dressed in black, who fill the streets, and stop +on a sudden to pray, when I see nothing done to call forth immediate +addresses to Heaven. Extremes do certainly meet however, and my Lord +Peter in this place is so like his fanatical brother Jack, that I know +not what is come to him. To-morrow is the day of _corpus domini_; why it +should be preceded by such dismal ceremonies I know not; there is +nothing melancholy in the idea, but we shall be sure of a magnificent +procession. + +So it was too, and wonderfully well attended: noblemen and ladies, with +tapers in their hands, and their trains borne by well-dressed pages, had +a fine effect. All still in black. + + Black, but such as in esteem + Prince Memnon's sister might beseem; + With sable stole of cypress lawn, + O'er their decent shoulders drawn. + +I never saw a spectacle so stately, so solemn a show in my life before, +and was much less tired of the long continued march, than were my Roman +Catholic companions. + +Our inn is not a good one; the Pellegrino is engaged for the King of +Naples and his train: the place we are housed in, is full of bugs, and +every odious vermin: no wonder, surely, where such oven-like porticoes +catch and retain the heat as if constructed on set purpose so to do. The +Montagnola at night was something of relief, but contrary to every other +resort of company: the less it is frequented the gayer it appears; for +Nature there has been lavish of her bounties, which seem disregarded by +the Bolognese, who unluckily find out that there is a burying-ground +within view, though at no small distance really; and planting +themselves over against that, they stand or kneel for many minutes +together in whole rows, praying, as I understand, for the souls which +once animated the bodies of the people whom they believe to lie interred +there; all this too even at the hours dedicated to amusement. + +Cardinal Buon Compagni, the legate, sent from Rome here, is gone home; +and the vice-legate officiated in his place, much to the consolation of +the inhabitants, who observed with little delight or gratitude his +endeavours to improve their trade, or his care to maintain their +privileges; while his natural disinclination to hypocritical manners, or +what we so emphatically call _cant_, gave them an aversion to his person +and dislike of his government, which he might have prevented by +formality of look, and very trifling compliances. But every thing helps +to prove, that if you would please people, it must be done _their_ way, +not your own. + +Here are some charming manufactures in this town, and I fear it requires +much self-denial in an Englishwoman not to long at least for the fine +crapes, tiffanies, &c. which might here be bought I know not how cheap, +and would make one _so_ happy in London or at Bath. But these +Customhouse officers! these _rats de cave_, as the French comically call +them, will not let a ribbon pass. Such is the restless jealousy of +little states, and such their unremitted attention to keep the goods +made in one place out of the gates of another. Few things upon a journey +contribute to torment and disgust one more than the teasing enquiries at +the door of every city, who one is, what one's name is? what one's rank +in life or employment is; that so all may be written down and carried to +the chief magistrate for his information, who immediately dispatches a +proper person to examine whether you gave in a true report; where you +lodge, why you came, how long you mean to stay; with twenty more +inquisitive speeches, which to a subject of more liberal governments +must necessarily appear impertinent as frivolous, and make all my hopes +of bringing home the most trifling presents for a friend abortive. So +there is an end of that felicity, and we must sit like the girl at the +fair, described by Gay, + + Where the coy nymph knives, combs, and scissars spies, + And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes. + +The Specola, so they call their museum here, of natural and artificial +rarities, is very fine indeed; the inscription too denoting its +universality, is sublimely generous: I thought of our Bath hospital in +England; more usefully, if not more magnificently so; but durst not tell +the professor, who shewed the place. At our going in he was apparently +much out of humour, and unwilling to talk, but grew gradually kinder, +and more communicative; and I had at last a thousand thanks to pay for +an attention that rendered the sight of all more valuable. Nothing can +surpass the neatness and precision with which this elegant repository is +kept, and the curiosities contained in it have specimens very uncommon. +The native gold shewed here is supposed to be the largest and most +perfect lump in Europe; wonderfully beautiful it certainly is, and the +coral here is such as can be seen nowhere else; they shewed me some +which looked like an actual tree. + +It might reasonably lower the spirits of philosophy, and tend to +restraining the genius of remote enquiry, did we reflect that the very +first substance given into our hand as an amusement, or subject of +speculation, as soon as we arrive in this great world of wonders, never +gets fully understood by those who study hardest, or live longest in it. + +Coral is a substance, concerning which the natural historians have had +many disputes, and settled nothing yet; knowing, as it should seem, but +little more of its original, than they did when they sucked it first. Of +gold we have found perhaps but too many uses; but when the professor +told us here at Bologna, that silver in the mine was commonly found +mixed with _arsenick_, a corroding poison, or _lead_, a narcotic one; +who could help being led forward to a train of thought on the nature and +use and abuse of money and minerals in general. _Suivez_ (as Rousseau +says), _la chaine de tout cela_[Footnote: Follow this clue, and see +where it will lead you to.]. + +The astronomical apparatus at this place is a splendid one; but the +models of architecture, fortifications, &c. are only more numerous; not +so exact or elegant I think as those the King of England has for his own +private use at the Queen's house in St. James's Park. The specimens of +a human figure in wax are the work of a woman, whose picture is +accordingly set up in the school: they are reckoned incomparable of +their kind, and bring to one's fancy Milton's fine description of our +first parents: + + Two of far nobler kind--erect and tall. + +This University has been particularly civil to women; many very learned +ladies of France and Germany have been and are still members of it;--and +la Dottoressa Laura Bassi gave lectures not many years ago in this very +spot, upon the mathematics and natural philosophy, till she grew very +old and infirm; but her pupils always handed her very respectfully to +and from the Doctor's chair, _Che brava donnetta ch'era!_[Footnote: Ah, +what a fine woman was that!] says the gentleman who shewed me the +academy, as we came out at the door; over which a marble tablet, with an +inscription more pious than pompous, is placed to her memory; but +turning away his eyes--while they filled with tears--_tutli +muosono_[Footnote: All must die.], added he, and I followed; as nothing +either of energy or pathos could be added to a reflection so just, so +tender, and so true: we parted sadly therefore with our agreeable +companion and instructor just where her cenotaph (for the body lies +buried in a neighbouring church) was erected; and shall probably meet no +more; for as he said and sighed--_tutti muosono_[Footnote: All must +die.]. + +The great Cassini too, who though of an Italian family, was born at Nice +I think, and died at Paris, drew his meridian line through the church of +St. Petronius in this city, across the pavement, where it still remains +a monument to his memory, who discovered the third and fifth satellites +of Jupiter. Such was in his time the reputation of a mineral spring near +Bologna, that Pope Alexander the Seventh set him to analyse the waters +of it; and so satisfactory were his proofs of its very slight importance +to health, that the same pope called him to Rome to examine the waters +round that capital; but dying soon after his arrival, he had no time to +recompence Cassini's labours, though a very elegantly-minded man, and a +great encourager of learning in all its branches. The successor to this +sovereign, Rospigliosi, had different employment found for _him_, in +helping the Venetians to regain Candia from the Turks, his +disappointment in not being able to accomplish which design broke his +heart; and Cassini, returning to Bologna, found it less pleasing than it +was before he left it, so went to Paris, and died there at ninety or +ninety-one years old, as I remember, early in this present century, but +not till after he had enjoyed the pleasure of hearing that Count +Marsigli had founded an academy at the place where he had studied whilst +his faculties were strong. + +Another church, situated on the only hill one can observe for miles, is +dedicated to the Madonna St. Luc, as it is called; and a very beautiful +and curiously covered way is made to it up the hill, for three miles in +length, and at a prodigious expence, to guard the figure from the rain +as it is carried in procession. The ascent is so gentle that one hardly +feels it. Pillars support the roof, which defends you from a sun-stroke, +while the air and prospect are let in between them on the right hand as +you go. The left side is closed up by a wall, adorned from time to time +with fresco paintings, representing the birth and most distinguished +passages in the life of the blessed Virgin. Round these paintings a +little chapel is railed in, open, airy, and elegantly, not very +pompously, adorned; there are either seven or twelve of them, I forget +which, that serve to rest the procession as it passes, on days +particularly dedicated to her service. When you arrive at the top, a +church of a most beautiful construction recompenses your long but not +tedious walk, and there are some admirable pictures in it, particularly +one of St. William laying down his armour, and taking up the habit of a +Carthusian, very fine--but the figure of the Madonna is the prize they +value, and before this I did see some men kneel with a truly idolatrous +devotion. That it was painted by St. Luke is believed by them all. But +if it _was_ painted by St. Luke, said I, what then? do you think _he_, +or the still more excellent person it was done for, would approve of +your worshipping any thing but God? To this no answer was made; and I +thought one man looked as if he had grace enough to be ashamed of +himself. + +The girls, who sit in clusters at the chapel doors as one goes up, +singing hymns in praise of the Virgin Mary, pleased me much, as it was +a mode of veneration inoffensive to religion, and agreeable to the +fancy; but seeing them bow down to that black figure, in open defiance +of the Decalogue, shocked me. Why all the _very very_ early pictures of +the Virgin, and many of our blessed Saviour himself, done in the first +ages of Christianity should be _black_, or at least tawny, is to me +wholly incomprehensible, nor could I ever yet obtain an explanation of +its cause from men of learning or from connoisseurs. + +We have in England a black Madonna, very ancient of course, and of +immense value, in the cathedral of Wells in Somersetshire; it is painted +on glass, and stands in the middle pane of the upper window I think, is +a profile face, and eminently handsome. My mind tells me that I have +seen another somewhere in Great Britain, but cannot recollect the spot, +unless it were Arundel Castle in Sussex, but I am not sure: none was +ever painted so since the days of Pietro Perugino I believe, so their +antiquity is unquestionable: he and his few contemporaries drew her +white, as Sir Joshua Reynolds and Pompeio Battoni. + +Whilst I perambulated the palaces of the Bolognese nobility, gloomy +though spacious, and melancholy though splendid, I could not but admire +at Richardson's judgment when he makes his beautiful Bigot, his +interesting Clementina, an inhabitant of superstitious Bologna. The +unconquerable attachment she shews to original prejudices, and the +horror of what she has been taught to consider as heresy, could scarcely +have been attributed so happily to the dweller in any town but this: +where I hear nothing but the sound of people saying their rosaries, and +see nothing in the street but people telling their beads. The Porretta +palace is hourly presenting itself to my imagination, which delights in +the assurance that genius cannot be confined by place. Dear Richardson +at Salisbury Court Fleet Street, and Parson's Green Fulham, felt all +within him that travelling can tell, or experience confirm: he had seen +little, and Johnson has often told me that he had read little; but what +he did read never forsook a memory that was not contented with +retaining, but fermented all that fell into it, and made a new creation +from the fertility of his own rich mind.--These are the men for whom +monuments need not be erected. + + They in our pleasure and astonishment, + Do build themselves a live long monument; + +as Milton says of a much greater writer still. + +But the King of Naples is arrived, and that attention which wits and +scholars can retain for centuries, may not be unjustly paid to princes +while they last. + +Our Bolognese have hit upon an odd method of entertaining him however: +no other than making a representation of Mount Vesuvius on the +Montagnuola, or place of evening resort, hoping at least to treat him +with something new I trow. Were the King of England to visit these _cari +Bolognese_, surely they would shew him Westminster Bridge, with a view +of the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth on one side the river, and +Somerset-house on the other. + +A pretty throne, or state-box, was soon got in order, _that it was_; and +the motion excited by carrying the fire-works to have them prepared for +the evening's show, gave life to the morning, which hung less heavily +than usual; nor did the people recollect the church-yard at a distance, +while the merry King of Naples was near them. His Majesty appeared +perfectly contented and good-humoured, and happy with whatever was done +for his amusement. I remember his behaviour at Milan though, too well to +be surprised at his pleasantness of disposition, when my maid was +delighted to see him dance among the girls at a Festa di Ballo, from +whence I retired early myself, and sent her back to enjoy it all in my +domino. He played at cards too when at Milan I recollect, in the common +Ridotto Chamber at the Theatre, and played for common sums, so as to +charm every one with his kindness and affability. + +I am glad however that we shall now be soon released from this upon the +whole disagreeable town, where there is the best possible food too for +body and mind; but where the inhabitants seem to think only of the next +world, and do little to amuse those who have not yet quite done with +this. If they are sincere mean time, God will bless them with a long +continuance of the appellation they so justly deserve; and those +travellers who pass through will find some amends in the rich cream and +incomparable dinners every day, for the insects that devour them every +night; and will, if they are wise, seek compensation from the company of +the half animated pictures that crowd the palaces and churches, for the +half dead inhabitants who kneel in the streets of Bologna. + + + +FLORENCE. + + +We slept no-where, except perhaps in the carriage, between our last +residence at Bologna and this delightful city, to which we passed +apparently through a new region of the earth, or even air; clambering up +mountains covered with snow, and viewing with amazement the little +vallies between, where, after quitting the summer season, all glowing +with heat and spread into verdure, we found cherry-trees in blossom, +oaks and walnuts scarcely beginning to bud. These mountains are however +much below those of Savoy for dignity and beauty of appearance, though +high enough to be troublesome, and barren enough to be desolate. These +Appenines have been called by some the Back Bone of Italy, as Varenius +and others style the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, Back Bone of the +World; and these, as they do, run in a long chain down the middle of the +Peninsula they are placed in; but being rounded at top are supposed to +be aquatick, while the Alps, Andes, &c. are of late acknowledged by +philosophers to be volcanic, as the most lofty of _them_ terminate in +points of granite, wholly devoid of horizontal strata, and without +petrifactions contained in them, + + _Here_ the tracts around display + How impetuous ocean's sway + Once with wasteful fury spread + The wild waves o'er each mountain's head. + + PARSONS. + +But the offspring of fire somehow _should_ be more striking than that of +water, however violent might have been the concussion that produced +them; and there is no comparison between the sensations felt in passing +the Roche Melon, and these more neatly-moulded Appenines; upon whose +tops I am told too no lakes have been formed, as on Mount Cenis, or +even on Snowdon in North Wales, where a very beautiful lake adorns the +summit of the rock; which affords trout precisely such as you eat before +you go down to Novalesa, but not so large. + +Sir William Hamilton, however, is the man to be referred to in all these +matters; no man has examined the peculiar properties and general nature +of mountains, those which vomit fire in particular, with half as much +application, inspired by half as much genius, as he has done. + +We arrived late at our inn, an English one they say it is; and many of +the last miles were passed very pleasantly by my maid and myself, in +anticipating the comforts we should receive by finding ourselves among +our own country folks. In good time! and by once more eating, sleeping, +&c. _all in the English way_, as her phrase is. Accordingly, here are +small low beds again, soft and clean, and down pillows; here are currant +tarts, which the Italians scorn to touch, but which we are happy and +delighted to pay not ten but twenty times their value for, because a +currant tart is so much _in the English way_: and here are beans and +bacon in a climate where it is impossible that bacon should be either +wholesome or agreeable; and one eats infinitely worse than one did at +Milan, Venice, or Bologna: and infinitely dearer too; but that makes it +still more completely _in the English way_. + +Mean time here we are however in Arno's Vale; the full moon shining over +Fiesole, which I see from my windows. Milton's verses every moment in +one's mouth, and Galileo's house twenty yards from one's door, + + Whence her bright orb the Tuscan artist view'd, + At evening from the top of Fesole; + Or in Val d'Arno to descry new lands, + Rivers or mountains on her spotty globe. + +Our apartments here are better than we hoped for, situated most sweetly +on the banks of this classical stream; a noble terrace underneath our +window, broad as the south parade at Bath I think, and the fine Ponte +della Santa Trinità within sight. Many people have asserted that this is +the first among all bridges in the world; but architecture triumphs in +the art of building bridges, and, though this is a most exquisitely +beautiful fabric, I can scarcely venture to call it an unrivalled one: +it shall, if the fine statues at the corners can assist its power over +the fancy, and if cleanliness can compensate for stately magnificence, +or for the fire of original and unassisted genius, it shall obliterate +from my mind the Rialto at Venice, and the fine arch thrown over the +Conway at Llanwrst in our North Wales. + +I wrote to a lady at Venice this morning though, to say, however I might +be charmed by the sweets of Arno's side, I could not forbear regretting +the Grand Canal. + +Count Manucci, a nobleman of this city, formerly intimate with Mr. +Thrale in London and Mr. Piozzi at Paris, came early to our apartments, +and politely introduced us to the desirable society of his sisters and +his friends. We have in his company and that of Cavalier d'Elci, a +learned and accomplished man, of high birth, deep erudition, and +polished manners, seen much, and with every possible advantage. + +This morning they shewed us La Capella St. Lorenzo, where I could but +think how surprisingly Mr. Addison's prediction was verified, that these +slow Florentines would not perhaps be able to finish the burial-place +of their favourite family, before the family itself should be extinct. +This reflection felt like one naturally suggested to me by the place; +Doctor Moore however has the original merit of it, as I afterwards found +it in his book: but it is the peculiar property of natural thoughts well +expressed, to sink into one's mind and incorporate themselves with it, +so as to make one forget they were not all one's own. + +_Poets, as well as jesters, do oft prove prophets:_ Prior's happy +prediction for the female wits in one of his epilogues is come true +already, when he says, + + Your time, poor souls! we'll take your very money, + Female _third nights_ shall come so thick upon ye, &c. + +and every hour gives one reason to hope that Mr. Pope's glorious +prophecy in favour of the Negroes will not now remain long +unaccomplished, but that liberty will extend her happy influence over +the world; + + Till the _freed Indians_, in their native groves, + Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves. + +I will not extend myself in describing the heaps of splendid ruin in +which the rich chapel of St. Lorenzo now lies: since the elegant Lord +Corke's letters were written, little can be said about Florence not +better said by him; who has been particularly copious in describing a +city which every body wishes to see copiously described. + +The libraries here are exceedingly magnificent; and we were called just +now to that which goes under Magliabechi's name, to hear an eulogium +finely pronounced upon our circumnavigator Captain Cook; whose character +has attracted the attention, and extorted the esteem of every European +nation: far less was the wonder that it forced my tears; they flowed +from a thousand causes: my distance from England! my pleasure in hearing +an Englishman thus lamented in a language with which he had no +acquaintance! + + By strangers honoured, and by strangers mourn'd! + +Every thing contributed to soften my heart, though not to lower my +spirits. For when a Florentine asked me, how I came to cry so? I +answered, in the words of their divine Mestastasio: + + "Che questo pianto mio + Tutto non è dolor; + E meraviglia, e amore, + E riverenza, e speme, + Son mille affetti assieme + Tutti raccolti al cor." + + 'Tis not grief alone, or fear, + Swells the heart, or prompts the tear; + Reverence, wonder, hope, and joy, + Thousand thoughts my soul employ, + Struggling images, which less + Than falling tears can ne'er express. + +Giannetti, who pronounced the panegyric, is the justly-celebrated +improvisatore so famous for making Latin verses _impromptu_, as others +do Italian ones: the speech has been translated into English by Mr. +Merry, with whom I had the honour here first to make acquaintance, +having met him at Mr. Greatheed's, who is our fellow-lodger, and with +whom and his amiable family the time passes in reciprocations of +confidential friendship and mutual esteem. + +Lord and Lady Cowper too contribute to make the society at this place +more pleasing than can be imagined; while English hospitality softens +down the stateliness of Tuscan manners. + +Sir Horace Mann is sick and old; but there are conversations at his +house of a Saturday evening, and sometimes a dinner, to which we have +been almost always asked. + +The fruits in this place begin to astonish me; such cherries did I never +yet see, or even hear tell of, as when I caught the Laquais de Place +weighing two of them in a scale to see if they came to an ounce. These +are, in the London street phrase, _cherries like plums_, in size at +least, but in flavour they far exceed them, being exactly of the kind +that we call bleeding-hearts, hard to the bite, and parting easily from +the stone, which is proportionately small. Figs too are here in such +perfection, that it is not easy for an English gardener to guess at +their excellence; for it is not by superior size, but taste and colour, +that _they_ are distinguished; small, and green on the outside, a bright +full crimson within, and we eat them with raw ham, and truly delicious +is the dainty. By raw ham, I mean ham cured, not boiled or roasted. It +is no wonder though that fruits should mature in such a sun as this is; +which, to give a just notion of its penetrating fire, I will take leave +to tell my countrywomen is so violent, that I use no other method of +heating the pinching-irons to curl my hair, than that of poking them out +at a south window, with the handles shut in, and the glasses darkened to +keep us from being actually fired in his beams. Before I leave off +speaking about the fruit, I must add, that both fig and cherry are +produced by standards; that the strawberries here are small and +high-flavoured, like our _woods_, and that there are no other. England +affords greater variety in _that_ kind of fruit than any nation; and as +to peaches, nectarines, or green-gage plums, I have seen none yet. Lady +Cowper has made us a present of a small pine-apple, but the Italians +have no taste to it. Here is sun enough to ripen them without hot-houses +I am sure, though they repeatedly told us at Milan and Venice, that +_this_ was the coolest place to pass the summer in, because of the +Appenine mountains shading us from the heat, which they confessed to be +intolerable with _them_. + +_Here_ however, they inform us, that it is madness to retire into the +country as English people do during the hot season; for as there is no +shade from high timber trees, one is bit to death by animals, gnats in +particular, which here are excessively troublesome, even in the town, +notwithstanding we scatter vinegar, and use all the arts in our power; +but the ground-floor is coolest, and every body struggles to get +themselves a _terreno_ as they call it. + +Florence is full just now, and Mr. Jean Figliazzi, an intelligent +gentleman who lives here, and is well acquainted with both nations, +says, that all the genteel people come to take refuge _from_ the country +to Florence in July and August, as the subjects of Great Britain run +_to_ the country from the heats of London or Bath. + +The flowers too! how rich they are in scent here! how brilliant in +colour! how magnificent in size! Wall-flowers perfuming every street, +and even every passage; while pinks and single carnations grow beside +them, with no more soil than they require themselves; and from the tops +of houses, where you least expect it, an aromatic flavour highly +gratifying is diffused. The jessamine is large, broad-leaved, and +beautiful as an orange-flower; but I have seen no roses equal to those +at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect counting eighty-four within +my own reach; it grew against the house of Doctor Darwin. Such a +profusion of sweets made me enquire yesterday morning for some scented +pomatum, and they brought me accordingly one pot impelling strong of +garden mint, the other of rue and tansy. + +Thus do the inhabitants of every place forfeit or fling away those +pleasures, which the inhabitants of another place think _they_ would use +in a much wiser manner, had Providence bestowed the blessing upon +_them_. + +A young Milanese once, whom I met in London, saw me treat a hatter that +lives in Pallmall with the respect due to his merit: when the man was +gone, "Pray, madam," says the Italian, "is this a _gran riccone[Footnote: +Heavy-pursed fellow.]?"_ "He is perhaps," replied I, "worth twenty or +thirty thousand pounds; I do not know what ideas you annex to a _gran +riccone_" "_Oh santissima vergine!_" exclaims the youth, "_s'avessi io mai +settanta mila zecchini! non so pur troppo cosa nesarei; ma questo é +chiaro--non venderei mai cappelli_"--"Oh dear me! had I once seventy +thousand sequins in my pocket, I would--dear--I cannot think myself +_what_ I should do with them all: but this at least is certain, I would +not _sell hats_" + +I have been carried to the Laurentian library, where the librarian Bandi +shewed me all possible, and many unmerited civilities; which, for want +of deeper erudition, I could not make the use I wished of. We asked +however to see some famous manuscripts. The Virgil has had a _fac +simile_ made of it, and a printed copy besides; so that it cannot now +escape being known all over Europe. The Bible in Chaldaic characters, +spoken of by Langius as inestimable, and brought hither, with many other +valuable treasures of the same nature, by Lascaris, after the death of +Lorenzo de Medici, who had sent him for the second time to +Constantinople for the purpose of collecting Greek and Oriental books, +but died before his return, is in admirable preservation. The old +geographical maps, made out in a very early age, afforded me much +amusement; and the Latin letters of Petrarch, with the portrait of his +Laura, were interesting to me perhaps more than many other things rated +much higher by the learned, among those rarities which adorn a library +so comprehensive. + +Every great nation except ours, which was immersed in barbarism, and +engaged in civil broils, seems to have courted the residence of +Lascaris, but the university of Paris fixed his regard: and though Leo +X. treated with favour, and even friendship, the man whom he had +encouraged to intimacy when Cardinal John of Medicis; though he made him +superintendant of a Greek college at Rome; it is said he always wished +to die in France, whither he returned in the reign of Francis the First; +and wrote his Latin epigrams, which I have heard Doctor Johnson prefer +even to the Greek ones preserved in Anthologia; and of which our Queen +Elizabeth, inspired by Roger Ascham, desired to see the author; but he +was then upon a visit to Rome, where he died of the gout at ninety-three +years old. + + * * * * * + +June 24, 1785. + +St. John the Baptist is the tutelary Saint of this city, and upon this +day of course all possible rejoicings are made. After attending divine +service in the morning, we were carried to a house whence we could +conveniently see the procession pass by. It was not solemn and stately +as that I saw at Bologna, neither was it gaudy and jocund like the show +made at Venice upon St. George's day; but consisted chiefly in vast +heavy pageants, or a sort of temporary building set on wheels, and drawn +by oxen some, and some by horses; others carried upon things made not +unlike a chairman's horse in London, and supported by men, while +priests, in various coloured dresses, according to their several +stations in the church, and to distinguish the parishes, &c. to which +they belong, follow singing in praise of the saint. + +Here is much emulation shewed too, I am told, in these countries, where +religion makes the great and almost the sole amusement of men's lives, +who shall make most figure on St. John the Baptist's day, produce most +music, and go to most expence. For all these purposes subscriptions are +set on foot, for ornamenting and venerating such a picture, statue, &c. +which are then added to the procession by the managers, and called a +Confraternity, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angel Raphael, +or who comes in their heads. + +The lady of the house where we went to partake the diversion, was not +wanting in her part; there could not be fewer than a hundred and fifty +people assembled in her rooms, but not crowded as we should have been in +England; for the apartments in Italy are all high and large, and run in +suits like Wanstead house in Essex, or Devonshire house in London +exactly, but larger still: and with immense balconies and windows, not +sashes, which move all away, and give good room and air. The ices, +refreshments, &c. were all excellent in their kinds, and liberally +dispensed. The lady seemed to do the honours of her house with perfect +good-humour; and every body being full-dressed, though so early in a +morning, added much to the general effect of the whole. + +Here I had the honour of being introduced to Cardinal Corsini, who put +me a little out of countenance by saying suddenly, "_Well, madam! you +never saw one of us red-legged partridges before I believe; but you are +going to Rome I hear, where you will find such fellows as me no +rarities_" The truth is, I had seen the amiable Prince d'Orini at Milan, +who was a Cardinal; and who had taken delight in showing me prodigious +civilities: nothing ever struck me more than his abrupt entrance one +night at our house, when we had a little music, and every body stood up +the moment he appeared: the Prince however walked forward to the +harpsichord, and blessed my husband in a manner the most graceful and +affecting: then sate the amusement out, and returned the next morning to +breakfast with us, when he indulged us with two hours conversation at +least; adding the kindest and most pressing invitations to his +country-seat among the mountains of Brianza, when we should return from +our tour of Italy in spring 1786. Florence therefore was not the first +place that shewed me a Cardinal. + +In the afternoon we all looked out of our windows which faced the +street,--not mine, as they happily command a view of the river, the +Caseine woods, &c. and from them enjoyed a complete sight of an Italian +horse-race. For after the coaches have paraded up and down some time to +shew the equipages, liveries, &c. all have on a sudden notice to quit +the scene of action; and all _do_ quit it, in such a manner as is +surprising. The street is now covered with sawdust, and made fast at +both ends: the starting-post is adorned with elegant booths, lined with +red velvet, for the court and first nobility: at the other end a piece +of tapestry is hung, to prevent the creatures from dashing their brains +out when they reach the goal. Thousands and ten thousands of people on +foot fill the course, that it is standing wonder to me still that +numbers are not killed. The prizes are now exhibited to view, quite in +the old classical style; a piece of crimson damask for the winner +perhaps; a small silver bason and ewer for the second; and so on, +leaving no performer unrewarded. At last come out the _concurrenti_ +without riders, but with a narrow leathern strap hung across their +backs, which has a lump of ivory fastened to the end of it, all set full +of sharp spikes like a hedge-hog, and this goads them along while +galloping, worse than any spurs could do; because the faster they run, +the more this odd machine keeps jumping up and down, and pricking their +sides ridiculously enough; and it makes one laugh to see that some of +them are not provoked by it not to run at all, but set about plunging, +in order to rid themselves of the inconvenience, instead of driving +forward to divert the mob; who leap and shout and caper with delight, +and lash the laggers along with great indignation indeed, and with the +most comical gestures. I never saw horses in so droll a state of +degradation before, for they are all striped or spotted, or painted of +some colour to distinguish them each from other; and nine or ten often +start at a time, to the great danger of lookers-on I think, but +exceedingly to my entertainment, who have the comfort of Mrs. +Greatheed's company, and the advantage of seeing all safely from her +well-situated _terreno_, or ground-floor. + +The chariot-race was more splendid, but less diverting: this was +performed in the Piazza, or Square, an unpaved open place not bigger +than Covent Garden I believe, and the ground strangely uneven. The cars +were light and elegant; one driver and two horses to each: the first +very much upon the principle of the antique chariots described by old +poets, and the last trapped showily in various colours, adapted to the +carriages, that people might make their betts accordingly upon the pink, +the blue, the green, &c. I was exceedingly amused with seeing what so +completely revived all classic images, and seemed so little altered from +the classic times. Cavalier D'Elci, in reply to my expressions of +delight, told me that the same spirit still subsisted exactly; but that +in order to prevent accidents arising from the disputants' endeavours to +overturn or circumvent each other, it was now sunk into a mere +appearance of contest; for that all the chariots belonged to one man, +who would doubtless be careful enough that his coachmen should not go to +sparring at the hazard of their horses. The farce was carried on to the +end however, and the winner spread his velvet in triumph, and drove +round the course to enjoy the acclamations and caresses of the crowd. + +That St. John the Baptist's birth-day should be celebrated by a horse or +chariot race, appears to have little claim to the praise of propriety; +but mankind seems agreed that there must be some excuse for merriment; +and surely if any saint is to be venerated, he stands foremost whom +Christ himself declared to be the greatest man ever born of a woman. + +The old Romans had an institution in this month of games to Neptune +Equester, as they called their Sea God, with no great appearance of good +sense neither; but the horse he produced at the naming of Athens was the +cause assigned--these games are perhaps half transmitted ones from those +in the ancient mythology. + +The evening concluded, and the night began with fire-works; the church, +or duomo, as a cathedral is always called in Italy, was illuminated on +the outside, and very beautiful, and very very magnificent was the +appearance. The reflection of the cupola's lights in the river gave us +back a faint image of what we had been admiring; and when I looked at +them from my window, as we were retiring to rest; such, thought I, and +fainter still are the images which can be given of a show in written or +verbal description; yet my English friends shall not want an account of +what I have seen; for Italy, at last, is only a fine well-known academy +figure, from which we all sit down to make drawings according as the +light falls; and our seat affords opportunity. Every man sees that, and +indeed most things, with the eyes of his then present humour, and begins +describing away so as to convey a dignified or despicable idea of the +object in question, just as his disposition led him to interpret its +appearance. + +Readers now are grown wiser, however, than very much to mind us: they +want no further telling that one traveller was in pain, and one in love +when the tour of Italy was made by them; and so they pick out their +intelligence accordingly, from various books, written like two letters +in the Tatler, giving an account of a rejoicing night; one endeavouring +to excite majestic ideas, the other ludicrous ones of the very same +thing. + +Well 'tis true enough, however, and has been often enough laughed at, +that the Italian horses run without riders, and scamper down a long +street with untrimmed heels, hundreds of people hooking them along, as +naughty boys do a poor dog, that has a bone tied to his tail in England. +This diversion was too good to end with the day. + +Dulness, dear Queen, repeats the jest again. + +We had another, and another just such a race for three or four evenings +together, and they got an English _cock-tailed nag_, and set _him_ to +the business, as they said _he was trained to it_; but I don't recollect +his making a more brilliant figure than his painted and chalked +neighbours of the Continent. + +We will not be prejudiced, however; that the Florentines know how to +manage horses is certain, if they would take the trouble. Last night's +theatre exhibited a proof of skill, which might shame Astley and all his +rivals. Count Pazzi having been prevailed on to lend his four beautiful +chesnut favourites from his own carriage to draw a pageant upon the +stage, I saw them yesterday evening harnessed all abreast, their own +master in a dancer's habit I was told, guiding them himself, and +personating the Cid, which was the name of the ballet, if I remember +right, making his horses go clear round the stage, and turning at the +lamps of the orchestra with such dexterity, docility, and grace, that +they seemed rather to enjoy than feel disturbance at the deafening noise +of instruments, the repeated bursts of applause, and hollow sound of +their own hoofs upon the boards of a theatre. I had no notion of such +discipline, and thought the praises, though very loud, not ill bestowed: +as it is surely one of man's earliest privileges to replenish the earth +with animal life, and to subdue it. + +I have, for my own part, generally speaking, little delight in the +obstreperous clamours of these heroic pantomimes;--their battles are so +noisy, and the acclamations of the spectators so distressing to weak +nerves, I dread an Italian theatre--it distracts me.--And always the +same thing so, every and every night! how tedious it is! + +This want of variety in the common pleasures of Italy though, and that +surprising content with which a nation so sprightly looks on the same +stuff, and laughs at the same joke for months and months together, is +perhaps less despicable to a thinking mind, than the affectation of +weariness and disgust, where probably it is not felt at all; and where a +gay heart often lurks under a clouded countenance, put on to deceive +spectators into a notion of his philosophy who wears it; and what is +worse, who wears it chiefly as a mark of distinction cheaply obtained; +for neither science, wit, nor courage are _now_ found necessary to form +a man of fashion, or the _ton_, to which may be said as justly as ever +Mr. Pope affirmed it of silence, + + That routed reason finds her sure retreat in thee. + +Affectation is certainly that faint and sickly weed which is the curse +of cultivated,--not naturally fertile and extensive countries; an insect +that infests our forcing stoves and hot-house plants: and as the +naturalists tell us all animals may be bred _down_ to a state very +different from that in which they were originally placed; that +_carriers_, and _fantails_, and _croppers_, are produced by early +caging, and minutely attending to the common blue pigeon, flights of +which cover the ploughed fields in distant provinces of England, and +shew the rich and changeable plumage of their fine neck to the summer +sun; so from the warm and generous Briton of ancient days may be +produced, and happily bred _down_, the clay-cold coxcomb of St. +James's-street. + +In Italy, so far at least as I have gone, there is no impertinent desire +of appearing what one is _not_: no searching for talk, and torturing +expression to vary its phrases with something new and something fine; or +else sinking into silence from despair of diverting the company, and +taking up the opposite method, contriving to impress them with an idea +of bright intelligence, concealed by modest doubts of our own powers, +and stifled by deep thought upon abstruse and difficult topics. To get +quit of all these deep-laid systems of enjoyment, where + + To take our breakfast we project a scheme, + Nor drink our tea without a stratagem, + +like the lady in Doctor Young; the surest method is to drop into Italy; +where a conversazione at Venice or Florence, after the society of +London, or _les petit soupers de Paris_, where, in their own phrase, _un +tableau n'attend pas l'autre_[Footnote: One picture don't wait for +another.], is like taking a walk in Ham Gardens, or the Leasowes, after +_les parterres de Versailles ed i Terrazzi di Genoa_. We are affected in +the house, but natural in the gardens. Italians are natural in society, +affected and constrained in the disposition of their grounds. No one, +however, is good or bad, or wise or foolish without a reason why. +Restraint is made for man, and where religious and political liberty is +enjoyed to its full extent, as in Great Britain, the people will forge +shackles for themselves, and lay the yoke heavy on society, to which, on +the contrary, Italians give a loose, as compensation for their want of +freedom in affairs of church or state. + +It is, I think, observable of uncontradicted, homebred, and, as we say, +spoiled children, that when a dozen of them get together for the purpose +of passing a day in mutual amusement, they will make to themselves the +strictest laws for their game, and rigidly punish whatever breach of +rule has been made while the time allotted for diversion lasts: but in a +school of girls, strictly kept, at _their_ hours of permitted recreation +no distinct sounds can be heard through the general clamour of joy and +confusion; nor does any thing come less into their heads than the notion +of imposing regulations on themselves, or making sport out of the harsh +sounds of _rule and government_. + +Ridicule too points her arrows only among highly-polished +societies--_Paris_ and _London_, in the first of which all wit is +comprised in the power of ridiculing one's neighbours, and in the other +every artifice is put in practice to escape it. In Italy no such +terrors restrain conversation; no public censure pursues that +fantastical behaviour which leads to no public offence; and as it is +only fear which can beget falsehood, these people seek such behavior as +naturally suits them; and in our theatrical phrase, they let the +character come to them, they do not go to the character. + +Let us not fail to remember after all, that such severity as we use, +quickens the desire of pleasing, and deadens the diffusion of immoral +sentiments, or indelicate language, in England; where, I must add, for +the honour of my country, that if such liberties were taken upon the +stage as are frequent in the first ranks of Italian society, they would +be hissed by those who paid only a shilling for their entrance: so that +affectation and a forced refinement may be considered as the bad leaden +statues still left in our delicately-neat and highly-ornamented gardens; +of which elegance and science are the white and red roses: but to be +possessed of their _sweets_, one must venture a little through the +_thorns_.--_Thorns_, though figurative, remind one of the _cicala_, a +creature which leaves nothing else untouched here. Surely their clamours +and depredations have no equal. I used to walk in the Boboli Gardens, +defying the heat, till they had eaten up the little shade some hedges +there afforded me; and till, by their incessant noise, all thought is +disturbed, and no line presented itself to my memory but + + Sole sob ardenti resonant arbusta Cicadis[W]; + +[Footnote W: + While in the scorching sun I trace in vain + Thy flying footsteps o'er the burning plain, + The creaking locusts with my voice conspire, + They fried with heat, and I with fierce desire. + + DRYDEN. +] + +till Mr. Merry's sweet ode to summer here at Florence made one less +discontented, + + To hear the light cicala's ceaseless din, + That vibrates shrill; or the near-weeping brook + That feebly winds along, + And mourns his channel shrunk. + + MERRY. + +This animal has four wings, four eyes, and two membranes like parchment +under the hard scales he is covered with; and these, it is said, create +the uncommon noise he makes, by blowing them somewhat like bellows, to +sharpen the sound; which, whatever it proceeds from, is louder than can +be guessed at by those who have not heard it in Tuscany. He is of the +locust kind, an inch and a half long, and wonderfully light in +proportion; though no small feeder, I should imagine, by the total +destruction his noisy tribe make amongst the leaves, which are now +wholly stript by them of all their verdure, the fibres only being left; +and I observed yesterday evening, as we returned from airing, another +strange deprivation practised on the mulberry leaves round the city, +which being all forcibly torn away for the use of the silk-worms, make +an odd fort of artificial winter near the town walls; and remind one of +the wretched geese in Lincolnshire, plucked once a year for their +feathers by their truly unfeeling proprietors. I am told indeed, that +both revegetate, though I trust neither tree nor bird can fail to +experience fatal effects one day or other in consequence of so unnatural +an operation. Here is some ivy of uncommon growth, but I have seen +larger both at Beaumaris castle in North Wales, and at the abbey of +Glastonbury in Somersetshire: but the great pines in the Caseine woods +have, I suppose, no rival nearer than the Castagno a Cento Cavalli, +mentioned by Mr. Brydone. They afford little shade or shelter from heat +however, as their umbrella-like covering is strangely small in +proportion to their height and size; some of them being ten, and some +twelve feet in diameter. These venerable, these glorious productions of +nature are all now marked for destruction however; all going to be put +in wicker baskets, and feed the Grand Duke's fires. I saw a fellow +hewing one down to-day, and the rest are all to follow;--the feeble +Florentines had much ado to master it; + + Seemed the harmful hatchet to fear, + And to wound holy Eld would forbear, + +as Spenser says: I did half hope they could not get it down; but the +loyal Tuscans (evermore awed by the name _principe_) told us it was +right to get rid of them, as one of the cones, of which they bore vast +quantities, might chance to drop upon the head of a _Principettino_, or +little Prince, as he passed along. + +I was observing that restraint was necessary to man; I have now learned +a notion that noise is necessary too. The clatter made here in the +Piazza del Duomo, where you sit in your carriage at a coffee-house door, +and chat with your friends according to Italian custom, while _one_ +eats ice, and _another_ calls for lemonade, to while away the time after +dinner, the noise made then and there, I say, is beyond endurance. + +Our Florentines have nothing on earth to do; yet a dozen fellows crying +_ciambelli_, little cakes, about the square, assisted by beggars, who +lie upon the church steps, and pray or rather promise to pray as loud as +their lungs will let them, for the _anime sante di purgatorio_[Footnote: +Holy souls in purgatory.]; ballad-singers meantime endeavouring to drown +these clamours in their own, and gentlemen's servants disputing at the +doors, whose master shall be first served; ripping up the pedigrees of +each to prove superior claims for a biscuit or macaroon; do make such an +intolerable clatter among them, that one cannot, for one's life, hear +one another speak: and I did say just now, that it were as good live at +Brest or Portsmouth when the rival fleets were fitting out, as here; +where real tranquillity subsists under a bustle merely imaginary. Our +Grand Duke lives with little state for aught I can observe here; but +where there is least pomp, there is commonly most power; for a man must +have _something pour se de dommages_[Footnote: To make himself amends.], +as the French express it; and this gentleman possessing the _solide_ has +no care for the _clinquant_, I trow. He tells his subjects when to go to +bed, and who to dance with, till the hour he chuses they should retire +to rest, with exactly that sort of old-fashioned paternal authority that +fathers used to exercise over their families in England before commerce +had run her levelling plough over all ranks, and annihilated even the +name of subordination. If he hear of any person living long in Florence +without being able to give a good account of his business there, the +Duke warns him to go away; and if he loiter after such warning given, +sends him out. Does any nobleman shine in pompous equipage or splendid +table; the Grand Duke enquires soon into his pretensions, and scruples +not to give personal advice, and add grave reproofs with regard to the +management of each individual's private affairs, the establishment of +their sons, marriage of their sisters, &c. When they appeared to +complain of this behaviour to _me_, I know not, replied I, what to +answer: one has always read and heard that the Sovereigns ought to +behave in despotic governments like the _fathers of their family_: and +the Archbishop of Cambray inculcates no other conduct than this, when +advising his pupil, heir to the crown of France. "Yes, Madam," replied +one of my auditors, with an acuteness truly Italian; "but this Prince is +_our father-in-law_." The truth is, much of an English traveller's +pleasure is taken off at Florence by the incessant complaints of a +government he does not understand, and of oppressions he cannot remedy. +Tis so dull to hear people lament the want of liberty, to which I +question whether they have any pretensions; and without ever knowing +whether it is the tyranny or the tyrant they complain of. Tedious +however and most uninteresting are their accounts of grievances, which a +subject of Great Britain has much ado to comprehend, and more to pity; +as they are now all heart-broken, because they must say their prayers in +their own language and not in Latin, which, how it can be construed +into misfortune, a Tuscan alone can tell. + +Lord Corke has given us many pleasing anecdotes of those who were +formerly Princes in this land. Had they a sovereign of the old Medici +family, they would go to bed when _he_ bid them quietly enough I +believe, and say their prayers in what language _he_ would have them: +'tis in our parliamentary phrase, the _men_, not the _measures_ that +offend them; and while they pretend to whine as if despotism displeased +them, they detest every republican state, feel envy towards Venice, and +contempt for Lucca. + +I would rather talk of their gallery than their government: and surely +nothing made by man ever so completely answered a raised expectation, as +the apparent contest between Titian's recumbent beauty, glowing with +colour and animated by the warmest expression, and the Greek statue of +symmetrical perfection and fineness of form inimitable, where sculpture +supplies all that fancy can desire, and all that imagination can +suggest. These two models of excellence seem placed near each other, at +once to mock all human praise, and defy all future imitation. The +listening slave appears disturbed by the blows of the wrestlers in the +same room, and hearkens with an attentive impatience, such as one has +often felt when unable to distinguish the words one wishes to repeat. +You really then do not seem as if you were alone in this tribune, so +animated is every figure, so full of life and soul: yet I commend not +the representing of St Catharine with leering eyes, as she is here +painted by Titian; that it is meant for a portrait, I find no excuse; +some character more suited to the expression should have been chosen; +and if it were only the picture of a saint, that expression was +strangely out of character. An anachronism may be found in the Tobit +over the door too, by acute observers, who will deem it ill-managed to +paint the cross in the clouds, where it is an old testament story, and +that story apocryphal beside; might I add, that Guido's meek Madonna, so +divinely contrasted to the other women in the room, loses something of +dignity by the affected position of the thumbs. I think I might leave +the tribune without a word said of the St. John by Raphael, which no +words are worthy to extol: 'tis all sublimity; and when I look on it I +feel nothing but veneration pushed to astonishment. Unlike the elegant +figure of the Baptist at Padua, covered with glass, and belonging to a +convent of friars, who told me, and truly, That it had no equal; it is +painted by Guido with every perfection of form and every grace of +expression. I agree with them it has no equal; but in the tribune at +Florence maybe found its superior. + +We were next conducted to the Niobe, who has an apartment to herself: +and now, thought I, dear Mrs. Siddons has never seen this figure: but +those who can see it or her, without emotions equally impossible to +contain or to suppress, deserve the fate of Niobe, and have already +half-suffered it. Their hearts and eyes are stone. + +Nothing is worth speaking of after this Niobe! Her beauty! her maternal +anguish! her closely-clasped Chloris! her half-raised head, scarcely +daring to deprecate that vengeance of which she already feels such +dreadful effects! What can one do + + But drop the shady curtain on the scene, + +and run to see the portraits of those artists who have exalted one's +ideas of human nature, and shewn what man can perform. Among these +worthies a British eye soon distinguishes Sir Joshua Reynolds; a citizen +of the world fastens his to Leonardo da Vinci. + +I have been out to dinner in the country near Prato, and what a +charming, what a delightful thing is a nobleman's seat near Florence! +How cheerful the society! how splendid the climate! how wonderful the +prospects in this glorious country! The Arno rolling before his house, +the Appenines rising behind it! a sight of fertility enjoyed by its +inhabitants, and a view of such defences to their property as nature +alone can bestow. + +A peasantry so rich too, that the wives and daughters of the farmer go +dressed in jewels; and those of no small value. A pair of one-drop +ear-rings, a broadish necklace, with a long piece hanging down the +bosom, and terminated with a cross, all of set garnets clear and +perfect, is a common, a _very_ common treasure to the females about this +country; and on every Sunday or holiday, when they dress and mean to +look pretty, their elegantly-disposed ornaments attract attention +strongly; though I do not think them as handsome as the Lombard lasses, +and our Venetian friends protest that the farmers at Crema in _their_ +state are still richer. + +La Contadinella Toscana however, in a very rich white silk petticoat, +exceedingly full and short, to shew her neat pink slipper and pretty +ancle, her pink _corps de robe_ and straps, with white silk lacing down +the stomacher, puffed shirt sleeves, with heavy lace robbins ending at +the elbow, and fastened at the shoulders with at least eight or nine +bows of narrow pink ribbon, a lawn handkerchief trimmed with broad lace, +put on somewhat coquettishly, and finishing in front with a nosegay, +must make a lovely figure at any rate: though the hair is drawn away +from the face in a way rather too tight to be becoming, under a red +velvet cushion edged with gold, which helps to wear it off I think, but +gives the small Leghorn hat, lined with green, a pretty perking air, +which is infinitely nymphish and smart. A tolerably pretty girl so +dressed may surely more than vie with a _fille d' opera_ upon the Paris +stage, even were she not set off as these are with a very rich suit of +pearls or set garnets, that in France or England would not be purchased +for less than forty or fifty pounds: and I am now speaking of the women +perpetually under one's eye; not one or two picked from the crowd, like +Mrs. Vanini, an inn-keeper's wife in Florence, who, when she was dressed +for the masquerade two nights ago, submitted her finery to Mrs. +Greatheed's inspection and my own; who agreed she could not be so +adorned in England for less than a thousand pounds. + +It is true the nobility are proud of letting you see how comfortably +their dependants live in Tuscany; but can any pride be more rational or +generous, or any desire more patriotick? Oh may they never look with +less delight on the happiness of their inferiors! and then they will not +murmur at their prince, whose protection of _this_ rank among his +subjects is eminently tender and attentive. + +Returning home from our splendid dinner and agreeable day passed at +Conte Mannucci's country-seat, while our noble friends amused me with +various chat, I thought some unaccountable sparks of fire seemed to +strike up and down the hedges as if in perpetual motion, but checked +the fancy concluding it a trick of the imagination only; till the +evening, which shuts in strangely quick here in Tuscany, grew dark, and +exhibited an appearance wholly new to me; whose surprise that no flame +followed these wandering fires was not small, when I recollected the +state of desiccation that nature suffered, and had done for some months. +My dislike of interrupting an agreeable conversation kept me long from +enquiring into the cause of this appearance, which however I doubted not +was electrick, till they told me it was the _lucciola_, or fire-fly; of +which a very good account is given in twenty books, but I had forgotten +them all. As the Florence Miscellany has never been published, I will +copy out what is said of it _there_, because the Abate Fontana was +consulted when that description was given. + +"This insect then differs from every other of the luminous tribe, +because its light is by no means continual, but emitted by flashes, +suddenly striking out as it flies; when crushed it leaves a lustre on +the spot for a considerable time, from whence one may conclude its +nature is phosphorick." + + Oh vagrant insect, type of our short life, + 'Tis thus we shine, and vanish from the view; + For the cold season comes, + And all our lustre's o'er. + + MERRY's Ode to Summer. + +It is said I think, that no animal affords an acid except ants, which +are therefore most quickly destroyed by lime, pot-ash, &c. or any strong +alkali of course; yet acid must the lucciola be proved, or she can never +be phosphorick surely; as upon its analysis that strangest of all +compositions appears to be a union of violent acid with inflammable +matter, whence it may be termed an animal sulphur, and is actually found +to burn successfully under a common glass-bell; and to afford flowers +too, which, by attracting the humidity of the air, become a liquor like +_oleum sulphuris per campanam_[Footnote: Oil of sulphur by the bell.]. + +The colour of the sky viewed, when one dares to look at it, through this +pure atmosphere is particularly beautiful; of a much more brilliant and +celestial blue I think, than it appeared from the tower of St. Mark's +Place, Venice. Were I to affirm that the sea is of a more peculiar +transparent brightness upon the coast of North Wales than elsewhere, it +would seem prejudice perhaps, and yet is strictly true: I am not less +persuaded that the sky appears of a finer tint in Tuscany than any other +country I have visited:--Naples is however the vaunted climate, and that +yet remains to be examined. + +I have been shewed, at the horse-race, the theatre, &c. the unfortunate +grandson of King James the Second. He goes much into publick still, +though old and sickly; gives the English arms and livery, and wears the +garter, which he has likewise bestowed upon his natural daughter. The +Princess of Stoldberg, his consort, whom he always called Queen, has +left him to end a life of disappointment and sorrow by _himself_, with +the sad reflection, that even conjugal attachment, and of course +domestic comfort, was denied to _him_, and fled--in defiance of poetry +and fiction--fled with the crown, to its powerful and triumphant +possessors. + +The Duomo, or Cathedral, has engaged my attention all to-day: its +prodigious size, perfect proportions, and exquisite taste, ought to +have detained me longer. Though the outside does not please me as well +as if it had been less rich and less magnificent. Superfluity always +defeats its own purpose, of striking you with awe at its superior +greatness; while simplicity looks on, and laughs at its vain attempts. +This wonderful church, built of striped marbles, white, black, and red +alternately, has scarcely the air of being so composed, but looks like +painted ivory to _me_, who am obliged to think, and think again, before +I can be sure it is of so ponderous and massy, as well as so inestimable +a substance: nor can I, without more than equal difficulty, persuade +myself to give its sudden view the decided preference over St. Paul's in +London, which never, never misses its immediate effect on a spectator, + + But stands sublime in simplest majesty. + +The Battisterio is another structure close to the church, and of +surprising beauty; Michael Angelo said the gates of it deserved to be +those which open Paradise: and that speech was more the speech of a good +workman, than of a man whose mind was exalted by his profession. The +gates are of brass, divided into ninety-six compartments each, and +carved with such variety of invention, such elaboration of art and +ingenuity, that no praise except that which he gave them could have been +too high. The font has not been used since the days when immersion in +baptism was deemed necessary to salvation; a ceremony still considered +by the Greek church as indispensable. Why the disputes concerning _this_ +sacrament were carried on with more decency and less lasting rancour +among Christians, than those which related to the other great pledge of +our pardon, the communicating with our Saviour Christ in his last +Supper, I know not, nor can imagine. Every page of ecclesiastical +history exhibits the tenaciousness with which the smallest attendant +circumstance on this last-mentioned sacrament has been held fast by the +Romanists, who dropped the immersion at baptism of themselves; and in so +warm a climate too! it moves my wonder; when nothing is more obvious to +the meanest understanding, than that if the first sacrament is not +rightly and duly administered, we never shall arrive at receiving the +other at all. I hope it is impossible for any one less than myself to +wish the continuance or revival of contentions so disgraceful to +humanity in general; so peculiarly repugnant to the true spirit of +Christianity, which consists chiefly in charity, and that brotherly love +we know to have been cemented by the blood of our blessed Lord: yet very +strange it is to think, that while other innovations have been resisted +even to death, scarcely any among the many sects we have divided into, +retain the original form in that ceremony so emphatically called +_christening_. + +These observations suggested by the sight of the old font at Florence +shall now be succeeded by lighter subjects of reflection; among which +the first that presents itself is the superior elegance of the language; +for till we arrive _here_, all is dialect; though by this word I would +not have any one mistake me, or understand it as meant in the limited +sense of a provincial jargon, such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire, or +Cornwall, present us with; where every sound is corruption, barbarism, +and vulgarity. + +The States of Italy being all under different rulers, are kept separate +from each other, and speak a different dialect; that of Milan full of +consonants and harsh to the ear, but abounding with classical +expressions that rejoice one's heart, and fill one with the oddest but +most pleasing sensations imaginable. I heard a lady there call a runaway +nobleman _Profugo_ mighty prettily; and added, that his conduct had put +all the town into _orgasmo grande_. All this, however, the Tuscans may +possibly have in common with them. My knowledge of the language must +remain ever too imperfect for me to depend on my own skill in it; all I +can assert is, that the Florentines _appear_, as far as I have been +competent to observe, to depend more on their own copious and beautiful +language for expression, than the Milanese do; who run to Spanish, +Greek, or Latin for assistance, while half their tongue is avowedly +borrowed from the French, whose pronunciation, in the letter _u_, they +even profess to retain. + +At Venice, the sweetness of the patois is irresistible; their lips, +incapable of uttering any but the sweetest sounds, reject all +consonants they can get quit of; and make their mouths drop honey more +completely than it can be said by any eloquence less mellifluous than +their own. + +The Bolognese dialect is detested by the other Italians, as gross and +disagreeable in its sounds: but every nation has the good word of its +own inhabitants; and the language which Abbate Bianconi praises as +nervous and expressive, I would advise no person, less learned than +himself, to censure as disgusting, or condemn as dull. I staid very +little at Bologna; saw nothing but their pictures, and heard nothing but +their prayers: those were superior, I fancy, to all rivals. Language can +be never spoken of by a foreigner to any effect of conviction. I have +heard our countryman. Mr. Greatheed himself, who perhaps possesses more +Italian than almost any Englishman, and studies it more closely, refuse +to decide in critical disputations among his literary friends here, +though the sonnets he writes in the Tuscan language are praised by the +natives, who best understand it, and have been by some of them preferred +to those written by Milton himself. Mean time this is acknowledged to +be the prime city for purity of phrase and delicacy of expression, +which, at last, is so disguised to me by the guttural manner in which +many sounds are pronounced, that I feel half weary of running about from +town to town so, and never arriving at any, where I can understand the +conversation without putting all the attention possible to their +discourse. I am now told that less efforts will be necessary at Rome. + +Nothing can be prettier, however, than the slow and tranquil manners of +a Florentine; nothing more polished than his general address and +behaviour: ever in the third person, though to a blackguard in the +street, if he has not the honour of his particular acquaintance, while +intimacy produces _voi_ in those of the highest rank, who call one +another Carlo and Angelo very sweetly; the ladies taking up the same +notion, and saying Louisa, or Maddalena, without any addition at all. + +The Don and Donna of Milan were offensive to me somehow, as they +conveyed an idea of Spain, not Italy. Here Signora is the term, which +better pleases one's ear, and Signora Contessa, Signora Principessa, if +the person is of higher quality, resembles our manners more when we say +my Lady Dutchess, &c. What strikes me as most observable, is the +uniformity of style in all the great towns. + +At Venice the men of literature and fashion speak with the same accent, +and I believe the same quick turns of expression as their Gondolier; and +the coachman at Milan talks no broader than the Countess; who, if she +does not speak always in French to a foreigner, as she would willingly +do, tries in vain to talk Italian; and having asked you thus, _alla +capi?_ which means _ha ella capita?_ laughs at herself for trying to +_toscaneggiare_, as she calls it, and gives the point up with _no cor +altr._ that comes in at the end of every sentence, and means _non +occorre altro_; there is no more occurs upon the subject. + +The Laquais de Place who attended us at Bologna was one of the few +persons I had met then, who spoke a language perfectly intelligible to +me. "Are you a Florentine, pray friend, said I?" "No, madam, but the +_combinations_ of this world having led me to talk much with strangers, +I contrive to _tuscanize_ it all I can for _their_ advantage, and doubt +not but it will tend to my own at last." + +Such a sentiment, so expressed by a footman, would set a plain man in +London a laughing, and make a fanciful Lady imagine he was a nobleman +disguised. Here nobody laughs, nor nobody stares, nor wonders that their +valet speaks just as good language, or utters as well-turned sentences +as themselves. Their cold answer to my amazement is as comical as the +fellow's fine style--_è battizzato_[Footnote: He has been baptized.], +say they, _come noi altri_[Footnote: As well as we.]. But we are called +away to hear the fair Fantastici, a young woman who makes improviso +verses, and sings them, as they tell me, with infinite learning and +taste. She is successor to the celebrated Corilla, who no longer +exhibits the power she once held without a rival: yet to _her_ +conversations every one still strives for admittance, though she is now +ill, and old, and hoarse with repeated colds. She spares, however, now +by no labour or fatigue to obtain and keep that superiority and +admiration which one day perhaps gave her almost equal trouble to +receive and to repay. But who can bear to lay their laurels by? Corilla +is gay by nature, and witty, if I may say so, by habit; replete with +fancy, and powerful to combine images apparently distant. Mankind is at +last more just to people of talents than is universally allowed, I +think. Corilla, without pretensions either to immaculate character (in +the English sense), deep erudition, or high birth, which an Italian +esteems above all earthly things, has so made her way in the world, that +all the nobility of both sexes crowd to her house; that no Prince passes +through Florence without waiting on Corilla; that the Capitol will long +recollect her being crowned there, and that many sovereigns have not +only sought her company, but have been obliged to put up with slights +from her independent spirit, and from her airy, rather than haughty +behaviour. She is, however, (I cannot guess why) not rich, and keeps no +carriage; but enjoying all the effect of money, convenience, company, +and general attention, is probably very happy; as she does not much +suffer her thoughts of the next world to disturb her felicity in +_this_, I believe, while willing to turn every thing into mirth, and +make all admire _her wit_, even at the expence of _their own virtue_. +The following Epigram, made by her, will explain my meaning, and give a +specimen of her present powers of improvisation, undecayed by ill +health; and I might add, _undismayed_ by it. An old gentleman here, one +Gaetano Testa Grossa had a young wife, whose name was Mary, and who +brought him a son when he was more than seventy years old. Corilla led +him gaily into the circle of company with these words: + + "Miei Signori Io vi presento + Il buon Uomo Gaetano; + Che non sà che cosa sia + Il misterio sovr'umano + Del Figliuolo di Maria." + +Let not the infidels triumph however, or rank among them the +truly-illustrious Corilla! 'Twas but the rage, I hope, of keeping at any +rate the fame she has gained, when the sweet voice is gone, which once +enchanted all who heard it--like the daughters of Pierius in Ovid. + +And though I was exceedingly entertained by the present improvisatrice, +the charming Fantastici, whose youth, beauty, erudition, and fidelity to +her husband, give her every claim upon one's heart, and every just +pretension to applause, I could not, in the midst of that delight, which +classick learning and musical excellence combined to produce, forbear a +grateful recollection of the civilities I had received from Corilla, and +half-regretting that her rival should be so successful; + + For tho' the treacherous tapster, Thomas, + Hangs a new angel ten doors from us, + We hold it both a shame and sin + To quit the true old Angel Inn. + +Well! if some people have too little appearance of respect for religion, +there are others who offend one by having too much, and so the balance +is kept even. + +We were a walking last night in the gardens of Porto St. Gallo, and met +two or three well-looking women of the second rank, with a baby, four or +five years old at most, dressed in the habit of a Dominican Friar, +bestowing the benediction as he walked along like an officiating Priest. +I felt a shock given to all my nerves at once, and asked Cavalier +D'Elci the meaning of so strange a device. His reply to me was, "_E +divozione mal intesa, Signora_[Footnote: 'Tis ill-understood devotion, +madam.];" and turning round to the other gentlemen, "Now this folly," +said he, "a hundred years ago would have been the object of profound +veneration and prodigious applause. Fifty years hence it would be +censured as hypocritical; it is now passed by wholly unnoticed, except +by this foreign Lady, who, I believe, thought it was done for a joke. + +I have had a little fever since I came hither from the intense heat I +trust; but my maid has a worse still. Doctor Bicchierei, with that +liberality which ever is found to attend real learning, prescribed +James's powders to _her_, and bid me attend to Buchan's Domestick +Medicine, and I should do well enough he said. + +Mr. Greatheed, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Biddulph, and Mr. Piozzi, have been +together on a party of pleasure to see the renowned Vallombrosa, and +came home contradicting Milton, who says the devils lay bestrewn + + Thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa: + +Whereas, say they, the trees are all evergreen in those woods. Milton, +it seems, was right notwithstanding: for the botanists tell me, that +nothing makes more litter than the shedding of leaves, which, replace +themselves by others, as on the plants stiled ever-green, which change +like every tree, but only do not change all at once, and remain stript +till spring. They spoke highly of their very kind and hospitable +reception at the convent, where + + Safe from pangs the worldling knows, + Here secure in calm repose, + Far from life's perplexing maze, + The pious fathers pass their days; + While the bell's shrill-tinkling sound + Regulates their constant round. + +And + + Here the traveller elate + Finds an ever-open gate: + All his wants find quick supply, + While welcome beams from every eye. + + PARSONS. + +This pious foundation of retired Benedictines, situated in the +Appenines, about eighteen miles from Florence, owes its original to +Giovanni Gualberto, a Tuscan nobleman, whose brother Hugo having been +killed by a relation in the year 1015, he resolved to avenge his death; +but happening to meet the assassin alone and in a solitary place, +whither he appeared to have been driven by a sense of guilt, and seeing +him suddenly drop down at his feet, and without uttering a word produce +from his bosom a crucifix, holding it up in a supplicating gesture, with +look submissively imploring, he felt the force of this silent rhetoric, +and generously gave his enemy free pardon. + +On further reflection upon the striking scene, Gualberto felt still more +affected; and from seeing the dangers and temptations which surround a +bustling life, resolved to quit the too much mixed society of mankind, +and settle in a state of perpetual retirement. For this purpose he chose +Vallombrosa, and there founded the famous convent so justly admired by +all who visit it. + +Such stories lead one forward to the tombs of Michael Angelo and the +great Galileo, which last I looked on to-day with reverence, pity, and +wonder; to think that a change so surprising should be made in worldly +affairs since his time; that the man who no longer ago than the year +1636, was by the torments and terrors of the Inquisition obliged +formally to renounce, as heretical, accursed, and contrary to religion, +the revived doctrines of Copernicus, should now have a monument erected +to his memory, in the very city where he was born, whence he was cruelly +torn away to answer at Rome for the supposed offence; to which he +returned; and strange to tell, in which he lived on, by his own desire, +with the wife who, by her discovery of his sentiments, and information +given to the priests accordingly, had caused his ruin; and who, after +his death, in a fit of mad mistaken zeal, flung into the fire, in +company with her confessor, all the papers she could find in his study. + +How wonderful are these events! and how sweet must the science of +astronomy have been to that poor man, who suffered all but actual +martyrdom in its cause! How odd too, that ever Galileo's son, by such a +mother as we have just described, should apply himself to the same +studies, and be the inventor of the simple pendulum so necessary to +every kind of clock-work! + +Religious prejudices however, and their effects--and thanks be to God +their almost final conclusion too--may be found nearer home than +Galileo's tomb; while Milton has a monument in the same cathedral with +Dr. South, who perhaps would have given credit to no _human_ +information, which should have told him that event would take place. + +We are now going soon to leave Florence, seat of the arts and residence +of literature! I shall be sincerely sorry to quit a city where not a +step can be taken without a new or a revived idea being added to our +store;--where such statues as would in England have colleges founded, or +palaces built for their reception, stand in the open street; the +Centaur, the Sabine woman, and the Justice: Where the Madonna della +Seggiola reigns triumphant over all pictures for brilliancy of colouring +and vigour of pencil. + +It was the portrait of Raphaelle's favourite mistress, and his own child +by her sate for the Bambino:--is it then wonderful that it should want +that heavenly expression of dignity divine, and grace unutterable, which +breathes through the school of Caracci? Connoisseurs will have all +excellence united in one picture, and quarrel unkindly if merit of any +kind be wanting: Surely the Madonna della Seggiola has nature to +recommend it, and much more need not be desired. If the young and tender +and playful innocence of early infancy is what chiefly delights and +detains one's attention, it may be found to its utmost possible +perfection in a painter far inferior to Raphael, Carlo Marratt. + +If softness in the female character, and meek humility of countenance, +be all that are wanted for the head of a Madonna, we must go to +Elisabetta Sirani and Sassoferrata I think; but it is ever so. The +Cordelia of Mrs. Cibber was beyond all comparison softer and sweeter +than that of her powerful successor Siddons; yet who will say that the +actresses were equal? + +But I must bid adieu to beautiful Florence, where the streets are kept +so clean one is afraid to dirty _them_, and not _one's self_, by walking +in them: where the public walks are all nicely weeded, as in England, +and the gardens have a homeish and Bath-like look, that is excessively +cheering to an English eye:--where, when I dined at Prince Corsini's +table, I heard the Cardinal say grace, and thought of the ceremonies at +Queen's College, Oxford; where I had the honour of entertaining, at my +own dinner on the 25th of July, many of the Tuscan, and many of the +English nobility; and Nardini kindly played a solo in the evening at a +concert we gave in Meghitt's great room:--where we have compiled the +little book amongst us, known by the name of the Florence Miscellany; as +a memorial of that friendship which does me so much honour, and which I +earnestly hope may long subsist among us:--where in short we have lived +exceeding comfortably, but where dear Mrs. Greatheed and myself have +encouraged each other, in saying it would be particularly sad to _die_, +not of the gnats, or more properly musquitoes, for they do not sting one +quite to death, though their venom has swelled my arm so as to oblige me +to carry it for this last week in a sling; but of the _mal di petto_, +which is endemial in this country, and much resembling our pleurisy in +its effects. + +Blindness too seems no uncommon misfortune at Florence, from the strong +reverberation of the sun's rays on houses of the cleanest and most +brilliant whiteness; kept so elegantly nice too, that I should despair +of seeing more delicacy at Amsterdam. + +Apoplexies are likewise frequent enough: I saw a man carried out stone +dead from St. Pancrazio's church one morning about noon-day; but nobody +seemed disturbed at the event I think, except myself. Though this is no +good town to take one's last leave of life in neither; as the body one +has been so long taking care of, would in twenty-four hours be hoisted +up upon a common cart, with those of all the people who died the same +day, and being fairly carried out of Porto San Gallo towards the dusk of +evening, would be shot into a hole dug away from the city, properly +enough, to protect Florence, and keep it clear of putrid disorders and +disagreeable smells. All this with little ceremony to be sure, and less +distinction; for the Grand Duke suffers the pride of birth to last no +longer than life however, and demolishes every hope of the woman of +quality lying in a separate grave from the distressed object who begged +at her carriage door when she was last on an airing. + +Let me add, that his liberality of sentiment extends to virtue on the +one hand, if hardness of heart may be complained of on the other. He +suffers no difference of opinions to operate on his philosophy, and I +believe we heretics here should sleep among the best of his Tuscan +nobles. But there is no comfort in the possibility of being buried alive +by the excessive haste with which people are catched up and hurried +away, before it can be known almost whether all sparks of life are +extinct or no. Such management, and the lamentations one hears made by +the great, that they should thus be forced to keep _bad company_ after +death, remind me for ever of an old French epigram, the sentiment of +which I perfectly recollect, but have forgotten the verses, of which +however these lines are no unfaithful translation; + + I dreamt that in my house of clay, + A beggar buried by me lay; + Rascal! go stink apart, I cry'd, + Nor thus disgrace my noble side. + Heyday! cries he, what's here to do? + I'm on my dunghill sure, as well as you. + +Of elegant Florence then, so ornamented and so lovely, so neat that it +is said she should be seen only on holidays; dedicated of old to Flora, +and still the residence of sweetness, grace, and the fine arts +particularly; of these kind friends too, so amiable, so hospitable, +where I had the choice of four boxes every night at the theatre, and a +certainty of charming society in each, we must at last unwillingly take +leave; and on to-morrow, the twelfth day of September 1785, once more +commit ourselves to our coach, which has hitherto met with no accident +that could affect us, and in which, with God's protection, I fear not my +journey through what is left of Italy; though such tremendous tales are +told in many of our travelling books, of terrible roads and wicked +postillions, and ladies labouring through the mire on foot, to arrive at +bad inns where nothing eatable could be found. All which however is less +despicable than Tournefort, the great French botanist; who, while his +works swell with learning, and sparkle with general knowledge; while he +enlarges _your_ stock of ideas, and displays _his own_; laments +pathetically that he could not get down the partridges caught for him in +one of the Archipelagon islands, because they were not larded--_à la +mode de Paris_. + + + +LUCCA. + + +From the head-quarters of painting, sculpture, and architecture then, +where art is at her acme, and from a people polished into brilliancy, +perhaps a little into weakness, we drove through the celebrated vale of +Arno; thick hedges on each side us, which in spring must have been +covered with blossoms and fragrant with perfume; now loaded with +uncultivated fruits; the wild grape, raspberry, and azaroli, inviting to +every sense, and promising every joy. This beautiful and fertile, this +highly-adorned and truly delicious country carried us forward to Lucca, +where the panther sits at the gate, and liberty is written up on every +wall and door. It is so long since I have seen the word, that even the +letters of it rejoice my heart; but how the panther came to be its +emblem, who can tell? Unless the philosophy we learn from old Lilly in +our childhood were true, _nec vult panthera domari_[Footnote: That the +panther will never be tamed.]. + +That this fairy commonwealth should so long have maintained its +independency is strange; but Howel attributes her freedom to the active +and industrious spirit of the inhabitants, who, he says, resemble a hive +of bees, for order and for diligence. I never did see a place so +populous for the size of it: one is actually thronged running up and +down the streets of Lucca, though it is a little town enough for a +capital city to be sure; larger than Salisbury though, and prettier than +Nottingham, the beauties of both which places it unites with all the +charms peculiar to itself. + +The territory they claim, and of which no power dares attempt to +dispossess them, is much about the size of _Rutlandshire_ I fancy; +surrounded and apparently fenced in on every side, by the Appenines as +by a wall, that wall a hot one, on the southern side, and wholly planted +over with vines, while the soft shadows which fall upon the declivity of +the mountains make it inexpressibly pretty; and form, by the particular +disposition of their light and shadow, a variety which no other prospect +so confined can possibly enjoy. + +This is the Ilam gardens of Europe; and whoever has seen that singular +spot in Derbyshire belonging to Mr. Port, has seen little Lucca in a +convex mirror. Some writer calls it a ring upon the finger of the +Emperor, under whose protection it has been hitherto preserved safe from +the Grand Duke of Tuscany till these days, in which the interests of +those two sovereigns, united by intimacy as by blood and resemblance of +character, are become almost exactly the same. + +A Doge, whom they call the _Principe_, is elected every two months; and +is assisted by ten senators in the administration of justice. + +Their armoury is the prettiest plaything I ever yet saw, neatly kept, +and capable of furnishing twenty-five thousand men with arms. Their +revenues are about equal to the Duke of Bedford's I believe, eighty or +eighty-five thousand pounds sterling a year; every spot of ground +belonging to these people being cultivated to the highest pitch of +perfection that agriculture, or rather gardening (for one cannot call +these enclosures fields), will admit: and though it is holiday time just +now, I see no neglect of necessary duty. They were watering away this +morning at seven o'clock, just as we do in a nursery-ground about +London, a hundred men at once, or more, before they came home to make +themselves smart, and go to hear music in their best church, in honour +of some saint, I have forgotten who; but he is the patron of Lucca, and +cannot be accused of neglecting his charge, that is certain. + +This city seems really under admirable regulations; here are fewer +beggars than even at Florence, where however one for fifty in the states +of Genoa or Venice do not meet your eyes: And either the word liberty +has bewitched me, or I see an air of plenty without insolence, and +business without noise, that greatly delight me. Here is much +cheerfulness too, and gay good-humour; but this is the season of +devotion at Lucca, and in these countries the ideas of devotion and +diversion are so blended, that all religious worship seems connected +with, and to me now regularly implies, _a festive show_. + +Well, as the Italians say, "_Il mondo è bello perche è +variabile_[Footnote: The world is pleasant because it is various.]." We +English dress our clergymen in black, and go ourselves to the theatre +in colours. Here matters are reversed, the church at noon looked like a +flower-garden, so gaily adorned were the priests, confrairies, &c. while +the Opera-house at night had more the air of a funeral, as every body +was dressed in black: a circumstance I had forgotten the meaning of, +till reminded that such was once the emulation of finery among the +persons of fashion in this city, that it was found convenient to +restrain the spirit of expence, by obliging them to wear constant +mourning: a very rational and well-devised rule in a town so small, +where every body is known to every body; and where, when this silly +excitement to envy is wisely removed, I know not what should hinder the +inhabitants from living like those one reads of in the Golden Age; +which, above all others, this climate most resembles, where pleasure +contributes to sooth life, commerce to quicken it, and faith extends its +prospects to eternity. Such is, or such at least appears to me this +lovely territory of Lucca: where cheap living, free government, and +genteel society, may be enjoyed with a tranquillity unknown to larger +states: where there are delicious and salutary baths a few miles out of +town, for the nobility to make _villeggiatura_ at; and where, if those +nobility were at all disposed to cultivate and communicate learning, +every opportunity for study is afforded. + +Some drawbacks will however always be found from human felicity. I once +mentioned this place with warm expectations of delight, to a Milanese +lady of extensive knowledge, and every elegant accomplishment worthy her +high birth, _the Contessa Melzi Resla_. "Why yes," said she, "if you +would find out the place where common sense stagnates, and every topic +of conversation dwindles and perishes away by too frequent or too +unskilful touching and handling, you must go to Lucca. My ill-health +sent me to their beautiful baths one summer; where all the faculties of +my body were restored, thank God, but those of my soul were stupified to +such a degree, that at last I was fit to keep no other company but _Dame +Lucchesi_ I think; and _our_ talk was soon ended, heaven knows, for when +they had once asked me of an evening, what I had for dinner? and told me +how many pair of stockings their neighbours sent to the wash, we had +done." + +This was a young, a charming, a lively lady of quality; full of +curiosity to know the world, and of spirits to bustle through it; but +had she been battered through the various societies of London and Paris +for eighteen or twenty years together, she would have loved Lucca +better, and despised it less. "We must not look for whales in the Euxine +Sea," says an old writer; and we must not look for great men or great +things in little nations to be sure, but let us respect the innocence of +childhood, and regard with tenderness the territory of Lucca: where no +man has been murdered during the life or memory of any of its peaceful +inhabitants; where one robbery alone has been committed for sixteen +years; and the thief hanged by a Florentine executioner borrowed for the +purpose, no Lucchese being able or willing to undertake so horrible an +office, with terrifying circumstances of penitence and public +reprehension: where the governed are so few in proportion to the +governors; all power being circulated among four hundred and fifty +nobles, and the whole country producing scarcely ninety thousand souls. +A great boarding-school in England is really an infinitely more +licentious place; and grosser immoralities are every day connived at in +it, than are known to pollute this delicate and curious commonwealth; +which keeps a council always subsisting, called the _Discoli_, to +examine the lives and conduct, professions, and even _health_ of their +subjects: and once o'year they sweep the town of vagabonds, which till +then are caught up and detained in a house of correction, and made to +work, if not disabled by lameness, till the hour of their release and +dismission. I wondered there were so few beggars about, but the reason +is now apparent: these we see are neighbours, come hither only for the +three days gala. + +I was wonderfully solicitous to obtain some of their coin, which carries +on it the image of no _earthly_ prince; but his head only who came to +redeem us from general slavery on the one side, _Jesus Christ_; on the +other, the word _Libertas_. + +Our peasant-girls here are in a new dress to me; no more jewels to be +seen, no more pearls; the finery of which so dazzled me in Tuscany: +these wenches are prohibited such ornaments it seems. A muslin +handkerchief, folded in a most becoming manner, and starched exactly +enough to make it wear clean four days, is the head-dress of Lucchese +lasses; it is put on turban-wise, and they button their gowns close, +with long sleeves _à la Savoyarde_; but it is made often of a stiff +brocaded silk, and green lapels, with cuffs of the same colour; nor do +they wear any hats at all, to defend them from a sun which does +undoubtedly mature the fig and ripen the vine, but which, by the same +excess of power, exalts the venom of the viper, and gives the scorpion +means to keep me in perpetual torture for fear of his poison, of which, +though they assure us death is seldom the consequence among _them_, I +know his sting would finish me at once, because the gnats at Florence +were sufficient to lame me for a considerable time. + +The dialect has lost much of the guttural sound that hurt one's ear at +the last place of residence; but here is an odd squeaking accent, that +distinguishes the Tuscan of Lucca. + +The place appropriated for airing, showing fine equipages, &c. is +beautiful beyond all telling; from the peculiar shadows on the +mountains. They make the bastions of the town their Corso, but none +except the nobles can go and drive upon one part of it. I know not how +many yards of ground is thus let apart, sacred to sovereignty; but it +makes one laugh. + +Our inn here is an excellent one, as far as I am concerned; and the +sallad-oil green, like Irish usquebaugh, nothing was ever so excellent. +I asked the French valet who dresses our hair, "_Si ce n'etait pas une +republique mignonne?_[X]"--"_Ma foy, madame, je la trouve plus tôt la +republique des rats et des souris[Y];_" replies the fellow, who had not +slept all night, I afterwards understood, for the noise those +troublesome animals made in his room. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote X: If it were not a dear little pretty commonwealth--this?] + +[Footnote Y: Faith, madam, I call it the republic of the rats and +mice.] + + + +PISA. + + +This town has been so often described that it is as well known in +England as in Italy almost; where I, like others, have seen the +magnificent cathedral; have examined the two pillars which support its +entrance, and which once adorned Diana's temple at Ephesus, one of the +seven wonders of the world. Their carving is indeed beyond all idea of +workmanship; and the possession of them is inestimable. I have seen the +old stones with inscriptions on them, bearing date the reign of +Antoninus Pius, stuck casually, some with the letters reversed, some +sloping, according to accident merely, as it appears to me, in the body +of the great church: and I have seen the leaning tower that Lord +Chesterfield so comically describes our English travellers eagerness to +see. It is a beautiful building though after all, and a strange thing +that it should lean so. The cylindrical form, and marble pillars that +support each story, may rationally enough attract a stranger's notice, +and one is sorry the lower stories have sunk from their foundations, +originally defective ones I trust they were, though, God knows, if the +Italians do not build towers well, it is not for want either of skill or +of experience; for there is a tower to every town I think, and commonly +fabricated with elaborate nicety and well-fixed bases. But as +earthquakes and subterranean fires here are scarcely a wonder, one need +not marvel much at seeing the ground retreat just _here_. It is nearer +our hand, and quite as well worth our while to enquire, why the tower at +_Bridgnorth_ in Shropshire leans exactly in the same direction, and is +full as much out of the perpendicular as this at Pisa. + +The brazen gates here, carved by John of Bologna, at least begun by him, +are a wonderful work; and the marbles in the baptistery beat those of +Florence for value and for variety. A good lapidary might find perpetual +amusement in adjusting the claims of superiority to these precious +columns of jasper, granite, alabaster, &c. The different animals which +support the font being equally admirable for their composition as for +their workmanship. + +The Campo Santo is an extraordinary place, and, for aught I know, +unparalleled for its power over the mind in exciting serious +contemplations upon the body's decay, and suggesting consolatory +thoughts concerning the soul's immortality. Here in three days, owing to +quick-lime mixed among the earth, vanishes every vestige, every trace of +the human being carried thither seventy hours before, and here round the +walls Giotto and Cimabue have exhausted their invention to impress the +passers-by with deep and pensive melancholy. + +The four stages of man's short life, infancy, childhood, maturity, and +decrepit age, not ill represented by one of the ancient artists, shew +the sad but not slow progress we make to this dark abode; while the last +judgment, hell, and paradise inform us what events of the utmost +consequence are to follow our journey. All this a modern traveller finds +out to be _vastly ridiculous!_ though Doctor Smollet _(whose book I +think he has read)_ confesses, that the spacious Corridor round the +Campo Santo di Pisa would make the noblest walk in the world perhaps for +a contemplative philosopher. + +The tomb of Algarotti produces softer ideas when one looks at the +sepulchre of a man who, having deserved and obtained such solid and +extensive praise, modestly contented himself with desiring that his +epitaph might be so worded, as to record, upon a simple but lasting +monument, that he had the honour of being disciple to the immortal +_Newton_. + +The battle of the bridge here at Pisa drew a great many spectators this +year, as it has not been performed for a considerable time before: the +waiters at our inn here give a better account of it than one should have +got perhaps from Cavalier or Dama, who would have felt less interested +in the business, and seen it from a greater distance. The armies of +Sant' Antonio, and I think San Giovanni Battista, but I will not be +positive as to the last, disputed the possession of the bridge, and +fought gallantly I fancy; but the first remained conqueror, as our very +conversible _Camerieres_ took care to inform us, as it was on that side +it seems that they had exerted their valour. + +Calling theatres, and ships, and running horses, and mock fights, and +almost every thing so by the names of Saints, whom we venerate in +silence, and they themselves publicly worship, has a most profane and +offensive sound with it to be sure; and shocks delicate ears very +dreadfully: and I used to reprimand my maids at Milan for bringing up +the blessed Virgin Mary's name on every trivial, almost on every +ludicrous occasion, with a degree of sharpness they were not accustomed +to, because it kept me in a constant shivering. Yet let us reflect a +moment on our own conduct in England, and we shall be forced candidly to +confess that the Puritans alone keep their lips unpolluted by breach of +the third commandment, while the common exclamation of _good God!_ +scrupled by few people on the slightest occurrences, and apparently +without any temptation in the world, is no less than gross irreverence +of his sacred name, whom we acknowledge to be + + Father of all, in _every_ age + In _every_ clime ador'd; + By saint, by savage, and by sage, + Jehovah, Jove, or Lord. + +Nor have the ladies at a London card-table Italian ignorance to plead +in their excuse; as not instruction but docility is wanted among almost +all ranks of people in Great Britain, where, if the Christian religion +were practised as it is understood, little could be wished for its +eternal, as little is left out among the blessings of its temporal +welfare. + +I have been this morning to look at the Grand Duke's camels, which he +keeps in his park as we do deer in England. There were a hundred and +sixteen of them, pretty creatures! and they breed very well here, and +live quite at their ease, only housing them the winter months: they are +perfectly docile and gentle the man told me, apparently less tender of +their young than mares, but more approachable by human creatures than +even such horses as have been long at grass. That dun hue one sees them +of, is, it seems, not totally and invariably the same, though I doubt +not but it is so in their native deserts. Let it once become a fashion +for sovereigns and other great men to keep and to caress them, we shall +see camels as variegated as cats, which in the woods are all of the +uniformly-streaked tabby--the males inclining to the brown shade--the +females to blue among them;--but being bred _down_, become +tortoise-shell, and red, and every variety of colour, which +domestication alone can bestow. + +The misery of Tuscany is, that _all animals_ thrive so happily under +this productive sun; so that if you scorn the Zanzariere, you are +half-devoured before morning, and so disfigured, that I defy one's +nearest friends to recollect one's countenance; while the spiders sting +as much as any of their insects; and one of them bit me this very day +till the blood came. + +With all this not ill-founded complaint of these our active companions, +my constant wonder is, that the grapes hang untouched this 20th of +September, in vast heavy clusters covered with bloom; and unmolested by +insects, which, with a quarter of this heat in England, are encouraged +to destroy all our fruit in spite of the gardener's diligence to blow up +nests, cover the walls with netting, and hang them about with bottles of +syrup, to court the creatures in, who otherwise so damage every fig and +grape and plum of ours, that nothing but the skins are left remaining +_by now. Here_ no such contrivances are either wanted or thought on; +and while our islanders are sedulously bent to guard, and studious to +invent new devices to protect their half dozen peaches from their half +dozen wasps, the standard trees of Italy are loaded with high-flavoured +and delicious fruits. + + Here figs sky-dy'd a purple hue disclose, + Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows; + Here dangling pears exalted scents unfold, + And yellow apples ripen into gold. + +The roadside is indeed hedged with festoons of vines, crawling from +olive to olive, which they plant in the ditches of Tuscany as we do +willows in Britain: mulberry trees too by the thousand, and some +pollarded poplars serve for support to the glorious grapes that will now +soon be gathered. What least contributes to the beauty of the country +however, is perhaps most subservient to its profits. I am ashamed to +write down the returns of money gained by the oil alone in this +territory and that of Lucca, where I was much struck with the colour as +well as the excellence of this useful commodity. Nor can I tell why none +of that green cast comes over to England, unless it is, that, like +essential oil of chamomile, it loses the tint by exposure to the air. + +An olive tree, however, is no elegantly-growing or happily-coloured +plant: straggling and dusky, one is forced to think of its produce, +before one can be pleased with its merits, as in a deformed and ugly +friend or companion. + +The fogs now begin to fall pretty heavily in a morning, and rising about +the middle of the day, leave the sun at liberty to exert his violence +very powerfully. At night come forth the inhabitants, like dor-beetles +at sunset on the coast of Sussex; then is their season to walk and chat, +and sing and make love, and run about the street with a girl and a +guittar; to eat ice and drink lemonade; but never to be seen drunk or +quarrelsome, or riotous. Though night is the true season of Italian +felicity, they place not their happiness in brutal frolics, any more +than in malicious titterings; they are idle and they are merry: it is, I +think, the worst we can say of them; they are idle because there is +little for them to do, and merry because they have little given them to +think about. To the busy Englishman they might well apply these verses +of his own Milton in the Masque of Comus: + + What have we with day to do? + Sons of Care! 'twas made for you. + + + +LEGHORN. + + +Here we are by the sea-side once more, in a trading town too; and I +should think myself in England almost, but for the difference of dresses +that pass under my balcony: for here we were immediately addressed by a +young English gentleman, who politely put us in possession of his +apartments, the best situated in the town; and with him we talked of the +dear coast of Devonshire, agreed upon the resemblance between that and +these environs, but gave the preference to home, on account of its +undulated shore, finely fringed with woodlands, which here are wanting: +nor is this verdure equal to ours in vivid colouring, or variegated with +so much taste as those lovely hills which are adorned by the antiquities +of Powderham Castle, and the fine disposition of Lord Lisburne's park. + +But here is an English consul at Leghorn. Yes indeed! an English chapel +too; our own King's arms over the door, and in the desk and pulpit an +English clergyman; high in character, eminent for learning, genteel in +his address, and charitable in every sense of the word: as such, truly +loved and honoured by those of his own persuasion, exceedingly respected +by those of every other, which fill this extraordinary city: a place so +populous, that Cheapside alone can surpass it. + +It is not a large place however; one very long straight street, and one +very large wide square, not less than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, but I think +bigger, form the whole of Leghorn; which I can compare to nothing but a +_camera obscura,_ or magic lanthron, exhibiting prodigious variety of +different, and not uninteresting figures, that pass and re-pass to my +incessant delight, and give that sort of empty amusement which is _à la +portée de chacun_[Footnote: Within every one's reach.] so completely, +that for the present it really serves to drive every thing else from my +head, and makes me little desirous to quit for any other diversion the +windows or balcony, whence I look down now upon a Levantine Jew, +dressed in long robes, a sort of odd turban, and immense beard: now upon +a Tuscan contadinella, with the little straw hat, nosegay and jewels, I +have been so often struck with. Here an Armenian Christian, with long +hair, long gown, long beard, all black as a raven; who calls upon an old +grey Franciscan friar for a walk; while a Greek woman, obliged to cross +the street on some occasion, throws a vast white veil all over her +person, lest she should undergo the disgrace of being seen at all. + +Sometimes a group goes by, composed of a broad Dutch sailor, a +dry-starched puritan, and an old French officer; whose knowledge of the +world and habitual politeness contrive to conceal the contempt he has of +his companions. + +The geometricians tell us that the figure which has most angles bears +the nearest resemblance to that which has no angles at all; so here at +Leghorn, where you can hardly find forty men of a mind, dispute and +contention grow vain, a comfortable though temporary union takes place, +while nature and opinion bend to interest and necessity. + +The _Contorni_ of Leghorn are really very pretty; the Appenine +mountains degenerate into hills as they run round the bay, but gain in +beauty what in sublimity they lose. + +To enjoy an open sea view, one must drive further; and it really affords +a noble prospect from that rising ground where I understand that the +rich Jews hold their summer habitations. They have a synagogue in the +town, where I went one evening, and heard the Hebrew service, and +thought of what Dr. Burney says of their singing. + +It is however no credit to the Tuscans to tell, that of all the people +gathered together here, they are the worst-looking--I speak of the +_men_--but it is so. When compared with the German soldiery, the English +sailors, the Venetian traders, the Neapolitan peasants, for I have seen +some of _them_ here, how feeble a fellow is a genuine Florentine! And +when one recollects the cottagers of Lombardy, that handsome hardy race; +bright in their expression, and muscular in their strength; it is still +stranger, what can have weakened these too delicate Tuscans so. As they +are very rich, and might be very happy under the protection of a prince +who lets slip no opportunity of preferring his plebeian to his patrician +subjects; yet here at Leghorn they have a tender frame and an unhealthy +look, occasioned possibly by the stagnant waters, which tender the +environs unwholesome enough I believe; and the millions of live +creatures they produce are enough to distract a person not accustomed to +such buzzing company. + +We went out for air yesterday morning three or four miles beyond the +town-walls, where I looked steadily at the sea, till I half thought +myself at home. The ocean being peculiarly British property favoured the +idea, and for a moment I felt as if on our southern coast; we walked +forward towards the shore, and I stepped upon some rocks that broke the +waves as they rolled in, and was wishing for a good bathing house that +one might enjoy the benefit of salt-water so long withheld; till I saw +our _laquais de place_ crossing himself at the carriage door, and +wondering, as I afterwards found out, at my matchless intrepidity. The +mind however took another train of thought, and we returned to the +coach, which when we arrived at I refused to enter; not without +screaming I fear, as a vast hornet had taken possession in our absence, +and the very notion of such a companion threw me into an agony. Our +attendant's speech to the coachman however, made me more than amends: +"_Ora si vede amico_" (says he), "_cos'è la Donna; del mare istesso non +hà paura è pur và in convulsioni per via d'una mosca_[Z]." This truly +Tuscan and highly contemptuous harangue, uttered with the utmost +deliberation, and added to the absence of the hornet, sent me laughing +into the carriage, with great esteem of our philosophical _Rosso_, for +so the fellow was called, because he had red hair. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote Z: Now, my friend, do but observe what a thing is a woman! she +is not afraid even of the roaring ocean, and yet goes into fits almost +at the sight of a fly.] + +In a very clear day, it is said, one may see Corsica from hence, though +not less than forty or fifty miles off: the pretty island Gorgona +however, whence our best anchovies are brought to England, lies +constantly in view, + + Assurgit ponti medio circumflua Gorgon. + + RUTELIUS's Itinerary. + +How she came by that extraordinary name though, is not I believe well +known; perhaps her likeness to one of the Cape Verd islands, the +original Hesperides, might be the cause; for it was _there_ the +daughters of Phorcus fixed their habitation: or may be, as Medusa was +called _Gorgon par eminence_, because she applied herself to the +enriching of ground, this fertile islet owes its appellation from being +particularly manured and fructified. + +Here is an extraordinary good opera-house; admirable dancers, who +performed a mighty pretty pantomime Comedie _larmoyante_ without words; +I liked it vastly. The famous Soprano singer Bedini was at Lucca; but +here is our old London favourite Signora Giorgi, improved into a degree +of perfection seldom found, and from her little expected. + +Mr. Udney the British Consul is alone now; his lady has been obliged to +leave him, and take her children home for health's sake; but we saw his +fine collection of pictures, among which is a Danae that once belonged +to Queen Christina of Sweden, and fell from her possession into that of +some nobleman, who being tormented by scruples of morality upon his +death-bed, resolved to part with all his undraped figures, but not +liking to lose the face of this Danae, put the picture into a painter's +hands to cut and clothe her: the man, instead of obeying orders he +considered as barbarous, copied the whole, and dressed the copy +decently, sending it to his sick friend, who never discerned the trick; +and kept the original to dispose of, where fewer scruples impeded an +advantageous sale. The gentleman who bought it then, died; when Mr. +Udney purchased Danae, and highly values her; though some connoisseurs +say she is too young and ungrown a female for the character. There is a +Titian too in the same collection, of Cupid riding on a lion's back, to +which some very remarkable story is annexed; but one's belief is so +assailed by such various tales, told of all the striking pictures in +Italy, that one grows more tenacious of it every day I think; so that at +last the danger will be of believing too little, instead of too much +perhaps. Happy for travellers would it be, were that disposition of mind +confined to _painting_ only: but if it should prove extended to more +serious subjects, we can only hope that the violent excess of the +temptation may prove some excuse, or at least in a slight degree +extenuate the offence: A wise man cannot believe half he hears in Italy +to be sure, but a pious man will be cautious not to discredit it all. + +Our evening's walk was directed towards the burying-ground appointed +here to receive the bodies of our countrymen, and consecrated according +to the rites of the Anglican church: for _here_, under protection of a +factory, we enjoy that which is vainly sought for under the auspices of +a king's ambassador.--_Here_ we have a churchyard of our own, and are +not condemned as at other towns in Italy, to be stuffed into a hole like +dogs, after having spent our money among them like princes. Prejudice +however is not banished from Leghorn, though convenience keeps all in +good-humour with each other. The Italians fail not to class the subjects +of Great Britain among the Pagan inhabitants of the town, and to +distinguish themselves, say, "_Noi altri Christiani_[Footnote: We that +are Christians.]:" their aversion to a Protestant, conceal it as they +may, is ever implacable; and the last day only will convince them that +it is criminal. + +_Coelum non animum mutant_[Footnote: One changes one's sky but not +one's soul.], is an old observation; I passed this afternoon in +confirming the truth of it among the English traders settled here: whose +conversation, manners, ideas, and language, were so truly _Londonish_, +so little changed by transmigration, that I thought some enchantment had +suddenly operated, and carried me to drink tea in the regions of +_Bucklersbury_. + +Well! it is a great delight to see such a society subsisting in Italy +after all; established where distress may run for refuge, and sickness +retire to prepare for lasting repose; whence narrowness of mind is +banished by principles of universal benevolence, and prejudice precluded +by Christian charity: where the purse of the British merchant, ever open +to the poor, is certain to succour and to soothe affliction; and where +it is agreed that more alms are given by the natives of our island +alone, than by all the rest of Leghorn, and the palaces of Pisa put +together. + +I have here finished that work which chiefly brought me hither; the +Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson's Life. It is from this port they take their +flight for England, while we retire for refreshment to the + + + +BAGNI DI PISA. + + +But not only the waters here are admirable, every look from every window +gives images unentertained before; sublimity happily wedded with +elegance, and majestick greatness enlivened, yet softened by taste. + +The haughty mountain St. Juliano lifting its brown head over our house +on one side, the extensive plain stretched out before us on the other; a +gravel walk neatly planted by the side of a peaceful river, which winds +through a valley richly cultivated with olive yards and vines; and +sprinkled, though rarely, with dwellings, either magnificent or +pleasing: this lovely prospect, bounded only by the sea, makes a variety +incessant as the changes of the sky; exhibiting early tranquillity, and +evening splendour by turns. + +It was perhaps particularly delightful to me, to obtain once more a +cottage in the country, after running so from one great city to another; +and for the first week I did nothing but rejoice in a solitude so new, +so salutiferous, so total. I therefore begged my husband not to hurry us +to Rome, but take the house we lived in for a longer term, as I would +now play the English housewife in Italy I said; and accordingly began +calling the chickens and ducks under my window, tasted the new wine as +it ran purple from the cask, caressed the meek oxen that drew it to our +door; and felt sensations so unaffectedly pastoral, that nothing in +romance ever exceeded my felicity. + +The cold bath here is the most delicate imaginable; of a moderate degree +of coldness though, not three degrees below Matlock surely; but +omitting, simply enough, to carry a thermometer, one can measure the +heat of nothing. Our hot water here seems about the temperature of the +Queen's bath in Somersetshire; it is purgative, not corroborant, they +tell me; and its taste resembles Cheltenham water exactly. + +These springs are much frequented by the court I find, and here are +very tolerable accommodations; but it is not the season now, and our +solitude is perfect in a place which beggars all description, where the +mountains are mountains of marble, and the bushes on them bushes of +myrtle; large as our hawthorns, and white with blossoms, as _they_ are +at the same time of year in Devonshire; where the waters are salubrious, +the herbage odoriferous, every trodden step breathing immediate +fragrance from the crushed sweets of thyme, and marjoram, and winter +savoury: while the birds and the butterflies frolick around, and flutter +among the loaded lemon, and orange, and olive trees, till imagination is +fatigued with following the charms that surround one. + +I am come home this moment from a long but not tedious walk, among the +crags of this glorious mountain; the base of which nearly reaches, +within half a mile perhaps, to the territories of Lucca. Some country +girls passed me with baskets of fruit, chickens, &c. on their heads. I +addressed them as natives of the last-named place, saying I knew them to +be such by their dress and air; one of them instantly replied, "_Oh si, +siamo Lucchesi, noi altri; già si può vedere subito una Reppubblicana, e +credo bene ch'ella fe n' é accorta benissimo che siamo del paese della +libertà _[AA]." + +[Footnote AA: Oh yes, we are Lucca people sure enough, and I am +persuaded that you soon saw in our faces that we come from a land of +liberty.] + +I will add that these females wear no ornaments at all; are always proud +and gay, and sometimes a little fancy too. The Tuscan damsels, loaded +with gold and pearls, have a less assured look, and appear disconcerted +when in company with their freer neighbours--Let them tell why. + +Mean time my fairy dream of fantastic delight seems fading away apace. +Mr. Piozzi has been ill, and of a putrid complaint in his throat, which +above all things I should dread in this hot climate. This accident, +assisted by other concurring circumstances, has convinced me that we are +not shut up in measureless content as Shakespeare calls it, even under +St. Julian's Hill: for here was no help to be got in the first place, +except the useless conversation of a medical gentleman whose accent and +language might have pleased a disengaged mind, but had little chance to +tranquilize an affrighted one. What is worse, here was no rest to be +had, for the multitudes of vermin up stairs and below. When we first +hired the house, I remember my maid jumping up on one of the kitchen +chairs while a ragged lad cleared _that_ apartment for her of scorpions +to the number of seventeen. But now the biters and stingers drive me +_quite wild_, because one must keep the windows open for air, and a sick +man can enjoy none of that, being closed up in the Zanzariere, and +obliged to respire the same breath over and over again; which, with a +sore throat and fever, is most melancholy: but I keep it wet with +vinegar, and defy the hornets how I can. + +What is more surprising than all, however, is to hear that no lemons can +be procured for less than two pence English a-piece; and now I am almost +ready to join myself in the general cry against Italian imposition, and +recollect the proverb which teaches us + + Chi hà da far con Tosco, + Non bisogna esser losco[AB]; + +[Footnote AB: + Who has to do with Tuscan wight, + Of both his eyes will need the light. +] + +as I am confident they cannot be worth even two pence a hundred here, +where they hang like apples in our cyder countries; but the rogues know +that my husband is sick, and upon poor me they have no mercy. + +I have sent our folks out to gather fruit at a venture: and now this +misery will soon be ended with his illness; driven away by deluges of +lemonade, I think, made in defiance of wasps, flies, and a kind of +volant beetle, wonderfully beautiful and very pertinacious in his +attacks; and who makes dreadful depredations on my sugar and +currant-jelly, so necessary on this occasion of illness, and so +attractive to all these detestable inhabitants of a place so lovely. + +My patient, however, complaining that although I kept these harpies at a +distance, no sleep could yet be obtained;--I resolved when he was risen, +and had changed his room, to examine into the true cause: and with my +maid's assistance, unript the mattress, which was without exaggeration +or hyperbole _all alive_ with creatures wholly unknown to me. +Non-descripts in nastiness I believe they are, like maggots with horns +and tails; such a race as I never saw or heard of, and as would have +disgusted Mr. Leeuenhoeck himself. My willingness to quit this place and +its hundred-footed inhabitants was quickened three nights after by a +thunder storm, such as no dweller in more northern latitudes can form an +idea of; which, afflicted by some few slight shocks of an earthquake, +frighted us all from our beds, sick and well, and gave me an opportunity +of viewing such flashes of lightning as I had never contemplated till +now, and such as it appeared impossible to escape from with life. The +tremendous claps of thunder re-echoing among these Appenines, which +double every sound, were truly dreadful. I really and sincerely thought +St. Julian's mountain was rent by one violent stroke, accompanied with a +rough concussion, and that the rock would fall upon our heads by +morning; while the agonies of my English maid and the French valet, +became equally insupportable to themselves and me; who could only repeat +the same unheeded consolations, and protest our resolution of releasing +them from this theatre of distraction the moment our departure should +become practicable. Mean time the rain fell, and such a torrent came +tumbling down the sides of St. Juliano, as I am persuaded no female +courage could have calmly looked on. I therefore waited its abatement in +a darkened room, packed up our coach without waiting to copy over the +verses my admiration of the place had prompted, and drove forward to +Sienna, through Pisa again, where our friends told us of the damages +done by the tempest; and shewed us a pretty little church just out of +town, where the officiating priest at the altar was saved almost by +miracle, as the lightning melted one of the chalices completely, and +twisted the brazen-gilt crucifix quite round in a very astonishing +manner. + +Here, however, is the proper place, if any, to introduce the poem of +seventy-three short lines, calling itself an Ode to Society written in a +state of perfect solitude, secluded from all mortal tread, as was our +habitation at the Bagni di Pisa. + + ODE TO SOCIETY. + + I. + + SOCIETY! gregarious dame! + Who knows thy favour'd haunts to name? + Whether at Paris you prepare + The supper and the chat to share, + While fix'd in artificial row, + Laughter displays its teeth of snow: + Grimace with raillery rejoices, + And song of many mingled voices, + Till young coquetry's artful wile + Some foreign novice shall beguile, + Who home return'd, still prates of thee, + Light, flippant, French SOCIETY. + + II. + + Or whether, with your zone unbound, + You ramble gaudy Venice round, + Resolv'd the inviting sweets to prove, + Of friendship warm, and willing love; + Where softly roll th' obedient seas, + Sacred to luxury and ease, + In coffee-house or casino gay + Till the too quick return of day, + Th' enchanted votary who sighs + For sentiments without disguise, + Clear, unaffected, fond, and free, + In Venice finds SOCIETY. + + III. + + Or if to wiser Britain led, + Your vagrant feet desire to tread + With measur'd step and anxious care, + The precincts pure of Portman square; + While wit with elegance combin'd, + And polish'd manners there you'll find; + The taste correct--and fertile mind: + Remember vigilance lurks near, + And silence with unnotic'd sneer, + Who watches but to tell again + Your foibles with to-morrow's pen; + Till titt'ring malice smiles to see + Your wonder--grave SOCIETY. + + IV. + + Far from your busy crowded court, + Tranquillity makes her report; + Where 'mid cold Staffa's columns rude, + Resides majestic solitude; + Or where in some sad Brachman's cell, + Meek innocence delights to dwell, + Weeping with unexperienc'd eye, + The death of a departed fly: + Or in _Hetruria_'s heights sublime, + Where science self might fear to climb, + But that she seeks a smile from thee, + And wooes thy praise, SOCIETY. + + V. + + Thence let me view the plains below, + From rough St. Julian's rugged brow; + Hear the loud torrents swift descending, + Or mark the beauteous rainbow bending, + Till Heaven regains its favourite hue, + Æther divine! celestial blue! + Then bosom'd high in myrtle bower, + View letter'd Pisa's pendent tower; + The sea's wide scene, the port's loud throng, + Of rude and gentle, right and wrong; + A motley groupe which yet agree + To call themselves SOCIETY. + + VI. + + Oh! thou still sought by wealth and fame, + Dispenser of applause and blame: + While flatt'ry ever at thy side, + With slander can thy smiles divide; + Far from thy haunts, oh! let me stray, + But grant one friend to cheer my way, + Whose converse bland, whose music's art, + May cheer my soul, and heal my heart; + Let soft content our steps pursue, + And bliss eternal bound our view: + Pow'r I'll resign, and pomp, and glee, + Thy best-lov'd sweets--SOCIETY. + + + +SIENNA. + + +20th October 1786. + +We arrived here last night, having driven through the sweetest country +in the world; and here are a few timber trees at last, such as I have +not seen for a long time, the Tuscan spirit of mutilation being so +great, that every thing till now has been pollarded that would have +passed twenty feet in height: this is done to support the vines, and not +suffer their rambling produce to run out of the way, and escape the +gripe of the gatherers. I have eaten too many of these delicious grapes +however, and it is now my turn to be sick--No wonder, I know few who +would resist a like temptation, especially as the inn afforded but a +sorry dinner, whilst every hedge provided so noble a dessert. _Paffera +pur la malattia_[Footnote: The disorder will die away though.], as these +soft-mouthed people tell me; the sooner perhaps, as we are not here +annoyed by insects, which poison the pleasure of other places in Italy; +here are only _lizards_, lovely creatures! who being of a beautiful +light green colour upon the back and legs, reside in whole families at +the foot of every tree, and turn their scarlet bosoms to the sun, as if +to display the glories of colouring which his beams alone can bestow. + +The pleasing tales told of this pretty animal's amical disposition +towards man are strictly true, I hear; and it is no longer ago than +yesterday I was told an odd anecdote of a young farmer, who, carrying a +basket of figs to his mistress, lay down in the field as he crossed it, +quite overcome with the weather, and fell fast asleep. A serpent, +attracted by the scent, twined round the basket, and would have bit the +fellow as well as robbed him, had not a friendly lizard waked, and given +him warning of the danger. + +Swift says, that in the course of life he meets many asses, but they +have not _lucky names_. I have met many _vipers, and so few lizards_, it +is surprising! but they will not live in London. + +All the stories one has ever heard of sweetness in language and delicacy +in pronunciation, fall short of Siennese converse. The girls who wait +on us at the inn here, would be treasures in England, could one get them +thither; and they need move nothing but their tongues to make their +fortunes. I told Rosetta so, and said I would steal from them a poor +girl of eight years old, whom they kept out of charity, and called +Olympia, to be my language mistress, "_Battezata com' è, la lascieremo +Christiana_[AC]," was the answer. It is impossible, without their +manners, to express their elegance, their superior delicacy, graceful +without diffusion, and terse without laconicism. You ask the way to the +town of a peasant girl, and she replies, "_Passato'l Ponte, o pur +barcato'l Fiume, eccola a Sienna_[AD]." And as we drove towards the city +in the evening, our postillion sung improviso verses on his sweetheart, +a widow who lived down at Pistoja, they told me. I was ashamed to think +that no desk or study was likely to have produced better on so trite a +subject. Candour must confess, however, that no thought was new, though +the language made them for a moment seem so. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote AC: Being baptized as she is, we will leave her a Christian.] + +[Footnote AD: The bridge once passed, or the river crossed, Sienna lies +before you.] + +This town is neat and cleanly, and comfortable and airy. The prospect +from the public walks wants no beauty but water; and here is a +suppressed convent on the neighbouring hill, where we half-longed to +build a pretty cottage, as the ground is now to be disposed of vastly +cheap; and half one's work is already done in the apartments once +occupied by friars. With half a word's persuasion I should fix for life +here. The air is so pure, the language so pleasing, the place so +inviting;--_but we drive on_. + +There is, mean time, resident in the neighbourhood an English gentleman, +his name Greenfield, who has formed to himself a mighty sweet habitation +in the English taste, but not extensive, as his property don't reach +far: he is however a sort of little oracle in the country I am told; +gives money, and dispenses James's powders to the poor, is happy in the +esteem of numberless people of fashion, and the comfort of his country +people's lives beside; who, travelling to Sienna, as many do for the +advantage of studying Italian to perfection, find a friend and +companion where perhaps it is least expected. + +The cathedral here at Sienna deserves a volume, and I shall scarcely +give it a page. The pavement of it is the just pride of Italy, and may +challenge the world to produce its equal. St. Mark's at Venice floored +with precious stones dies away upon the comparison; this being all +inlaid with dove-coloured and white marbles representing historical +subjects not ill told. Were this operation performed in mosaic work, +others of rival excellence might be found. The pavement of Sienna's dome +is so disposed by an effort of art one never saw but here, that it +produces an effect most resembling that of a very fine and beautiful +damask table-cloth, where the large patterns are correctly drawn. + +_Rome_ however is to be our next stage, and many of our English +gentlemen now here, are with ourselves impatiently waiting for the +numberless pleasures it is expected to afford us. I will here close this +chapter upon our various desires; one wishing to see St. Peters; one +setting his heart upon entering the Capitol: to-morrow's sun will light +us all upon our search. + + + +ROME. + + +The first sleeping place between Sienna and this capital shall not +escape mentioning; its name is Radicosani, its title an inn, and its +situation the summit of an exhausted volcano. Such a place did I never +see. The violence of the mountain, when living, has split it in a +variety of places, and driven it to a breadth of base beyond +credibility, its height being no longer formidable. Whichever way you +turn your eyes, nothing but portions of this black rock appear +therefore; so here is extent without sublimity, and here is terror +mingled with disgust. The inside of the house is worthy of the prospect +seen from its windows; wild, spacious, and scantily provided. Never had +place so much the appearance of a haunted hall, where Sir Rowland or Sir +Bertrand might feel proud of their courage when + + The knight advancing strikes the fatal door, + And hollow chambers send a sullen roar. + + MERRY + +To this truly dismal reposing place is however kindly added a little +chapel; and few persons can imagine what a comfortable feel it gave me +on entering it in the morning after hearing the winds howl all night in +the black mountain. Here too we first made acquaintance with Signor +Giovanni Ricci, a mighty agreeable gentleman, who was kindly assistant +to us in a hundred little difficulties, afterwards occasioned by horses, +postillions, &c. which at last brought us through a bad country enough +to Viterbo, where we slept. + +The melancholy appearance of the Campagna has been remarked and +described by every traveller with displeasure, by all with truth. The +ill look of the very few and very unhealthy inhabitants confirms their +descriptions; and beside the pale and swelled faces which shock one's +sight, here is a brassy scent in the air as of verdigris, which offends +one's smell; the running water is of an odd colour too, like that in +which copper has been steeped. These are sad desolated scenes indeed, +though this is not the season for _mal' aria_ neither, which, it is +said, begins in May, and ends with September. The present sovereign is +mending matters as fast as he can, we hear; and the road now cutting, +will greatly facilitate access to his capital, but cannot be done +without a prodigious expence. The first view of Rome is wonderfully +striking. + + Ye awful wrecks of ancient times! + Proud monuments of ages past + Now mould'ring in decay. + + MERRY. + +But mingled with every crowding, every classical idea, comes to one's +recollection an old picture painted by R. Wilson about thirty years ago, +which I am now sure must have been a very excellent representation. + +Well, then! here we are, admirably lodged at Strofani's in the Piazza di +Spagna, and have only to chuse what we will see and talk on first among +this galaxy of rarities which dazzles, diverts, confounds, and nearly +fatigues one. I will speak of the oldest things first, as I was earnest +to see something of Rome in its very early days, if possible; for +example the Sublician Bridge, defended by Cocles when the infant +republic, like their favourite Hercules in his cradle, strangled the +serpent despotism: and of this bridge some portion may yet be seen when +the water is very low. + +The prison is more ancient still however; it was built by the kings; and +by the solidity of its walls, and depth of its dungeon, seems built for +eternity. Was it not this place to which Juvenal alludes, when he says, + + Felicia dicas + Tempora quæ quondam sub regibus atque tribunis + Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam. + +And it is in this horrible spot they shew you the miraculous mark of St. +Peter's head struck against the wall in going down, with the fountain +which burst out of the ground for his refreshment. Antiquaries, however, +assure us, that he could not have ever been confined there, as it was a +place for state prisoners only, and those of the highest rank: they +likewise tell us that Jugurtha passed seven months there, which is as +difficult to believe as any miracle ever wrought; for the world was at +least somewhat civilized in those days, and how it should be contented +with looking quietly on whilst a Prince of Jugurtha's consequence +should be so kept, appears incredible at the distance of 1900 years. +That Christians should be treated still worse, if worse could be found +for them, is less strange, when every step one treads is upon the bones +of martyrs; and who dares say that the surrounding campagna, so often +drenched in innocent blood, may not have been cursed with pestilence and +sterility to all succeeding ages? I have examined the place where Sylla +massacred 8000 fellow-citizens at once, and find that it produces no +herb but thistles, a weed almost unknown in any other part of Italy; and +one of the first punishments bestowed on sinful man. + +Marcellus's Theatre, an old fountain erected by Camillus when Dictator, +and the Tarpeian rock, attract attention powerfully: the last +particularly, + + Where brave Manlius stood, + And hurl'd indignant decads down, + And redden'd Tyber's flood. + + GREATHEED. + +People have never done contradicting Burnet, who says, in his travels, +that a man might jump down it now and not do himself much harm: the +truth is, its present appearance is not formidable; but I believe it is +not less than forty feet high at this moment, though the ground is +greatly raised. + +Of all things at Rome the Cloaca is acknowledged most ancient; a very +great and a very useful work it is, of Ancus Martius, fourth king of +Rome. The just and zealous detestation of Christians towards Pontius +Pilate, is here comically expressed by their placing his palace just at +its exit into the Tyber; and one who pretended to doubt of its being his +residence, would be thought the worse of among them. + +I recollect nothing else built before the days of the Emperors, who, for +the most part, were such disgracers of human nature and human reason, +that one would almost wish their names expunged, and all their deeds +obliterated from the face of the globe, which could ever tamely submit +to such truly wretched rulers. + +The Capitol, built by Tarquin, stood till the days of Marius and Sylla +it seems; that last-named Dictator erected a new one, which was +overthrown in the contests about Vitellius; Vespasian set it up again, +but his performance was burned soon after its author's death; and this +we contemplate now, is one of the works of Domitian, and celebrated by +Martial of course. Adrian however added one room to it, dedicated to +Egyptian deities alone: as a matter of mere taste I fancy, like our +introducing Chinese temples into the garden; but many hold that it was +very serious and superstitious regard, inspired by the victory Canopus +won over the Persian divinity of fire, by the subtlety of the Egyptian +priests, who, to defend their idol from that all-subduing element, +wisely set upon his head a vessel filled with water, and having +previously made the figure of Terra Cotta hollow, and full of water, +with holes bored at the bottom stopped only by wax to keep it in, a +seeming miracle extinguished the flames, as soon as approached by +Canopus; whose triumph was of course proclaimed, and he respected +accordingly. The figure was a monkey, whose sitting attitude favoured +the imposture: our antiquaries tell us the story after _Suidas_. + +As cruelty is more detestable than fraud, one feels greater disgust at +the sight of captive monarchs without hands and arms, than even these +idolatrous brutalities inspire; and no greater proof can be obtained of +Roman barbarity, than the statues one is shewn here of kings and +generals over whom they triumphed; being made on purpose for them +without hands and arms, of which they were deprived immediately on their +arrival at Rome. + +Enormous heads and feet, to which the other parts are wanting, let one +see, or at least guess; what colossal figures were once belonging to +them; yet somehow these celebrated artists seem to me to have a little +confounded the ideas of _big_ and _great_ like my countryman Fluellyn in +Shakespear's play: while the two famous demi-gods Castor and Pollux, +each his horse in his hand, stand one on each side the stairs which lead +to the Capitol, and are of a prodigious size--fifteen feet, as I +remember. The knowing people tell us they are portraits, and bid us +observe that one has pupils to his eyes, the other _not_; but our +_laquais de place_, who was a very sensible fellow too, as he saw me +stand looking at them, cried out, "Why now to be sure here are a vast +many miracles in this holy city--that there are:" and I heard one of our +own folks telling an Englishman the other day, how these two monstrous +statues, horses and all I believe, _came out of an egg_: a very +extraordinary thing certainly; but it is our business to believe, not to +enquire. He saw my countenance express something he did not like, and +continued, "_Eh basta! sarà stato un uovo strepitoso, è cosi sinisce +l'istoria_[AE]." + +[Footnote AE: Well, well! it was a famous egg we'll say, and there's an +end.] + +In this repository of wonders, this glorious _campidoglio_, one is first +shewn as the most valuable curiosity, the two pigeons mentioned by Pliny +in old mosaic; and of prodigious nicety is the workmanship, though done +at such a distant period: and here is the very wolf which bears the very +mark of the lightning mentioned by Cicero:--and here is the beautiful +Antinous again; _he_ meets one at every turn, I think, and always hangs +his head as if ashamed: here too is the dying gladiator; wonderfully +fine! savage valour! mean extraction! horrible anguish! all marking, all +strongly characteristical expressions--_all there_; yet all swallowed +up, in that which does inevitably and certainly swallow up all +things--approaching death. + +The collection of pictures here would put any thing but these statues +out of one's head: Guido's Fortune flying over the globe, scattering her +gifts; of which she gave him _one_, the most precious, the most +desirable. How elegantly gay and airy is this picture! But St. Sebastian +stands opposite, to shew that he could likewise excel in the pathetic. +Titian's famous Magdalen, of which the King of France boasts one copy, a +noble family at Venice another, is protested by the Roman connoisseurs +to reside here only; but why should not the artist be fond of repeating +so fine an idea? Guercino's Sybil however, intelligently pensive, and +sweetly sensible, is the single figure I should prefer to them all. + +Before we quit the Capitol, it is pity not to name Marforio; broken, +old, and now almost forgotten: though once companion, or rather +respondent to Pasquin, and once, a thousand years before those days, a +statue of the river _Nar_, as his recumbent posture testifies; not _Mars +in the forum_, as has been by some supposed. The late Pope moved him +from the street, and shut him up with his betters in the Capitol. + +Of Trajan and Antonine's Pillars what can one say? That St. Peter and +St. Paul stand on the tops of each, setting forth that uncertainty of +human affairs which they preached in their life-time, and shewing that +_they_, who were once the objects of contempt and abhorrence, are now +become literally _the head stones of the corner_; being but too +profoundly venerated in that very city, which once cruelly persecuted, +and unjustly put them to death. Let us then who look on them recollect +their advice, and set our affections on a place of greater stability. +The columns are of very unequal excellence, that of Trajan's confessedly +the best; one grieves to think he never saw it himself, as few princes +were less puffed up by well-deserved praise than he; but dying at +Seleucia of a dysenteric fever, his ashes were brought home, and kept on +the top of his own pillar in a gilt vase; which Sextus Quintus with more +zeal than taste took down, I fear destroyed, and placed St. Peter there. +Apollodorus was the architect of the elegant structure, on which, says +Ammianus Marcellinus, the Gods themselves gazed with wonder, seeing +that nothing but heaven itself was finer. "_Singularem sub omni cælo +structuram etiam numinum ascensione mirabilem_." + +I know not whether this is the proper place to mention that the good +Pope Gregory, who added to the possession of every cardinal virtue the +exertion of every Christian one, having looked one day with peculiar +stedfastness at this column, and being naturally led to reflect on his +character to whose honour it was erected, felt just admiration of a mind +so noble; and retiring to his devotions in a church not far off, began +praying earnestly for Trajan's soul: till a preternatural voice, +accompanied with rays of light round the altar he knelt at, commanded +his forbearance of further solicitation; assuring him that Trajan's soul +was secure in the care of his Creator. Strange! that those who record, +and give credit to such a story, can yet continue as a duty their +intercessions for the dead! + +But I have seen the Coliseo, which would swallow that of pretty Verona; +it is four times as large I am told, and would hold fourscore thousand +spectators. After all the depredations of all the Goths, and afterwards +of the Farnese family, the ruin is gloriously beautiful; possibly more +beautiful than when it was quite whole; there is enough left now for +Truth to repose upon, and a perch for Fancy beside, to fly out from, and +fetch in more. + +The orders of its architecture are easily discerned, though the height +of the upper story is truly tremendous; I climbed it once, not to the +top indeed, but till I was afraid to look down from the place I was in, +and penetrated many of its recesses. The modern Italians have not lost +their taste of a prodigious theatre; were they once more a single +nation, they would rebuild _this_ I fancy; for here are all the +conveniencies in _grande_, as they call it, that amaze one even in +_piccolo_ at Milan and Turin: Here were supper-rooms, and taverns, and +shops, and I believe baths; certainly long galleries big enough to drive +a coach round, and places where slaves waited to receive the commands of +masters and ladies, who perhaps if they did not wait to please them, +would scarcely scruple to detain them in the cage of offenders, and +keep them to make sport upon a future day. + +The cruelties then exercised on servants at Rome were truly dreadful; +and we all remember reading that in Augustus's time, when he did a +private friend the honour to dine with him, one of the waiters broke a +glass he was about to present full of liquor to the King; at which +offence the master being enraged, suddenly caused him to be seized by +the rest, and thrown instantly out of the window to feed his lampreys, +which lived in a pond on which the apartment looked. Augustus said +nothing at the moment; to punish the nobleman's inhumanity however, he +sent his officers next morning to break every glass in the house: A +curious chastisement enough, and worthy of a nation who, being powerful +to erect, populous to fill, and elegantly-skilful to adorn such a fabric +as this Coliseum which I have just been contemplating, were yet +contented and even happy to view from its well-arranged seats, +exhibitions capable of giving nothing but disgust and horror;--lions +rending unarmed wretches in pieces; or, to the still deeper disgrace of +poor Humanity, those wretches armed unwillingly against each other, and +dying to divert a brutal populace. + +These reflections upon Pagan days and classical cruelties do not disturb +however the peace of an old hermit, who has chosen one of these +close-concealed recesses for his habitation, and accordingly dwells, +dismally enough, in a hole seldom visited by travellers, and certainly +never enquired about by the natives. I stumbled on his strange apartment +by mere chance, and asked him why he had chosen it? He had been led in +early youth, he said, to reflect upon the miseries suffered by the +original professors of Christianity; the tortures inflicted on them in +this horrible amphitheatre, and the various vicissitudes of Rome since: +that he had dedicated himself to these meditations: that he had left the +world seventeen years, never stirring from his cell but to buy food, +which he eat alone and sparingly, and to pay his devotions in the _Via +Crucis_, for so the old Arena is now called; a simple plain wooden cross +occupying the middle of it, and round the Circus twelve neat, not +splendid chapels; a picture to each, representing the various stages of +our Saviour's passion. Such are the meek triumphs of our meek religion! +And that such substitutes should have replaced the African savages, +tigers, hyænas, &c. and Roman gladiators, not less ferocious than their +four-legged antagonists, I am quite as willing to rejoice at as the +hermit: They must be better antiquarians too than I am, who regret that +a nunnery now covers the spot where ambitious Tullia drove over the +bleeding body of her murdered parent, + + Pressit et inductis membra paterna rotis: + +That nunnery, supported by the arch of Nerva, which is all that is now +left standing of that Emperor's Forum. + +I must not however quit the Coliseum, without repeating what passed +between the King of Sweden and his Roman _laquais de place_ when he was +here; and the fellow, in the true cant of his Ciceroneship, exclaimed as +they looked up, "_Ah Maesta!_ what cursed Goths those were that tore +away so many fine things here, and pulled down such magnificent pillars, +&c." "Hold, hold friend," replies the King of Sweden; "I am one of those +cursed Goths myself you know: but what were your Roman nobles a-doing, +I would ask, when they laboured to destroy an edifice like this, and +build their palaces with its materials?" + +The baths of Livia are still elegantly designed round her small +apartments; and one has copies sold of them upon fans; the curiosity of +the original is to see how well the gilding stands; in many places it +appears just finished. These baths are difficult of access somehow; I +never could quite understand how we got in or out of them, but they did +belong to the Imperial palace, which covered this whole Palatine hill, +and here was Nero's golden house, by what I could gather, but of that I +thank Heaven there is no trace left, except some little portion of the +wall, which was 120 feet high, and some marbles in shades, like women's +worsted work upon canvass, very curious, and very wonderful; as all are +natural marbles, and no dye used: the expence must have surpassed +credibility. + +The Temple of Vesta, supposed to be the _very_ temple to which Horace +alludes in his second Ode, is a pretty rotunda, and has twenty pillars +fluted of Parian marble: it is now a church, as are most of the heathen +temples. + +Such adaptations do not please one, but then it must be allowed and +recollected that one is very hard to please: finding fault is so easy, +and doing right so difficult! + +The good Pope Gregory, who feared (by sacred inspiration one would +think) all which should come to pass, broke many beautiful antique +statues, "lest," said he, "induced by change of dress or name perhaps +our Christians may be tempted to adore them:" and we say he was a +blockhead, and burned Livy's decads, and so he did; but he refused all +titles of earthly dignity; he censured the Oriental Patriarchs for +substituting temporal splendours in the place of primitive simplicity; +which he said ought _alone_ to distinguish the followers of Jesus +Christ. He required a strict attention to morality from all his inferior +clergy; observed that those who strove to be first, would end in being +last; and took himself the title of servant to the servants of God. + +Well! Sabinian, his successor, once his favourite Nuncio, flung his +books in the fire as soon as he was dead; so his injunctions were obeyed +but while he lived to enforce them; and every day now shews us how +necessary they were: when, even in these enlightened times, there +stands an old figure that every Abate in the town knows to have been +originally made for the fabulous God of Physic, Esculapius, is prayed to +by many old women and devotees of all ages indeed, just at the Via +Sacra's entrance, and called St. Bartolomeo. + +A beautiful Diana too, with her trussed-up robes, the crescent alone +wanting, stands on the high altar to receive homage in the character of +St. Agnes, in a pretty church dedicated to her _fuor delle Porte_, where +it is supposed she suffered martyrdom; and why? Why for not venerating +that _very Goddess Diana_, and for refusing to walk in her procession at +the _New Moon_, like a good Christian girl. "_Such contradictions put +one from one's self_" as Shakespear says. + +We are this moment returned home from Tivoli; have walked round Adrian's +Villa, and viewed his Hippodrome, which would yet make an admirable open +Manège. I have seen the Cascatelle, so sweetly elegant, so rural, so +romantic; and I have looked with due respect on the places once +inhabited, and ever justly celebrated by genius, wit, and learning; have +shuddered at revisiting the spot I hastened down to examine, while +curiosity was yet keen enough to make me venture a very dangerous and +scarcely-trodden path to Neptune's Grotto; where, as you descend, the +Cicerone shews you a wheel of some coarse carriage visibly stuck fast in +the rock till it is become a part of it; distinguished from every other +stone only by its shape, its projecting forward, and its shewing the +hollow places in its fellies, where nails were originally driven. This +truly-curious, though little venerable piece of antiquity, serves to +assist the wise men in puzzling out the world's age, by computing how +many centuries go to the petrifying a cart wheel. A violent roar of +dashing waters at the bottom, and a fall of the river at this place from +the height of 150 feet, were however by no means favourable to my +arithmetical studies; and I returned perfectly disposed to think the +world's age a less profitable, a less diverting contemplation, than its +folly. + +We looked at the temple of the old goddess that cured coughs, now a +Christian church, dedicated to _la Madonna della Tosse_; it is exactly +all it ever was, I believe; and we dined in the temple of Sibylla +Tiburtina, a beautiful edifice, of which Mr. Jenkins has sent the model +to London in cork, which gives a more exact representation after all +than the best-chosen words in the world. I would rather make use of +_them_ to praise Mr. Jenkins's general kindness and hospitality to all +his country-folks, who find a certain friend in him; and if they please, +a very competent instructor. + +In order however to understand the meaning of some spherical _pots_ +observed in the Circus of Caracalla, I chose above all men to consult +Mr. Greatheed, whose correct taste, deep research, and knowledge of +architecture, led me to prefer his account to every other, of their use +and necessity: it shall be given in his own words, which I am proud of +his permission to copy. + +"Of those _pots_ you mention, there are not any remaining in the Circus +Maxiouis, as the walls, seats and apodium of that have entirely +disappeared. They are to be seen in the Circus of Caracalla, on the +Appian way; of this, and of this alone, enough still exists to ascertain +the form, structure, and parts of a Roman course. It was surrounded by +two parallel walls which supported the seats of the spectators. The +exterior wall rose to the summit of the gallery; the interior one +was much lower, terminated with the lowest rows, and formed +the apodium. This rough section may serve to elucidate my +description. From wall to wall an arch was turned which formed a +quadrant, and on this the seats immediately rested: but as the upper +rows were considerably distant from the crown of the arch, it was +necessary to fill the intermediate space with materials sufficiently +strong to support the upper stone benches and the multitude. Had these +been of solid substance, they would have pressed prodigious and +disproportionate weight on the summit of the arch, a place least able to +endure it from its horizontal position. To remedy this defect, the +architect caused _spherical pots_ to be baked; of these each formed of +itself an arch sufficiently powerful to sustain its share of the +incumbent weight, and the whole was rendered much less ponderous by the +innumerable vacuities. + +[Illustration] + +"A similiar expedient was likewise used to diminish the pressure of +their domes, by employing the scoriæ of lava brought for that purpose +from the Lipari Islands. The numberless bubbles of this volcanic +substance give it the appearance of a honeycomb, and answer the same +purpose as the pots in Caracalla's Circus, so much so, that though very +hard, it is of less specific gravity than wood, and consequently floats +in water." + +Before I quit the Circus of Caracalla, I must not forbear mentioning his +bust, which so perfectly resembles Hogarth's idle 'Prentice; but why +should they not be alike? + + For black-guards are black-guards in every degree, + +I suppose, and the people here who shew one things, always take delight +to souce an Englishman's hat upon his head, as if they thought so too. + +This morning's ramble let us to see the old grotto, sacred to Numa's +famous nymph, Ægeria, not far from Rome even now. I wonder that it +should escape being built round when Rome was so extensive as to contain +the crowds which we are told were lodged in it. That the city spread +chiefly the other way, is scarce an answer. London spreads chiefly the +Marybone way perhaps, yet is much nearer to Rumford than it was fifty or +sixty years ago. + +The same remark may be made of the Temple of Mars without the walls, +near the Porta Capena: a rotunda it was on the road side _then_: it is +on the road side _now_, and a very little way from the gate. + +Caius Cestius's sepulchre however, without the walls, on the other side, +is one of the most perfect remains of antiquity we have here. Aurelian +made use of that as a boundary we know: it stands at present half +without and half within the limit that Emperor set to the city; and is a +very beautiful pyramid a hundred and ten feet high, admirably +represented in Piranesi's prints, with an inscription on the white +marble of which it is composed, importing the name and office and +condition of its wealthy proprietor: _C. Cestius, septem vir epulonum_. +He must have lived therefore since Julius Caesar's time it is plain, as +he first increased the number of epulones to seven, from three their +original institution. It was probably a very lucrative office for a man +to be Jupiter's caterer; who, as he never troubled himself with looking +over the bills, they were such commonly, I doubt not, as made ample +profits result to him who went to market; and Caius Cestius was one of +the rich contractors of those days, who neglected no opportunity of +acquiring wealth for himself, while he consulted the honour of Jupiter +in providing for his master's table very plentiful and elegant banquets. + +That such officers were in use too among the Persians during the time +their monarchy lasted, is plain from the apocryphal story of Bel and the +Dragon in our Bibles, where, to the joy of every child that reads it, +Daniel detects the fraud of the priests by scattering ashes or saw-dust +in the temple. + +But I fear the critics will reprove me for saying that Julius Caesar +only increased the number to seven, while many are of opinion he added +three more, and made them a decemvirate: mean time Livy tells us the +institution began in the year of Rome 553, during the consulate of +Fulvius Purpurio and Marcellus, upon a motion of Romuleius if I +remember. They had the privilege granted afterwards of edging the gown +with purple like the pontiffs, when increased to seven in number; and +they were always known by the name _Septemviratus,_ or _Septemviri +Epulonum_, to the latest hours of Paganism. + +The tomb of Caius Cestius is supposed to have cost twelve thousand +pounds sterling of our money in those days; and little did he dream that +it should be made in the course of time a repository for the bones of +_divisos orbe Britannos_: for such it is now appointed to be by +government. All of us who die at Rome, sleep with this purveyor of the +gods; and from his monument shall at the last day rise the re-animated +body of our learned and incomparable Sir James Macdonald: whose numerous +and splendid acquirements, though by the time he had reached twenty-four +years old astonished all who knew him, never overwhelmed one little +domestic virtue. His filial piety however; his hereditary courage, his +extensive knowledge, his complicated excellencies, have now, I fear, no +other register to record their worth, than a low stone near the stately +pyramid of Jupiter's caterer. + +The tomb of Cæcilia Metella, wife of the rich and famous Crassus, claims +our next attention; it is a beautiful structure, and still called _Capo +di Bove_ by the Italians, on account of its being ornamented with the +_oxhead and flowers_ which now flourish over every door in the new-built +streets of London; but the original of which, as Livy tells us, and I +believe Plutarch too, was this. That Coratius, a Sabine farmer, who +possessed a particularly fine cow, was advised by a soothsayer to +sacrifice her to Diana upon the Aventine Hill; telling him, that the +city where _she_ now presided--_Diana_--should become mistress of the +world, and he who presented her with that cow should become master over +that city. The poor Sabine went away to wash in the Tyber, and purify +himself for these approaching honours[AF]; but in the mean time, a boy +having heard the discourse, and reported it to _Servius Tullius_, he +hastened to the spot, killed Coratius's cow for him, sacrificed her to +Diana, and hung her head with the horns on, and the garland just as she +died, upon the temple door as an ornament. From that time, it seems, the +ornament called _Caput Bovis_ was in a manner consecrated to Diana, and +her particular votaries used it on their tombs. Nor could one easily +account for the decorations of many Roman sarcophagi, till one +recollects that they were probably adapted to that divinity in whose +temple they were to be placed, rather than to the particular person +occupying the tomb, or than to our general ideas of death, time, and +eternity. It is probably for this reason that the immense sarcophagus +lately dug up from under the temple of Bacchus without the walls, cut +out of one solid piece of red porphyry, has such gay ornaments round it, +relative to the sacrifices of Bacchus, &c.; and I fancy these stone +coffins, if we may call them so, were often made ready and sold to any +person who wished to bury their friend, and who chose some story +representing the triumph of whatever deity they devoted themselves to. +Were the modern inhabitants of Rome who venerate St. Lorenzo, St. +Sebastiano, &c. to place, not uncharacteristically at all--a gridiron, +or an arrow on their tombstone, it might puzzle succeeding antiquarians, +and yet be nothing out of the way in the least. + +[Footnote AF: A circumstance alluded to and parodied by Ben Johnson in +his Alchemist. See the conduct of Dapper, &c.] + +Of the Egyptian obelisks at Rome I will not strive to give any account, +or even any idea. They are too numerous, too wonderful, too learned for +me to talk about; but I must not forbear to mention the broken thing +which lies down somewhere in a heap of rubbish, and is said to be the +greatest rarity in Rome, column, or _obelisk_ and the greatest antiquity +surely, if 1630 years before the birth of Christ be its date; as that +was but two centuries after the invention of letters by _Memnon_, and +just about the time that Joseph the favourite of Pharaoh died. There is +a sphinx upon it, however, mighty clearly expressed; and some one said, +how strange it was, if the world was no older than we think it, that +they should, in so early a stage of existence, represent, or even +imagine to themselves a compound animal[AG]: though the chimæra came in +play when the world was pretty young too, and the Prophet Isaiah speaks +of centaurs; but that was long after even Hesiod's time. + +[Footnote AG: The ornaments of the ark and tabernacle exhibit much +improvement in the arts of engraving, carving, &c. Nor did it seem to +cost Aaron any trouble to make a cast of Apis in the Wilderness for the +Israelites' amusement, 1491 years before Christ; while the dog Anubis +was probably another figure with which Moses was not unacquainted, and +that was certainly composite: a cynopephalus I believe.] + +A modern traveller has however, with much ingenuity of conjecture, given +us an excellent reason why the Sphinx was peculiar to Egypt, as the +Nile was observed to overflow when the sun was in those signs of the +Zodiack: + + The lion virgin Sphinx, which shows + What time the rich Nile overflows. + +And sure I think, as people lived longer then than they do now; as Moses +was contemporary with Cecrops, so that monarchy and a settled form of +government had begun to obtain footing in Greece, and apparently +migrated a little westward even then; that this column might have +employed the artists of those days, without any such exceeding stretch +of probability as our modern Aristotelians study to make out, from their +zeal to establish his doctrine of the world's eternity. While, if +conjecture were once as liberally permitted to believers as it is +generously afforded to scepticks, I know not whether a hint concerning +Sphinx's original might not be deduced from old Israel's last blessing +to his sons; _The lion of Judah_, with the _head of a virgin_, in whose +offspring that lion was one day to sink and be lost, except his hinder +parts; might naturally enough grow into a favourite emblem among the +inhabitants of a nation who owed their existence to one of the family; +and who would be still more inclined to commemorate the mystical +blessing, if they observed the fructifying inundation to happen +regularly, as Mr. Savary says, when the Sun left Leo for Virgo. + +The broken pillar has however carried me too far perhaps, though every +day passed in the Pope's Musæum confirms my belief, nay certainty, that +they did mingle the veneration of Joseph with that of their own gods: +The bushel or measure of corn on the Egyptian Jupiter's head is a proof +of it, and the name _Serapis_, a further corroboration: the dream which +he explained for Pharaoh relative to the event that fixed his favour in +that country, was expressed by _cattle_; and _for apis_, the _ox's +head_, was perfectly applicable to him for every reason. + +But we will quit mythology for the Corso. This is the first town in +Italy I have arrived at yet, where the ladies fairly drive up and down a +long street by way of shewing their dress, equipages, &c. without even a +pretence of taking fresh air. At Turin the view from the place destined +to this amusement, would tempt one out merely for its own sake; and at +Milan they drive along a planted walk, at least a stone's throw beyond +the gates. Bologna calls its serious inhabitants to a little rising +ground, whence the prospect is luxuriantly verdant and smiling. The +Lucca bastions are beyond all in a peculiar style of miniature beauty; +and even the Florentines, though lazy enough, creep out to Porto St. +Gallo. But here at Roma la Santa, the street is all our Corso; a fine +one doubtless, and called the _Strada del Popolo_, with infinite +propriety, for except in that strada there is little populousness enough +God knows. Twelve men to a woman even there, and as many ecclesiastics +to a lay-man: all this however is fair, when celibacy is once enjoined +as a duty in one profession, encouraged as a virtue in all. Where +females are superfluous, and half prohibited, it were as foolish to +complain of the decay of population, as it was comical in Omai the South +American savage, when he lamented that no cattle bred upon their island; +and one of our people replying, That they left some beasts on purpose to +furnish them; he answered, "Yes, but the idol worshipped at Bola-bola, +another of the islands, insisted on the males and females living +separate: so they had sent _him_ the cows, and kept only the bulls at +home." + +_Au reste_, as the French say, we must not be too sure that all who +dress like Abates are such. Many gentlemen wear black as the court garb; +many because it is not costly, and many for reasons of mere convenience +and dislike of change. + +I see not here the attractive beauty which caught my eye at Venice; but +the women at Rome have a most Juno-like carriage, and fill up one's idea +of Livia and Agrippina well enough. The men have rounder faces than one +sees in other towns I think; bright, black, and somewhat prominent eyes, +with the finest teeth in Europe. A story told me this morning struck my +fancy much; of an herb-woman, who kept a stall here in the market, and +who, when the people ran out flocking to see the Queen of Naples as she +passed, began exclaiming to her neighbours--"_Ah, povera Roma! tempo fù +quando passò qui prigioniera la regina Zenobia; altra cosa amica, robba +tutta diversa di questa_ reginuccia[AH]!" + +[Footnote AH: "Ah, poor degraded Rome! time was, my dear, when the great +Zenobia passed through these streets in chains; anotherguess figure from +this little Queeney, in good time!"] + +A characteristic speech enough; but in this town, unlike to every other, +the _things_ take my attention all away from the _people_; while, in +every other, the people have had much more of my mind employed upon +them, than the things. + +The arch of Constantine, however, must be spoken of; the sooner, because +there is a contrivance at the top of it to conceal musicians, which +added, as it passed, to the noise and gaiety of the triumph. Lord +Scarsdale's back front at Keddlestone exhibits an imitation of this +structure; a motto, expressive of hospitality, filling up the part +which, in the original, is adorned with the siege of Verona, that to me +seems well done; but Michael Angelo carried off Trajan's head they tell +us, which had before been carried thither from the arch of Trajan +himself. The arch of Titus Vespasian struck me more than all the others +we have named though; less for its being the first building in which the +Composite order of architecture is made use of, among the numberless +fabrics that surround one, than for the evident completion of the +prophecies which it exhibits. Nothing can appear less injured by time +than the bas-reliefs, on one side representing the ark, and golden +candlesticks; on the other, Titus himself, delight of human kind, drawn +by four horses, his look at once serene and sublime. The Jews cannot +endure, I am told, to pass under this arch, so lively is the +_annihilation_ of their government, and utter _extinction_ of their +religion, carved upon it. When reflecting on the continued captivity +they have suffered ever since this arch was erected here at Rome, and +which they still suffer, being strictly confined to their own miserable +Ghetto, which they dare not leave without a mark upon their hat to +distinguish them, and are never permitted to stir without the walls, +except in custody of some one whose business it is to bring them back; +when reflecting, I say, on their sorrows and punishments, one's heart +half inclines to pity their wretchedness; the dreadful recollection +immediately crosses one, that these are the direct and lineal progeny of +those very Jews who cried out aloud--"_Let his blood be upon us, and +upon our children!_"--Unhappy race! how sweetly does St. Austin say of +them--"_Librarii nostri facti sunt, quemadmodum solent libros post +dominos ferre_." + +The _arca degli orefici_ is a curious thing too, and worth observing: +the goldsmiths set it up in honour of Caracalla and Geta; but one +plainly discerns where poor Geta's head has been carried off in one +place, his figure broken in another, apparently by Caracalla's order. +The building is of itself of little consequence, but as a confirmation +of historical truth. + +The fountains of Rome should have been spoken of long ago; the number of +them is known to all though, and of their magnificence words can give no +idea. One print of the Trevi is worth all the words of all the +describers together. Moses striking the rock, at another fountain, where +water in torrents tumble forth at the touch of the rod, has a glorious +effect, from the happiness of the thought, and an expression so suitable +to the subject. When I was told the story of Queen Christina admiring +the two prodigious fountains before St. Peter's church, and begging that +they might leave off playing, because she thought them occasional, and +in honour of her arrival, not constant and perpetual; who could help +recollecting a similar tale told about the Prince of Monaco, who was +said to have expressed his concern, when he saw the roads lighted up +round London, that our king should put himself to so great an expence on +his account--in good time!--thinking it a temporary illumination made to +receive him with distinguished splendour. These anecdotes are very +pretty now, if they are strictly true; because they shew the mind's +petty but natural disposition, of reducing and attributing all _to +self_: but if they are only inventions, to raise the reputation of +London lamps, or Roman cascades, one scorns them;--I really do hope, and +half believe, that they are true. + +But I have been to see the two Auroras of Guido and Guercino. Villa +Ludovisi contains the last, of which I will speak first for forty +reasons--the true one because I like it best. It is so sensible, so +poetical, so beautiful. The light increases, and the figure advances to +the fancy: one expects Night to be waked before one looks at her again, +if ever one can be prevailed upon to take one's eyes away. The bat and +owl are going soon to rest, and the lamp burns more faintly as when day +begins to approach. The personification of Night is wonderfully hit off. +But Guercino is _such_ a painter! We were driving last night to look at +the Colisseo by moon-light--there were a few clouds just to break the +expanse of azure and shew the gilding. I thought how like a sky of +Guercino's it was; other painters remind one of nature, but nature when +most lovely makes one think of Guercino and his works. The Ruspigliosi +palace boasts the Aurora of Guido--both are ceilings, but this is not +rightly named sure. We should call it the Phoebus, for Aurora holds only +the second place at best: the fun is driving over her almost; it is a +more luminous, a more graceful, a more showy picture than the other, +more universal too, exciting louder and oftener repeated praises; yet +the other is so discriminated, so tasteful, so classical! We must go see +what Domenichino has done with the same subject. + +I forget the name of the palace where it is to be admired: but had we +not seen the others, one should have said this was divine. It is a +Phoebus again, _this_ is; not a bit of an Aurora: and Truth is springing +up from the arms of Time to rejoice in the sun's broad light. Her +expression of transport at being set free from obscurity, is happy in +an eminent degree; but there are faults in her form, and the Apollo has +scarcely dignity enough in _his_. The horses are best in Guide's +picture: Aurora at the Villa Ludovisi has but two; they are very +spirited, but it is the spirit of three, not six o'clock in a summer +morning. Surely Thomson had been living under these two roofs when he +wrote such descriptions as seem to have been made on purpose for them; +could any one give a more perfect account of Guercino's performance than +these words afford? + + The meek-ey'd morn appears, mother of dews, + At first faint-gleaming in the dappled East + Till far o'er æther spreads the widening glow, + And from before the lustre of her face + White break the clouds away: with quicken'd step + Brown Night retires, young Day pours in apace + And opens all the lawny prospect wide. + +As for the Ruspigliosi palace I left these lines in the room, written by +the same author, and think them more capable than any description I +could make, of giving some idea of Guido's Phoebus. + + While yonder comes the powerful King of Day + Rejoicing in the East; the lessening cloud, + The kindling azure, and the mountains brow + Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach + Betoken glad; lo, now apparent all + He looks in boundless majesty abroad, + And sheds the shining day. + +So charming Thomson wrote from his lodgings at a milliner's in +Bond-street, whence he seldom rose early enough to see the sun do more +than glisten on the opposing windows of the street: but genius, like +truth, cannot be kept down. So he wrote, and so they painted! _Ut +pictura poesis_. + +The music is not in a state so capital as we left it in the north of +Italy; we regret Nardini of Florence, Alessandri of Venice, and Ronzi of +Milan; and who that has heard Signior Marchesi sing, could ever hear a +successor (for rival he has none), without feeling total indifference to +all their best endeavours? + +The conversations of Cardinal de Bernis and Madame de Boccapaduli are +what my countrywomen talk most of; but the Roman ladies cannot endure +perfumes, and faint away even at an artificial rose. I went but once +among them, when Memmo the Venetian ambassador did me the honour to +introduce me _somewhere_, but the conversation was soon over, not so my +shame; when I perceived all the company shrink from me very oddly, and +stop their noses with rue, which a servant brought to their assistance +on open salvers. I was by this time more like to faint away than +they--from confusion and distress; my kind protector informed me of the +cause; said I had some grains of marechale powder in my hair perhaps, +and led me out of the assembly; to which no intreaties could prevail on +me ever to return, or make further attempts to associate with a delicacy +so very susceptible of offence. + +Mean time the weather is exceedingly bad, heavy, thick, and foggy as our +own, for aught I see; but so it was at Milan too I well remember: one's +eye would not reach many mornings across the Naviglio that ran directly +under our windows. For fine bright Novembers we must go to +Constantinople I fancy; certain it is that Rome will not supply them. + +What however can make these Roman ladies fly from _odori_ so, that a +drop of lavenderwater in one's handkerchief, or a carnation in one's +stomacher, is to throw them all into, convulsions thus? Sure this is the +only instance in which they forbear to _fabbricare fu +l'antico_[Footnote: Build upon the old foundations.], in their own +phrase: the dames, of whom Juvenal delights to tell, liked perfumes well +enough if I remember; and Horace and Martial cry "_Carpe rosas_" +perpetually. Are the modern inhabitants still more refined than _they_ +in their researches after pleasure? and are the present race of ladies +capable of increasing, beyond that of their ancestors, the keenness of +any corporeal sense? I should think not. Here are however amusements +enough at Rome without trying for their conversations. + +The Barberini palace, whither I carried a distracting tooth-ach, amused +even that torture by the variety of its wonders. The sleeping faun, +praised on from century to century, and never yet praised enough; so +drunk, so fast asleep, so like a human body! Modesty reproving Vanity, +by Leonardo da Vinci, so totally beyond my expectation or comprehension, +great! wise! and fine! Raphael's Mistress, painted by himself, and +copied by Julio Romano; this picture gives little satisfaction though +except from curiosity gratified, the woman is too coarse. Guido's +Magdalen up stairs, the famous Magdalen, effacing every beauty, of +softness mingled with distress. A St. John too, by dear Guercino, +transcendent! but such was my anguish the very rooms turned round: I +must come again when less ill I believe. + +Nothing can equal the nastiness at one's entrance to this magazine of +perfection: but the Roman nobles are not disgusted with _all sorts_ of +scents it is plain; these are not what we should call perfumes indeed, +but certainly _odori_: of the same nature as those one is obliged to +wade through before Trajan's Pillar can be climbed. + +That the general appearance of a city which contains such treasures +should be mean and disgusting, while one literally often walks upon +granite, and tramples red porphyry under one's feet, is one of the +greatest wonders to me, in a town of which the wonders seem innumerable: +that it should be nasty beyond all telling, all endurance, with such +perennial streams of the purest water liberally dispersed, and +triumphantly scattered all over it, is another unfathomable wonder: that +so many poor should be suffered to beg in the streets, when not a hand +can be got to work in the fields, and that those poor should be +permitted to exhibit sights of deformity and degradations of our species +to me unseen till now, at the most solemn moments, and in churches where +silver and gold, and richly-arrayed priests, scarcely suffice to call +off attention from their squallid miseries, I do not try to comprehend. +That the palaces which taste and expence combine to decorate should look +quietly on, while common passengers use their noble vestibules, nay +flairs, for every nauseous purpose; that princes whose incomes equal +those of our Dukes of Bedford and Marlborough, should suffer their +servants to dress other men's dinners for hire, or lend out their +equipages for a day's pleasuring, and hang wet rags out of their palace +windows to dry, as at the mean habitation of a pauper; while looking in +at those very windows, nothing is to be seen but proofs of opulence, and +scenes of splendour, I will not undertake to explain; sure I am, that +whoever knows Rome, will not condemn this _ebauche_ of it. + +When I spoke of their beggars, many not unlike Salvator Rosa's Job at +the Santa Croce palace, I ought not to have omitted their eloquence, and +various talents. We talked to a lame man one day at our own door, whose +account of his illness would not have disgraced a medical professor; so +judicious were his sentiments, so scientific was his discourse. The +accent here too is perfectly pleasing, intelligible, and expressive; and +I like their _cantilena_ vastly. + +The excessive lenity of all Italian states makes it dangerous to live +among them; a seeming paradox, yet certainly most true; and whatever is +evil in this way at any other town, is worst at Rome; where those who +deserve hanging, enjoy almost a moral certainty of never being hanged; +so unwilling is everybody to detect the offender, and so numerous the +churches to afford him protection if found out. + +A man asked importunately in our antichamber this morning for the +_padrone,_ naming no names, and our servants turned him out. He went +however only five doors, further, found a sick old gentleman sitting in +his lodging attended by a feeble servant, whom he bound, stuck a knife +in the master, rifled the apartments, and walked coolly out again at +noon-day: nor should we have ever heard of _such a trifle_, but that it +happened just by so; for here are no newspapers to tell who is murdered, +and nobody's pity is excited, unless for the malefactor when they hear +he is caught. + +But the Palazzo Farnese is a more pleasing speculation; the Hercules +faces us entering; Guglielmo della Porta made his legs I hear, and when +the real ones were found, _his were better:_ and Michael Angelo said, it +was not worth risquing the statue to try at restoring the old ones. +There is another Hercules stands near, as a foil to Glycon's, I suppose; +and the Italians tell you of our Mr. Sharp's acuteness in finding some +fault till then undiscovered, a very slight one though, with some of the +neck muscles: they tell it approvingly however, and make one admire +their candour, even beyond their Flora, who carries that in her +countenance which they possess in their hearts. Under a shed on the +right hand you find the famous groupe called Toro Farnese. It has been +touched and repaired, they tell you, till much of the spirit is lost; +but I did not miss it. The Bull and the Brothers are greatness itself; +but Dirce draws no compassion by her looks somehow, and the lady who +comes to her relief, seems too cold a spectatress of the scene. + +There were several broken statues in the place, and while my companions +were examining the groupe after I had done, the wench's conversation who +shewed it made my amusement: as we looked together at an Egyptian +_Isis_, or, as many call her, _the Ephesian Diana_, with a hundred +breasts, very hideous, and swathed about the legs like a mummy at Cairo, +or a baby at Rome, I said to the girl, "_They worshipped these filthy +things formerly before Jesus Christ came; but he taught us better_," +added I, "_and we are wiser now: how foolish was not it to pray to this +ugly stone_?"--"The people were _wickeder_ then, very likely;" replied +my friend the wench, "but I do not see that it _was foolish at all."_ + +Who says the modern Romans are degenerated? I swear I think them so like +their ancestors, that it is my delight to contemplate the resemblance. +A statue of a peasant carrying game at this very palace, is habited +precisely in the modern dress, and shews how very little change has yet +been made. The shoes of the low fellows too particularly attract my +notice: they exactly resemble the ancient ones, and when Persius +mentions his ploughman _peronatus arator_, one sees he would say so +to-day. + +The Dorian palace calls however, and people must give way to things +where the miraculous powers of Benvenuto Garofani are concerned; where +Lodovico Caracci exhibits a _testa del redentore_ beyond all praise, +uniting every excellence, and expressing every perfection; where, in the +deluge represented by Bonati, one sees the eagle drooping from a weight +of rain, majestic in his distress, and looking up to the luminous part +of the picture as if hoping to discover some ray of that sun he never +shall see again. How characteristic! how tasteful is the expression! The +famous Virgin and Child too, so often engraved and copied. + +I will run away from this Doria; it is too full of beauty--it dazzles: +and I will let them shew the pale green Gaspar Pouffins, so valuable, +so curious, to whom they please, while Nature and Claude content my +fancy and fill up every idea. + +At the Colonna palace what have I remarked? That it possesses the gayest +gallery belonging to any subject upon earth: one hundred and thirty-nine +feet long, thirty-four broad, and seventy high: profusely ornamented +with pillars, pictures, statues, to a degree of magnificence difficult +to express. The Herodias here by Guido, is the perfection of dancing +grace. No Frenchman enters the room that does not bear testimony to its +peculiar excellence. But here's Guercino's sweet returning Prodigal, and +here is a _Madonna disperata_ bursting as from a cavern to embrace the +body of her dead son and saviour.--Such a sky too! But it is treating +too theatrically a subject which impresses one more at last in the +simple _Pietà _[AI] d'Annibale Caracci at Palazzo Doria. + +[Footnote AI: The Christ in his mother's lap, after crucifixion, is +always called in Italy a _Pietà _.] + +One wonderfully-imagined picture by Andrea Sacchi, of Cain flying from +the sight of his murdered brother, shall alone detain me from mentioning +here at Rome what certainly would never have been thought on by +Englishmen had it remained at Windsor; no other than our old King +Charles's cabinet, sold to the Colonna family by Cromwell, and set about +in the old-fashioned way with gems, cameos, &c. one of which has been +stolen. + +And now to the Borghese, which I am told is for a time to finish my +fatigues, as after three days more we go to Naples. News perfectly +agreeable to me, who never have been well here for two hours together. + +All the great churches remain yet unvisited: they are to be taken at our +return in spring; mean while I will go see Mons Sacer in spite of +connoisseurship, though the place it seems is nothing, and the prospect +from it dull; but it produces thoughts, or what is next to +thought,--recollection of books read, and events related in one's early +youth, when names and stories make impression on a mind not yet hardened +by age, or contracted by necessary duty, so as no longer to receive with +equal relish the _tales of other times._ The lake too, with the floating +islands, should be mentioned; the colour of which is even blue with +venom, and left a brassy taste in my mouth for a whole day, after only +observing how it boiled with rage on dropping in a stone, and incrusted +a stick with its tartar in two minutes. One of our companions indeed +leaped upon the little spots of ground which float in it, and deserved +to feel some effect of his rashness; but it is sufficient to stand near, +I think; one scarcely can escape contagion. The sudden and violent +powers observable in this lake should at least check the computists from +thinking they can gather the world's age from its petrefactions. + +But we are called to the Vatican, where the Apollo, Laocoon, Antinous, +and Meleager, with others of less distinguished merit, suffer one to +think on nothing but themselves, and of the artists who framed such +models of perfection. Laocoon's agonies torment one. I was forced to +recollect the observation Dr. Moore says was first made by Mr. Locke, in +order to harden my heart against him who appears to feel only for +himself, when two such youths are expiring close beside him. But though +painting can do much, and sculpture perhaps more, at least one learns to +think so here at Rome, the comfort is, that poetry beats them both. +Virgil knew, and Shakespeare would have known, how to heighten even +this distress, by adding paternal anguish:--here is distress enough +however. + +Let us once more acknowledge the modesty and candour of Italians, when +we repeat what has been so often recorded, that Michael Angelo refused +adding the arm that was wanting to this chef d'oeuvre; and when +Bernini undertook the task, he begged it might remain always a different +colour, that he might not be suspected of hoping that his work could +ever lie confounded with that of the Greek artist. + +Such is not the spirit of the French: they have been always adding to +Don Quixote! a personage whose adventures were little likely to cross +one's fancy in the Vatican; but perfection is perfection. + +Here stands the Apollo though, in whom alone no fault has yet been +found. They tell you, he has just killed the serpent Python. "Let us beg +of him," says one of the company, "just to turn round and demolish those +cursed snakes which are devouring the poor old man and his boys yonder." +This was like the speech of _Marchez donc_ to the fine bronze horse +under the heavenly statue of Marcus Aurelius at the Capitol, and made me +hope that story might be true. It is the fashion for every body to go +see Apollo by torch light: he looks like _Phoebus_ then, the Sun's +bright deity, and seems to say to his admirers, as that Divinity does to +the presumptuous hero in Homer, + + Oh son of Tydeus, cease! be wise, and see + How vast the difference 'twixt the gods and thee. + +Indeed every body finds the remark obvious, that this statue is of +beauty and dignity beyond what human nature now can boast; and the +Meleager just at hand, with the Antinous, confirm it; for all elegance +and all expression, unpossessed by the Apollo, _they have_, while none +can miss the inferiority of their general appearance to his. + +The Musæum Clementinum is altogether such though, that these singularly +excellent productions of art are only proper and well-adapted ornaments +of a gallery, so stately as, on the other hand, that noble edifice seems +but the due repository of such inhabitants. Never were place and +decorations so adapted: never perhaps was so refined a taste engaged on +subjects so worthy its exertion. The statues are disposed with a +propriety that charms one; the situation of the pillars so contrived, +the colours of them so chosen to carry the eye forward--not fatigue it; +the rooms so illuminated: Hagley park is not laid out with more +judicious attention to diversify, and relieve with various objects a +mind delighting in the contemplation of ornamented nature; than is the +Pope's Musæum calculated to enchain admiration, and fix it in those +apartments where sublimity and beauty have established their residence; +and those would be worse than Goths, who could think of moving even an +old torso from the place where Pius Sextus has commanded it to remain. + +The other parts of this prodigious structure would take up one's life +almost to see completely, to remember distinctly, and to describe +accurately. When the reader recollects that St. Peter's, with all its +appurtenances, palace, library, musæum, every thing that we include in +the word _Vatican_, is said by the Romans to occupy an equal quantity of +space, to that covered by the city of Turin: the assertion need not any +longer be thought hyperbolical. + +I will say no more about it till at our return from Naples we visit all +the churches. + +Vopiscus said, that the statues in his time at Rome out-numbered the +people; and I trust the remark is now almost doubly true, as every day +and hour digs up dead worthies, and the unwholesome weather must surely +send many of the living ones to their ancestors: upon the whole, the men +and women of Porphyry, &c. please me best, as they do not handle long +knives to so good an effect as the others do, "_qui aime bien a +s'ègorger encore[Footnote: Who have still a taste to be cut-throats.],"_ +says a French gentleman of them the other day. There is however an air +of cheerfulness in the streets at a night among the poor, who fry fish, +and eat roots, sausages, &c. as they walk about gaily enough, and though +they quarrel too often, never get drunk at least. + +The two houses belonging to the Borghese family shall conclude my first +journey to Rome, and with that the first volume of my observations and +reflexions. + +Their town palace is a suite of rooms constructed like those at Wanstead +exactly; and where you turn at the end to come back by another suite, +you find two alabaster fountains of superior beauty, and two glass +lustres made in London, but never wiped since they left Fleet-street +certainly. They do not however _want_ cleaning as the fountains do; +which, by the extraordinary use made of them, give the whole palace an +offensive smell. + +Among the pictures here, the entombing our blessed Saviour by Rafaelle +is most praised: It is supposed indeed wholly inestimable, and I believe +is so, while Venus, binding Cupid's eyes, by Titian, engraved by +Strange, is possibly one of the pleasantest pictures in Rome. The Christ +disputing with the Doctors is inimitable, one of the wonderful works of +Leonardo da Vinci: but here is Domenichino's Diana among her nymphs, +very laboured, and very learned. Why did it put me in mind of Hogarth's +strolling actresses dressing in a barn? + +Villa Borghese presents more to one's mind at once than it will bear, +from the bas relief of Curtius over the door that faces you going in, to +the last gate of the garden you drive out at;--large as the saloon is +however, the figure of Curtius seems too near you; and the horse's hind +quarters are heavy, and ill-suited to the forehand; but here are men +and women enough, and odd things that are neither, at this house; so we +may let the horse of Curtius alone. + +Nothing can be gayer or more happily expressed in its way than the +Centaur, which Dr. Moore, like Dr. Young, finds _not_ fabulous; while +the brute runs away with the man, and Cupid keeps urging him forward. +The fawn nursing Bacchus when a baby, is another semi-human figure of +just and high estimation; and that very famous composition for which +Cavalier Bernini has executed a mattress infinitely softer to the eye +than any real one I ever found in _his_ country, has here an apartment +appropriated to itself. + +From monsters the eye turns of its own accord towards Nero, and here is +an incomparable one of about ten years old, in whose face I vainly +looked for the seeds of parricide, and murderous tyranny; but saw only a +sturdy boy, who might have been made an honest man perhaps, had not the +rod been spared by his old tutor, whose lenity is repaid by death here +in the next room. It is a relief to look upon the smiling Zingara; her +lively character is exquisitely touched, her face the only one perhaps +where Bernini could not go beyond the proper idea of arch waggery and +roguish cunning, adorned with beauty that must have rendered its +possessor, while living, irresistible. His David is scarcely young +enough for a ruddy shepherd swain; he seems too muscular, and confident +of his own strength; _this_ fellow could have worn Saul's armour well +enough. Æneas carrying his father, I understand, is by the other +Bernini; but the famous groupe of Apollo and Daphne is the work of our +Chevalier himself. + +There is a Miss Hillisberg, a dancer on the stage, who reminds every +body of this graceful statue, when theatrical distress drives her to +force expression: I mean the stage in Germany, not Rome, whence females +are excluded. But the vases in this Borghese villa! the tables! the +walls! the cameos stuck in the walls! the frames of the doors, all +agate, porphyry, onyx, or verd antique! the enormous riches contained in +every chamber, actually takes away my breath and leaves me stunned. Nor +are the gardens unbecoming or inadequate to the house, where on the +outside appear such bas-reliefs as would be treasured up by the +sovereigns of France or England, and shewn as valuable rarities. The +rape of Europa first; it is a beautiful antique. Up stairs you see the +rooms constantly inhabited; in the princess's apartment, her +chimney-piece is one elegant but solid amethyst: over the prince's bed, +which changes with the seasons, hangs a Ganymede painted by Titian, to +which the connoisseurs tell you no rival has yet been found. The +furniture is suitably magnificent in every part of the house, and our +English friends assured me, that they met the lady of it last night, +when one gentleman observing how pretty she was, another replied he +could not see her face for the dazzling lustre of her innumerable +diamonds, that actually by their sparkling confounded his sight, and +surrounded her countenance so that he could not find it. + +Among all the curiosities however belonging to this wealthy and +illustrious family, the single one most prized is a well-known statue, +called in Catalogues by the name of the Fighting Gladiator, but +considered here at Rome as deserving of a higher appellation. They now +dispute only what hero it can be, as every limb and feature is +expressive of a loftier character than the ancients ever bestowed in +sculpture upon those degraded mortals whom Pliny contemptuously calls +_Hordiarij_, and says they were kept on barley bread, with ashes given +in their drink to strengthen them. Indeed the statue of the expiring +Gladiator at the Capitol, his rope about his neck, and his unpitied +fate, marked strongly in his vulgar features, exhibits quite a separate +class in the variety of human beings; and though Faustina's favourite +found in the same collection was probably the showiest fellow then among +them, we see no marks of intelligent beauty or heroic courage in his +form or face, where an undaunted steadiness and rustic strength make up +the little merit of the figure. + +This charming statue of the prince Borghese is on the other hand the +first in Rome perhaps, for the distinguished excellencies of animated +grace and active manliness: his head raised, the body's attitude, not +studied surely, but the apparent and seemingly sudden effect of +patriotic daring. Such one's fancy forms young Isadas the Spartan; who, +hearing the enemy's approach while at the baths, starts off unmindful of +his own defenceless state, snatches a spear and shield from one he +meets, flies at the foe, performs prodigies of valour, is looked on by +both armies as a descended God, and returns home at last unhurt, to be +fined by the Ephori for breach of discipline, at the same time that a +statue was ordered to commemorate his exploits, and erected at the +state's expence. Monsignor Ennio Visconti, who saw that the figure +reminded me of this story, half persuaded himself for a moment that this +was the very Isadas; and that Jason, for whom he had long thought it +intended, was not young enough, and less likely to fight undefended by +armour against bulls, of whose fury he had been well apprised. Mr. +Jenkins recollected an antique ring which confirmed our new hypothesis, +and I remained flattered, whether they were convinced or no. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and + most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no + restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it + under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this + eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the + United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where + you are located before using this eBook. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that: + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without +widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + diff --git a/16445-0.zip b/16445-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..249eec7 --- /dev/null +++ b/16445-0.zip diff --git a/16445-h.zip b/16445-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2efed34 --- /dev/null +++ b/16445-h.zip diff --git a/16445-h/16445-h.htm b/16445-h/16445-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..20c6fe5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16445-h/16445-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9192 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Observations And Reflections, by Hester Lynch Piozzi</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + table.bracket {margin-left: 0%; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnoteinline {vertical-align: super; border: dashed 1px;} + .footnoteslegend { + text-align: left; + font-weight: bold; + clear: both; + } + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.nbi0 {display: inline; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em;} + .poem span.i16 {display: block; margin-left: 16em;} + .poem span.i20 {display: block; margin-left: 20em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I, by Hester Lynch Piozzi</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Hester Lynch Piozzi</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 5, 2005 [eBook #16445]<br /> +[Most recently updated: June 23, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Robert Connal, Mark Stewart and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ***</div> + +<p> +<a href="#OBSERVATIONS_AND_REFLECTIONS"><b>OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN THE COURSE OF A JOURNEY THROUGH <i>FRANCE, ITALY, AND GERMANY</i></b></a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#FRANCE"><b>FRANCE</b></a><br /> +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> +<a href="#CALAIS"><b>CALAIS</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHANTILLY"><b>CHANTILLY</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PARIS"><b>PARIS</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LYONS"><b>LYONS</b></a><br /> +</p> +</blockquote> + + +<p> +<a href="#ITALY"><b>ITALY</b></a><br /> +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> +<a href="#TURIN"><b>TURIN</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MILAN"><b>MILAN</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FROM_MILAN_TO_PADUA"><b>FROM MILAN TO PADUA</b></a><br /> +<a href="#VENICE"><b>VENICE</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FERRERA"><b>FERRERA</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BOLOGNA"><b>BOLOGNA</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FLORENCE"><b>FLORENCE</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LUCCA"><b>LUCCA</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PISA"><b>PISA</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LEGHORN"><b>LEGHORN</b></a><br /> +<a href="#BAGNI_DI_PISA"><b>BAGNI DI PISA</b></a><br /> +<a href="#SIENNA"><b>SIENNA</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ROME"><b>ROME</b></a><br /> +</p> +</blockquote> + +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + +<h1><!-- Page i --><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i"></a>OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN THE COURSE OF A JOURNEY THROUGH <i>FRANCE, ITALY, AND GERMANY</i>.</h1> + + +<h2>By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI.</h2> + + +<p class="center">IN TWO VOLUMES</p> + +<p class="center">Vol. I.</p> + + +<p class="center">LONDON:</p> + +<p class="center">Printed for A. STRAHAN; and T. CADELL in the Strand,</p> + +<p class="center">MDCCLXXXIX. +<!-- Page ii --><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii"></a></p> + + + +<h2><!-- Page iii --><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>I was made to observe at Rome some vestiges of an ancient custom very +proper in those days—it was the parading of the streets by a set of +people called <i>Preciæ</i>, who went some minutes before the <i>Flamen Dialis</i> +to bid the inhabitants leave work or play, and attend wholly to the +procession; but if ill omens prevented the pageants from passing, or if +the occasion of the show was deemed scarcely worthy its celebration, +these <i>Preciæ</i> stood a chance of being ill-treated by the spectators. A +Prefatory introduction to a work like this, can hope little better usage +from the Public than they had; it proclaims the approach of what has +often passed by before, adorned most cer<!-- Page iv --><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv"></a>tainly with greater splendour, +perhaps conducted too with greater regularity and skill: Yet will I not +despair of giving at least a momentary amusement to my countrymen in +general, while their entertainment shall serve as a vehicle for +conveying expressions of particular kindness to those foreign +individuals, whose tenderness softened the sorrows of absence, and who +eagerly endeavoured by unmerited attentions to supply the loss of their +company on whom nature and habit had given me stronger claims.</p> + +<p>That I should make some reflections, or write down some observations, in +the course of a long journey, is not strange; that I should present them +before the Public is I hope not too daring: the presumption grew up out +of their acknowledged favour, and if too kind culture has encouraged a +coarse plant till it runs to seed, a little coldness from the same +quarter will soon prove sufficient to kill it. The flattering partiality +of private partisans <!-- Page v --><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v"></a>sometimes induces authors to venture forth, and +stand a public decision; but it is often found to betray them too; not +to be tossed by waves of perpetual contention, but rather to sink in the +silence of total neglect. What wonder! He who swims in oil must be +buoyant indeed, if he escapes falling certainly, though gently, to the +bottom; while he who commits his safety to the bosom of the +wide-embracing ocean, is sure to be strongly supported, or at worst +thrown upon the shore.</p> + +<p>On this principle it has been still my study to obtain from a humane and +generous Public that shelter their protection best affords from the +poisoned arrows of private malignity; for though it is not difficult to +despise the attempts of petty malice, I will not say with the +Philosopher, that I mean to build a monument to my fame with the stones +thrown at me to break my bones; nor yet pretend to the art of Swift's +German Wonder-doer, who promised to make them fall about his <!-- Page vi --><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a>head like +so many pillows. Ink, as it resembles Styx in its colour, should +resemble it a little in its operation too; whoever has been once <i>dipt</i> +should become <i>invulnerable</i>: But it is not so; the irritability of +authors has long been enrolled among the comforts of ill-nature, and the +triumphs of stupidity; such let it long remain! Let me at least take +care in the worst storms that may arise in public or in private life, to +say with Lear,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i20">—I'm one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More sinn'd against, than sinning.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>For the book—I have not thrown my thoughts into the form of private +letters; because a work of which truth is the best recommendation, +should not above all others begin with a lie. My old acquaintance rather +chose to amuse themselves with conjectures, than to flatter me with +tender inquiries during my absence; our correspondence then <!-- Page vii --><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii"></a>would not +have been any amusement to the Public, whose treatment of me deserves +every possible acknowledgment; and more than those acknowledgments will +I not add—to a work, which, such as it is, I submit to their candour, +resolving to think as little of the event as I can help; for the labours +of the press resemble those of the toilette, both should be attended to, +and finished with care; but once complete, should take up no more of our +attention; unless we are disposed at evening to destroy all effect of +our morning's study.<!-- Page 1 --><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="OBSERVATIONS_AND_REFLECTIONS" id="OBSERVATIONS_AND_REFLECTIONS"></a>OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS</h2> + +<p>MADE IN A JOURNEY THROUGH</p> + +<p>France, Italy, and Germany.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + +<h2><a name="FRANCE" id="FRANCE"></a>FRANCE</h2> + + +<h3><a name="CALAIS" id="CALAIS"></a>CALAIS.</h3> + + +<p>September 7, 1784.</p> + +<p>Of all pleasure, I see much may be destroyed by eagerness of +anticipation: I had told my female companion, to whom travelling was +new, how she would be surprized and astonished, at the difference found +in crossing the narrow sea from England to France, and now she is not +astonished at all; why should she? We have lingered and loitered six and +twenty hours from port to port, while sickness and fatigue made her feel +as if much more time still had elapsed since she quitted the opposite +shore. The truth is, we wanted wind exceedingly; and the flights <!-- Page 2 --><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>of +shaggs, and shoals of maycril, both beautiful enough, and both uncommon +too at this season, made us very little amends for the tediousness of a +night passed on ship-board.</p> + +<p>Seeing the sun rise and set, however, upon an unobstructed horizon, was +a new idea gained to me, who never till now had the opportunity. It +confirmed the truth of that maxim which tells us, that the human mind +must have something left to supply for itself on the sight of all +sublunary objects. When my eyes have watched the rising or setting sun +through a thick crowd of intervening trees, or seen it sink gradually +behind a hill which obstructed my closer observation, fancy has always +painted the full view finer than at last I found it; and if the sun +itself cannot satisfy the cravings of a thirsty imagination, let it at +least convince us that nothing on this side Heaven can satisfy them, and +<i>set our affections</i> accordingly.</p> + +<p>Pious reflections remind one of monks and nuns; I enquired of the +Franciscan friar who attended us at the inn, what was become of Father +Felix, who did the duties of the quête; as it is called, about a dozen +years ago, when I recollect minding that his mann<!-- Page 3 --><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>ers and story struck +Dr. Johnson exceedingly, who said that so complete a character could +scarcely be found in romance. He had been a soldier, it seems, and was +no incompetent or mean scholar: the books we found open in his cell, +shewed he had not neglected modern or colloquial knowledge; there was a +translation of Addison's Spectators, and Rapin's Dissertation on the +contending Parties of England called Whig and Tory. He had likewise a +violin, and some printed music, for his entertainment. I was glad to +hear he was well, and travelling to Barcelona on foot by orders of the +superior.</p> + +<p>After dinner we set out to see Miss Grey, at her convent of Dominican +Nuns; who, I hoped, would have remembered me, as many of the ladies +there had seized much of my attention when last abroad; they had however +all forgotten me, nor could call to mind how much they had once admired +the beauty of my eldest daughter, then a child, which I thought +impossible to forget: one is always more important in one's own eyes +than in those of others; but no one is of importance to a Nun, who is +and ought to be employed in other speculations.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 4 --><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>When the Great Mogul showed his splendour to a travelling dervise, who +expressed his little admiration of it—"Shall you not often be thinking +of me in future?" said the monarch. "Perhaps I might," replied the +religieux, "if I were not always thinking upon God."</p> + +<p>The women spinning at their doors here, or making lace, or employing +themselves in some manner, is particularly consolatory to a British eye; +yet I do not recollect it struck me last time I was over: industry +without bustle, and some appearance of gain without fraud, comfort one's +heart; while all the profits of commerce scarcely can be said to make +immediate compensation to a delicate mind, for the noise and brutality +observed in an English port. I looked again for the chapel, where the +model of a ship, elegantly constructed, hung from the top, and found it +in good preservation: some scrupulous man had made the ship, it seems, +and thought, perhaps justly too, that he had spent a greater portion of +time and care on the workmanship than he ought to have done; so +resolving no longer to indulge his vanity or fondness, fairly hung it up +in the convent chapel, <!-- Page 5 --><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>and made a solemn vow to look on it no more. I +remember a much stronger instance of self-denial practised by a pretty +young lady of Paris once, who was enjoined by her confessor to wring off +the neck of her favourite bullfinch, as a penance for having passed too +much time in teaching him to pipe tunes, peck from her hand, &c.—She +obeyed; but never could be prevailed on to see the priest again.</p> + +<p>We are going now to leave Calais, where the women in long white camblet +clokes, soldiers with whiskers, girls in neat slippers, and short +petticoats contrived to show them, who wait upon you at the +inn;—postillions with greasy night-caps, and vast jack-boots, driving +your carriage harnessed with ropes, and adorned with sheep-skins, can +never fail to strike an Englishman at his first going abroad:—But what +is our difference of manners, compared to that prodigious effect +produced by the much shorter passage from Spain to Africa; where an +hour's time, and sixteen miles space only, carries you from Europe, from +civilization, from Christianity. A gentleman's description of his +feelings on that occasion rushes now on my mind, and makes <!-- Page 6 --><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>me half +ashamed to sit here, in Dessein's parlour, writing remarks, in good +time!—upon places as well known as Westminster-bridge to almost all +those who cross it at this moment; while the custom-house officers +intrusion puts me the less out of humour, from the consciousness that, +if I am disturbed, I am disturbed from doing <i>nothing</i>.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="CHANTILLY" id="CHANTILLY"></a>CHANTILLY.</h3> + + +<p>Our way to this place lay through Boulogne; the situation of which is +pleasing, and the fish there excellent. I was glad to see Boulogne, +though I can scarcely tell why; but one is always glad to see something +new, and talk of something old: for example, the story I once heard of +Miss Ashe, speaking of poor Dr. James, who loved profligate conversation +dearly,—"That man should set up his quarters across the water," said +she; "why Boulogne would be a seraglio to him."</p> + +<p>The country, as far as Montreuil, is a coarse one; <i>thin herbage in the +plains and <!-- Page 7 --><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>fruitless fields</i>. The cattle too are miserably poor and +lean; but where there is no grass, we can scarcely expect them to be +fat: they must not feed on wheat, I suppose, and cannot digest tobacco. +Herds of swine, not flocks of sheep, meet one's eye upon the hills; and +the very few gentlemen's feats that we have passed by, seem out of +repair, and deserted. The French do not reside much in private houses, +as the English do; but while those of narrower fortunes flock to the +country towns within their reach, those of ampler purses repair to +Paris, where the rent of their estate supplies them with pleasures at no +very enormous expence. The road is magnificent, like our old-fashioned +avenue in a nobleman's park, but wider, and paved in the middle: this +convenience continued on for many hundred miles, and all at the king's +expence. Every man you meet, politely pulls off his hat <i>en passant</i>; +and the gentlemen have commonly a good horse under them, but certainly a +dressed one.</p> + +<p>Sporting season is not come in yet, but, I believe the idea of sporting +seldom enters any head except an English one: here is prodigious plenty +of game, but the familiarity <!-- Page 8 --><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>with which they walk about and sit by our +road-side, shews they feel no apprehensions.</p> + +<p>Harvest, even in France, is extremely backward this year, I see; no +crops are yet got in, nor will reaping be likely to pay its own charges. +But though summer is come too late for profit, the pleasure it brings is +perhaps enhanced by delay: like a life, the early part of which has been +wasted in sickness, the possessor finds too little time remaining for +work, when health <i>does</i> come; and spends all that he has left, +naturally enough, in enjoyment.</p> + +<p>The pert vivacity of <i>La Fille</i> at Montreuil was all we could find there +worth remarking: it filled up my notions of French flippancy agreeably +enough; as no English wench would so have answered one to be sure. She +had complained of our avant-coureur's behaviour. "<i>Il parle sur le bant +ton, mademoiselle</i>" (said I), "<i>mais il à le coeur bon</i><a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a>:" "<i>Ouydà</i>" +(replied she, smartly), "<i>mais c'est le ton qui fait le chanson</i><a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a>."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="footnoteslegend">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> He sets his talk to a sounding tune, my dear, but he is an +honest fellow.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> But I always thought it was the tune which made the +musick.</p></div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 9 --><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>The cathedral at Amiens made ample amends for the country we passed +through to see it; the <i>Nef d'Amiens</i> deserves the fame of a first-rate +structure: and the ornaments of its high altar seem particularly well +chosen, of an excellent taste, and very capital execution. The vineyards +from thence hither shew, that either the climate, or season, or both, +improve upon one: the grapes climbing up some not very tall +golden-pippin trees, and mingling their fruits at the top, have a mighty +pleasing effect; and I observe the rage for Lombardy poplars is in equal +force here as about London: no tolerable house have I passed without +seeing long rows of them; all young plantations, as one may perceive by +their size. Refined countries always are panting for speedy enjoyment: +the maxim of <i>carpe diem</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Seize the present moment.]</span> came into +Rome when luxury triumphed there; and poets and philosophers lent their +assistance to decorate and dignify her gaudy car. Till then we read of +no such haste to be happy; and on the same principle, while Americans +contentedly wait the slow growth of their columnal<!-- Page 10 --><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a> chesnut, our hot-bed +inhabitants measure the slender poplar with canes, anxiously admiring +its quick growth and early elegance; yet are often cut down themselves, +before their youthful favourite can afford them either pleasure or +advantage.</p> + +<p>This charming palace and gardens were new to neither of us, yet lovely +to both: the tame fish, I remember so well to have fed from my hand +eleven or twelve years ago, are turned almost all white; can it be with +age I wonder? the naturalists must tell. I once saw a carp which weighed +six pounds and an half taken out of a pond in Hertfordshire, where the +owners knew it had resided forty years at least; and it was not white, +but of the common colour: Quere, how long will they live? and when will +they begin to change? The stables struck me as more magnificent this +time than the last I saw them; the hounds were always dirtily and ill +kept; but hunting is not the taste of any nation now but ours; none but +a young English heir says to his estate as Goliah did to David, <i>Come to +me, and I will give thee to the beasts of the field, and to the fowls of +the air</i>; as some of our old books of piety reproach us. Every <!-- Page 11 --><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>trick +that money can play with the most lavish abundance of water is here +exhibited; nor is the sight of a <i>jet d'eau</i>, or the murmur of an +artificial cascade, undelightful in a hot day, let the Nature-mongers +say what they please. The prince's cabinet, for a private collection, is +not a mean one; but I was sorry to see his quadrant rusted to the globe +almost, and the poor planetarium out of all repair. The great stuffed +dog is a curiosity however; I never saw any of the canine species so +large, and withal so beautiful, living or dead.</p> + +<p>The theatre belonging to the house is a lovely one; and the truly +princely possessor, when he heard once that an English gentleman, +travelling for amusement, had called at Chantilly too late to enjoy the +diversion, instantly, though past twelve o'clock at night, ordered a new +representation, that his curiosity might be gratified. This is the same +Prince of Condè, who going from Paris to his country-seat here for a +month or two, when his eldest son was nine years old, left him fifty +louis d'ors as an allowance during his absence. At his return to town, +the boy produced his purse, crying "<i>Papa! here's all the <!-- Page 12 --><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>money safe, I +have never touched it once</i>"—The Prince, in reply, took him gravely to +the window, and opening it, very quietly poured all the louis d'ors into +the street; saying, "Now, if you have neither virtue enough to give away +your money, nor spirit enough to spend it, always <i>do this</i> for the +future, do you hear; that the poor may at least have a <i>chance for it</i>."</p> + + + +<h3><a name="PARIS" id="PARIS"></a>PARIS.</h3> + + +<p>The fine paved road to this town has many inconveniencies, and jars the +nerves terribly with its perpetual rattle; the approach however always +strikes one as very fine, I think, and the boulevards and guingettes +look always pretty too: as wine, beer, and spirits are not permitted to +be sold there, one sees what England does not even pretend to exhibit, +which is gaiety without noise, and a crowd without a riot. I was pleased +to go over the churches again too, and re-experience that particular +sensation which the disposition of St. Rocque's altars and ornaments +<!-- Page 13 --><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>alone can give. In the evening we looked at the new square called the +Palais Royal, whence the Duc de Chartres has removed a vast number of +noble trees, which it was a sin and shame to profane with an axe, after +they had adorned that spot for so many centuries.—The people were +accordingly as angry, I believe, as Frenchmen can be, when the folly was +first committed: the court, however, had wit enough to convert the place +into a sort of Vauxhall, with tents, fountains, shops, full of frippery, +brilliant at once and worthless, to attract them; with coffeehouses +surrounding it on every side; and now they are all again <i>merry</i> and +<i>happy</i>, synonymous terms at Paris, though often disunited in London; +and <i>Vive le Duc de Chartres</i>!</p> + +<p>The French are really a contented race of mortals;—precluded almost +from possibility of adventure, the low Parisian leads a gentle humble +life, nor envies that greatness he never can obtain; but either wonders +delightedly, or diverts himself philosophically with the sight of +splendours which seldom fail to excite serious envy in an Englishman, +and sometimes occasion even suicide, from disappointed hopes, which +never <!-- Page 14 --><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>could take root in the heart of these unaspiring people. +Reflections of this cast are suggested to one here in every shop, where +the behaviour of the matter at first sight contradicts all that our +satirists tell us of the <i>supple Gaul</i>, &c. A mercer in this town shews +you a few silks, and those he scarcely opens; <i>vous devez +choisir</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Chuse what you like.]</span>, is all he thinks of saying, to +invite your custom; then takes out his snuff-box, and yawns in your +face, fatigued by your inquiries. For my own part, I find my natural +disgust of such behaviour greatly repelled, by the recollection that the +man I am speaking to is no inhabitant of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A happy land, where circulating pow'r<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flows thro' each member of th'embodied state—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">S. Johnson</span>.<br /> +</div></div> + + +<p>and I feel well-inclined to respect the peaceful tenor of a life, which +likes not to be broken in upon, for the sake of obtaining riches, which +when gotten must end only in the pleasure of counting them. A Frenchman +who should make his fortune by trade tomorrow,<!-- Page 15 --><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a> would be no nearer +advancement in society or situation: why then should he solicit, by arts +he is too lazy to delight in the practice of, that opulence which would +afford so slight an improvement to his comforts? He lives as well as he +wishes already; he goes to the Boulevards every night, treats his wife +with a glass of lemonade or ice, and holds up his babies by turns, to +hear the jokes of <i>Jean Pottage</i>. Were he to recommend his goods, like +the Londoner, with studied eloquence and attentive flattery, he could +not hope like him that the eloquence he now bestows on the decorations +of a hat, or the varnish of an equipage, may one day serve to torment a +minister, and obtain a post of honour for his son; he could not hope +that on some future day his flattery might be listened to by some lady +of more birth than beauty, or riches perhaps, when happily employed upon +a very different subject, and be the means of lifting himself into a +state of distinction, his children too into public notoriety.</p> + +<p>Emulation, ambition, avarice, however, must in all arbitrary governments +be confined to the great; the <i>other</i> set of mortals, for there are none +there of <i>middling</i> rank, live, <!-- Page 16 --><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>as it should seem, like eunuchs in a +seraglio; feel themselves irrevocably doomed to promote the pleasure of +their superiors, nor ever dream of sighing for enjoyments from which an +irremeable boundary divides them. They see at the beginning of their +lives how that life must necessarily end, and trot with a quiet, +contented, and unaltered pace down their long, straight, and shaded +avenue; while we, with anxious solicitude, and restless hurry, watch the +quick turnings of our serpentine walk; which still presents, either to +sight or expectation, some changes of variety in the ever-shifting +prospect, till the unthought-of, unexpected end comes suddenly upon us, +and finishes at once the fluctuating scene. Reflections must now give +way to facts for a moment, though few English people want to be told +that every hotel here, belonging to people of condition, is shut out +from the street like our Burlington-house, which gives a general gloom +to the look of this city so famed for its gaiety: the streets are narrow +too, and ill-paved; and very noisy, from the echo made by stone +buildings drawn up to a prodigious height, many of the houses having +seven, and some <!-- Page 17 --><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>of them even eight stories from the bottom. The +contradictions one meets with every moment likewise strike even a +cursory observer—a countess in a morning, her hair dressed, with +diamonds too perhaps, a dirty black handkerchief about her neck, and a +flat silver ring on her finger, like our ale-wives; a <i>femme publique</i>, +dressed avowedly for the purposes of alluring the men, with not a very +small crucifix hanging at her bosom;—and the Virgin Mary's sign at an +alehouse door, with these words,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Je suis la mere de mon Dieu,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et la gardienne de ce lieu<a name="FNanchor_C_5" id="FNanchor_C_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_5" class="fnanchor">[C]</a>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_5" id="Footnote_C_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_5"><span class="label">[C]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mother of my God am I,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And keep this house right carefully.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p>I have, however, borrowed Bocage's Remarks upon the English nation, +which serve to damp my spirit of criticism exceedingly: She had more +opportunities than I for observation, not less quickness of discernment +surely; and her stay in London was longer than mine in Paris.—Yet, how +was she deceived in many points!<!-- Page 18 --><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a></p> + +<p>I will tell nothing that I did not <i>see</i>; and among the objects one +would certainly avoid seeing if it were possible, is the deformity of +the poor.—Such various modes of warping the human figure could hardly +be observed in England by a surgeon in high practice, as meet me about +this country incessantly.—I have seen them in the galleries and +outer-courts even of the palace itself, and am glad to turn my eyes for +relief on the Duke of Orleans's pictures; a glorious collection! The +Italian noblemen, in whose company we saw it, acknowledged with candour +the good taste of the selection; and I was glad to see again what had +delighted me so many years before: particularly, the three Marys, by +Annibale Caracci; and Rubens's odd conceit of making Juno's Peacock peck +Paris's leg, for having refused the apple to his mistress.</p> + +<p>The manufacture at the Gobelins seems exceedingly improved; the +colouring less inharmonious, the drawing more correct; but our Parisians +are not just now thinking about such matters; they are all wild for love +of a new comedy, written by Mons. de Beaumarchais, and called, "Le +Mariage de Figaro," <!-- Page 19 --><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>full of such wit as we were fond of in the reign of +Charles the Second, indecent merriment, and gross immorality; mixed, +however, with much acrimonious satire, as if Sir George Etherege and +Johnny Gay had clubbed their powers of ingenuity at once to divert and +to corrupt their auditors; who now carry the verses of this favourite +piece upon their fans, pocket-handkerchiefs, &c. as our women once did +those of the Beggar's Opera.</p> + +<p>We have enjoyed some very agreeable society here in the company of Comte +Turconi, a Milanese Nobleman who, desirous to escape all the frivolous, +and petty distinction which birth alone bestows, has long fixed his +residence in Paris, where talents find their influence, and where a +great city affords that unobserved freedom of thought and action which +can scarcely be expected by a man of high rank in a smaller circle; but +which, when once tasted, will not seldom be preferred to the attentive +watchfulness of more confined society.</p> + +<p>The famous Venetian too, who has written so many successful comedies, +and is now <!-- Page 20 --><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>employed upon his own Memoirs, at the age of eighty-four, +was a delightful addition to our Coterie, <i>Goldoni</i>. He is garrulous, +good-humoured, and gay; resembling the late James Harris of Salisbury in +person not manner, and seems justly esteemed, and highly, by his +countrymen.</p> + +<p>The conversation of the Marquis Trotti and the Abate Bucchetti is +likewise particularly pleasing; especially to me, who am naturally +desirous to live as much as possible among Italians of general +knowledge, good taste, and polished manners, before I enter their +country, where the language will be so very indispensable. Mean time I +have stolen a day to visit my old acquaintance the English Austin Nuns +at the Fossée, and found the whole community alive and cheerful; they +are many of them agreeable women, and having seen Dr. Johnson with me +when I was last abroad, enquired much for him: Mrs. Fermor, the +Prioress, niece to Belinda in the Rape of the Lock, taking occasion to +tell me, comically enough, "That she believed there was but little +comfort to be found in a house that harboured <!-- Page 21 --><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a><i>poets</i>; for that she +remembered Mr. Pope's praise made her aunt very troublesome and +conceited, while his numberless caprices would have employed ten +servants to wait on him; and he gave one" (said she) "no amends by his +talk neither, for he only sate dozing all day, when the sweet wine was +out, and made his verses chiefly in the night; during which season he +kept himself awake by drinking coffee, which it was one of the maids +business to make for him, and they took it by turns."</p> + +<p>These ladies really live here as comfortably for aught I see as peace, +quietness, and the certainty of a good dinner every day can make them. +Just so much happier than as many old maids who inhabit Milman Street +and Chapel Row, as they are sure not to be robbed by a treacherous, or +insulted by a favoured, servant in the decline of life, when protection +is grown hopeless and resistance vain; and as they enjoy at least a +moral certainty of never living worse than they do to-day: while the +little knot of unmarried females turned fifty round Red Lion Square +<i>may</i> always be ruined by a runaway <!-- Page 22 --><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>agent, a bankrupted banker, or a +roguish steward; and even the petty pleasures of six-penny quadrille may +become by that misfortune too costly for their income.—<i>Aureste</i>, as +the French say, the difference is small: both coteries sit separate in +the morning, go to prayers at noon, and read the chapters for the day: +change their neat dress, eat their little dinner, and play at small +games for small sums in the evening; when recollection tires, and chat +runs low.</p> + +<p>But more adventurous characters claim my present attention. All Paris I +think, myself among the rest, assembled to see the valiant brothers, +Robert and Charles, mount yesterday into the air, in company with a +certain Pilâtre de Rosier, who conducted them in the new-invented flying +chariot fastened to an air-balloon. It was from the middle of the +Tuilleries that they set out, a place very favourable and well-contrived +for such public purposes. But all was so nicely managed, so cleverly +carried on somehow, that the order and decorum of us who remained on +firm ground, struck me more than even the very strange sight of human +creatures float<!-- Page 23 --><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>ing in the wind: but I have really been witness to ten +times as much bustle and confusion at a crowded theatre in London, than +what these peaceable Parisians made when the whole city was gathered +together. Nobody was hurt, nobody was frighted, nobody could even +pretend to feel themselves incommoded. Such are among the few comforts +that result from a despotic government.</p> + +<p>My republican spirit, however, boiled up a little last Monday, when I +had to petition Mons. de Calonne for the restoration of some trifles +detained in the custom-house at Calais. His politeness, indeed, and the +sight of others performing like acts of humiliation, reconciled me in +some measure to the drudgery of running from subaltern to subaltern, +intreating, in pathetic terms, the remission of a law which is at last +either just or unjust; if just, no felicitation should, methinks, be +permitted to change it; if unjust, what can be so grating as the +obligation to solicit?</p> + +<p>We mean to quit Paris to-morrow; I therefore enquired this evening, what +was become of our aërial travellers. A very grave man replied, "<i>Je +crois, Madame, qu'ils</i><!-- Page 24 --><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a> <i>sont dejá arrivès ces Messieurs là, au lieu ou +les vents se forment</i><a name="FNanchor_D_6" id="FNanchor_D_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_6" class="fnanchor">[D]</a>."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_6" id="Footnote_D_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_6"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> I fancy, Ma'am, the gentlemen are gone to see the place +where all the winds blow from.</p></div> + + + +<h3><a name="LYONS" id="LYONS"></a>LYONS.</h3> + + +<p>Sept. 25, 1784.</p> + +<p>We left the capital at our intended time, and put into the carriage, for +amusement, a book seriously recommended by Mr. Goldoni; but which +diverted me only by the fanfaronades that it contained. The author has, +however, got the premium by this performance, which the Academy of +Berlin promised to whoever wrote best this year on any Belles Lettres +subject. This gentleman judiciously chose to give reasons for the +universality of the French language, and has been so gaily insolent to +every other European nation in his flimsy pamphlet, that some will +probably praise, many reply to, all read, and all forget it. I will +confess myself so seized on by his sprightly impertinence, that I wished +for leisure to translate, and wit to answer him at first, but the want +<!-- Page 25 --><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>of one solid thought by which to recollect his existence has cured me; +and I now find that he was deliciously cool and sharp, like the ordinary +wine of the country we are passing through, which having <i>no body</i>, can +neither keep its little power long, nor even use it while fresh to any +sensible effect.</p> + +<p>The country is really beautiful; but descriptions are <i>so</i> fallacious, +one half despairs of communicating one's ideas as they are: for either +well-chosen words do not present themselves, or being well-chosen they +detain the reader, and fix his mind on <i>them</i>, instead of the things +described. Certain it is that I had formed no adequate notion of the +fine river called the Yonne, with cattle grazing on its fertile banks: +those banks not clothed indeed with our soft verdure, but with royal +purple, proceeding from an autumnal daisy of that colour that enamels +every meadow at this season. Here small enclosures seem unknown to the +inhabitants, who are strewed up and down expansive views of a most +productive country; where vineyards swell upon the rising grounds, and +young wheat ornaments the valleys below: while clusters of aspiring +poplars, or a single walnut-tree of greater <!-- Page 26 --><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>size and dignity unite in +attracting attention, and inspiring poetical ideas. Here is no tedious +uniformity to fatigue the eye, nor rugged asperities to disgust it; but +ceaseless variety of colouring among the plants, while the cærulean +willow, the yellow walnut, the gloomy beech, and silver theophrastus, +seem scattered by the open hand of lavish Nature over a landscape of +respectable extent, uniting that sublimity which a wide expanse always +conveys to the mind, with that distinctness so desired by the eye; which +cultivation alone can offer and fertility bestow. Every town that should +adorn these lovely plains, however, exhibits, upon a nearer approach, +misery; the more mortifying, as it is less expected by a spectator, who +requires at least some days experience to convince him that the squallid +scenes of wretchedness and dirt in which he is obliged to pass the +night, will prove more than equivalent to the pleasures he has enjoyed +in the day-time, derived from an appearance of elegance and +wealth—elegance, the work of Nature, not of man; and opulence, the +immediate gift of God, and not the result of commerce. He who should fix +his residence in France, lives <!-- Page 27 --><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>like Sir Gawaine in our old romance, +whose wife was bound by an enchantment, that obliged her at evening to +lay down the various beauties which had charmed admiring multitudes all +day, and become an object of odium and disgust.</p> + +<p>The French do seem indeed an idle race; and poverty, perhaps for that +reason, forces her way among them, through a climate that might tempt +other mortals to improve its blessings; but, as the motto to the arms +they are so proud of expresses it—"they <i>toil not, neither do they +spin</i>." Content, the bane of industry, as Mandeville calls it, renders +them happy with what Heaven has unsolicited shaken into their lap; and +who knows but the spirit of blaming such behaviour may be less pleasing +to God that gives, than is the behaviour itself?</p> + +<p>Let us not, mean time, be forward to suppose, that whatever one sees +done, is done upon principle, as such fancies will for ever mislead one: +much must be left to chance, when we are judging the conduct either of +nations or individuals. And surely I never knew till now, that so little +religion could exist in any <!-- Page 28 --><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>Christian country as in this, where they +drive their carts, and keep their little shops open on a Sunday, +forbearing neither pleasure nor business, as I see, on account of +observing that day upon which their Redeemer rose again. They have a +tradition among the meaner people, that when Christ was crucified, he +turned his head towards France, over which he pronounced his last +blessing; but we must accuse them, if so, of being very ungrateful +favourites.</p> + +<p>This stately city, Lyons, is very happily and finely situated; the +Rhone, which flows by its side, inviting mills, manufactures, &c. seems +resolved to contradict and wash away all I have been saying; but we must +remember, it is five days journey from Paris hither, and I have been +speaking only of the little places we passed through in coming along.</p> + +<p>The avenue here, which leads to one of the greatest objects in the +nation, is most worthy of that object's dignity indeed: the marriage of +two rivers, which having their sources at a prodigious distance from +each other, meet here, and together roll their beneficial tribute to the +sea. Howell's remark, "That the Saone resembles a Spaniard <!-- Page 29 --><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>in the +slowness of its current, and that the Rhone is emblematic of French +rapidity," cannot be kept a moment out of one's head: it is equally +observable, that the junction adds little in appearance to their +strength and grandeur, and that each makes a better figure <i>separate</i> +than <i>united</i>.</p> + +<p>La Montagne d'Or is a lovely hill above the town, and I am told that +many English families reside upon it, but we have no time to make minute +enquiries. L'Hotel de la Croix de Malthe affords excellent +accommodations within, and a delightful prospect without. The Baths too +have attracted my notice much, and will, I hope, repair my strength, so +as to make me no troublesome fellow-traveller. How little do those +ladies consult their own interest, who make impatience of petty +inconveniences their best supplement for conversation!—fancy themselves +more important as less contented; and imagine all delicacy to consist in +the difficulty of being pleased! Surely a dip in this delightful river +will restore my health, and enable me to pass the mountains, of which +our present companions give me a very formidable account.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 30 --><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>The manufacturers here, at Lyons, deserve a volume, and I shall +scarcely give them a page; though nothing I ever saw at London or Paris +can compare with the beauty of these velvets, or with the art necessary +to produce such an effect, while the wrong side is smooth, not struck +through. The hangings for the Empress of Russia's bed-chamber are +wonderfully executed; the design elegant, the colouring brilliant: A +screen too for the Grand Signor is finely finished here; he would, I +trust, have been contented with magnificence in the choice of his +furniture, but Mr. Pernon has added taste to it, and contrived in +appearance to sink an urn or vase of crimson velvet in a back ground of +gold tissue with surprising ingenuity.</p> + +<p>It is observable, that the further people advance in elegance, the less +they value splendour; distinction being at last the positive thing which +mortals elevated above competency naturally pant after. Necessity must +first be supplied we know, convenience then requires to be contented; +but as soon as men can find means after that period to make themselves +eminent for taste, they learn to <!-- Page 31 --><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>despise those paltry distinctions +which riches alone can bestow.</p> + +<p>Talking of Taste leads one to speak of gardening; and having passed +yesterday between two villas belonging to some of the most opulent +merchants of Lyons, I gained an opportunity of observing the disposal of +those grounds that are appropriated to pleasure; where the shade of +straight long-drawn alleys, formed by a close junction of ancient elm +trees, kept a dazzling sun from incommoding our sight, and rendering the +turf so mossy and comfortable to one's tread, that my heart never felt +one longing wish for the beauties of a lawn and shrubbery—though I +should certainly think such a manner of laying out a Lancashire +gentleman's seat in the north of England a mad one, where the heat of +the sun ought to be invited in, not shut out; and where a large lake of +water is wanted for his beams to sparkle upon, instead of a fountain to +trickle and to murmur, and to refresh one with the idea of coolness +which it excites. Here, however, where the Rhone is navigable up to the +very house, I see not but it is rational enough to form jet d'eaux of +the superfluous water, and to content one's <!-- Page 32 --><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>self with a Bird Cage Walk, +when we are sure at the end of it to find ourselves surrounded by an +horizon, of extent enough to give the eye full employment, and of a +bright colouring which affords it but little relief. That among the gems +of Europe our island holds the rank of an <i>emerald</i>, was once suggested +to me, and I could never part with the idea; surely France must in the +same scale be rated as the <i>ruby</i>; for here is no grass, no verdure to +repose the sight upon, except that of high forest trees, the vineyards +being short cut, and supported by white sticks, the size of those which +in our flower gardens support a favourite carnation; and these placed +close together by thousands on a hill rather perplex than please a +spectator of the country, who must wait till he recollects the +superiority of their produce, before he prefers them to a Herefordshire +orchard or a Kentish hop-ground.</p> + +<p>Well! well! it is better to waste no more words on places however, where +the people have done so much to engage and to deserve our attention.</p> + +<p>Such was the hospitality I have here been witness to, and such the +luxuries of the Ly<!-- Page 33 --><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>onnois at table, that I counted six and thirty dishes +where we dined, and twenty-four where we supped. Every thing was served +up in silver at both places, and all was uniformly magnificent, except +the linen, which might have been finer. We were not a very numerous +company—from eighteen to twenty-two, as I remember, morning and +evening; but the ladies played upon the pedal harp, the gentlemen sung +gaily, if not sweetly after supper: I never received more kindness for +my own part in any fortnight of my life, nor ever heard that kindness +more pleasingly or less coarsely expressed. These are merchants, I am +told, with whom I have been living; and perhaps my heart more readily +receives and repays their caresses for having heard so. Let princes +dispute, and soldiers reciprocally support their quarrels; but let the +wealthy traders of every nation unite to pour the oil of commerce over +the too agitated ocean of human life, and smooth down those asperities +which obstruct fraternal concord.</p> + +<p>The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland lodge here at our hotel; I saw them +treated with distinguished respect to-night at the theatre, <!-- Page 34 --><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>where <i>a +force de danser</i><span class="footnoteinline">[By dint of dancing alone]</span>, I actually was +moved to shed many tears over the distresses of <i>Sophie de Brabant</i>. +Surely these pantomimes will very soon supplant all poetry, when, as +Gratiano says, "Our words will suddenly become superfluous, and +discourse grow commendable in none but parrots."</p> + +<p>Some conversation here, however, struck me as curious; the more so as I +had heard the subject slightly touched upon at Paris; but faintly there, +as the last sounds of an echo, while here they are all loud, all in +earnest, and all their heads seemed turned, I think, about something, or +nothing, which they call <i>animal magnetism</i>. I cannot imagine how it has +seized them so: a man who undertakes to cure disorders by the touch, is +no new thing; our Philosophical Transactions make mention of Gretrex the +stroaker, in Charles the Second's reign. The present mountebank, it is +true, seems more hardy in his experiments, and boasts of being able to +cause disorders in the human frame, as well as to remove them. A +gentleman at yesterday's dinner-party mentioned, that he <!-- Page 35 --><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>took pupils; +and, before I had expressed the astonishment I felt, professed himself a +disciple; and was happy to assure us, he said, that though he had not +yet attained the desirable power of putting a person into a catalepsy at +pleasure, he could throw a woman into a deep swoon, from which no arts +but his own could recover her. How difficult is it to restrain one's +contempt and indignation from a buffoonery so mean, or a practice so +diabolical!—This folly may possibly find its way into England—I should +be very sorry.</p> + +<p>To-morrow we leave Lyons. I should have liked to pass through +Switzerland, the Derbyshire of Europe; but I am told the season is too +far advanced, as we mean to spend Christmas at Milan.<!-- Page 36 --><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ITALY" id="ITALY"></a>ITALY</h2> + + + +<h3><a name="TURIN" id="TURIN"></a>TURIN.</h3> + + +<p>October 17, 1784.</p> + +<p>We have at length passed the Alps, and are safely arrived at this lovely +little city, whence I look back on the majestic boundaries of Italy, +with amazement at his courage who first profaned them: surely the +immediate sensation conveyed to the mind by the sight of such tremendous +appearances must be in every traveller the same, a sensation of fulness +never experienced before, a satisfaction that there is something great +to be seen on earth—some object capable of contenting even fancy. Who +he was who first of all people pervaded these fortifications, raised by +nature for the defence of her European Paradise, is not ascertained; but +the great Duke of Savoy has wisely left his name engraved on a monument +upon the first considerable ascent from Pont <!-- Page 37 --><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>Bonvoisin, as being author +of a beautiful road cut through the solid stone for a great length of +way, and having by this means encouraged others to assist in +facilitating a passage so truly desirable, till one of the great wonders +now to be observed among the Alps, is the ease with which even a +delicate traveller may cross them. In these prospects, colouring is +carried to its utmost point of perfection, particularly at the time I +found it, variegated with golden touches of autumnal tints; immense +cascades mean time bursting from naked mountains on the one side; +cultivated fields, rich with vineyards, on the other, and tufted with +elegant shrubs that invite one to pluck and carry them away to where +they would be treated with much more respect. Little towns flicking in +the clefts, where one would imagine it was impossible to clamber; light +clouds often sailing under the feet of the high-perched inhabitants, +while the sound of a deep and rapid though narrow river, dashing with +violence among the insolently impeding rocks at the bottom, and bells in +thickly-scattered spires calling the quiet Savoyards to church upon the +steep <!-- Page 38 --><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>sides of every hill—fill one's mind with such mutable, such +various ideas, as no other place can ever possibly afford.</p> + +<p>I had the satisfaction of seeing a chamois at a distance, and spoke with +a fellow who had killed five hungry bears that made depredation on his +pastures: we looked on him with reverence as a monster-tamer of +antiquity, Hercules or Cadmus; he had the skin of a beast wrapt round +his middle, which confirmed the fancy—but our servants, who borrowed +from no fictitious records the few ideas that adorned their talk, told +us he reminded <i>them</i> of <i>John the Baptist</i>. I had scarce recovered the +shock of this too sublime comparison, when we approached his cottage, +and found the felons nailed against the wall, like foxes heads or spread +kites in England. Here are many goats, but neither white nor large, like +those which browze upon the steeps of Snowdon, or clamber among the +cliffs of Plinlimmon.</p> + +<p>I chatted with a peasant in the Haute Morienne, concerning the endemial +swelling of the throat, which is found in seven out of every ten persons +here: he told me what I had always heard, but do not yet believe, <!-- Page 39 --><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>that +it was produced by drinking the snow water. Certain it is, these places +are not wholesome to live in; most of the inhabitants are troubled with +weak and sore eyes: and I recollect Sir Richard Jebb telling me, more +than seven years ago, that when he passed through Savoy, the various +applications made to him, either for the cure or prevention of blindness +by numberless unfortunate wretches that crowded round him, hastened his +quitting a province where such horrible complaints prevailed. One has +heard it related that the goîstre or gozzo of the throat is reckoned a +beauty by those who possess it; but I spoke with many, and all agreed to +lament it as a misfortune. That it does really proceed merely from +living in a snowy country, would be well confirmed by accounts of a +similar sickness being endemial in Canada; but of an American goîstre I +have never yet heard—and Wales, methinks, is snowy enough, and +mountainous enough, God knows; yet were such an excrescence to be seen +<i>there</i>, the people would never have done wondering, and blessing +themselves.</p> + +<p>The mines of Derbyshire, however, do not very unfrequently exhibit +something of the <!-- Page 40 --><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>same appearance among those who work in <i>them</i>; and as +Savoy is impregnated with many minerals, I should be apter to attribute +this extension of the gland to their influence over the constitution, +than to that of snow water, which can scarcely be efficacious in a +degree of power equal to the producing so very violent an effect.</p> + +<p>The wolves do certainly come down from these mountains in large troops, +just as Thomson describes them:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Burning for blood; boney, and gaunt, and grim.—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But it is now the fashionable philosophy every where to consider this +creature as the original of our domestic friend, the dog. It was a long +time before my heart assented to its truth, yet surely their hunting +thus in packs confirms it; and the Jackall's willingness to connect with +either race, shews one that the species cannot be far removed, and that +he makes the shade between the wolf and rough haired shepherd's cur.</p> + +<p>Of the longevity of man this district affords us no pleasing examples. +The peasants here are apparently unhealthy, and they say—<!-- Page 41 --><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>short-lived. +We are told by travellers of former days, that there is a region of the +air so subtle as to extinguish the two powers of taste and smell; and +those who have crossed the Cordilleras of the Andes say, that situations +have been explored among their points in South America, where those +senses have been found to suffer a temporary suspension. Our <i>voyageurs +aeriens</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Our aerostatic travellers]</span> may now be useful to +settle that question among others, and Pambamarca's heights may remain +untrodden.</p> + +<p>As for Mount Cenis, I never felt myself more hungry, or better enjoyed a +good dinner, than I did upon it's top: but the trout in the lake there +have been over praised; their pale colour allured me but little in the +first place, nor is their flavour equal to that of trout found in +running water. Going down the Italian side of the Alps is, after all, an +astonishing journey; and affords the most magnificent scenery in nature, +which varying at every step, gives new impression to the mind each +moment of one's passage; while the portion of terror excited either by +<!-- Page 42 --><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>real or fancied dangers on the way, is just sufficient to mingle with +the pleasure, and make one feel the full effect of sublimity. To the +chairmen who carry one though, nothing can be new; it is observable that +the glories of these objects have never faded—I heard them speak to +each other of their beauties, and the change of light since they had +passed by last time, while a fellow who spoke English as well as a +native told us, that having lived in a gentleman's service twenty years +between London and Dublin, he at length begged his discharge, chusing to +retire and finish his days a peasant upon these mountains, where he +first opened his eyes upon scenes that made all other views of nature +insipid to his taste.</p> + +<p>If impressions of beauty remain, however, those of danger die away by +frequent reiteration; the men who carried me seemed amazed that I should +feel any emotions of fear. <i>Qu'est ce donc, madame</i>?<span class="footnoteinline">[What's the matter, my lady?]</span> was the coldly-asked question to my repeated +injunction of <i>prenez garde</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Take care.]</span>: not very apparently +<!-- Page 43 --><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>unnecessary neither, where the least slip must have been fatal both to +them and me.</p> + +<p>Novalesa is the town we stopped at, upon entering Piedmont; where the +hollow sound of a heavy dashing torrent that has accompanied us +hitherto, first grows faint, and the ideas of common life catch hold of +one again; as the noise of it is heard from a greater distance, its +stream grows wider, and its course more tranquil. For compensation of +danger, ease should be administered; but one's quiet is here so +disturbed by insects, and polluted by dirt, that one recollects the +conduct of the Lapland rein-deer, who seeks the summit of the hill at +the hazard of his life, to avoid those gnats which sting him to madness +in the valley.</p> + +<p>Suza shewed nothing that I took much interest in, except its name; and +nobody tells me why it is honoured with that old Asiatick appellation. +At the next town, called St. Andrè, or St. Ambroise, I forget which, we +got an admirable dinner; and saw our room decorated with a large map of +London, which I looked on with sensations different from <!-- Page 44 --><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>those ever +before excited by the same object, Amsterdam and Constantinople covered +the other sides of the wall; and over the door of the chamber itself was +written, as our people write the Lamb or the Lion, "<i>Les trois Villes +Heretiques</i><span class="footnoteinline">[The three Heretical Cities]</span>." +</p> + +<p>The avenue to Turin, most magnificently planted, and drawn in a wide +straight line, shaded like the Bird-cage walk in St. James's Park, for +twelve miles in length, is a dull work, but very useful and convenient +in so hot a country; it has been completed by the taste, and at the sole +expence, of his Sardinian majesty, that he may enjoy a cool shady drive +from one of his palaces to the other. The town to which this long +approach conveys one does not disgrace its entrance. It is built in form +of a star, with a large stone in its centre, on which you are desired to +stand, and see the streets all branch regularly from it, each street +terminating with a beautiful view of the surrounding country, like spots +of ground seen in many of the old-fashioned parks in England, when the +etoile and vista were the mode. I think there is[5] <!-- Page 45 --><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>still one +subsisting even now, if I remember right, in Kensington Gardens. Such +symmetry is really a soft repose for the eye, wearied with following a +soaring falcon through the half-sightless regions of the air, or darting +down immeasurable precipices, to examine if the human figure could be +discerned at such a depth below one. Model of elegance, exact Turin! +where Italian hospitality first consoled, and Italian arts first repaid, +the fatigues of my journey: how shall I bear to leave my new-obtained +acquaintance? how shall I consent to quit this lovely city? where, from +the box put into my possession by the Prince de la Cisterna, I first saw +an Italian opera acted in an Italian theatre; where the wonders of +Porporati's hand shewed me that our Bartolozzi was not without a +competitor; and where every pleasure which politeness can invent, and +kindness can bestow, was held out for my acceptance. Should we be +seduced, however, to waste time here, we should have reason in a future +day to repent our choice; like one who, enamoured of Lord Pembroke's +great hall at Wilton, should fail to afford himself leisure for looking +over the better-furnished apartments.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 46 --><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>This charming town is the <i>salon</i> of Italy; but it is a +finely-proportioned and well-ornamented <i>salon</i> happily constructed to +call in the fresh air at the end of every street, through which a rapid +stream is directed, that <i>ought</i> to carry off all nuisances, which here +have no apology from want of any convenience purchasable by money; and +which must for that reason be the choice of inhabitants, who would +perhaps be too happy, had they a natural taste for that neatness which +might here be enjoyed in its purity. The arches formed to defend +passengers from the rain and sun, which here might have even serious +effects from their violence, deserve much praise; while their +architecture, uniting our ideas of comfort and beauty together, form a +traveller's taste, and teach him to admire that perfection, of which a +miniature may certainly be found at Turin, when once a police shall be +established there to prevent such places being used for the very +grossest purposes, and polluted with smells that poison all one's +pleasure.</p> + +<p>It is said, that few European palaces exceed in splendour that of +Sardinia's king; I found <!-- Page 47 --><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>it very fine indeed, and the pictures +dazzling. The death of a dropsical woman well known among all our +connoisseurs detained my attention longest: the value set on it here is +ten thousand pounds. The horse cut out of a block of marble at the +stairs-foot attracted me not a little; but we are told that the +impression it makes will soon be effaced by the sight of greater +wonders. Mean time I go about like Stephano and his ignorant companions, +who longed for all the glittering furniture of Prospero's cell in the +Tempest, while those who know the place better are vindicated in crying, +"<i>Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash</i>."</p> + +<p>Some letters from home directed me to enquire in this town for Doctor +Charles Allioni, who kindly received, and permitted me to examine the +rarities, of which he has a very capital collection. His fossil fish in +slate—blue slate, are surprisingly well preserved; but there is in the +world, it seems, a chrystalized trout, not flat, nor the flesh eaten +away, as I understand, but round; and, as it were, cased in chrystal +like our <i>aspiques</i>, or <i>fruit in jelly</i>: the colour still so perfect +that you may plainly perceive the spots upon it, <!-- Page 48 --><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>he says. To my +enquiries after this wonderful petrefaction, he replied, "That it might +be bought for a thousand pounds;" and added, "that if he were a <i>Ricco +Inglese</i><span class="footnoteinlineine">[Rich Englishman]</span>, he would not hesitate for the +price:" "Where may I see it, Sir?" said I; but to that question no +intreaties could produce an answer, after he once found I had no mind to +buy.</p> + +<p>That fresh-water fish have been known to remain locked in the flinty +bosom of Monte Uda in Carnia, the Academical Discourse of Cyrillo de +Cremona, pronounced there in the year 1749, might have informed us; and +we are all familiar, I suppose, with the anchor named in the fifteenth +book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Strabo mentions pieces of a galley found +three thousand stadii from any sea; and Dr. Allioni tells me, that Monte +Bolca has been long acknowledged to contain the fossils, now diligently +digging out under the patronage of some learned naturalists at +Verona.—The trout, however, is of value much beyond these productions +certainly, as it is closed round as if in a transparent case we find, +hermetically sealed by the soft hand <!-- Page 49 --><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>of Nature, who spoiled none of her +own ornaments in preserving them for the inspection of her favourite +students.</p> + +<p>The amiable old professor from whom these particulars were obtained, and +who endured my teizing him in bad Italian for intelligence he cared not +to communicate, with infinite sweetness and patience grew kinder to me +as I became more troublesome to him: and shewing me the book upon botany +to which he had just then put the last line; turned his dim eyes from +me, and said, as they filled with tears, "You, Madam, are the last +visitor I shall ever more admit to talk upon earthly subjects; my work +is done; I finished it as you were entering:—my business now is but to +wait the will of God, and die; do you, who I hope will live long and +happily, seek out your own salvation, and pray for mine." Poor dear +Doctor Allioni! My enquiries concerning this truly venerable mortal +ended in being told that his relations and heirs teized him cruelly to +sell his manuscripts, insects, &c. and divide the money amongst <i>them</i> +before he died. An English scholar of the same abilities would <!-- Page 50 --><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>be apt +enough to despise such admonitions, and dispose at his own liking and +leisure of what his industry alone had gained, his learning only +collected; but there seems to be much more family fondness on the +Continent than in our island; more attention to parents, more care for +uncles, and nephews, and sisters, and aunts, than in a commercial +country like ours, where, for the most part, each one makes his own way +separate; and having received little assistance at the beginning of +life, considers himself as little indebted at the close of it.</p> + +<p>Whoever takes a long journey, however he may at his first commencement +be tempted to accumulate schemes of convenience and combinations of +travelling niceties, will cast them off in the course of his travels as +incumbrances; and whoever sets out in life, I believe, with a crowd of +relations round him, will, on the same principle, feel disposed to drop +one or two of them at every turn, as they hang about and impede his +progress, and make his own game single-handed. I speak of <i>Englishmen</i>, +whose religion and government inspire rather a spirit of public +<!-- Page 51 --><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>benevolence, than contract the social affections to a point; and +co-operate, besides, to prompt that genius for adventure, and taste of +general knowledge, which has small chance to spring up in the +inhabitants of a feudal state; where each considers his family as +himself, and having derived all the comfort he has ever enjoyed from his +relations, resolves to return their favours at the end of a life, which +they make happy, in proportion as it <i>is</i> so: and this accounts for the +equality required in continental marriages, which are avowedly made here +without regard to inclination, as the keeping up a family, not the +choice of a companion, is considered as important; while the lady bred +up in the same notions, complies with her <i>first</i> duties, and considers +the <i>second</i> as infinitely more dispensable.<!-- Page 52 --><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a></p> + + + +<h3><a name="GENOA" id="GENOA"></a>GENOA.</h3> + + +<p>Nov. 1, 1784.</p> + +<p>It was on the twenty-first of last month that we passed from Turin to +Monte Casale; and I wondered, as I do still, to see the face of Nature +yet without a wrinkle, though the season is so far advanced. Like a +Parisian female of forty years old, dressed for court, and stored with +such variety of well-arranged allurements, that the men say to each +other as she passes.—"Des qu'elle à cessée d'estre jolie, elle n'en +devient que plus belle, ce me semble<a name="FNanchor_E_13" id="FNanchor_E_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_13" class="fnanchor">[E]</a>."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_13" id="Footnote_E_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_13"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> She's grown handsomer, I think, since she has left off +being pretty.</p></div> + +<p>The prospect from St. Salvadore's hill derives new beauties from the +yellow autumn; and exhibits such glowing proofs of opulence and +fertility, as words can with difficulty communicate. The animals, +however, do not seem benefited in proportion to the apparent riches of +the country: asses, indeed, grow to a considerable size, but the <!-- Page 53 --><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>oxen +are very small, among pastures that might suffice for Bakewell's bulls; +and these are all little, and almost all <i>white</i>; a colour which gives +unfavourable ideas either of strength or duration.</p> + +<p>The blanche rose among vegetables scatters a less powerful perfume than +the red one; whilst in the mineral kingdom silver holds but the second +place to gold, which imbibing the bright hues of its parent-sun, becomes +the first and greatest of all metallic productions. One may observe too, +that yellow is the earliest colour to salute the rising year, the last +to leave it: crocuses, primroses, and cowslips give the first earnest of +resuscitating summer; while the lemon-coloured butterfly, whose name I +have forgotten, ventures out, before any others of her kind can brave +the parting breath of winter's last storms; stoutest to resist cold, and +steadiest in her manner of flying. The present season is yellow indeed, +and nothing is to be seen now but sun-flowers and African marygolds +around us; <i>one</i> bough besides, on every tree we pass—<i>one</i> bough at +least is tinged with the golden hue; and if it does put one <!-- Page 54 --><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>in mind of +that presented to Proserpine, we may add the original line too, and say,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Uno avulfo, non deficit alter<a name="FNanchor_F_14" id="FNanchor_F_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_14" class="fnanchor">[F]</a>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_14" id="Footnote_F_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_14"><span class="label">[F]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pluck one away, another still remains.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p>The sure-footed and docile mule, with which in England I was but little +acquainted, here claims no small attention, from his superior size and +beauty: the disagreeable noise they make so frequently, however, hinders +one from wishing to ride them—it is not braying somehow, but worse; it +is neighing out of tune.</p> + +<p>I have put nothing down about eating since we arrived in Italy, where no +wretched hut have I yet entered that does not afford soup, better than +one often tastes in England even at magnificent tables. Game of all +sorts—woodcocks in particular. Porporati, the so justly-famed engraver, +produced upon his hospitable board, one of the pleasant days we passed +with him, a couple so exceedingly large, that I hesitated, and looked +again, to see whether they were really woodcocks, till the long bill +convinced me.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 55 --><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>One reads of the luxurious emperors that made fine dishes of the little +birds brains, phenicopter's tongues, &c. and of the actor who regaled +his guests with nightingale-pie, with just detestation of such curiosity +and expence: but thrushes, larks, and blackbirds, are so <i>very</i> frequent +between Turin and Novi, I think they might serve to feed all the +fantastical appetites to which Vitellius himself could give +encouragement and example.</p> + +<p>The Italians retain their tastes for small birds in full force; and +consider beccafichi, ortolani, &c. as the most agreeable dainties: it +must be confessed that they dress them incomparably. The sheep here are +all lean and dirty-looking, few in number too; but the better the soil +the worse the mutton we know, and here is no land to throw away, where +every inch turns to profit in the olive-yards, vines, or something of +much higher value than letting out to feed sheep.</p> + +<p>Population seems much as in France, I think: but the families are not, +in either nation, disposed according to British notions of propriety; +all stuffed together into little towns and large houses, <i>entessées</i>, as +the French call it; one upon another, in such a <!-- Page 56 --><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>strange way, that were +it not for the quantity of grapes on which the poor people live, with +other acescent food enjoined by the church, and doubtless suggested by +the climate, I think putrid fevers must necessarily carry off crowds of +them at once.</p> + +<p>The head-dress of the women in this drive through some of the northern +states of Italy varied at every post; from the velvet cap, commonly a +crimson one, worn by the girls in Savoia, to the Piedmontese plait round +the bodkin at Turin, and the odd kind of white wrapper used in the +exterior provinces of the Genoese dominions. Uniformity of almost any +sort gives a certain pleasure to the eye, and it seems an invariable +rule in these countries that all the women of every district should +dress just alike. It is the best way of making the men's task easy in +judging which is handsomest; for taste so varies the human figure in +France and England, that it is impossible to have an idea how many +pretty faces and agreeable forms would lose and how many gain admirers +in those nations, were a sudden edict to be published that all should +dress exactly alike for a year. Mean <!-- Page 57 --><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>time, since we left Deffeins, no +such delightful place by way of inn have we yet seen as here at Novi. My +chief amusement at Alexandria was to look out upon the <i>huddled</i> +marketplace, as a great dramatic writer of our day has called it; and +who could help longing there for Zoffani's pencil to paint the lively +scene?</p> + +<p>Passing the Po by moon-light near Casale exhibited an entertainment of a +very different nature, not unmixed with ill-concealed fear indeed; +though the contrivance of crossing it is not worse managed than a ferry +at Kew or Richmond used to be before our bridges were built. Bridges +over the rapid Po would, however, be truly ridiculous; when swelled by +the mountain snows it tears down all before it in its fury, and +inundates the country round.</p> + +<p>The drive from Novi on to Genoa is so beautiful, so grand, so replete +with imagery, that fancy itself can add little to its charms: yet, after +every elegance and every ornament have been justly admired, from the +cloud which veils the hill, to the wild shrubs which perfume the valley; +from the precipices which alarm the imagination, to the tufts of wood +which flatter and sooth it; the sea <!-- Page 58 --><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>suddenly appearing at the end of +the Bocchetta terminates our view, and takes from one even the hope of +expressing our delight in words adequate to the things described.</p> + +<p>Genoa la Superba stands proudly on the margin of a gulph crowded with +ships, and resounding with voices, which never fail to animate a British +hearer—the Tailor's shout, the mariner's call, swelled by successful +commerce, or strengthened by newly-acquired fame.</p> + +<p>After a long journey by land, such scenes are peculiarly delightful; but +description tangles, not communicates, the sensations imbibed upon the +spot. Here are so many things to describe! such churches! such palaces! +such pictures! one would imagine the Genoese possessed the empire of the +ocean, were it not well known that they call but fix galleys their own, +and seventy years ago suffered all the horrors of a bombardment.</p> + +<p>The Dorian palace is exceedingly fine; the Durazzo palace, for ought I +know, is finer; and marble here seems like what one reads of silver in +King Solomon's time, which, says the Scripture, "<i>was nothing <!-- Page 59 --><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>counted +on in the days of Solomon</i>" Casa Brignoli too is splendid and +commodious; the terraces and gardens on the house-tops, and the fresco +paintings outside, give one new ideas of human life; and exhibits a +degree of luxury unthought-on in colder climates. But here we live on +green pease and figs the first day of November, while orange and lemon +trees flaunt over the walls more common than pears in England.</p> + +<p>The Balbi mansion, filled with pictures, detained us from the churches +filled with more. I have heard some of the Italians confess that Genoa +even pretends to vie with Rome herself in ecclesiastical splendour. In +devotion I should think she would be with difficulty outdone: the people +drop down on their knees in the street, and crowd to the church doors +while the benediction is pronouncing, with a zeal which one might hope +would draw down stores of grace upon their heads. Yet I hear from the +inhabitants of other provinces, that they have a bad character among +their neighbours, who love not the <i>base Ligurian</i> and accuse them of +many immoralities. They tell one too of a disreputable saying here, how +there are at Genoa <!-- Page 60 --><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>men without honesty, women without modesty, a sea +with no fish, and a wood with no birds. Birds, however, here certainly +are by the million, and we have eaten fish since we came every day; but +I am informed they are neither cheap nor plentiful, nor considered as +excellent in their kinds. Here is macaroni enough however!—the people +bring in such a vast dish of it at a time, it disgusts one.</p> + +<p>The streets of the town are much too narrow for beauty or +convenience—impracticable to coaches, and so beset with beggars that it +is dreadful. A chair is therefore, above all things, necessary to be +carried in, even a dozen steps, if you are likely to feel shocked at +having your knees suddenly clasped by a figure hardly human; who perhaps +holding you forcibly for a minute, conjures you loudly, by the sacred +wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, to have compassion upon <i>his</i>; shewing +you at the same time such undeniable and horrid proofs of the anguish he +is suffering, that one must be a monster to quit him unrelieved. Such +pathetic misery, such disgusting distress, did I never see before, as I +have been witness to in this gaudy city—and <!-- Page 61 --><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>that not occasionally or +by accident, but all day long, and in such numbers that humanity shrinks +from the description. Sure, charity is not the virtue that they pray +for, when begging a blessing at the church-door.</p> + +<p>One should not however speak unkindly of a people whose affectionate +regard for our country shewed itself so clearly during the late war: a +few days residence with the English consul here at his country seat gave +me an opportunity of hearing many instances of the Republic's generous +attachment to Great Britain, whose triumphs at Gibraltar over the united +forces of France and Spain were honestly enjoyed by the friendly +Genoese, who gave many proofs of their sincerity, more solid than those +clamorous ones of huzzaing our minister about wherever he went, and +crying <i>Viva il General</i> <span class="smcap">Eliott</span>; while many young gentlemen of +high station offered themselves to go volunteers aboard our fleet, and +were with difficulty restrained.</p> + +<p>We have been shewed some beautiful villas belonging to the noblemen of +this city, among which Lomellino's pleased me best; as the water there +was so particularly beautiful, that he had generously left it at full +<!-- Page 62 --><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>liberty to roll unconducted, and murmur through his tasteful pleasure +grounds, much in the manner of our lovely Leasowes; happily uniting with +English simplicity, the glowing charms that result from an Italian sky. +My eyes were so wearied with square edged basons of marble, and jets +d'eaux, surrounded by water nymphs and dolphins, that I felt vast relief +from Lomellino's garden, who, like me,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tir'd with the joys parterres and fountains yield,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Finds out at last he better likes a field.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Such felicity of situation I never saw till now, when one looks upon the +painted front of this gay mansion, commanding from its fine balcony a +rich and extensive view at once of the sea, the city, and the snow-topt +mountains; while from the windows on the other side the house, one's eye +sinks into groves of cedar, ilex, and orange trees, not apparently +cultivated with incessant care, or placed in pots, artfully sunk under +ground to conceal them from one's sight, but rising into height truly +respectable.</p> + +<p>The sea air, except in particular places where the land lies in some +direction that <!-- Page 63 --><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>counteracts its influence, is naturally inimical to +timber; though the green coasts of Devonshire are finely fringed with +wood; and here, at Lomellino's villa, in the Genoese state, I found two +plane trees, of a size and serious dignity, that recalled to my mind the +solemn oak before our duke of Dorset's seat at Knowle—and chesnuts, +which would not disgrace the forests of America. A rural theatre, cut in +turf, with a concealed orchestra and sod seats for the audience, with a +mossy stage, not incommodious neither, and an admirable contrivance for +shifting the scenes, and savouring the exits, entrances, &c. of the +performers, gave me a perfect idea of that refined luxury which hot +countries alone inspire—while another elegantly constructed spot, meant +and often used for the entertainment of tenants and dependants who come +to rejoice on the birth or wedding day of a kind landlord, make one +suppress one's sighs after a free country—at least suspend them; and +fill one's heart with tenderness towards men, who have skill to soften +authority with indulgence, and virtue to reward obedience with +protection.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 64 --><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>A family coming last night to visit at a house where I had the honour +of being admitted as an intimate, gave me another proof of my present +state of remoteness from English manners. The party consisted of an old +nobleman, who could trace his genealogy unblemished up to one of the old +Roman emperors, but whose fortune is now in a hopeless state of +decay:—his lady, not inferior to himself in birth or haughtiness of air +and carriage, but much impaired by age, ill health, and pecuniary +distress; these had however no way lessened her ideas of her own +dignity, or the respect of her cavalier servente and her son, who waited +on her with an unremitted attention; presenting her their little dirty +tin snuff-boxes upon one knee by turns; which ceremony the less +surprised me, as having seen her train made of a dyed and watered +lutestring, borne gravely after her up stairs by a footman, the express +image of Edgar in the storm-scene of king Lear—who, as the fool says, +"<i>wisely reserv'd a blanket, else had we all been 'shamed</i>."</p> + +<p>Our conversation was meagre, but serious. There was music; and the door +being left at jar, as we call it, I watched the wretched <!-- Page 65 --><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>servant who +staid in the antichamber, and found that he was listening in spight of +sorrow and starving.</p> + +<p>With this slight sketch of national manners I finish my chapter, and +proceed to the description of, or rather observations and reflections +made during a winter's residence at</p> + + + +<h3><a name="MILAN" id="MILAN"></a>MILAN.</h3> + + +<p>For we did not stay at Pavia to see any thing: it rained so, that no +pleasure could have been obtained by the sight of a botanical garden; +and as to the university, I have the promise of seeing it upon a future +day, in company of some literary friends. Truth to tell, our weather is +suddenly become so wet, the roads so heavy with incessant rain, that +king William's departure from his own foggy country, or his welcome to +our gloomy one, where this month is melancholy even, to a proverb, could +not have been clouded with a thicker atmosphere surely, than was mine to +Milan upon the fourth day of dismal November, 1784.<!-- Page 66 --><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a></p> + +<p>Italians, by what I can observe, suffer their minds to be much under the +dominion of the sky; and attribute every change in their health, or even +humour, as seriously to its influence, as if there were no nearer causes +of alteration than the state of the air, and as if no doubt remained of +its immediate power, though they are willing enough here to poison it +with the scent of wood-ashes within doors, while fires in the grate seem +to run rather low, and a brazier full of that pernicious stuff is +substituted in its place, and driven under the table during dinner. It +is surprising how very elegant, not to say magnificent, those dinners +are in gentlemen's or noblemen's houses; such numbers of dishes at once; +not large joints, but infinite variety: and I think their cooking +excellent. Fashion keeps most of the fine people out of town yet; we +have therefore had leisure to establish our own household for the +winter, and have done so as commodiously as if our habitation was fixed +here for life. This I am delighted with, as one may chance to gain that +insight into every day behaviour, and common occurrences, which can +alone be called knowing something of a country: counting <!-- Page 67 --><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>churches, +pictures, palaces, may be done by those who run from town to town, with +no impression made but on their bones. I ought to learn that which +before us lies in daily life, if proper use were made of my +demi-naturalization; yet impediments to knowledge spring up round the +very tree itself—for surely if there was much wrong, I would not tell +it of those who seem inclined to find all right in me; nor can I think +that a fame for minute observation, and skill to discern folly with a +microscopic eye, is in any wise able to compensate for the corrosions of +conscience, where such discoveries have been attained by breach of +confidence, and treachery towards unguarded, because unsuspecting +innocence of conduct. We are always laughing at one another for running +over none but the visible objects in every city, and for avoiding the +conversation of the natives, except on general subjects of +literature—returning home only to tell again what has already been +told. By the candid inhabitants of Italian states, however, much honour +is given to our British travellers, who, as they say, <i>viaggiono con +profitto</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Travel for improvement]</span>, and <!-- Page 68 --><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>scarce ever fail to +carry home with them from other nations, every thing which can benefit +or adorn their own. Candour, and a good humoured willingness to receive +and reciprocate pleasure, seems indeed one of the standing virtues of +Italy; I have as yet seen no fastidious contempt, or affected rejection +of any thing for being what we call <i>low</i>; and I have a notion there is +much less of those distinctions at Milan than at London, where birth +does so little for a man, that if he depends on <i>that</i>, and forbears +other methods of distinguishing himself from his footman, he will stand +a chance of being treated no better than him by the world. <i>Here</i> a +person's rank is ascertained, and his society settled, at his immediate +entrance into life; a gentleman and lady will always be regarded as +such, let what will be their behaviour.—It is therefore highly +commendable when they seek to adorn their minds by culture, or pluck out +those weeds, which in hot countries will spring up among the riches of +the harvest, and afford a sure, but no immediately pleasing proof of the +soil's natural fertility. But my country-women would rather hear a +little of our <i>interieur</i>, or, as we call it, fa<!-- Page 69 --><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>mily management; which +appears arranged in a manner totally new to me; who find the lady of +every house as unacquainted with her own, and her husband's affairs, as +I who apply to her for information.—No house account, no weekly bills +perplex <i>her</i> peace; if eight servants are kept, we will say, six of +these are men, and two of those men out of livery. The pay of these +principal figures in the family, when at the highest rate, is fifteen +pence English a day, out of which they find clothes and eating—for +fifteen pence includes board-wages; and most of these fellows are +married too, and have four or five children each. The dinners drest at +home are, for this reason, more exactly contrived than in England to +suit the number of guests, and there are always half a dozen; for dining +<i>alone</i> or the master and mistress <i>tête-à-tête</i> as <i>we</i> do, is unknown +to them, who make society very easy, and resolve to live much together. +No odd sensation then, something like shame, such as <i>we</i> feel when too +many dishes are taken empty from table, touches them at all; the common +courses are eleven, and eleven small plates, and it is their sport and +pleasure, if possible, to clear <!-- Page 70 --><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>all away. A footman's wages is a +shilling a day, like our common labourers, and paid him, as they are +paid, every Saturday night. His livery, mean time, changed at least +<i>twice a year</i>, makes him as rich a man as the butler and valet—but +when evening comes, it is the comicallest sight in the world to see them +all go gravely home, and you may die in the night for want of help, +though surrounded by showy attendants all day. Till the hour of +departure, however, it is expected that two or three of them at least +sit in the antichamber, as it is called, to answer the bell, which, if +we confess the truth, is no light service or hardship; for the stairs, +high and wide as those of Windsor palace, all stone too, run up from the +door immediately to that apartment, which is very large, and very cold, +with bricks to set their feet on only, and a brazier filled with warm +wood ashes, to keep their fingers from freezing, which in summer they +employ with cards, and seem but little inclined to lay them down when +ladies pass through to the receiving room. The strange familiarity this +class of people think proper to assume, half joining <!-- Page 71 --><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>in the +conversation, and crying <i>oibò</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Oh dear!]</span>, when the master +affirms something they do not quite assent to, is apt to shock one at +beginning, the more when one reflects upon the equally offensive +humility they show on being first accepted into the family; when it is +exposed that they receive the new master, or lady's hand, in a half +kneeling posture, and kiss it, as women under the rank of Countess do +the Queen of England's when presented at our court.—This +obsequiousness, however, vanishes completely upon acquaintance, and the +footman, if not very seriously admonished indeed, yawns, spits, and +displays what one of our travel-writers emphatically terms his flag of +abomination behind the chair of a woman of quality, without the +slightest sensation of its impropriety. There is, however, a sort of odd +farcical drollery mingled with this grossness, which tends greatly to +disarm one's wrath; and I felt more inclined to laugh than be angry one +day, when, from the head of my own table, I saw the servant of a +nobleman who dined with us cramming some chicken pattés down <!-- Page 72 --><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>his throat +behind the door; our own folks humorously trying to choak him, by +pretending that his lord called him, while his mouth was full. Of a +thousand comical things in the same way, I will relate one:—Mr. +Piozzi's valet was dressing my hair at Paris one morning, while some man +sate at an opposite window of the same inn, singing and playing upon the +violoncello: I had not observed the circumstance, but my perrucchiere's +distress was evident; he writhed and twisted about like a man pinched +with the cholic, and pulled a hundred queer faces: at last—What is the +matter, Ercolani, said I, are you not well? Mistress, replies the +fellow, if that beast don't leave off soon, I shall run mad with rage, +or else die; and so you'll see an honest Venetian lad killed by a French +dog's howling.</p> + +<p>The phrase of <i>mistress</i> is here not confined to servants at all; +gentlemen, when they address one, cry, <i>mia padrona</i><span class="footnoteinline">[My mistress]</span>, mighty sweetly, and in a peculiarly pleasing tone. Nothing, +to speak truth, can exceed the agreeableness of a well-bred Italian's +address when speaking to a lady, whom they alone know how <!-- Page 73 --><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>to flatter, +so as to retain her dignity, and not lose their own; respectful, yet +tender; attentive, not officious; the politeness of a man of fashion +<i>here</i> is <i>true</i> politeness, free from all affectation, and honestly +expressive of what he really feels, a true value for the person spoken +to, without the smallest desire of shining himself; equally removed from +foppery on one side, or indifference on the other. The manners of the +men here are certainly pleasing to a very eminent degree, and in their +conversation there is a mixture, not unfrequent too, of classical +allusions, which strike one with a sort of literary pleasure I cannot +easily describe. Yet is there no pedantry in their use of expressions, +which with us would be laughable or liable to censure: but Roman notions +here are not quite extinct; and even the house-maid, or <i>donna di gros</i>, +as they call her, swears by <i>Diana</i> so comically, there is no telling. +They christen their boys <i>Fabius</i>, their daughters <i>Claudia</i>, very +commonly. When they mention a thing known, as we say, to <i>Tom o'Styles +and John o'Nokes</i>, they use the words, <i>Tizio and Sempronio</i>. A lady +tells me, she was at a loss about the dance yesterday evening, because +<!-- Page 74 --><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>she had not been instructed in the <i>programma</i>; and a gentleman, +talking of the pleasures he enjoyed supping last night at a friend's +house, exclaims, <i>Eramo pur jeri sera in Appolline<a name="FNanchor_G_18" id="FNanchor_G_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_18" class="fnanchor">[G]</a>!</i> alluding to +Lucullus's entertainment given to Pompey and Cicero, as I remember, in +the chamber of Apollo. But here is enough of this—more of it, in their +own pretty phrase, <i>seccarebbe pur Nettunno</i><a name="FNanchor_H_19" id="FNanchor_H_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_19" class="fnanchor">[H]</a>. It was long ago that +Ausonius said of them more than I can say, and Mr. Addison has +translated the lines in their praise better than I could have done.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="footnoteslegend">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_18" id="Footnote_G_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_18"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> We passed yester evening as if we had been in the Apollo.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_19" id="Footnote_H_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_19"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> Would dry up old Neptune himself.</p></div> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Et Mediolani mira omnia copia rerum:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Innumeræ cultæque domus facunda virorum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ingenia et mores læti."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Milan with plenty and with wealth overflows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And numerous streets and cleanly dwellings shows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The people, bless'd by Nature's happy force,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are eloquent and cheerful in discourse.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>What I have said this moment will, however, account in some measure for +a thing which he treats with infinite contempt, not unjustly perhaps; +yet does it not deserve <!-- Page 75 --><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>the ridicule handed down from his time by all +who have touched the subject. It is about the author, who before his +theatrical representation prefixes an odd declaration, that though he +names Pluto, and Neptune, and I know not who, upon the stage, yet he +believes none of those fables, but considers himself as a Christian, a +Catholick, &c. All this <i>does</i> appear very absurdly superfluous to <i>us</i>; +but as I observed, <i>they</i> live nearer the original feats of paganism; +many old customs are yet retained, and the names not lost among them, or +laid up merely for literary purposes as in England. They swear <i>per +Bacco</i> perpetually in common discourse; and once I saw a gentleman in +the heat of conversation blush at the recollection that he had said +<i>barba Fove</i>, where he meant God Almighty.</p> + +<p>It is likewise unkind enough in Mr. Addison, perhaps unjust too, to +speak with scorn of the libraries, or state of literature, at Milan. The +collection of books at Brera is prodigious, and has been lately much +increased by the Pertusanian and Firmian libraries falling into it: a +more magnificent repository for learning, a more comfortable <!-- Page 76 --><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>situation +for students, so complete and perfect a disposition of the books, will +scarcely be found in any other city not professedly a university, I +believe; and here are professors worthy of the highest literary +stations, that do honour to learning herself. I will not indulge myself +by naming any one, where all deserve the highest praise; and it is so +difficult to restrain one's pen upon so favourite a subject, that I +shall only name some rarities which particularly struck me, and avoid +further temptations, where the sense of obligation, and the recollection +of partial kindness, inspire an inclination to praises which appear +tedious to those readers who could not enter into my feelings, and of +course would scarcely excuse them.</p> + +<p>Thirteen volumes of MS. Psalms, written with wonderful elegance and +manual nicety, struck me as very curious: they were done by the +Certosini monks lately eradicated, and with beautiful illuminations to +almost every page. A Livy, printed here in 1418, fresh and perfect; and +a Pliny, of the Parma press, dated 1472; are extremely valuable. But the +pleasure I received from observing that the learned librarian had not +denied a place to Til<!-- Page 77 --><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>lotson's works, was counteracted by finding +Bolingbroke's philosophy upon the same shelf, and enjoying exactly the +same reputation as to the truth of the doctrine contained in either; for +both were English, and of course <i>heretical</i>.</p> + +<p>But I must not live longer at Milan without mentioning the Duomo, first +in all Europe of the Gothic race; whose solemn sadness and gloomy +dignity make it a most magnificent cathedral; while the rich treasures +it conceals below exceeded my belief or expectation.</p> + +<p>We came here just before the season of commemorating the virtues of the +immortal Carlo Borromeo, to whose excellence all Italy bears testimony, +and Milan <i>most</i>; while the Lazaretto erected by him remains a standing +monument of his piety, charity, and peculiar regard to this city, which +he made his residence during the dreadful plague that so devasted it; +tenderly giving to its helpless inhabitants the consolation of seeing +their priest, provider, and protector, all united under one incomparable +character, who fearless of death remained among them, and com<!-- Page 78 --><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>forted +their sorrows with his constant presence. It would be endless to +enumerate the schools, hospitals, infirmaries, erected by this +surprising man. The peculiar excellence of his lazaretto, however, +depends on each habitation being nicely separated from every other, so +as to keep infection aloof; while uniformity of architecture is still +preserved, being built in a regular quadrangle, with a chapel in the +middle, and a fresh stream flowing round, so as to benefit every +particular house, and keep out all necessity of connection between the +sick. I am become better acquainted with these matters, as this is the +precise time when the immortal Carlo Borromeo's actions are rehearsed, +and his praises celebrated, by people appointed in every church to +preach his example and record his excellence.</p> + +<p>A statue of solid silver, large as life, and resembling, as they hope, +his person, decorated with rings, &c. of immense value, is now exposed +in church for people to venerate; and the subterranean chapel, where his +body lies, is all wainscoted, as I may say, with silver; every separate +compartment chased, like our old-fashioned watch-cases, <!-- Page 79 --><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>with some story +out of his life, which lasted but forty-seven years, after having done +more good than any other person in ninety-four; as a capuchin friar said +this morning, who mounted the pulpit to praise him, and seemed to be +well thought on by his auditors. The chanting tone in which he spoke +displeased me, however, who can be at last no competent judge of +eloquence in any language but my own.</p> + +<p>There is a national rhetoric in every country, dependant on national +manners; and those gesticulations of body, or depressions of voice, +which produce pity and commiseration in one place, may, without censure +of the orator or of his hearers, excite contempt and oscitancy in +another. The sentiments of the preacher I heard were just and vigorous; +and if that suffices not to content a foreign ear, woe be to me, who now +live among those to whom I am myself a foreigner; and who at best can +but be expected to forgive, for the sake of the things said, that accent +and manner with which I am obliged to express them.</p> + +<p>By the indulgence of private friendship, I have now enjoyed the uncommon +amusement <!-- Page 80 --><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>of seeing a theatrical exhibition performed by friars in a +convent for their own diversion, and that of some select friends. The +monks of St. Victor had, it seems, obtained permission, this carnival, +to represent a little odd sort of play, written by one of their +community chiefly in the Milanese dialect, though the upper characters +spoke Tuscan. The subject of this drama was taken, naturally enough, +from some events, real or fictitious, which were supposed to have +happened in, the environs of Milan, about a hundred years ago, when the +Torriani and Visconti families disputed for superiority. Its +construction was compounded of comic and distressful scenes, of which +the last gave me most delight; and much was I amazed, indeed, to feel my +cheeks wet with tears at a friar's play, founded on ideas of parental +tenderness. The comic part, however, was intolerably gross; the jokes +coarse, and incapable of diverting any but babies, or men who, by a kind +of intellectual privation, contrive to perpetuate babyhood, in the vain +hope of preferring innocence: nor could I shelter myself by saying how +little I understood of the dialect it was written in, as the <!-- Page 81 --><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>action was +nothing less than equivocal; and in the burletta which was tacked to it +by way of farce, I saw the soprano fingers who played the women's parts, +and who see more of the world than these friars, blush for shame, two or +three times, while the company, most of them grave ecclesiastics, +applauded with rapturous delight.</p> + +<p>The wearisome length of the whole would, however, have surfeited me, had +the amusement been more eligible; but these dear monks do not get a +holiday often, I trust; so in the manner of school-boys, or rather +school-girls in England (for our boys are soon above such stuff), they +were never tired of this dull buffoonery, and kept us listening to it +till one o'clock in the morning.</p> + +<p>Pleasure, when it does come, always bursts up in an unexpected place; I +derived much from observing in the faces of these cheerful friars, that +intelligent shrewdness and arch penetration so visible in the +countenances of our Welch farmers, and curates of country villages in +Flintshire, Caernarvonshire, &c. which Howel (best judge in such a case) +observes in his Letters, and learnedly accounts for; but which I had +wholly forgotten <!-- Page 82 --><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>till the monks of St. Victor brought it back to my +remembrance.</p> + +<p>The brothers who remained unemployed, and clear from stage occupations, +formed the orchestra; those that were left <i>then</i> without any immediate +business upon their hands, chatted gaily with the company, producing +plenty of refreshments; and I was really very angry with myself for +feeling so cynically disposed, when every thing possible was done to +please me. Can one help however sighing, to think that the monastic +life, so capable of being used for the noblest purposes, and originally +suggested by the purest motives, should, from the vast diversity of +orders, the increase of wealth and general corruption of mankind, +degenerate into a state either of mental apathy, as among the +sequestered monks, or of vicious luxury, as among the more free and open +societies?</p> + +<p>Yet must one still behold both with regret and indignation, that rage +for innovation which delights to throw down places once the retreats of +Piety and Learning—Piety, who fought in vain to wall and fortify +herself against those seductions which since have <!-- Page 83 --><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>sapped the venerable +fabric that they feared to batter; and Learning, who first opened the +eyes of men, that now ungratefully begin to turn them only on the +defeats of their benefactress.</p> + +<p>The Christmas functions here were showy, and I thought well-contrived; +the public ones are what I speak of: but I was present lately at a +private merrymaking, where all distinctions seemed pleasingly thrown +down by a spirit of innocent gaiety. The Marquis's daughter mingled in +country-dances with the apothecary's prentice, while her truly noble +parents looked on with generous pleasure, and encouraged the mirth of +the moment. Priests, ladies, gentlemen of the very first quality, romped +with the girls of the house in high good-humour, and tripped it away +without the incumbrance of petty pride, or the mean vanity of giving +what they expressively call <i>foggezzione</i>, to those who were proud of +their company and protection. A new-married wench, whose little fortune +of a hundred crowns had been given her by the subscription of many in +the room, seemed as free with them all, as the most equal distribution +<!-- Page 84 --><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>of birth or riches could have made her: she laughed aloud, and rattled +in the ears of the gentlemen; replied with sarcastic coarseness when +they joked her, and apparently delighted to promote such conversation as +they would not otherwise have tried at. The ladies shouted for joy, +encouraged the girl with less delicacy than desire of merriment, and +promoted a general banishment of decorum; though I do believe with full +as much or more purity of intention, than may be often met with in a +polished circle at Paris itself.</p> + +<p>Such society, however, can please a stranger only as it is odd and as it +is new; when ceremony ceases, hilarity is left in a state too natural +not to offend people accustomed to scenes of high civilization; and I +suppose few of us could return, after twenty-five years old, to the +coarse comforts of <i>a roll and treacle.</i></p> + +<p>Another style of amusement, very different from this last, called us +out, two or three days ago, to hear the famous Passione de Metastasio +sung in St. Celso's church. The building is spacious, the architecture +elegant, and the ornaments rich. A custom too was <!-- Page 85 --><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>on this occasion +omitted, which I dislike exceedingly; that of deforming the beautiful +edifices dedicated to God's service with damask hangings and gold lace +on the capitals of all the pillars upon days of gala, so very +perversely, that the effect of proportion is lost to the eye, while the +church conveys no idea to the mind but of a tattered theatre; and when +the frippery decorations fade, nothing can exclude the recollection of +an old clothes shop. St. Celso was however left clear from these +disgraceful ornaments: there assembled together a numerous and +brilliant, if not an attentive audience; and St. Peter's part in the +oratorio was sung by a soprano voice, with no appearance of peculiar +propriety to be sure; but a satirical nobleman near me said, that +"Nothing could possibly be more happily imagined, as the mutilation of +poor St. Peter was continuing daily, and in full force;" alluding to the +Emperor's rough reformations: and he does not certainly spare the coat +any more than Jack in our Tale of a Tub, when he is rending away the +embroidery. Here, however, the parallel must end; for Jack, though +zealous, was never accused of burning the lace, if I remember <!-- Page 86 --><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>right, +and putting the gold in his pocket. It happened oddly, that chatting +freely one day before dinner with some literary friends on the subject +of coat armour, we had talked about the Visconti serpent, which is the +arms of Milan; and the spread eagle of Austria, which we laughingly +agreed ought to <i>eat double </i> because it had <i>two necks</i>: when the +conversation insensibly turned on the oppressions of the present hour; +and I, to put all away with a joke, proposed the <i>fortes Homericæ</i> to +decide on their future destiny. Somebody in company insisted that <i>I</i> +should open the book—I did so, at the omen in the twelfth book of the +Iliad, and read these words:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Jove's bird on sounding pinions beat the skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bleeding serpent of enormous size<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His talons trussed; alive and curling round<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She stung the bird, whose throat receiv'd the wound.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mad with the smart he drops the fatal prey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In airy circles wings his painful way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Floats on the winds, and rends the heavens with cries:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid the hosts the fallen serpent lies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Jove's portent with beating hearts behold.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 87 --><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>It is now time to talk a little of the theatre; and surely a receptacle +so capacious to contain four thousand people, a place of entrance so +commodious to receive them, a show so princely, so very magnificent to +entertain them, must be sought in vain out of Italy. The centre front +box, richly adorned with gilding, arms, and trophies, is appropriated to +the court, whose canopy is carried up to what we call the first gallery +in England; the crescent of boxes ending with the stage, consist of +nineteen on a side, <i>small boudoirs</i>, for such they seem; and are as +such fitted up with silk hangings, girandoles, &c. and placed so +judiciously as to catch every sound of the fingers, if they do but +whisper: I will not say it is equally advantageous to the figure, as to +the voice; no performers looking adequate to the place they recite upon, +so very stately is the building itself, being all of stone, with an +immense portico, and stairs which for width you might without hyperbole +drive your chariot up. An immense sideboard at the first lobby, lighted +and furnished with luxurious and elegant plenty, as many people send for +suppers to their box, and entertain a knot of friends there with +infinite <!-- Page 88 --><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>convenience and splendour. A silk curtain, the colour of your +hangings, defends the closet from intrusive eyes, if you think proper to +drop it; and when drawn up, gives gaiety and show to the general +appearance of the whole: while across the corridor leading to these +boxes, another small chamber, numbered like <i>that</i> it belongs to, is +appropriated to the use of your servants, and furnished with every +conveniency to make chocolate, serve lemonade, &c.</p> + +<p>Can one wonder at the contempt shewn by foreigners when they see English +women of fashion squeezed into holes lined with dirty torn red paper, +and the walls of it covered with a wretched crimson fluff? Well! but +this theatre is built in place of a church founded by the famous +Beatrice de Scala, in consequence of a vow she made to erect one if God +would be pleased to send her a son. The church was pulled down and the +playhouse erected. The Arch-duke lost a son that year; and the pious +folks cried, "A judgment!" but nobody minded them, I believe; many, +however, that are scrupulous will not go. Meantime it is a beautiful +theatre to be sure; the finest fabric raised in modern days, <!-- Page 89 --><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>I do +believe, for the purposes of entertainment; but we must not be partial. +While London has twelve capital rooms for the professed amusement of the +Public, Milan has but one; there is in it, however, a ridotto chamber +for cards, of a noble size, where some little gaming goes on in carnival +time; but though the inhabitants complain of the enormities committed +there, I suppose more money is lost and won at one club in St. James's +street during a week, than here at Milan in the whole winter.</p> + +<p>Every nation complains of the wickedness of its own inhabitants, and +considers them as the worst people in the world, till they have seen +others no better; and then, like individuals with their private sorrows, +they find change produces no alleviation. The Mount of Miseries, in the +Spectator, where all the people change with their neighbours, lay down +an undutiful son, and carry away with them a hump-back, or whatever had +been the source of disquiet to another, whom he had blamed for bearing +so ill a misfortune thought trifling till he took it on himself, is an +admirably well constructed fable, and <!-- Page 90 --><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>is applicable to public as well +as private complaints.</p> + +<p>A gentleman who had long practised as a solicitor, and was retired from +business, stored with a perfect knowledge of mankind so far as his +experience could inform him, told me once, that whoever died before +sixty years old, if he had made his own fortune, was likely to leave it +according as friendship, gratitude, and public spirit dictated: either +to those who had served, or those who had pleased him; or, not +unfrequently, to benefit some charity, set up some school, or the like: +"but let a man once turn sixty," said he, "and his natural heirs <i>are +sure of him</i>:" for having seen many people, he has likewise been +disgusted by many; and though he does not love his relations better than +he did, the discovery that others are but little superior to them in +those excellencies he has sought about the world in vain for, he begins +to enquire for his nephew's little boy, whom as he never saw, never +could have offended him; and if he does not break the chain of a +favourite watch, or any other such boyish trick, the estate is his for +ever, upon no principle but this in the testator.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 91 --><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>So it is by those who travel a good deal; by what I have seen, every +country has so much in it to be justly complained of, that most men +finish by preferring their own.</p> + +<p>That neither complaints nor rejoicings here at Milan, however, proceed +from affectation, is a choice comfort: the Lombards possess the skill to +please you without feigning; and so artless are their manners, you +cannot even suspect them of insincerity. They have, perhaps for that +very reason, few comedies, and fewer novels among them: for the worst of +every man's character is already well known to the rest; but be his +conduct what it will, the heart is commonly right enough—<i>il luon cuor +Lombardo</i> is famed throughout all Italy, and nothing can become +proverbial without an excellent reason. Little opportunity is therefore +given to writers who carry the dark lanthorn of life into its deepest +recesses—unwind the hidden wickedness of a Maskwell or a Monkton, +develope the folds of vice, and spy out the internal worthlessness of +apparent virtue; which from these discerning eyes cannot be cloked even +by that early-taught affectation which renders it a real ingenuity to +discover, if in a highly <!-- Page 92 --><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>polished capital a man or woman has or has not +good parts or principles—so completely are the first overlaid with +literature, and the last perverted by refinement.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>April 2, 1785.</p> + +<p>The cold weather continues still, and we have heavy snows; but so +admirable is the police of this well-regulated town, that when +over-night it has fallen to the height of four feet, no very uncommon +occurrence, no one can see in the morning that even a flake has been +there, so completely do the poor and the prisoners rid us of it all, by +throwing immense loads of it into a navigable canal that runs quite +round the city, and carries every nuisance with it clearly away—so that +no inconveniencies can arise.</p> + +<p>Italians seem to me to have no feeling of cold; they open the +casements—for windows we have none (now in winter), and cry, <i>che bel +freschetto</i>!<span class="footnoteinline">[What a fresh breeze!]</span> while I am starving +outright. If there is a flash of a few faggots in the chimney that just +scorches one a little, no lady goes near it, but sits at the other <!-- Page 93 --><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>end +of a high-roofed room, the wind whistling round her ears, and her feet +upon a perforated brass box, filled with wood embers, which the +<i>cavalier fervente</i> pulls out from time to time, and replenishes with +hotter ashes raked out from between the andirons. How sitting with these +fumes under their petticoats improves their beauty of complexion I know +not; certain it is, they pity <i>us</i> exceedingly for our manner of +managing ourselves, and enquire of their countrymen who have lived here +a-while, how their health endured the burning <i>fossils</i> in the chambers +at London. I have heard two or three Italians say, <i>vorrei anch' io +veder quell' Inghilterra, ma questo carbone fossile</i>!<span class="label">[I would +go see this same England myself I think, but that fuel made of minerals +frights me!]</span> To church, however, and to the theatre, ladies have a great +green velvet bag carried for them, adorned with gold tassels, and lined +with fur, to keep their feet from freezing, as carpets are not in use +here. Poor women run about the streets with a little earthen pipkin +hanging on their arm, filled with fire, even if they are sent on an +errand; while men of all ranks walk wrapped up in an odd <!-- Page 94 --><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>sort of white +riding coat, not buttoned together, but folded round their body after +the fashion of the old Roman dress that one has seen in statues, and +this they call <i>Gaban</i>, retaining many Spanish words since the time that +they were under Spanish government. <i>Buscar</i>, to seek, is quite familiar +here as at Madrid, and instead of Ragazzo, I have heard the Milanese say +<i>Mozzo</i> di Stalla, which is originally a Castilian word I believe, and +spelt by them with the <i>c con cedilla</i>, Moço. They have likewise Latin +phrases oddly mingled among their own: a gentleman said yesterday, that +he was going to Casa <i>Sororis</i>, to his sister's; and the strange word +<i>Minga</i>, which meets one at every turn, is corrupted, I believe, from +<i>Mica</i>, a crumb. <i>Piaz minga</i>, I have not a crumb of pleasure in it, &c.</p> + +<p>The uniformity of dress here pleases the eye, and their custom of going +veiled to church, and always without a hat, which they consider as +profanation of the <i>temple</i> as they call it, delights me much; it has an +air of decency in the individuals, of general respect for the place, and +of a resolution not to let external images intrude on devout thoughts. +The hanging churches, and even public pillars, <!-- Page 95 --><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>set up in the streets or +squares for purposes of adoration, with black, when any person of +consequence dies, displeases me more; it is so very dismal, so paltry a +piece of pride and expiring vanity, and so dirty a custom, calling bugs +and spiders, and all manner of vermin about one so in those black +trappings, it is terrible; but if they remind us of our end, and set us +about preparing for it, the benefit is greater than the evil.</p> + +<p>The equipages on the Corso here are very numerous, in proportion to the +size of the city, and excessively showy: the horses are long-tailed, +heavy, and for the most part black, with high rising forehands, while +the sinking of the back is artfully concealed by the harness of red +Morocco leather richly ornamented, and white reins. To this magnificence +much is added by large leopard, panther, or tyger skins, beautifully +striped or spotted by Nature's hand, and held fast on the horses by +heavy shining tassels of gold, coloured lace, &c. wonderfully handsome; +while the driver, clothed in a bright scarlet dress, adorned and trimmed +with bear's skin, makes a noble figure on the box at this season upon +days of gala. The carnival, however, <!-- Page 96 --><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>exhibits a variety unspeakable; +boats and barges painted of a thousand colours, drawn upon wheels, and +filled with masks and merry-makers, who throw sugar-plums at each other, +to the infinite delight of the town, whose populousness that show +evinces to perfection, for every window and balcony is crowded to +excess; the streets are fuller than one can express of gazers, and +general mirth and gaiety prevail. When the flashing season is over, and +you are no longer to be dazzled with finery or stunned with noise, the +nobility of Milan—for gentry there are none—fairly slip a check case +over the hammock, as we do to our best chairs in England, clap a coarse +leather cover on the carriage top, the coachman wearing a vast brown +great coat, which he spreads on each side him over the corners of his +coach-box, and looks as somebody was saying—like a sitting hen.</p> + +<p>The paving of our streets here at Milan is worth mentioning, only +because it is directly contrary to the London method of performing the +same operation. They lay the large flag stones at this place in two +rows, for the coach wheels to roll smoothly over, leaving <!-- Page 97 --><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>walkers to +accommodate themselves, and bear the sharp pebbles to their tread as +they may. In every thing great, and every thing little, the diversity of +government must perpetually occur; where that is despotic, small care +will be taken of the common people; where that is popular, little +attention will be paid to the great ones. I never in my whole life heard +so much of birth and family as since I came to this town; where blood +enjoys a thousand exclusive privileges, where Cavalier and Dama are +words of the first, nay of the only importance; where wit and beauty are +considered as useless without a long pedigree; and virtue, talents, +wealth, and wisdom, are thought on only as medals to hang upon the +branch of a genealogical tree, as we tie trinkets to a watch in England.</p> + +<p>I went to church, twenty yards from our own door, with a servant to wait +on me, three or four mornings ago; there was a lady particularly well +dressed, very handsome, two footmen attending on her at a distance, took +my attention. Peter, said I, to my own man, as we came out, <i>chi è +quella dama? who is that lady? Non è dama</i>, replies the fellow, +contemptuously smiling at my sim<!-- Page 98 --><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>plicity—<i>she is no lady</i>. I thought +she might be somebody's kept mistress, and asked him whose? <i>Dio ne +liberi</i>, returns Peter, in a kinder accent—for there <i>heart</i> came in, +and he would not injure her character—God forbid: <i>è moglie d'un ricco +banchiere</i>—she is a rich banker's wife. You may see, added he, that she +is no lady if you look—the servants carry no velvet stool for her to +kneel upon, and they have no coat armour in the lace to their liveries: +<i>she</i> a lady! repeated he again with infinite contempt.</p> + +<p>I am told that the Arch-duke is very desirous to close this breach of +distinction, and to draw merchants and traders with their wives up into +higher notice than they were wont to remain in. I do not <i>think</i> he will +by that means conciliate the affection of any rank. The prejudices in +favour of nobility are too strong to be shaken here, much less rooted +out so: the very servants would rather starve in the house of a man of +family, than eat after a person of inferior quality, whom they consider +as their equal, and almost treat him as such to his face. Shall we then +be able to refuse our particular veneration to those characters of high +rank here, who add <!-- Page 99 --><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>the charm of a cultivated mind to that situation +which, united even with ignorance, would ensure them respect? When +scholarship is found among the great in Italy, it has the additional +merit of having grown up in their own bosoms, without encouragement from +emulation, or the least interested motive. His companions do not think +much the more of him—for <i>that</i> kind of superiority. I suppose, says a +friend of his, he must be fond of study; for <i>chi pensa di una maniera, +chi pensa d' un altra, per me sono stato sempre ignorantissimo</i><a name="FNanchor_I_22" id="FNanchor_I_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_22" class="fnanchor">[I]</a>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_22" id="Footnote_I_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_22"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> One man is of one mind, another of another: I was always a +sheer dunce for my own part.</p></div> + +<p>These voluntary confessions of many a quality, which, whether possessed +or not by English people, would certainly never be avowed, spring from +that native sincerity I have been praising—for though family +connections are prized so highly here, no man seems ashamed that he has +no family to boast: all feigning would indeed be useless and +impracticable; yet it struck me with astonishment too, to hear a +well-bred clergyman who visits at many genteel houses, say gravely to +his friend, no longer ago than <!-- Page 100 --><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>yesterday—that friend a man too eminent +both for talents and fortune—"Yes, there is a grand invitation at such +a place to-night, but I don't go, because <i>I am not a gentleman—perche +non sono cavaliere</i>; and the master desired I would let you know that +<i>it was for no other reason</i> that you had not a card too, my good +friend; for it is an invitation of none but <i>people of fashion you +see</i>." At all this nobody stares, nobody laughs, and nobody's throat is +cut in consequence of their sincere declarations.</p> + +<p>The women are not behind-hand in openness of confidence and comical +sincerity. We have all heard much of Italian cicisbeism; I had a mind to +know how matters really stood; and took the nearest way to information +by asking a mighty beautiful and apparently artless young creature, <i>not +noble</i>, how that affair was managed, for there is no harm done <i>I am +sure</i>, said I: "Why no," replied she, "no great <i>harm</i> to be sure: +except wearisome attentions from a man one cares little about: for my +own part," continued she, "I detest the custom, as I happen to love my +husband excessively, and desire nobody's company in the world but his. +<!-- Page 101 --><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>We are not <i>people of fashion</i> though you know, nor at all rich; so how +should we set fashions for our betters? They would only say, see how +jealous he is! if <i>Mr. Such-a-one</i> sat much with me at home, or went +with me to the Corso; and I <i>must</i> go with some gentleman you know: and +the men are such ungenerous creatures, and have such ways with them: I +want money often, and this <i>cavaliere servente</i> pays the bills, and so +the connection draws closer—<i>that's all</i>." And your husband! said +I—"Oh, why he likes to see me well dressed; he is very good natured, +and very charming; I love him to my heart." And your confessor! cried +I.—"Oh, why he is <i>used to it</i>"—in the Milanese dialect—<i>è assuefaà</i>.</p> + +<p>Well! we will not send people to Milan to study delicacy or very refined +morality to be sure; but were the crust of British affectation lifted +off many a character at home, I know not whether better, that is +<i>honester</i>, hearts would be found under it than that of this pretty +girl, God forbid that I should prove an advocate for vice; but let us +remember, that the banishment of all hypocrisy and deceit is a vast +compensation for the <!-- Page 102 --><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>want of <i>one great virtue</i>.—The certainty that +the worst, whatever that worst may be, meets your immediate inspection, +gives great repose to the mind: you know there is no latent poison +lurking out of sight; no colours to come out stronger by throwing water +suddenly against them, as you do to old fresco paintings: and talking +freely with women in this country, though you may have a chance to light +on ignorance, you are never teized by folly.</p> + +<p>The mind of an Italian, whether man or woman, seldom fails, for ought I +see, to make up in <i>extent</i> what is wanted in <i>cultivation</i>; and that +they possess the art of pleasing in an eminent degree, the constancy +with which they are mutually beloved by each other is the best proof.</p> + +<p>Ladies of distinction bring with them when they marry, besides fortune, +as many clothes as will last them seven years; for fashions do not +change here as often as at London or Paris; yet is pin-money allowed, +and an attention paid to the wife that no Englishwoman can form an idea +of: in every family her duties are few; for, as I have observed, +household management falls to the master's <!-- Page 103 --><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>share of course, when all +the servants are men almost, and those all paid by the week or day. +Children are very seldom seen by those who visit great houses: if they +<i>do</i> come down for five minutes after dinner, the parents are talked of +as <i>doting</i> on them, and nothing can equal the pious and tender return +made to fathers and mothers in this country, for even an apparently +moderate share of fondness shewn to them in a state of infancy. I saw an +old Marchioness the other day, who had I believe been exquisitely +beautiful, lying in bed in a spacious apartment, just like ours in the +old palaces, with the tester touching the top almost: she had her three +grown-up sons standing round her, with an affectionate desire of +pleasing, and shewing her whatever could sooth or amuse her—so that it +charmed me; and I was told, and observed indeed, that when they quitted +her presence a half kneeling bow, and a kind kiss of her still white +hand, was the ceremony used. I knew myself brought thither only that she +might be entertained with the sight of the foreigner—and was equally +struck at her appearance—more so I should imagine than she could be at +mine; when these dear men <!-- Page 104 --><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>assisted in moving her pillows with emulative +attention, and rejoiced with each other apart, that their mother looked +so well to-day. Two or three servants out of livery brought us +refreshments I remember; but her maid attended in the antichamber, and +answered the bell at her bed's head, which was exceedingly magnificent +in the old style of grandeur—crimson damask, if I recollect right, with +family arms at the back; and she lay on nine or eleven pillows, laced +with ribbon, and two large bows to each, very elegant and expensive in +any country:—with all this, to prove that the Italians have little +sensation of cold, here was no fire, but a suffocating brazier, which +stood near the door that opened, and was kept open, into the maid's +apartment.</p> + +<p>A woman here in every stage of life has really a degree of attention +shewn her that is surprising:—if conjugal disputes arise in a family, +so as to make them become what we call town-talk, the public voice is +sure to run against the husband; if separation ensues, all possible +countenance is given to the wife, while the gentleman is somewhat less +willingly received; and all the stories of past disgusts <!-- Page 105 --><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>are related to +<i>his</i> prejudice: nor will the lady whom he wishes to serve look very +kindly on a man who treats his own wife with unpoliteness. <i>Che cuore +deve avere!</i> says she: What a heart he must have! <i>Io non mene fido +sicuro</i>: I shall take care not to trust him sure.</p> + +<p>National character is a great matter: I did not know there had been such +a difference in the ways of thinking, merely from custom and climate, as +I see there is; though one has always read of it: it was however +entertaining enough to hear a travelled gentleman haranguing away three +nights ago at our house in praise of English cleanliness, and telling +his auditors how all the men in London, <i>that were noble</i>, put on a +clean shirt every day, and the women washed the street before his +house-door every morning. "<i>Che schiavitù mai!</i>" exclaimed a lady of +quality, who was listening: "<i>ma natural mente farà per commando del +principe</i>."—"<i>What a land of slavery!</i>" says Donna Louisa, I heard her; +"<i>but it is all done by command of the sovereign, I suppose</i>."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 106 --><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>Their ideas of justice are no less singular than of delicacy: but those +are more easily accounted for; so is their amiable carriage towards +inferiors, calling their own and their friends servants by tender names, +and speaking to all below themselves with a graciousness not often used +by English men or women even to their equals. The pleasure too which the +high people here express when the low ones are diverted, is +charming.—We think it vulgar to be merry when the mob is so; but if +rolling down a hill, like Greenwich, was the custom here, as with us, +all Milan would run to see the sport, and rejoice in the felicity of +their fellow-creatures. When I express my admiration of such +condescending sweetness, they reply—<i>è un uomo come un altro;—è +battezzato come noi</i>; and the like—Why he is a man of the same nature +as we: he has been christened as well as ourselves, they reply. Yet do I +not for this reason condemn the English as naturally haughty above their +continental neighbours. Our government has left so narrow a space +between the upper and under ranks of people in Great Britain—while our +cha<!-- Page 107 --><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>ritable and truly Christian religion is still so constantly employed +in raising the depressed, by giving them means of changing their +situation, that if our persons of condition fail even for a moment to +watch their post, maintaining by dignity what they or their fathers have +acquired by merit, they are instantly and suddenly broken in upon by the +well-employed talents, or swiftly-acquired riches, of men born on the +other side the thin partition; whilst in Italy the gulph is totally +impassable, and birth alone can entitle man or woman to the society of +gentlemen and ladies. This firmly-fixed idea of subordination (which I +once heard a Venetian say, he believed must exist in heaven from one +angel to another) accounts immediately for a little conversation which I +am now going to relate.</p> + +<p>Here were two men taken up last week, one for murdering his +fellow-servant in cold blood, while the undefended creature had the +lemonade tray in his hand going in to serve company; the other for +breaking the new lamps lately set up with intention to light this town +in the manner of the streets at Paris. "I hope," said I, "that they will +hang the <!-- Page 108 --><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>murderer." "I rather hope," replied a very sensible lady who +sate near me, "that they will hang the person who broke the lamps: for," +added she, "the first committed his crime only out of revenge, poor +fellow! because the other had got his mistress from him by treachery; +but this creature has had the impudence to break our fine new lamps, all +for the sake of spiting <i>the Arch-duke</i>." The Arch-duke meantime hangs +nobody at all; but sets his prisoners to work upon the roads, public +buildings, &c. where they labour in their chains; and where, strange to +tell! they often insult passengers who refuse them alms when asked as +they go by; and, stranger still! they are not punished for it when they +do.</p> + +<p>Here is certainly much despotic power in Italy, but, I fancy, very +little oppression; perhaps authority, once acknowledged, does not +delight itself always by the fatigue of exertion. <i>Sat est prostrasse +leoni</i> is an old adage, with which perhaps I may be the better +acquainted, as it is the motto to my own coat of arms; and unless +sovereignty is hungry, for ought I see, he does not certainly <i>devour</i>.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 109 --><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>The certainty of their irrevocable doom, softened by kind usage from +their superiors, makes, in the mean time, an odd sort of humorous +drollery spring up among the common people, who are much happier here at +Milan than I expected to find them: every great house giving meat, +broth, &c. to poor dependents with liberal good-nature enough, so that +mighty little wandering misery is seen in the streets; unlike those of +Genoa, who seem mocked with the word <i>liberty</i>, while sorrow, sickness, +and the most pinching want, pine at the doors of marble palaces, whose +owners are unfeeling as their walls.</p> + +<p>Our ordinary people here in Lombardy are well clothed, fat, stout, and +merry; and desirous to divert themselves, and their protectors, whom +they love at their hearts. There is however a degree of effrontery among +the women that amazes me, and of which I had no idea, till a friend +shewed me one evening from my own box at the opera, fifty or a hundred +low shop-keepers wives, dispersed about the pit at the theatre, dressed +in men's clothes, <i>per disimpegno</i> as they call it; that they might be +more <i>at liberty</i> forsooth to clap and hiss, and quarrel and jostle, +<!-- Page 110 --><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>&c. I felt shocked. "<i>One who comes from a free government need not +wonder so</i>," said he: "On the contrary, Sir," replied I, "where every +body has hopes, at least possibility, of bettering his station, and +advancing nearer to the limits of upper life, none except the most +abandoned of their species will wholly lose sight of such decorous +conduct as alone can grace them when they have reached their wish: +whereas your people know their destiny, future as well as present, and +think no more of deserving a higher post, than they think of obtaining +it." Let me add, however, that if these women <i>were</i> a little riotous +during the Easter holidays, they are <i>dilletantes</i> only. In this city no +female <i>professors</i> of immorality and open libertinage, disgraceful at +once, and pernicious to society, are permitted to range the streets in +quest of prey; to the horror of all thinking people, and the ruin of all +heedless ones.</p> + +<p>With which observation, to continue the tour of Italy, we this day +leave, for a twelvemonth at least, Milano il grande, after having spent, +though not quite finished the winter in it; as there fell a very heavy +snow last Saturday, which hindered our setting out a <!-- Page 111 --><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>week ago, though +this is the sixth of April; and exactly five months have now since last +November been passed among those who have I hope approved our conduct +and esteemed our manners. That they should trouble themselves to examine +our income, report our phrases, and listen, perhaps with some little +mixture of envy, after every instance of unshakable attachment shewn to +each other, would be less pleasing; but that I verily believe they have +at last dismissed us with general good wishes, proceeding from innate +goodness of heart, and the hope of seeing again, in a year's time or so, +two people who have supplied so many tables here with materials for +conversation, when the fountain of talk was stopt by deficiencies, and +the little stream of prattle ceased to murmur for want of a few pebbles +to break its course.</p> + +<p>We are going to Venice by the way of Cremona, and hope for amusement +from external objects: let us at least not deserve or invite +disappointment by seeking for pleasure beyond the limits of innocence.<!-- Page 112 --><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a></p> + + + +<h3><a name="FROM_MILAN_TO_PADUA" id="FROM_MILAN_TO_PADUA"></a>FROM MILAN TO PADUA.</h3> + + +<p>The first evening's drive carried us no farther than Lodi, a place +renowned through all Europe for its excellent cheese, as out well-known +ballad bears testimony:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Let Lodi or Parmesan bring up the rear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Those verses were imitated, I fancy, from a French song written by +Monsieur des Yveteaux, of whose extraordinary life and death much has +been said by his cotemporary wits, particularly how some of them found +him playing at shepherd and shepherdess in his own garden with a pretty +Savoyard wench, at seventy-eight years old, <i>en habit de berger, avec un +chapeau couleur de rose</i><span class="footnoteinline">[In a pastoral habit, and a hat turned up with pink]</span>, &c. when he shewed them the famous lines, <i>Avoir peu de +parens, moins de train que de rente</i>, &c. which do certainly bear a very +near affinity to our Old Man's <!-- Page 113 --><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>Wish, published in Dryden's +Miscellanies; who, among other luxuries, resolves to eat Lodi cheese, I +remember.</p> + +<p>The town, however, bringing no other ideas either new or old to our +minds, we went to the opera, and heard Morichelli sing: after which they +gave us a new dramatic dance, made upon the story of Don John, or the +Libertine; a tale which, whether true or false, fact or fable, has +furnished every Christian country in the world, I believe, with some +subject of representation. It makes me no sport, however; the idea of an +impenitent sinner going to hell is too seriously terrifying to make +amusement out of. Let mythology, which is now grown good for little +else, be danced upon the stage; where Mr. Vestris may bounce and +struggle in the character of Alcides on his funeral pile, with no very +glaring impropriety; and such baubles serve beside to keep old classical +stories in the heads of our young people; who, if they <i>must</i> have +torches to blaze in their eyes, may divert themselves with Pluto +catching up Ceres's daughter, and driving her away to Tartarus; but let +Don John alone. I have at least <i>half a notion</i> that the <!-- Page 114 --><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>horrible +history is <i>half true</i>; if so, it is surely very gross to represent it +by dancing. Should such false foolish taste prevail in England (but I +hope it will not), we might perhaps go happily through the whole book of +God's Revenge against Murder, or the Annals of Newgate, on the stage, as +a variety of pretty stories may be found there of the same cast; while +statues of Hercules and Minerva, with their insignia as heathen deities, +might be placed, with equal attention to religion, costume, and general +fitness, as decorations for the monuments of <i>Westminster Abbey</i>.</p> + +<p>The country we came through to Cremona is rich and fertile, the roads +deep and miry of course; very few of the Lombardy poplars, of which I +expected to see so many: but Phaeton's sisters seem to have danced all +away from the odoriferous banks of the Po, to the green sides of the +Thames, I think; meantime here is no other timber in the country but a +few straggling ash, and willows without end. The old Eridanus, however, +makes a majestic figure at Cremona, and frights the inhabitants when it +overflows. There are not many to be frighted though, for the town is +thinly peopled; but exqui<!-- Page 115 --><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>sitely clean, perhaps for that very reason; +and the cathedral, of a mixed Grecian and Gothic architecture, has a +respectable appearance; while two enormous lions, of red marble, frown +at its door, and the crucifixion, painted by Pordenone, with a rough but +powerful pencil, strikes one at the entrance: I have seen nothing finer +than the figure of the Centurion upon the fore-ground, who seems to cry +out, with soldier-like courage and apostolic fervour, Truly this is the +Son of God.</p> + +<p>The great clock here too is very curious: having, besides the +twenty-four hours, a minute and second finger, like a stop watch, and +shews the phases of the moon, with her triple rotation clearly to all +who walk across the piazza. Yet I trust the dwellers at Cremona are no +better astronomers than those who live in other places; to what purpose +then all these representations with which Italy is crowded; processions, +paintings, &c. besides the moral dances, as they call them now? One word +of solid instruction to the ear, conveys more knowledge to the mind at +last, than all these marionettes presented to the eye.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 116 --><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>The tower of Cremona is of a surprising height and elegant form; we +climbed, not without some difficulty, to its top, and saw the flat +plains of Lombardy stretched out all round us. Prospects, however, and +high towers have I seen; that in Mr. Hoare's grounds, dedicated to King +Alfred, is a much finer structure than this, and the view from it much +more variegated certainly; I think of greater extent; though there is +more dignity in these objects, while the Po twists through them, and +distant mountains mingle with the sky at the end of a lengthened +horizon.</p> + +<p>What I have never seen till now, we were made to observe in the octagon +gallery which crowns this pretty structure, where in every compartment +there are channels cut in the stone to guide the eye or rest the +telescope, that so a spectator need not be fruitlessly teized, as one +almost always is, by those who shew one a prospect, with <i>Look there! +See there!</i> &c. At this place nothing needs be done but lay the glass or +put the eye even with the lines which point to Bergamo, Mantua, or where +you please; and <i>look there</i> becomes superfluous as offensive.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 117 --><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>The bells in the tower amused us in another way: an old man who has the +care of them, delighted much in telling us how he rung tunes upon them +before the Duke of Parma, who presented him with money, and bid him ring +again: and not a little was the good man amazed, when one of our company +sate down and played on them himself: a thing he had never before been +witness to, he said, except once, when a surprising musician arrived +from England, and performed the like seat: by his description of the +person, and the time of his passing through Cremona, we conjectured he +meant Dr. Burney.</p> + +<p>The most dreadful of all roads carried us next morning to Mantua, where +we had letters for an agreeable friend, who neglected nothing that could +entertain or instruct us. He shewed me the field where it is supposed +the house stood in which Virgil was born, and told me what he knew of +the evidence that he was born there: certain it is that much care is +taken to keep the place fenced, from an idea of its being the identical +spot, and I hope it is so.</p> + +<p>The theatres here are beautiful beyond all telling: it is a shame not to +take the model <!-- Page 118 --><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>of the small one, and build a place of entertainment on +the plan. There cannot surely be any plan more elegant.</p> + +<p>We had a concert of admirable music at the house of our new +acquaintance, in the evening, and were introduced by his means to many +people of fashion; the ladies were pretty, and dressed with much taste; +no caps at all, but flowers in their heads, and earrings of silver +fillagree finely worked; long, light, and thin: I never saw such before, +but it would be an exceeding pretty fashion. They hung down quite low +upon the neck and shoulders, and had a pleasing effect.</p> + +<p>Mantua stands in the middle of a deep swampy marsh, that sends up a +thick foggy vapour all winter, a stench intolerable during the summer +months. Its inhabitants lament the want of population; and indeed I +counted but five carriages in the streets while we remained in the town. +Seven thousand Jews occupy a third part of the city, founded by old +Tiresias's daughter, where they have a synagogue, and live after their +own fashion. The dialect here is closer to that Italian which foreigners +learn, and the ladies speak more <!-- Page 119 --><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>Tuscan, I think, than at Milan, but it +is a <i>lady's</i> town as I told them.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ille etiam patriis agmen ciet Ocnus ab oris<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fatidicæ <i>Mantûs</i> et Tusci filius amnis,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qui muros matrisque dedit tibi. <i>Mantua</i> nomen."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ocnus was next, who led his native train<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of hardy warriors thro' the wat'ry plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The son of Manto by the Tuscan stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From whence the <i>Mantuan</i> town derives its name.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Dryden</span>. +</div></div> + +<p>The annual fair is what contributes most to keeping their folks alive +though, for such are the roads it is scarce possible any strangers +should come near them, and our people complain that the inns are very +extortionate: here is one building, however, that promises wonders from +its prodigious size and magnificence; I only wonder such accommodation +should be thought necessary.</p> + +<p>The gentleman who shewed us the Ducal palace, seemed himself much struck +with its convenience and splendour; but I had seen Versailles, Turin, +and Genoa. What can be seen here, and here alone, are the numerous and +<!-- Page 120 --><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>incomparable works of Giulio Romano; of which no words that I can use +would give my readers any adequate idea.—For such excellence language +has no praise, and of such performances taste will admit no criticism. +The giants could scarcely have been more amazed at Jupiter's thunder, +than I was at their painted fall. If Rome is to exhibit any thing beyond +this, I shall really be more dazzled than delighted; for imagination +will stretch no further, and admiration will endure no more.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Sunday, April 10.</p> + +<p>Here is no appearance of spring yet, though so late in the year; what +must it be in England? One almond and one plum tree have I seen in +blossom; but no green leaf out of the bud: so cheerless has been the +road between Mantua and Verona, which, however, makes amends for all on +our arrival. How beautiful the entrance is of this charming city, how +grand the gate, how handsome the drive forward, may all be read here in +a printed book called <i>Verona illustrata</i>: <!-- Page 121 --><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>but my felicity in finding +the amphitheatre so well preserved, can only be found in my own heart, +which began sensibly to dilate at the seeing an old Roman colisseum kept +so nicely, and repaired so well. It is said that the arena here is +absolutely perfect; and if the galleries are a little deficient, there +can be no dispute concerning the <i>podium</i>, or lower seats, which remain +exactly as they were in old times: while I have heard that the building +of the same kind now existing at Nismes, shews the manner of entering +exceeding well; and the great one built by Vespasian has every thing +else: so that an exact idea of the old Circus may be obtained among them +all. That something should always be left to conjecture, is however not +unpleasing; various opinions animate the arguments on both sides, and +bring out fire by collision with the understanding of others engaged in +the same researches.</p> + +<p>A bull-feast given here to divert the Emperor as he passed through, must +have excited many pleasing sensations, while the inhabitants sate on +seats once occupied by the masters of the world; and what is more worth +wonder, sate at the feet of a Transal<!-- Page 122 --><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>pine <i>Cæsar</i>, for so the sovereign +of Germany is even now called by his Milanese subjects in common +discourse; and when one looks upon the arms of Austria, a spread eagle, +and recollects that when the Roman empire was divided, the old eagle was +split, one face looking toward the East, the other toward the West, in +token of shared possession, it affects one; and calls up classic imagery +to the mind.</p> + +<p>The collection of antiquities belonging to the Philharmonic society is +very respectable; they reminded me of the Arundel marbles at Oxford, and +I said so. "<i>Oh!</i>" replied the man who shewed these, "<i>that collection +was very valuable to be sure, but the bad air, and the smoke of coal +fires in England, have ruined them long ago</i>." I suspected that my +gentleman talked by rote, and examining the book called <i>Verona +illustrata</i>, found the remark there; but that is <i>malasede</i>, and a very +ridiculous prejudice. I will confess however, if they please, that our +original treaty between Mardonius and the Persian army, at the end of +which the Greek general Aristides, although himself a Sabian, attested +the fun as witness, in compliance with their religion who wor<!-- Page 123 --><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>shipped +that luminary, at least held it in the highest veneration, as the +residence of Oromasdes the good Principle, who was considered by the +Magians as for ever clothed with light: I will consider <i>that</i>, I say, +if they insist upon it, as a marble of less consequence than the last +will and testament of an old inhabitant of Sparta which is shewn at +Verona, and which <i>they say</i> disposes of the iron money used during the +first of many years that the laws of Lycurgus lasted.</p> + +<p>Here is a very fine palace belonging to the Bevi-l'acqua family, besides +the Casa Verzi, as famous for its elegant Doric architecture, as the +charming mistress of it for her Attic wit.</p> + +<p>St. Zeno is the church which struck me most: the eternal and all-seeing +eye placed over the door; Fortune's wheel too, composed of six figures +curiously disposed, and not unlike our man alphabet, two mounting, two +sitting, and two tumbling, over against it: on the outside of the wheel +this distich,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">En ego Fortuna moderor mortalibus usum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Elevo, depono, bona cunctis vel mala dono<a name="FNanchor_J_24" id="FNanchor_J_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_24" class="fnanchor">[J]</a>—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 124 --><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>this other on the inside of the wheel, less plainly to be read:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Induo nudatos, denudo veste paratos,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In me confidit, si quis derisus abibit<a name="FNanchor_K_25" id="FNanchor_K_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_25" class="fnanchor">[K]</a>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="footnoteslegend">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_24" id="Footnote_J_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_24"><span class="label">[J]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here I Madam Fortune my favours bestow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some good and some ill to the high and the low.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_25" id="Footnote_K_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_25"><span class="label">[K]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The naked I clothe, and the pompous I strip;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If in me you confide, I may give you the slip.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +</div> + +<p>This is a town full of beauties, wits, and rarities: numberless persons +of the first eminence have always adorned it, and the present +inhabitants have no mind to degenerate; while the Nobleman that is +immediately descended from that house which Giambattista della Torre +made famous for his skill in astronomy, employs himself in a much more +useful, if not a nobler study; and is completing for the press a new +system of education. It was very petulantly, and very spitefully said by +Voltaire, that Italy was now no more than <i>la boutique</i><span class="footnoteinline">[The old clothes shop]</span>, and the Italians, <i>les merchands fripiers de +l'Europe</i><span class="footnoteinline">[The slop-sellers of Europe]</span>. The Greek remains here +have still an air of youthful elegance about them, which strikes one +very forcibly where so good opportunity offers of comparing them with +the fabrics formed by their destructive successors, the Goths; who have +left some fine old black-looking <!-- Page 125 --><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>monuments (which look as if they had +stood in our <i>coal smoke</i> for centuries) to the memory of the Scaligers; +and surely the great critic of that name could not have taken a more +certain method of proving his descent from these his barbarous +ancestors, than that which his relationship to them naturally, I +suppose, inspired him with—the avowed preference of birth to talents, +of long-drawn genealogy to hardly-acquired literature. We will however +grow less prejudiced ourselves; and since there are still whole nations +of people existing, who consider the counting up many generations back +as a felicity not to be exchanged for any other without manifest loss, +we may possibly reconcile the opinion to common sense, by reflecting +that one preconception of the sovereign good is, that it should +certainly be <i>indeprivable</i> and except birth, what is there earthly +after all that may not drop, or else be torn from its possessor by +accident, folly, force, or malice?</p> + +<p>James Harris says, that virtue answers to the character of +indeprivability, but one is left only to wish that his position were +true; the continuance of virtue depends on the <!-- Page 126 --><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>continuance of reason, +from which a blow on the head, a sudden fit of terror, or twenty other +accidents may separate us in a moment. Nothing can make us not one's +father's child however, and the advantages of <i>blood</i>, such as they are, +may surely be deemed <i>indeprivable</i>.</p> + +<p>Gothic and Grecian architecture resembles Gothic and Grecian manners, +which naturally do give their colour to such arts as are naturally the +result of them. Tyranny and gloomy suspicion are the characteristics of +the one, openness and sociability strongly mark the other—when to the +gay portico succeeded the sullen drawbridge, and to the lively corridor, +a secret passage and a winding staircase.</p> + +<p>It is difficult, if not impossible however, to withhold one's respect +from those barbarians who could thus change the face of art, almost of +nature; who could overwhelm courage and counteract learning; who not +only devoured the works of wisdom and the labours of strength, but left +behind them too a settled system of feudatorial life and aristocratic +power, still undestroyed in Europe, though <!-- Page 127 --><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>hourly attacked, battered by +commerce, and sapped by civilization.</p> + +<p>When Smeathman told us about twelve years ago, how an immense body of +African ants, which appeared, as they moved forwards, like the whole +earth in agitation—covered and suddenly arrested a solemn elephant, as +he grazed unsuspiciously on the plain; he told us too that in eight +hours time no trace was left either of the devasters or devasted, +excepting the skeleton of the noble creature neatly picked; a standing +proof of the power of numbers against single force.</p> + +<p>These northern emigrants the Goths, however, have done more; they have +fixed a mode of carrying on human affairs, that I think will never be so +far exterminated as to leave no vestiges behind: and even while one +contemplates the mischief they have made—even while one's pen engraves +one's indignation at their success; the old baron in his castle, +preceded and surrounded by loyal dependants, who desired only to live +under his protection and die in his defence, inspires a notion of +dignity unattainable by those who, seeking the beautiful, are by so <!-- Page 128 --><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>far +removed from the sublime of life, and affords to the mind momentary +images of surly magnificence, ill exchanged perhaps by <i>fancy</i>, though +<i>truth</i> has happily substituted a succession of soft ideas and social +comforts: knowledge, virtue, riches, happiness. Let it be remembered +however, that if the theme is superior to the song, we always find those +poets who live in the second class, celebrating the days past by those +who had their existence in the first. These reflections are forced upon +me by the view of Lombard manners, and the accounts I daily pick up +concerning the Brescian and Bergamase nobility; who still exert the +Gothic power of protecting murderers who profess themselves their +vassals; and who still exercise those virtues and vices natural to man +in his semi-barbarous state: fervent devotion, constant love, heroic +friendship, on the one part; gross superstition, indulgence of brutal +appetite, and diabolical revenge, on the other.</p> + +<p>In all hot countries, however, flowers and weeds shoot up to enormous +growth: in colder climes, where poison can scarce be feared, perfumes +can seldom be boasted.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 129 --><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>Verona is the gayest looking town I ever lived in; beautifully +situated, the hills around it elegant, the mountains at a distance +venerable: the silver Adige rolling through the Valley, while such a +glow of blossoms now ornament the rising grounds, and such cheerfulness +smiles in the sweet countenances of its inhabitants, that one is tempted +to think it the birth-place of Euphrosyne, where</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Zephyr with Aurora playing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he met her once a maying, &c.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So buxom, blythe, and debonair—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as Milton says. Here are vines, mulberries, olives; of course, wine, +silk, and oil: every thing that can seduce, every thing that ought to +satisfy desiring man. Here then in consequence do actually delight to +reside mirth and good-humour in their holiday dress. <i>A verona mezzi +matti</i><span class="footnoteinline">[The people at Verona are half out of their wits]</span>, say +the Italians themselves of them, and I see nothing seemingly go forward +here but Improvisatori, reciting stories or verses to entertain the +populace; boys flying kites, cut square like a diamond on the cards, and +called Stelle; men <!-- Page 130 --><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>amusing themselves at a game called Pallamajo, +something like our cricket, only that they throw the ball with a hollow +stick, not with the hand, but it requires no small corporal strength; +and I know not why our English people have such a notion of Italian +effeminacy: games of very strong exertion are in use among them; and I +have not yet felt one hot day since I left France.</p> + +<p>They shewed us an agreeable garden here belonging to some man of +fashion, whose name I know not; it was cut in a rock, yet the grotto +disappointed me: they had not taken such advantages of the situation as +Lomellino would have done, and I recollected the tasteful creations in +my own country, <i>Pains Hill</i> and <i>Stour Head</i>.</p> + +<p>The Veronese nobleman shewed however the spirit of <i>his</i> country, if we +let loose the genius of <i>ours</i>. The emperor had visited his improvements +it seems, and on the spot where he kissed the children of the house, +their father set up a stone to record the honour.</p> + +<p>Our attendant related a tender story to <i>me</i> more interesting, which +happened in this garden, of an English gentleman, who having <!-- Page 131 --><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>hired the +house, &c. one season, found his favourite servant ill there, and like +to die: the poor creature expressed his concern at the intolerant +cruelty of that fact which denies Christians of any other denomination +but their own a place in consecrated ground, and lamented his distance +from home with an anxious earnestness that hastened his end: when the +humanity of his master sent him to the landlord, who kindly gave +permission that he might lie undisturbed under his turf, as one places +one's lap-dog in England; and <i>there</i>, as our Laquais de place observed, +<i>he did no harm</i>, though <i>he was a heretic</i>; and the English gentleman +wept over his grave.</p> + +<p>I never saw cypress trees of such a growth as in this spot—but then +there are no other trees; <i>inter viburna cypressi</i> came of course into +one's head: and this noble plant, rich in foliage, and bright, not dusky +in colour, looked from its manner of growing like a vast evergreen +poplar.</p> + +<p>Our equipages here are strangely inferior to those we left behind at +Milan. Oil is burned in the conversation rooms too, and smells very +offensively—but they <i>lament our suffocation in England, and <!-- Page 132 --><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>black +smoke</i>, while what proceeds from these lamps would ruin the finest +furniture in the world before five weeks were expired; I saw no such +used at Turin, Genoa, or Milan.</p> + +<p>The horses here are not equal to those I have admired on the Corso at +other great towns; but it is pleasing to observe the contrast between +the high bred, airy, elegant English hunter, and the majestic, docile, +and well-broken war horse of Lombardy. Shall we fancy there is Gothic +and Grecian to be found even among the animals? or is not that <i>too</i> +fanciful?</p> + +<p>That every thing useful, and every thing ornamental, first revived in +Italy, is well known; but I was never aware till now, though we talk of +Italian book-keeping, that the little cant words employed in +compting-houses, took their original from the Lombard language, unless +perhaps that of Ditto, which every moment recurs, meaning Detto or +Sudetto, as that which was already said before: but this place has +afforded me an opportunity of discovering what the people meant, who +called a large portion of ground in Southwark some years ago a <i>plant</i>, +above all things. The ground was destined to the <!-- Page 133 --><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>purposes of extensive +commerce, but the appellation of a <i>plant</i> gave me much disturbance, +from my inability to fathom the meaning of it. I have here found out, +that the Lombards call many things a <i>plant</i>; and say of their cities, +palaces, &c. in familiar discourse—<i>che la pianta è buona, la pianta è +cattiva</i><span class="footnoteinline">[The <i>plant</i> is a good or a bad one]</span>, &c. +</p> + +<p>Thus do words which carry a forcible expression in one language, appear +ridiculous enough in another, till the true derivation is known. Another +reflection too occurs as curious; that after the overthrow of all +business, all knowledge, and all pleasure resulting from either, by the +Goths, Italy should be the first to cherish and revive those +money-getting occupations, which now thrive better in more Northern +climates: but the chymists say justly, that fermentation acts with a +sort of creative power, and that while the mass of matter is fermenting, +no certain judgment can be made what spirit it will at last throw up: so +perhaps we ought not to wonder at all, that the first idea of banking +came originally from this now uncommercial country; that the very name +of <i>bankrupt</i> was brought over from their money-changers, <!-- Page 134 --><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>who sat in +the market-place with a bench or <i>banca</i> before them, receiving and +paying; till, unable sometimes to make the due returns, the enraged +creditors broke their little board, which was called making +<i>bancarotta</i>, a phrase but too well known in the purlieus, which because +they first settled there in London was called <i>Lombard Street</i>, where +the word is still in full force I believe.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">—oh word of fear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unpleasing to commercial ear.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A visit to the collection of Signor Vincenzo Bozza best assisted me in +changing, or at least turning the course of my ideas. Nothing in natural +history appears more worthy the consideration of the learned world, than +does this repository of petrefactions, so uncommon that scarcely any +thing except the testimony of one's own eyes could convince one that +flying fish, natives, and intending to remain inhabitants, of the +Pacific Ocean, are daily dug out of the bowels of Monte Bolca near +Verona, where they must doubtless have been driven by the deluge, as no +less than omnipotent power and general concussion could have sufficed to +seize and fix them <!-- Page 135 --><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>for centuries in the hollow cavities of a rock at +least seventy-two miles from the nearest sea. Their learned proprietor, +however, who was obligingly desirous to shew me every attention, +answering a hundred troublesome questions with much civility, told us, +that few of his numerous visitants gave that plain account of the +phenomenon, shewing greater disposition to conjure up more difficult +causes, and attribute the whole to the world's eternity: a notion not +less contrary to found philosophy and common sense, than it is repugnant +to faith, and the doctrines of Revelation; which prophesied long ago, +that in the last days should come <i>scoffers, walking after their own +lusts</i>, and saying, <i>Where is now the promise of his coming? for since +the time that our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were +from the beginning of the creation.</i></p> + +<p>Well! these are unpleasant reflections: I would rather, before leaving +the plains of Lombardy, give my country-women one reason for detaining +them so long there: it cannot be an uninteresting reason to us, when we +reflect that our first head-dresses were made by <i>Milaners</i>; that a +court gown was <!-- Page 136 --><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>early known in England by the name of a <i>mantua</i>, from +<i>Manto,</i> the daughter of Teresias, who founded the city so called; and +that some of the best materials for making these mantuas is still named +from the town it is manufactured in—a <i>Padua</i> soy.</p> + +<p>We are going thither immediately through Vicenza; where the works of +Palladio's immortal hand appear in full perfection; and nothing sure can +add to the elegancies of architecture displayed in its environs. I +fatigued myself to death almost by walking three miles out of town, to +see the famous villa from whence Merriworth Castle in Kent was modelled; +and drew incessant censures on his taste who built at the bottom of a +deep valley the imitation of a house calculated for a hill. Here I +pleased my eyes by glancing them over an extensive prospect, bounded by +mountains on the one side, on another by the sea, at so prodigious a +distance however as to be wholly undiscoverable by the naked eye; nor +could I, or any other unaccustomed spectator, have seen, as my Italian +companions did, the effect produced by marine vapours upon the +intermediate atmosphere, which they made me remark from the windows of +<!-- Page 137 --><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>the palace, inferior in every thing <i>but</i> situation to Merriworth, and +with that patriotic consolation I leave Vincenza.</p> + +<p>Padua la dotta afforded me much pleasure, from the politeness of the +Countess Ferres, born a German; of the House of Starenberg: she thought +proper to shew me a thousand civilities, in consequence of a kind letter +which we carried her from Count Wiltseck, the Austrian minister at +Milan; called the literati of the town about us, and gave me the +pleasure of conversing with the Abate Cefarotti, who translated Offian; +and the Professor Statico, whose attentions I ought never to forget. I +was surprised at length to hear kind inquiries after English +acquaintance made in my native language by the botanical professor, who +spoke much of Doctor Johnson, and with great regard: he had, it seems, +spent much time in our island about thirty years before. When we were +shewn the physic garden, nicely kept and excellently furnished, the +Countess took occasion to observe, that transplanted trees never throve, +and strongly expressed her unfaded attachment to her native soil: though +she had more good sense than to neglect every opportunity of +culti<!-- Page 138 --><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>vating that in which fortune had placed her.</p> + +<p>The tomb of Antenor, supposed to be preserved in this town, has, I find, +but slight evidence to boast with regard to its authenticity: whosever +tomb it is, the antiquity of the monument, and dignity of the remains, +are scarcely questionable; and I see not but it <i>may</i> be Antenor's.</p> + +<p>There is no place assigned for it but the open street, because it could +not (say they) have contained a baptized body, as there are proofs +innumerable of its being fabricated many and many years before the birth +of Jesus Christ: yet I never pass by without being hurt that it should +have no better situation assigned it, till I recollect that the old +Romans always buried people by the highway, which made the <i>siste +viator</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Stop traveller]</span> proper for their tomb-stones, as Mr. +Addison somewhere remarks; which are foolishly enough engraven upon +ours: and till I consider too that the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the +Patriarch of Antioch, where Christians were first called such, would lie +no nearer a Christian Church than old Antenor does, were <!-- Page 139 --><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>they +unfortunate enough to die, and be put under ground at Padua.</p> + +<p>The shrine of St. Antonio is however sufficiently venerated; and the +riches of his church really amazed me: such silver lamps! such votive +offerings! such glorious sculpture! the bas relievos, representing his +life and miracles, are beyond any thing we have yet seen; one +compartment particularly, the workmanship, I think, of Sansovino, where +an old woman is represented to a degree of finished nicety and curiosity +of perfection which I knew not that marble could express.</p> + +<p>The hall of justice, which they oppose to our Westminster-hall, but +between which there is no resemblance, is two hundred and fifty-six feet +long, and eighty-six broad; the form, of it a <i>rhomboid</i>: the walls +richly ornamented by Pietro d'Abano, who originally designed, and began +to paint the figures round the sides: they have however been retouched +by Giotto, who added the signs of the Zodiac to Peter's mysterious +performances, which meant to explain the planetary influences, as he was +a man deeply dipped in judicial astrology; and there is his own portrait +among them, dressed like a Zoroastrian priest, with <!-- Page 140 --><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>a planet in the +corner. At the bottom of the hall hangs the famous crucifixion, for the +purpose of doing which completely well, it is told that Giotto fastened +up a real man, and justly incurred the Pope's displeasure, who coming +one day unawares to see his painter work, caught the unhappy wretch +struggling in the closet, and threatened immediately to sign the +artist's death; who with Italian promptness ran to the picture, and +daubed it over with his brush and colours;—by this method obliging his +sovereign to delay execution till the work was repaired, which no one +but himself could finish; mean time the man recovers of his wounds, and +the tale ends, whether true or false, according to the hearer's wish.</p> + +<p>The debtor's stone at the opposite end of the hall has likewise many +entertaining stories annexed to it: the bankrupt is obliged to sit there +in presence of his creditors and judges, in a very disgraceful state; +and many accounts are told one, of the various effects such distresses +have had on the mind: but suicide is a crime rarely committed out of +England, and the Italians look with just horror on our <!-- Page 141 --><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>people for being +so easily incited to a sin, which takes from him that commits it all +power and possibility of repentance.</p> + +<p>A Frenchman whom I sent for once at Bath to dress my hair, gave me an +excellent trait of his own national character, speaking upon that +subject, when he meant to satirise ours. "You have lived some years in +England, friend, said I, do you like it?"—"Mais non, madame, pas +parfaitement bien<a name="FNanchor_L_31" id="FNanchor_L_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_L_31" class="fnanchor">[L]</a>"—"You have travelled much in Italy, do you like +that better?"—"Ah, Dieu ne plaise, madame, je n'aime guères messieurs +les Italiens<a name="FNanchor_M_32" id="FNanchor_M_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_M_32" class="fnanchor">[M]</a>." "What do they do to make you hate them so?"—"Mais +c'est que les Italiens se tuent l'un l'autre (replied the fellow), et +les Anglois se font un plaisir de se tuer eux mesmes: pardi je ne me +sens rien moins qu'un vrai gout pour ces gentillesses la, et j'aimerois +mieux me trouver a <i>Paris, pour rire un peu</i>."<a name="FNanchor_N_33" id="FNanchor_N_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_N_33" class="fnanchor">[N]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="footnoteslegend">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_L_31" id="Footnote_L_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_L_31"><span class="label">[L]</span></a> Why no truly ma'am, not much.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_M_32" id="Footnote_M_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_M_32"><span class="label">[M]</span></a> Oh, God forbid—no, I cannot endure those Italians.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_N_33" id="Footnote_N_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_N_33"><span class="label">[N]</span></a> Why, really, the Italians have such a passion for murdering +each other, ma'am, and the English such an odd delight in killing +themselves, that I, who have acquired no taste for such agreeable +amusements, grow somewhat impatient to return to Paris, and get a good +laugh among my old acquaintance.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><!-- Page 142 --><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>The Lucrezia Padovana, who has a monument erected here in this justice +hall to her memory, is the only instance of self-murder I have been told +yet; and her's was a very glorious one, and necessary to the +preservation of her honour, which was endangered by the magistrate, who +made that the barter for her husband's life, in defence of which she was +pleading; much like the story of Isabella, Angelo, and Claudio, in +Shakespear's Measure for Measure. This lady, whole family name I have +forgotten, stabbed herself in presence of the monster who reduced her to +such necessity, and by that means preserved her husband's life, by +suddenly converting the heart of her hateful lover, who from that +dreadful day devoted himself to penitence and prayer.</p> + +<p>The chastity of the Patavian ladies is celebrated by some old Latin +poet, but I cannot recollect which. Lucrezia, however, was a Christian. +I could not much regard the monument of Livy though, for looking at +<!-- Page 143 --><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>her's, which attracted and detained my attention more particularly.</p> + +<p>The University of Padua is a noble institution; and those who have +excelled among the students, are recorded on tablets, for the most part +brass, hung round the walls, made venerable by their arms and +characters. It was pleasing to see so many British names among +them—Scotchmen for the most part; though I enquired in vain for the +admirable Crichton. Sir Richard Blackmore was there, but not one native +of France. We were spiteful enough to fancy, that was the reason that +Abbè Richard says nothing of the establishment.</p> + +<p>Besides the civilities shewn us here by Mr. Bonaldi and his agreeable +lady, Signora Annetta, we were recommended by letters from the Venetian +resident at Milan, to Abate Toaldo, professor of astronomy; who wished +to do all in his power to oblige and entertain us. His observatory is a +good one; but the learned amiable scholar, who resides in the first +floor of it, complained to us that he was sickly, old, and poor; three +bad qualifications, as he observed, for the amusement of travellers, who +commonly arrive hungry for novelty, and thirsty for information. <!-- Page 144 --><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>His +quadrant was very fine, the planetarium or orrery quite out of repair; +and his references of course were obliged to be made to a sort of map or +chart of the heavenly bodies (a solar system at least with comets) that +hung up in his room as a substitute. He had little reverence for the +petrefactions of Monte Bolca I perceived, which he considered as mere +<i>lufus naturæ</i>. He shewed me poor Petrarch's tomb from his observatory, +bid me look on Sir Isaac's full-length picture in the room, and said, +the world would see no more such men. Of our Maskelyne, however, no man +could speak with more esteem, or expressions of generous friendship. His +sitting chamber was a pleasant one; and I should not have left it so +soon, but in compassion to his health, which our company was more likely +to injure than assist. He asked me, if I did not find <i>Padua la dotta</i> a +very stinking nasty town? but added, that literature and dirt had long +been intimately acquainted, and that this city was commonly called among +the Italians, <i>"Porcil de Padua," Padua the pig-stye.</i></p> + +<p>Fire is supposed to be the greatest purifier, and Padua has gone through +that operation <!-- Page 145 --><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>twice completely, being burned the first time by Attila; +after which, Narses the famous eunuch rebuilt and settled it in the year +558, if my information is good: but after her protector's death, the +Longobards burned her again, and she lay in ashes till Charlemagne +restored her to more than original beauty. Under Otho she, like many +other cities of Italy, was governed by her own laws, and remained a +republic till the year 1237, when she received the German yoke, +afterwards broken by the Scaligers; nor was their treacherous +assassination followed by less than the loss both of Verona and this +city, which was found in possession of the Emperor Maximilian some years +after: but when the State of Venice recovered their dominion over it in +1409, they fortified it so strongly that the confederate princes united +in the league of Cambray assaulted it in vain.</p> + +<p>Santa Giustina's church is the most beautiful place of worship I have +ever yet seen; so regularly, so uniformly noble, uncrowded with figures +too: the entrance strikes you with its simple grandeur, while the small +chapels to the right and left hand are kept back behind a colonade of +pillars, and do not <!-- Page 146 --><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>distract attention and create confusion of ideas, +as do the numerous cupolas of St. Anthony's more magnificent but less +pleasing structure. The high altar here at Santa Giustina's church +stands at the end, and greatly increases the effect on entering, which +always suffers when the length is broken. Nothing, however, is to be +perfect in this world, and Paul Veronese's fine view of the suffering +martyr has not size enough for the place; and is beside crowded with +small unconsequential figures, which cannot be distinguished at a +distance. Some carvings round the altar, representing, in wooden +bas-reliefs, the history of the Old and New Testament, are admirable in +their kind; and I am told that the organ on which Bertoni, a blind +nephew of Ferdinand, our well-known composer, played to entertain us, is +one of the first in Italy: but an ordinary instrument would have charmed +us had he touched it.</p> + +<p>I must not leave the Terra Firma, as they call it, without mentioning +once more some of the animals it produces; among which the asses are so +justly renowned for their size and beauty, that <i>come un afino di Padua</i> +is proverbial when speaking of strength among the <!-- Page 147 --><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>Italians: how should +it be otherwise indeed, where every herb and every shrub breathes +fragrance; and where the quantity as well as quality of their food +naturally so increases their milk, that I should think some of them. +might yield as much as an ordinary cow?</p> + +<p>When I was at Genoa, I remember remarking something like this to Doctor +Batt, an English physician settled there; and expressed my surprise that +our consumptive country-folks, with whom the Italians never cease to +reproach us, do not, when they come here for health, rely much on the +beneficial produce of these asses for a cure; which, if it is hastened +by their assistance in our island, must surely be performed much quicker +in this. The answer would have been better recollected, I fancy, had it +appeared to me more satisfactory; but he knew what he was talking of, +and I did not; so conclude he despised me accordingly.</p> + +<p>The Carinthian bulls too, that do all the heavy work in this rich and +heavy land, how wonderfully handsome they are! Such symmetry and beauty +have I never seen in any cattle, scarcely in those of Derbyshire, where +so much attention has been bestowed upon <!-- Page 148 --><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>their breeding. The colour +here is so elegant; they are almost all blue roans, like Lord +Grosvenor's horses in London, or those of the Duke of Cestos at Milan: +the horns longer, and much more finely shaped, than those of our bulls, +and white as polished ivory, tapering off to a point, with a bright +black tip at the end, resembling an ermine's tail. As this creature is +not a native, but only a neighbour of Italy, we will say no more about +him.</p> + +<p>A transplanted Hollander, carried thither originally from China, seems +to thrive particularly well in this part of the world; the little pug +dog, or Dutch mastiff, which our English ladies were once so fond of, +that poor Garrick thought it worth his while to ridicule them for it in +the famous dramatic satire called Lethe, has quitted London for Padua, I +perceive; where he is restored happily to his former honours, and every +carriage I meet here has a <i>pug</i> in it. That breed of dogs is now so +near extirpated among us, that I recoiled: only Lord Penryn who +possesses such an animal; and I doubt not but many of the under-classes +among brutes do in the same manner extinguish <!-- Page 149 --><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>and revive by chance, +caprice, or accident perpetually, through many tracts of the inhabited +world, so as to remain out of sight in certain districts for centuries +together.</p> + +<p>This town, as Abbé Toaldo observed, is old, and dirty, and +melancholy-looking, <i>in itself</i>; but Terence told us long ago, and +truly, "that it was not the walls, but the company, made every place +delightful:" and these inhabitants, though few in number, are so +exceedingly cheerful, so charming, their language is so mellifluous, +their manners so soothing, I can scarcely bear to leave them without +tears.</p> + +<p>Verona was the first place I felt reluctance to quit; but the Venetian +state certainly possesses uncommon, and to me almost unaccountable, +attractions. Be that as it will, we leave these sweet Paduans to-morrow; +the coach is disposed of, and we are to set out upon our watry journey +to their wonderfully-situated metropolis, or as they call it prettily, +<i>La Bella Dominante</i>.<!-- Page 150 --><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a></p> + + + +<h3><a name="VENICE" id="VENICE"></a>VENICE.</h3> + + +<p>We went down the Brenta in a barge that brought us in eight hours to +Venice, the first appearance of which revived all the ideas inspired by +Canaletti, whose views of this town are most scrupulously exact; those +especially which one sees at the Queen of England's house in St. James's +Park; to such a degree indeed, that we knew all the famous towers, +steeples, &c. before we reached them. It was wonderfully entertaining to +find thus realized all the pleasures that excellent painter had given us +so many times reason to expect; and I do believe that Venice, like other +Italian beauties, will be observed to possess features so striking, so +prominent, and so discriminated, that her portrait, like theirs, will +not be found difficult to take, nor the impression she has once made +easy to erase. British charms captivate less powerfully, less certainly, +less suddenly: but being of a softer sort increase upon acquaintance; +<!-- Page 151 --><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>and after the connexion has continued for some years, will be +relinquished with pain, perhaps even in exchange for warmer colouring +and stronger expression.</p> + +<p>St. Mark's Place, after all I had read and all I had heard of it, +exceeded expectation: such a cluster of excellence, such a constellation +of artificial beauties, my mind had never ventured to excite the idea of +within herself; though assisted with all the powers of doing so which +painters can bestow, and with all the advantages derived from verbal and +written description. It was half an hour before I could think of looking +for the bronze horses, of which one has heard so much; and from which +when one has once begun to look, there is no possibility of withdrawing +one's attention. The general effect produced by such architecture, such +painting, such pillars; illuminated as I saw them last night by the moon +at full, rising out of the sea, produced an effect like enchantment; and +indeed the more than magical sweetness of Venetian planners, dialect, +and address, confirms one's notion, and realizes the scenes laid by +Fenelon in their once tributary island of Cyprus. <!-- Page 152 --><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>The pole set up as +commemorative of their past dominion over it, grieves one the more, when +every hour shews how congenial that place must have been to them, if +every thing one reads of it has any foundation in truth.</p> + +<p>The Ducal palace is so beautiful, it were worth while almost to cross +the Alps to see that, and return home again: and St. Mark's church, +whose Mosaic paintings on the outside are surpassed by no work of art, +delights one no less on entering, with its numberless rarities; the +flooring first, which is all paved with precious stones of the second +rank, in small squares, not bigger than a playing card, and sometimes +less. By the second rank in gems I mean, carnelion, agate, jasper, +serpentine, and verd antique; on which you place your feet without +remorse, but not without a very odd sensation, when you find the ground +undulated beneath them, to represent the waves of the sea, and +perpetuate marine ideas, which prevail in every thing at Venice. We were +not shewn the treasury, and it was impossible to get a sight of the +manuscript in St. Mark's own hand-writing, carefully preserved here, and +justly esteemed even beyond the jewels given <!-- Page 153 --><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>as votive offerings to his +shrine, which are of immense value.</p> + +<p>The pictures in the Doge's house are a magnificent collection; and the +Noah's Ark by Bassano would doubtless afford an actual study for natural +historians as well as painters, and is considered as a model of +perfection from which succeeding artists may learn to draw animal life: +scarcely a creature can be recollected which has not its proper place in +the picture; but the pensive cat upon the fore-ground took most of my +attention, and held it away from the meeting of the Pope and Doge by the +other brother Bassano, who here proves that his pencil is not divested +of dignity, as the connoisseurs sometimes tell us that he is. But it is +not one picture, or two, or twenty, that seizes one's mind here; it is +the accumulation of various objects, each worthy to detain it. Wonderful +indeed, and sweetly-satisfying to the intellectual appetite, is the +variety, the plenty of pleasures which serve to enchain the imagination, +and fascinate the traveller's eye, keeping it ever on this <i>little +spot</i>; for though I have heard some of the inhabitants talk of its +vastness, it is scarcely bigger than <!-- Page 154 --><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>our Portman Square, I think, not +larger at the very most than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields.</p> + +<p>It is indeed observable that few people know how to commend a thing so +as to make their praises enhance its value. One hears a pretty woman not +unfrequently admired for her wit, a woman of talents wondered at for her +beauty; while I can think on no reason for such perversion of language, +unless it is that a small share of elegance will content those whose +delight is to hear declamation; and that the most hackeyed sentiments +will seem new, when uttered by a pair of rosy lips, and seconded by the +expression of eyes from which every thing may be expected.</p> + +<p>To return to St. Mark's Place, whence <i>we have never strayed</i>: I must +mention those pictures which represent his miracles, and the carrying +his body away from Alexandria: events attested so as to bring them +credit from many wise men, and which have more authenticity of their +truth, than many stories told one up and down here. So great is the +devotion of the common people here to their tutelar saint, that when +they cry out, as we do <i>Old England for ever</i>! they do not say, <!-- Page 155 --><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a><i>Viva +Venezia</i>! but <i>Viva San Marco</i>! And I doubt much if that was not once +the way with <i>us</i>; in one of Shakespear's plays an expiring prince being +near to give all up for gone, is animated by his son in these words, +"<i>Courage father</i>, cry <i>St. George</i>!"</p> + +<p>We had an opportunity of seeing <i>his</i> day celebrated with a very grand +procession the other morning, April 23, when a live boy personated the +hero of the show; but fate so still upon his painted courser, that it +was long before I perceived him to breathe. The streets were vastly +crowded with spectators, that in every place make the principal part of +the <i>spectacle</i>.</p> + +<p>It is odd that a custom which in contemplation seems so unlikely to +please, should when put in practice appear highly necessary, and +productive of an effect which can be obtained no other way. Were the +houses in Parliament Street to hang damask curtains, worked carpets, +pieces of various coloured silks, with fringe or lace round them, out of +every window when the King of England goes to the House, with numberless +well-dressed ladies leaning out to see him pass, it would give one an +idea of the continental <!-- Page 156 --><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>towns upon a gala day. But our people would be +apt to cry out, <i>Monmouth Street!</i> and look ashamed if their neighbours +saw the same deckerwork counterpane or crimson curtain produced at +Easter, which made a figure at Christmas the December before; so that no +end would be put to expence in our country, were such a fancy to take +place. The rainy weather beside would spoil all our finery at once; and +<i>here</i>, though it is still cold enough to be sure, and the women wear +sattins, yet still one shivers over a bad fire only because there is no +place to walk and warm one's self; for I have not seen a drop of rain. +The truth is, this town cannot be a wholesome one, for there is scarcely +a possibility of taking exercise; nor have I been once able to circulate +my blood by motion since our arrival, except perhaps by climbing the +beautiful tower which stands (as every thing else does) in St. Mark's +Place. And you may drive a garden-chair up <i>that</i>, so easy is the +ascent, so broad and luminous the way. From the top is presented to +one's sight the most striking of all prospects, water bounded by +land—not land by water.—The curious and elegant islets upon which, and +<!-- Page 157 --><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>into which, the piles of Venice are driven, exhibiting clusters of +houses, churches, palaces, every thing—started up in the midst of the +sea, so as to excite amazement.</p> + +<p>But the horses have not been spoken of, though one pair drew Apollo's +car at Delphos. The other, which we call modern, and laugh while we call +them so, were made however before the days of Constantine the Great. +They are of bright yellow brass, not black bronze, as I expected to find +them, and grace the glorious church I am never weary of admiring; where +I went one day on purpose to find out the red marble on which Pope +Alexander III. sate, and placed his foot upon the neck of the Emperor: +the stone has this inscription half legible round it, <i>Super aspidem et +basiliscum ambulabis</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Thou shalt tread on the asp and the +basilisk]</span>. How does this lovely Piazza di San Marco render a +newly-arrived spectator breathless with delight! while not a span of it +is unoccupied by actual beauty; though the whole appears uncrowded, as +in the works of nature, not of art.</p> + +<p>It was upon the day appointed for making a new chancellor, however, that +one ought <!-- Page 158 --><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>to have looked at this lovely city; when every shop, adorned +with its own peculiar produce, was disposed to hail the passage of its +favourite, in a manner so lively, so luxuriant, and at the same time so +tasteful—there's no telling. Milliners crowned the new dignitary's +picture with flowers, while columns of gauze, twisted round with +ribband, in the most elegant style, supported the figure on each side, +and made the prettiest appearance possible. The furrier formed his skins +into representations of the animal they had once belonged to; so the +lion was seen dandling the kid at one door, while the fox stood courting +a badger out of his hole at the other. The poulterers and fruiterers +were by many thought the most beautiful shops in town, from the variety +of fancies displayed in the disposal of their goods; and I admired at +the truly Italian ingenuity of a gunsmith, who had found the art of +turning his instruments of terror into objects of delight, by his +judicious manner of placing and arranging them. Every shop was +illuminated with a large glass chandelier before it, besides the wax +candles and coloured lamps interspersed among the ornaments <!-- Page 159 --><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>within. The +senators have much the appearance of our lawyers going robed to +Westminster Hall, but the <i>gentiluomini</i>, as they are called, wear red +dresses, and remind me of the Doctors of the ecclesiastical courts in +Doctors Commons.</p> + +<p>It is observable that all long robes denote peaceful occupations, and +that the short cut coat is the emblem of a military profession, once the +disgrace of humanity, now unfortunately become its false and cruel +pride.</p> + +<p>When the enemies of King David meant to declare war against him, they +cut the skirts of his ambassador's clothes off, to shew him he must +prepare for battle; and the Orientals still consider short dresses as a +disgraceful preparation for hostile proceedings; nor could any thing +have reconciled Europe to the custom, except our horror of Turkish +manners, and desire of being distinguished from the Saracens at the time +of the Holy War.</p> + +<p>I have said nothing yet about the gondolas, which every body knows are +black, and give an air of melancholy at first sight, yet are nothing +less than sorrowful; it is like <!-- Page 160 --><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>painting the lively Mrs. Cholmondeley +in the character of Milton's</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pensive Nun, devout and pure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sober, stedfast, and demure—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As I once saw her drawn by a famous hand, to shew a Venetian lady in her +gondola and zendaletto, which is black like the gondola, but wholly +calculated like that for the purposes of refined gallantry. So is the +nightly rendezvous, the coffee-house, and casino; for whilst Palladio's +palaces serve to adorn the grand canal, and strike those who enter +Venice with surprise at its magnificence; those snug retreats are +intended for the relaxation of those who inhabit the more splendid +apartments, and are fatigued with exertions of dignity, and necessity of +no small expence. They breathe the true spirit of our luxurious Lady +Mary, who probably learned it here, or of the still more dissolute +Turks, our present neighbours; who would have thought not unworthy a +Testa Veneziana, her famous stanza, beginning,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when the long hours of public are past,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 161 --><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>Surely she had then present to her warm imagination a favourite Casino +in the Piazza St. Marco. That her learned and highly-accomplished son +imbibed her taste and talents for sensual delights, has been long known +in England; it is not so perhaps that there is a showy monument erected +to his memory at Padua, setting forth his variety and compass of +knowledge in a long Latin inscription. The good old monk who shewed it +me seemed generously and reasonably shocked, that such a man should at +last expire with somewhat more firm persuasions of the truth of the +Mahometan religion than any other; but that he doubted greatly of all, +and had not for many years professed himself a Christian of any sect or +denomination whatever.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So have I seen some youth set out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Half Protestant, half Papist;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wand'ring long the world about,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some new religion to find out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Turn Infidel or Atheist.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We have been told much of the suspicious temper of Venetian laws; and +have heard often that every discourse is suffered, except such as tends +to political conversation, in this <!-- Page 162 --><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>city; and that whatever nobleman, +native of Venice, is seen speaking familiarly with a foreign minister, +runs a risque of punishments too terrible to be thought on.</p> + +<p>How far that manner of proceeding may be wise or just, I know not; +certain it is that they have preserved their laws inviolate, their city +unattempted, and their republic respectable, through all the concussions +that have shaken the rest of Europe. Surrounded by envious powers, it +becomes them to be vigilant; conscious of the value of their unconquered +state, it is no wonder that they love her; and surely the true <i>Amor +Patriæ</i> never glowed more warmly in old Roman bosoms than in theirs, who +draw, as many families here do, their pedigree from the consuls of the +Commonwealth. Love without jealousy is seldom to be met with, especially +in these warm climates—let us then permit them to be jealous of a +constitution which all the other states of Italy look on with envy not +unmixed with malice, and propagate strange stories to its disadvantage.</p> + +<p>That suspicion should be concealed under the mask of gaiety is neither +very new nor very strange: the reign of our Charles the <!-- Page 163 --><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>Second was +equally famous for plots, perjuries, and cruel chastisements, as for +wanton levity and indecent frolics: but here at Venice there are no +unpermitted frolics; her rulers love to see her gay and cheerful; they +are the fathers of their country, and if they <i>indulge</i>, take care not +to <i>spoil</i> her.</p> + +<p>With regard to common chat, I have heard many a liberal and eloquent +disquisition upon the state of Europe in general, and of Venice in +particular, from several agreeable friends at their own Casino, who did +not appear to have more fears upon them than myself, and I know not why +they should. Chevalier Emo is deservedly a favourite with them, and we +used to talk whole evenings of him and of General Elliott; the +bombarding of Tunis, and defence of Gibraltar. The news-papers spoke of +some fireworks exhibited in England in honour of their hero; they were +"vrayment <i>feux de joye</i>" said an agreeable Venetian, they were not +<i>feux d'artifice.</i></p> + +<p>The deep secrecy of their councils, however, and unrelenting steadiness +of their resolutions, cannot be better explained than by telling a +little story, which will illustrate the <!-- Page 164 --><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>private virtue as well as the +public authority of these extraordinary people; for though the tale is +now in abler hands (intending as I am told, to form a tragedy upon its +basis), the summary may serve to adorn my little work; as a landscape +painter refuses not to throw the story of Phaeton's petition for +Apollo's car into his picture, for the purpose of illuminating the back +ground, though Ovid has written the story and Titian has painted it.</p> + +<p>Some years ago then, perhaps a hundred, one of the many spies who ply +this town by night, ran to the state inquisitor, with information that +such a nobleman (naming him) had connections with the French ambassador, +and went privately to his house every night at a certain hour. The +<i>messergrando</i>, as they call him, could not believe, nor would proceed, +without better and stronger proof, against a man for whom he had an +intimate personal friendship, and on whose virtue he counted with very +particular reliance. Another spy was therefore set, and brought back the +same intelligence, adding the description of his disguise; on which the +worthy magistrate put on his mask and <!-- Page 165 --><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>bauta, and went out himself; when +his eyes confirming the report of his informants, and the reflection on +his duty stifling all remorse, he sent publicly for <i>Foscarini</i> in the +morning, whom the populace attended all weeping to his door.</p> + +<p>Nothing but resolute denial of the crime alleged could however be forced +from the firm-minded citizen, who, sensible of the discovery, prepared +for that punishment he knew to be inevitable, and submitted to the fate +his friend was obliged to inflict: no less than a dungeon for life, that +dungeon so horrible that I have heard Mr. Howard was not permitted to +see it.</p> + +<p>The people lamented, but their lamentations were vain. The magistrate +who condemned him never recovered the shock: but Foscarini was heard of +no more, till an old lady died forty years after in Paris, whose last +confession declared she was visited with amorous intentions by a +nobleman of Venice whose name she never knew, while she resided there as +companion to the ambassadress. So was Foscarini lost! so died he a +martyr to love, and tenderness for female reputation! Is it not +therefore a story fit to be <!-- Page 166 --><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>celebrated by that lady's pen, who has +chosen it as the basis of her future tragedy?—But I will anticipate no +further.</p> + +<p>Well! this is the first place I have seen which has been capable in any +degree of obliterating the idea of Genoa la superba, which has till now +pursued me, nor could the gloomy dignity of the cathedral at Milan, or +the striking view of the arena at Verona, nor the Sala de Giustizia at +lettered Padua, banish her beautiful image from my mind: nor can I now +acknowledge without shame, that I have ceased to regret the mountains, +the chesnut groves, and slanting orange trees, which climbed my chamber +window <i>there</i>, and at <i>this</i> time too! when</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Young-ey'd Spring profusely throws<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From her green lap the pink and rose.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But whoever sees St. Mark's Place lighted up of an evening, adorned with +every excellence of human art, and pregnant with pleasure, expressed by +intelligent countenances sparkling with every grace of nature; the sea +washing its walls, the moon-beams dancing on its subjugated waves, sport +and laughter resounding from the coffee-houses, <!-- Page 167 --><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>girls with guitars +skipping about the square, masks and merry-makers singing as they pass +you, unless a barge with a band of music is heard at some distance upon +the water, and calls attention to sounds made sweeter by the element +over which they are brought—whoever is led suddenly I say to this scene +of seemingly perennial gaiety, will be apt to cry out of Venice, as Eve +says to Adam in Milton,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With thee conversing I <i>forget all time</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All <i>seasons</i>, and their <i>change</i>—all please <i>alike</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>For it is sure there are in this town many astonishing privations of all +that are used to make other places delightful: and as poor Omai the +savage said, when about to return to Otaheite—<i>No horse there! no ass! +no cow, no golden pippins, no dish of tea!—Ah, missey! I go without +every thing—I always so content there though</i>.</p> + +<p>It is really just so one lives at this lovely Venice: one has heard of a +horse being exhibited for a show there, and yesterday I watched the poor +people paying a penny a piece for the sight of a <i>stuffed one</i>, and am +more than persuaded of the truth of what <!-- Page 168 --><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>I am told here, That +numberless inhabitants live and die in this great capital, nor ever find +out or think of enquiring how the milk brought from Terra Firma is +originally produced. When such fancies cross me I wish to exclaim, Ah, +happy England! whence ignorance is banished by the diffusion of +literature, and narrowness of notions is ridiculed even in the lowest +class of life. Candour must however confess, that while the possessor of +a Northern coal-mine riots in that variety of adulation which talents +deserve and riches contrive to obtain, those who labour in it are often +natives of the dismal region; where many have been known to be born, and +work, and die, without having ever seen the sun, or other light than +such as a candle can bestow. Let such dark recollections give place to +more cheerful imagery.</p> + +<p>We have just now been carried to see the so justly-renowned arsenal, and +unluckily missed the ship-launch we went thither chiefly to see. It is +no great matter though! one comes to Italy to look at buildings, +statues, pictures, people! The ships and guns of England have been such +as supported her greatness, established her dominion, and extended <!-- Page 169 --><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>her +commerce in such a manner as to excite the admiration and terror of +Europe, whose kingdoms vainly as perfidiously combined with her own +colonies against that power which <i>they</i> maintained, in spite of the +united efforts of half the globe. I shall hardly see finer ships and +guns till I go home again, though the keeping all together on one island +so—that island walled in too completely with only a single door to come +in and out at—is a construction of peculiar happiness and convenience; +while dock, armoury, rope-walk, all is contained in this space, exactly +two miles round I think.</p> + +<p>What pleased me best, besides the <i>whole</i>, which is best worth being +pleased with, was the small arms: there are so many Turkish instruments +of destruction among them quite new to me, and the picture commemorating +the cruel death of their noble gallant leader Bragadin, so inhumanly +treated by the Saracens in 1571. With infinite gratitude to his amiable +descendant, who shewed me unmerited civility, dining with us often, and +inviting us to his house, &c. I leave this repository of the Republic's +stores with one observation, That however suspicious the Venetians <!-- Page 170 --><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>are +said to be, I found it much more easy for Englishmen to look over +<i>their</i> docks, than for a foreigner to find his way into ours.</p> + +<p>Another reflection occurs on examination of this spot; it is, that the +renown attached to it in general conversation, is a proof that the world +prefers convenience to splendour; for here are no superfluous ornaments, +and I am apt to think many go away from it praising beauties by which +they have been but little struck, and utilities they have but little +understood.</p> + +<p>From this show you are commonly carried to the glass manufactory at +Murano; once the retreat of piety and freedom, when the Altinati fled +the fury of the Huns: a beautiful spot it is, and delightfully as oddly +situated; but these are <i>gems which inlay the bosom of the deep</i>, as +Milton says—and this perhaps, the prettiest among them, is walked over +by travellers with that curiosity which is naturally excited, in one +person by the veneration of religious antiquity; in another, by the +attention justly claimed by human industry and art. Here may be seen a +valuable library of books, and here may be seen glasses of all colours, +all sorts, and all prices, I believe: <!-- Page 171 --><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>but whoever has looked much upon +the London work in this way, will not be easily dazzled by the lustre of +Venetian crystal; and whoever has seen the Paris mirrors, will not be +astonished at any breadth into which glass can be spread.</p> + +<p>We will return to Venice, the view of which from the Zueca, a word +contracted from Giudecca, as I am told, would invite one never more to +stray from it—farther at least than to St. George's church, on another +little opposite island, whence the prospect is surely wonderful; and one +sits longing for a pencil to repeat what has been so often exquisitely +painted by Canaletti, just as foolishly as one snatches up a pen to tell +what has been so much better told already by Doctor Moore. It was to +this church I was sent, however, for the purpose of seeing a famous +picture painted by Paul Veronese, of the marriage at Cana in +Galilee—where our Saviour's first miracle was performed; in which +immense work the artist is well known to have commemorated his own +likeness, and that of many of his family, which adds value to the piece, +when we consider it as a collection of portraits, besides the history it +<!-- Page 172 --><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>represents. When we arrived, the picture was kept in a refectory +belonging to friars (of what order I have forgotten), and no woman could +be admitted. My disappointment was so great that I was deprived even of +the powers of solicitation by the extreme ill-humour it occasioned; and +my few intreaties for admission were completely disregarded by the good +old monk, who remained outside with me, while the gentlemen visited the +convent without molestation. At my return to Venice I met little +comfort, as every body told me it was my own fault, for I might put on +men's clothes and see it whenever I pleased, as nobody then would stop, +though perhaps all of them would know me.</p> + +<p>If such slight gratifications however as seeing a favourite picture, can +be purchased no cheaper than by violating truth in one's own person, and +encouraging the violation of it in others, it were better surely die +without having ever procured to one's self such frivolous enjoyments; +and I hope always to reject the temptation of deceiving mistaken piety, +or insulting harmless error.</p> + +<p>But it is almost time to talk of the Rialto, said to be the finest +single arch in Europe, <!-- Page 173 --><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>and I suppose it is so; very beautiful too when +looked on from the water, but so dirtily kept, and deformed with mean +shops, that passing over it, disgust gets the better of every other +sensation. The truth is, our dear Venetians are nothing less than +cleanly; St. Mark's Place is all covered over in a morning with +chicken-coops, which stink one to death; as nobody I believe thinks of +changing their baskets: and all about the Ducal palace is made so very +offensive by the resort of human creatures for every purpose most +unworthy of so charming a place, that all enjoyment of its beauties is +rendered difficult to a person of any delicacy; and poisoned so +provokingly, that I do never cease to wonder that so little police and +proper regulation are established in a city so particularly lovely, to +render her sweet and wholesome. It was at the Rialto that the first +stone of this fair town was laid, upon the twenty-fifth of March, as I +am told here, with ideal reference to the vernal equinox, the moment +when philosophers have supposed that the sun first shone upon our earth, +and when Christians believe that the redemption of it was first +announced to <i>her</i> within whose womb it was conceived.<!-- Page 174 --><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a></p> + +<p>The name of <i>Venice</i> has been variously accounted for; but I believe our +ordinary people in England are nearest to the right, who call it <i>Venus</i> +in their common discourse; as that goddess was, like her best beloved +seat of residence, born of the sea's light froth, according to old +fables, and partook of her native element, the gay and gentle, not rough +and boisterous qualities. It is said too, and I fear with too much +truth, that there are in this town some permitted professors of the +inveigling arts, who still continue to cry <i>Veni etiam</i>, as their +ancestors did when flying from the Goths they sought these sands for +refuge, and gave their lion wings. Till once well fixed, they kindly +called their continental neighbours round to share their liberty, and to +accept that happiness they were willing to bestow and to diffuse; and +from this call—this <i>Veni etiam</i> it is, that the learned men among them +derive the word <i>Venetia</i>.</p> + +<p>I have asked several friends about the truth of what one has been always +hearing of in England, that the Venetian gondoliers sing Tasso and +Ariosto's verses in the streets at night; sometimes quarrelling with +each <!-- Page 175 --><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>other concerning the merit of their favourite poets; but what I +have been told since I came here, of their attachment to their +respective masters, and secrecy when trusted by them in love affairs, +seems far more probable; as they are proud to excess when they serve a +nobleman of high birth, and will tell you with an air of importance, +that the house of Memmo, Monsenigo, or Gratterola, has been served by +their ancestors for these eighty or perhaps a hundred years; +transmitting family pride thus from generation to generation; even when +that pride is but reflected only like the mock rainbow of a summer +sky.—But hark! while I am writing this peevish reflection in my room, I +hear some voices under my window answering each other upon the Grand +Canal. It is, it <i>is</i> the gondolieri sure enough; they are at this +moment singing to an odd sort of tune, but in no unmusical manner, the +flight of Erminia from Tasso's Jerusalem. Oh, how pretty! how pleasing! +This wonderful city realizes the most romantic ideas ever formed of it, +and defies imagination to escape her various powers of enslaving it.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 176 --><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>Apropos to singing;—we were this evening carried to a well-known +conservatory called the Mendicanti; who performed an oratorio in the +church with great, and I dare say deserved applause. It was difficult +for me to persuade myself that all the performers were women, till, +watching carefully, our eyes convinced us, as they were but slightly +grated. The sight of girls, however, handling the double bass, and +blowing into the bassoon, did not much please <i>me</i>; and the deep-toned +voice of her who sung the part of Saul, seemed an odd unnatural thing +enough. What I found most curious and pretty, was to hear Latin verses, +of the old Leonine race broken into eight and six, and sung in rhyme by +these women, as if they were airs of Metastasio; all in their dulcified +pronunciation too, for the <i>patois</i> runs equally through every language +when spoken by a Venetian.</p> + +<p>Well! these pretty syrens were delighted to seize upon us, and pressed +our visit to their parlour with a sweetness that I know not who would +have resisted. We had no such intent; and amply did their performance +<!-- Page 177 --><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>repay my curiosity, for visiting Venetian beauties, so justly +celebrated for their seducing manners and soft address. They accompanied +their voices with the forte-piano, and sung a thousand buffo songs, with +all that gay voluptuousness for which their country is renowned.</p> + +<p>The school, however is running to ruin apace; and perhaps the conduct of +the married women here may contribute to make such <i>conservatorios</i> +useless and neglected.</p> + +<p>When the Duchess of Montespan asked the famous Louison D'Arquien, by way +of insult, as she pressed too near her, "<i>Comment alloit le metier</i><a name="FNanchor_O_35" id="FNanchor_O_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_O_35" class="fnanchor">[O]</a>?" +"<i>Depuis que les dames sen mélent</i>" (replied the courtesan with no +improper spirit,) "<i>il ne vaut plus rien</i><a name="FNanchor_P_36" id="FNanchor_P_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_P_36" class="fnanchor">[P]</a>." It may be these syrens +have suffered in the same cause; I thought the ardency of their manners +an additional proof of their hunger for fresh prey.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="footnoteslegend">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_O_35" id="Footnote_O_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_O_35"><span class="label">[O]</span></a> How goes the profession?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_P_36" id="Footnote_P_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_P_36"><span class="label">[P]</span></a> Why since the <i>quality</i> has taken to it ma'am, it brings +<i>us</i> in very little indeed.</p></div> + +</div> + +<p>Will Naples, the original seat of Ulysses's seducers, shew us any thing +stronger than this? I hardly expect or wish it. The state <!-- Page 178 --><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>of music in +Italy, if one may believe those who ought to know it best, is not what +it was. The <i>manner of singing</i> is much changed, I am told; and some +affectations have been suffered to encroach upon their natural graces. +Among the persons who exhibited their talents at the Countess of +Rosenberg's last week, our country-woman's performance was most +applauded; but when I name Lady Clarges, no one will wonder.</p> + +<p>It is said that painting is now but little cultivated among them; Rome +will however be the place for such enquiries. Angelica Kauffman being +settled there, seems a proof of their taste for living merit; and if one +thing more than another evinces Italian candour and true good-nature, it +is perhaps their generous willingness to be ever happy in acknowledging +foreign excellence, and their delight in bringing forward the eminent +qualities of every other nation; never insolently vaunting or bragging +of their own. Unlike to this is the national spirit and confined ideas +of perfection inherent in a Gallic mind, whose sole politeness is an +<i>appliquè</i> stuck <i>upon</i> the coat, but never <i>embroidered into it</i>.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 179 --><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>The observation made here last night by a Parisian lady, gave me a +proof of this I little wanted. We met at the Casino of the Senator +Angelo Quirini, where a sort of literary coterïe assemble every evening, +and form a society so instructive and amusing, so sure to be filled with +the first company in Venice, and so hospitably open to all travellers of +character, that nothing can <i>now</i> be to me a higher intellectual +gratification than my admittance among them; as <i>in future</i> no place +will ever be recollected with more pleasure, no hours with more +gratitude, than those passed most delightfully by me in that most +agreeable apartment.</p> + +<p>I expressed to the French lady my admiration of St. Mark's Place. +"<i>C'est que vous n'avez jamais vue la foire St. Ovide</i>," said she; "<i>je +vous assure que cela surpasse beaucoup ces trifles palais qu'on +vantetant</i><a name="FNanchor_Q_37" id="FNanchor_Q_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_Q_37" class="fnanchor">[Q]</a>." And <i>this could</i> only have been arrogance, for she was a +very sensible and a very accomplished woman; and when talked to about +the literary<!-- Page 180 --><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a> merits of her own countrymen, spoke with great acuteness +and judgment.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Q_37" id="Footnote_Q_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Q_37"><span class="label">[Q]</span></a> You admire it, says she, only because you never saw the +fair at St. Ovid's in Paris; I assure you there is no comparison between +those gay illuminations and these dismal palaces the Venetians are so +fond of.</p></div> + +<p>General knowledge, however, it must be confessed (meaning that general +stock that every one recurs to for the common intercourse of +conversation), will be found more frequently in France, than even in +England; where, though all cultivate the arts of table eloquence and +assembly-room rhetoric, few, from mere shyness, venture to gather in the +profits of their plentiful harvest; but rather cloud their countenances +with mock importance, while their hearts feel no hope beat higher in +them, than the humble one of escaping without being ridiculed; or than +in Italy, where nobody dreams of cultivating conversation at all—<i>as an +art</i>; or studies for any other than the natural reason, of informing or +diverting themselves, without the most distant idea of gaining +admiration, or shining in company, by the quantity of science they have +accumulated in solitude. <i>Here</i> no man lies awake in the night for +vexation that he missed recollecting the last line of a Latin epigram +till the moment of application was lost; nor any lady changes colour +with trepidation at the severity visible in her hus<!-- Page 181 --><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>band's countenance +when the chickens are over-roasted, or the ice-creams melt with the +room's excessive heat.</p> + +<p>Among the noble Senators of Venice, meantime, many good scholars, many +Belles Lettres conversers, and what is more valuable, many thinking men, +may be found, and found hourly, who employ their powers wholly in care +for the state; and make their pleasure, like true patriots, out of <i>her +felicity</i>. The ladies indeed appear to study but <i>one</i> science;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And where the lesson taught<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is but to please, can pleasure seem a fault?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Like all sensualists, however, they fail of the end proposed, from hurry +to obtain it; and consume those charms which alone can procure them +continuance or change of admirers; they injure their health too +irreparably, and <i>that</i> in their earliest youth; for few remain +unmarried till fifteen, and at thirty have a wan and faded look. <i>On ne +goute pas ses plaisirs icy, on les avale</i><span class="footnoteinline">[They do not taste +their pleasures here, they swallow them whole]</span>, said Madame la +Presidente yesterday, very judiciously; yet it <!-- Page 182 --><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>is only speaking +popularly that one can be supposed to mean, what however no one much +refuses to assert, that the Venetian ladies are amorously inclined: the +truth is, no check being put upon inclination, each acts according to +immediate impulse; and there are more devotees, perhaps, and more +doating mothers at Venice than any where else, for the same reason as +there are more females who practise gallantry, only because there are +more women there who <i>do their own way</i>, and follow unrestrained where +passion, appetite, or imagination lead them.</p> + +<p>To try Venetian dames by English rules, would be worse than all the +tyranny complained of when some East Indian was condemned upon the +Coventry act for slitting his wife's nose; a common practice in <i>his</i> +country, and perfectly agreeable to custom and the <i>usage du pays</i>. Here +is no struggle for female education as with us, no resources in study, +no duties of family-management; no bill of fare to be looked over in the +morning, no account-book to be settled at noon; no necessity of reading, +to supply without disgrace the evening's chat; no laughing at the +card-table, or tittering in the <!-- Page 183 --><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>corner if a <i>lapsus linguæ</i> has +produced a mistake, which malice never fails to record. A lady in Italy +is <i>sure</i> of applause, so she takes little pains to obtain it. A +Venetian lady has in particular so sweet a manner naturally, that she +really charms without any settled intent to do so, merely from that +irresistible good-humour and mellifluous tone of voice which seize the +soul, and detain it in despite of Juno-like majesty, or Minerva-like +wit. Nor ever was there prince or shepherd, Paris I think was both, who +would not have bestowed his apple <i>here</i>.</p> + +<p>Mean while my countryman Howel laments that the women at Venice are so +little. But why so? the diminutive progeny of <i>Vulcan</i>, the <i>Cabirs</i>, +mysteriously adored of old, were of a size below that of the least +living woman, if we believe Herodotus; and they were worshipped with +more constant as well as more fervent devotion, than the symmetrical +goddess of Beauty herself.</p> + +<p>A custom which prevails here, of wearing little or no rouge, and +increasing the native paleness of their skins, by scarce lightly wiping +the very white powder from their faces, is a method no Frenchwoman of +<!-- Page 184 --><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>quality would like to adopt; yet surely the Venetians are not +behind-hand in the art of gaining admirers; and they do not, like their +painters, depend upon <i>colouring</i> to ensure it.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be a greater proof of the little consequence which dress +gives to a woman, than the reflection one must make on a Venetian lady's +mode of appearance in her zendalet, without which nobody stirs out of +their house in a morning. It consists of a full black silk petticoat, +sloped just to train, a very little on the ground, and flounced with +gauze of the same colour. A skeleton wire upon the head, such as we use +to make up hats, throwing loosely over it a large piece of black mode or +persian, so as to shade the face like a curtain, the front being trimmed +with a very deep black lace, or souflet gauze infinitely becoming. The +thin silk that remains to be disposed of, they roll back so as to +discover the bosom; fasten it with a puff before at the top of their +stomacher, and once more rolling it back from the shape, tie it +gracefully behind, and let it hang in two long ends.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 185 --><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>The evening ornament is a silk hat, shaped like a man's, and of the +same colour, with a white or worked lining at most, and sometimes <i>one +feather</i>; a great black silk cloak, lined with white, and perhaps a +narrow border down before, with a vast heavy round handkerchief of black +lace, which lies over neck and shoulders, and conceals shape and all +completely. Here is surely little appearance of art, no craping or +frizzing the hair, which is flat at the top, and all of one length, +hanging in long curls about the back or sides as it happens. No brown +powder, and no rouge at all. Thus without variety does a Venetian lady +contrive to delight the eye, and without much instruction too to charm, +the ear. A source of thought fairly cut off beside, in giving her no +room to shew taste in dress, or invent new fancies and disposition of +ornaments for to-morrow. The government takes all that trouble off her +hands, knows every pin she wears, and where to find her at any moment of +the day or night.</p> + +<p>Mean time nothing conveys to a British observer a stronger notion of +loose living and licentious dissoluteness, than the sight of one's +servants, gondoliers, and other attendants, on <!-- Page 186 --><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>the scenes and circles +of pleasure, where you find them, though never drunk, dead with sleep +upon the stairs, or in their boats, or in the open street, for that +matter, like over-swilled voters at an election in England. One may +trample on them if one will, they hardly <i>can</i> be awakened; and their +companions, who have more life left, set the others literally on their +feet, to make them capable of obeying their master or lady's call. With +all this appearance of levity, however, there is an unremitted attention +to the affairs of state; nor is any senator seen to come late or +negligently to council next day, however he may have amused himself all +night.</p> + +<p>The sight of the Bucentoro prepared for Gala, and the glories of Venice +upon Ascention-day, must now put an end to other observations. We had +the honour and comfort of seeing all from a galley belonging to a noble +Venetian Bragadin, whose civilities to us were singularly kind as well +as extremely polite. His attentions did not cease with the morning show, +which we shared in common with numbers of fashionable people that filled +his ship, and partook of his pro<!-- Page 187 --><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>fuse elegant refreshments; but he +followed us after dinner to the house of our English friends, and took +six of us together in a gay bark, adorned with his arms, and rowed by +eight gondoliers in superb liveries, made up for the occasion to match +the boat, which was like them white, blue and silver, a flag of the same +colours flying from the stern, till we arrived at the Corso; so they +call the place of contention where the rowers exert their skill and +ingenuity; and numberless oars dashing the waves at once, make the only +agitation of which the sea seems capable; while ladies, now no longer +dressed in black, but ornamented with all their jewels, flowers, &c. +display their beauties unveiled upon the water; and covering the lagoons +with gaiety and splendour, bring to one's mind the games in Virgil, and +the galley of Cleopatra, by turns.</p> + +<p>Never was locality so subservient to the purposes of pleasure as in this +city; where pleasure has set up her airy standard, and which on this +occasion looked like what one reads in poetry of Amphitrite's court; and +I ventured to tell a nobleman who was kindly attentive in shewing us +every possible <!-- Page 188 --><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>politeness, that had Venus risen from the Adriatic sea, +she would scarcely have been tempted to quit it for Olympus. I was upon +the whole more struck with the evening's gaiety, than with the +magnificence in which the morning began to shine. The truth is, we had +been long prepared for seeing the Bucentoro; had heard and read every +thing I fancy that could have been thought or said upon the subject, +from the sullen Englishmen who rank it with a company's barge floating +up the Thames upon my Lord Mayor's day, to the old writers who compare +it with Theseus's ship; in imitation of which, it is said, this calls +itself the very identical vessel wherein Pope Alexander performed the +original ceremony in the year 1171; and though, perhaps, not a whole +plank of that old galley can be now remaining in this, so often +careened, repaired, and adorned since that time, I see nothing +ridiculous in declaring that it is the same ship; any more than in +saying the oak I planted an acorn thirty years ago, is the same tree I +saw spring up then a little twig, which not even a moderate sceptic will +deny; though he takes so much pains to persuade plain folks out of their +<!-- Page 189 --><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>own existence, by laughing us out of the dull notion that he who dies a +withered old fellow at fourscore, should ever be considered as the same +person whom his mother brought forth a pretty little plump baby eighty +years before—when, says he cunningly, you are forced yourself to +confess, that his mother, who died four months afterwards, would not +know him again now; though while she lived, he was never out of her +arms.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Vain wisdom all! and false Philosophy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which finds no end, in wandering mazes lost.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And better is it to travel, as Dr. Johnson says Browne did, from one +place where he saw little, to another where he saw no more—than write +books to confound common sense, and make men raise up doubts of a Being +to whom they must one day give an account.</p> + +<p>We will return to the Bucentoro, which, as its name imports, holds two +hundred people, and is heavy besides with statues, columns, &c. The top +covered with crimson velvet, and the sides enlivened by twenty-one oars +on each hand. Musical performers attend in another barge, while +foreigners in gilded pajots increase the general show. <!-- Page 190 --><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>Mean time, the +vessel that contains the doge, &c. carries him slowly out to sea, where +in presence of his senators he drops a plain gold ring into the water, +with these words, <i>Desponfamus te mare, in fignum veri perpetuique +dominii</i>.<span class="footnoteinline">[We espouse thee, O sea! in sign of true and +perpetual dominion]</span></p> + +<p>Our weather was favourable, and the people all seemed happy: when the +ceremony is put off from day to day, it naturally damps their spirits, +and produces superstitious presages of an unlucky year: nor is that +strange, for the season of storms ought surely to be past in a climate +so celebrated for mildness and equanimity. The praises of Italian +weather, though wearisomely frequent among us, seem however much +confined to this island for aught I see; who am often tired with hearing +their complaints of their own sky, now that they are under it: always +too cold or too hot, or a seiroc wind, or a rainy day, or a hard frost, +<i>che gela fin ai pensieri</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Which freezes even one's fancy]</span>; +or something to murmur about, while their only great nuisances pass +unnoticed, the heaps of dirt, and crowds of beggars, who infest the +streets, and poison the pleasures of <!-- Page 191 --><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>society. While ladies are eating +ice at a coffee-house door, while decent people are hearing mass at the +altar, while strangers are surveying the beauties of the place—no +peace, no enjoyment can one obtain for the beggars; numerous beyond +credibility, fancy and airy, and odd in their manners; and exhibiting +such various lamenesses and horrible deformities in their figure, that I +can sometimes hardly believe my eyes—but am willing to be told, what is +not very improbable, that many of them come from a great distance to +pass the season of ascension here at Venice. I never indeed saw any +thing so gently endured, which it appeared so little difficult to +remedy; but though I hope it would be hard to find a place where more +alms are asked, or less are given, than in Venice; yet I never saw +refusals so pleasingly softened, as by the manners of the high Italians +towards the low. Ladies in particular are so soft-mouthed, so tender in +replying to those who have their lot cast far below them, that one feels +one's own harsher disposition corrected by their sweetness; and when +they called my maid <i>sister</i>, in good time—pressing her hand with +affectionate <!-- Page 192 --><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>kindness, it melted me; though I feared from time to time +there must be hypocrisy at bottom of such sugared words, till I caught a +lady of condition yesterday turning to the window, and praying fervently +for the girl's conversion to christianity, all from a tender and pious +emotion of her gentle heart: as notwithstanding their caresses, no man +is more firmly persuaded of a mathematical truth than they are of mine, +and my maid's living in a state of certain and eternal reprobation—<i>ma +fanno veramente vergogna a noi altri</i><span class="footnoteinline">[But they really shame +<i>even us</i>]</span>, say they, quite in the spirit of the old Romans, who +thought all nations <i>barbarous</i> except their own.</p> + +<p>A woman of quality, near whom I sate at the fine ball Bragadin made two +nights ago in honour of this gay season, enquired how I had passed the +morning. I named several churches I had looked into, particularly that +which they esteem beyond the rest as a favourite work of Palladio, and +called the Redentore. "You do very right," says she, "to look at our +churches, as you have none in England, I know—but then you have so +<!-- Page 193 --><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>many other fine things—such charming <i>steel buttons</i> for example;" +pressing my hand to shew that she meant no offence; for, added she, <i>chi +pensa d'una maniera, chi pensa d'un altra</i><span class="footnoteinline">[One person is of +one mind you know, another of another]</span>.</p> + +<p>Here are many theatres, the worst infinitely superior to ours; the best, +as far below those of Milan and Turin: but then here are other +diversions, and every one's dependance for pleasure is not placed upon +the opera. They have now thrown up a sort of temporary wall of painted +canvass, in an oval form, within St. Mark's Place, profusely illuminated +round the new-formed walk, which is covered in at top, and adorned with +shops round the right hand side, with pillars to support the canopy; the +lamps, &c. on the left hand. This open Ranelagh, so suited to the +climate, is exceedingly pleasing:—here is room to sit, to chat, to +saunter up and down, from two o'clock in the morning, when the opera +ends, till a hot sun sends us all home to rest—for late hours must be +complied with at Venice, or you can have no diversion at all, as the +<!-- Page 194 --><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>earliest Casino belonging to your soberest friends has not a candle +lighted in it till past midnight.</p> + +<p>But I am called from my book to see the public library; not a large one +I find, but ornamented with pieces of sculpture, whose eminence has not, +I am sure, waited for my description: the Jupiter and Leda particularly, +said to be the work of Phidias, whose Ganymede in the same collection +they tell us is equally excellent. Having heard that Guarini's +manuscript of the Pastor Fido, written in his own hand, was safely kept +at this place, I asked for it, and was entertained to see his numberless +corrections and variations from the original thought, like those of +Pope's Homer preserved in the British Museum; some of which I copied +over for Doctor Johnson to print, at the time he published his Lives of +the English Poets. My curiosity led me to look in the Pastor Fido for +the famous passage of <i>Legge humana</i>, <i>inhumana</i>, <i>&c.</i> and it was +observable enough that he had written it three different ways before he +pitched on that peculiar expression which caused his book to be +prohibited. Seeing the manuscript I took notice, how<!-- Page 195 --><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>ever, of the +beautiful penmanship with which it was written: our English hand-writing +cotemporary to his was coarse, if I recollect, and very angular;—but +<i>Italian hand</i> was the first to become elegant, and still retains some +privileges amongst us. Once more, every thing small, and every thing +great, revived after the dark ages—in Italy.</p> + +<p>Looking at the Mint was an hour's time spent with less amusement. The +depuration of gold may be performed many ways, and the proofs of its +purity given by various methods: I was gratified well enough upon the +whole however, in watching the neatness of their process, in weighing +the gold, &c. and keeping it more free from alloy than any other coin of +any other state:—a zecchine will bend between your fingers from the +malleability of the metal—we may try in vain at a guinea, or louis +d'or. The operation of separating silver ore from gold by the powers of +aqua fortis, precipitating the first-named metal by suspension of a +copper plate in the liquid, and called <i>quartation</i>; was I believe +wholly unknown to the ancients, who got much earlier at the art of +weighing gold in water, testified by the old story of <i>King Hiero's +crown</i>.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 196 --><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>Talking of kings, and crowns, and gold, reminds me of my regret for not +seeing the treasure kept in St. Mark's church here, with the motto +engraven on the chest which contains it:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Quando questo scrinio s'aprirà,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tutto il mondo tremerà<a name="FNanchor_R_43" id="FNanchor_R_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_R_43" class="fnanchor">[R]</a>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_R_43" id="Footnote_R_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_R_43"><span class="label">[R]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When this scrutoire shall open'd be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The world shall all with wonder flee.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p>Of this it was said in our Charles the First's time, that there was +enough in it to pay six kings' ransoms: when Pacheco, the Spanish +ambassador, hearing so much of it, asked in derision, If the chest had +any <i>bottom</i>? and being answered in the affirmative, made reply, That +<i>there</i> was the difference between his master's treasures and those of +the Venetian Republic, for the mines of Mexico and Potosi had <i>no</i> +bottom.—Strange! if all these precious stones, metals, &c. have been +all spent since then, and nothing left except a few relics of no +intrinsic value.</p> + +<p>It is well enough known, that in the year 1450, one of the natives of +the island of Candia, who have never been men of much character, made a +sort of mine, or airshaft, or rather <!-- Page 197 --><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>perhaps a burrow, like those +constructed by rabbits, down which he went and got quite under the +church, stealing out gems, money, &c. to a vast amount; but being +discovered by the treachery of his companion, was caught and hanged +between the two columns that face the sea on the Piazzetta.</p> + +<p>It strikes a person who has lived some months in other parts of Italy, +to see so very few clergymen at Venice, and none hardly who have much +the look or air of a man of fashion. Milan, though such heavy complaints +are daily made there of encroachments on church power and depredations +on church opulence, still swarms with ecclesiastics; and in an assembly +of thirty people, there are never fewer than ten or twelve at the very +least. But here it should seem as if the political cry of <i>fuori i +preti</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Out with the clergy]</span>, which is said loudly in the +council-chamber before any vote is suffered to pass into a law, were +carried in the conversation rooms too, for a priest is here less +frequent than a clergyman at London; and those one sees about, are +almost all ordinary men, decent and humble <!-- Page 198 --><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>in their appearance, of a +bashful distant carriage, like the parson of the parish in North Wales, +or <i>le curé du village</i> in the South of France; and seems no way related +to an <i>Abate of Milan or Turin</i> still less to <i>Monsieur l' Abbé at +Paris</i>.</p> + +<p>Though this Republic has long maintained a sort of independency from the +court of Rome, having shewn themselves weary of the Jesuits two hundred +years before any other potentate dismissed them; while many of the +Venetian populace followed them about, crying <i>Andate, andate, niente +pigliate, emai ritornate</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Begone, begone; nothing take, nor +turn anon]</span>; and although there is a patriarch here who takes care of +church matters, and is attentive to keep his clergy from ever meddling +with or even mentioning affairs of state, as in such a case the Republic +would not scruple punishing them as laymen; yet has Venice kept, as they +call it, St. Peter's boat from sinking more than once, when she saw the +Pope's territories endangered, or his sovereignty insulted: nor is there +any city more eminent for the decency with which divine service is +administered, or for the devout and decorous behaviour of individuals +<!-- Page 199 --><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>at the time any sacred office is performing. She has ever behaved like +a true Christian potentate, keeping her faith firm, and her honour +scrupulously clear, in all treaties and conventions with other +states—fewer instances being given of Venetian falsehood or treachery +towards neighbouring nations, than of any other European power, +excepting only Britain, her truly-beloved ally; with whom she never had +a difference, and whose cause was so warmly espoused last war by the +inhabitants of this friendly state, that numbers of young nobility were +willing to run a-volunteering in her defence, but that the laws of +Venice forbid her nobles ranging from home without leave given from the +state. It was therefore not an ill saying, though an old one perhaps, +that the government of Venice was rich and consolatory like its treacle, +being compounded nicely of all the other forms: a grain of monarchy, a +scruple of democracy, a dram of oligarchy, and an ounce of aristocracy; +as the <i>teriaca</i> so much esteemed, is said to be a composition of the +four principal drugs—but can never be got genuine except <i>here</i>, at the +original <i>Dispensary</i>.</p> + +<p>Indeed the longevity of this incomparable commonwealth is a certain +proof <!-- Page 200 --><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>of its temperance, exercise, and cheerfulness, the great +preservatives in every body, <i>politic</i> as well <i>natural</i>. Nor should the +love of peace be left out of her eulogium, who has so often reconciled +contending princes, that Thuanus gave her, some centuries ago, due +praise for her pacific disposition, so necessary to the health of a +commercial state, and called her city <i>civilis prudentiæ officina</i>.</p> + +<p>Another reason may be found for the long-continued prosperity of Venice, +in her constant adherence to a precept, the neglect of which must at +length shake, or rather loosen the foundations of every state; for it is +a maxim here, handed down from generation to generation, that change +breeds more mischief from its novelty, than advantage from its +utility:—quoting the axiom in Latin, it runs thus: <i>Ipsa mutatio +consuetudinis magis perturbat novitate, quam adjuvat utilitate</i>. And +when Henry the Fourth of France solicited the abrogation of one of the +Senate's decrees, her ambassador replied, That <i>li decreti di Venezia +rassomigli avano poca i Gridi di Parigi</i><span class="footnoteinline">[The decrees of Venice +little resemble the <i>edicts</i> of Paris]</span>, meaning the declaratory +publications of the Grand Monarque,—proclaimed to-day perhaps, repealed +to-morrow—"for <!-- Page 201 --><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>Sire," added he, "our senate deliberates long before it +decrees, but what is once decreed there is seldom or ever recalled."</p> + +<p>The patriotism inherent in the breads of individuals makes another +strong cause of this state's exemption from decay: they say themselves, +that the soul of old Rome has transmigrated to Venice, and that every +galley which goes into action considers itself as charged with the fate +of the commonwealth. <i>Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori</i>, seems a +sentence grown obsolete in other Italian states, but is still in full +force here; and I doubt not but the high-born and high-fouled ladies of +this day, would willingly, as did their generous ancestors in 1600, part +with their rings, bracelets, every ornament, to make ropes for those +ships which defend their dearer country.</p> + +<p>The perpetual state of warfare maintained by this nation against the +Turks, has never lessened nor cooled: yet have their Mahometan +neighbours and natural enemies no perfidy to charge them with in the +time of peace or of hostility: nor can Venice be charged with the mean +vice of sheltering a desire of depredation, under the hypocritical cant +of protecting that religion which teaches <!-- Page 202 --><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>universal benevolence and +charity to all mankind. Their vicinity to Turkey has, however, made them +contract some similarity of manners; for what, except being imbued with +Turkish notions, can account for the people's rage here, young and old, +rich and poor, to pour down such quantities of coffee? I have already +had seven cups to-day, and feel frighted lest we should some of us be +killed with so strange an abuse of it. On the opposite shore, across the +Adriatic, opium is taken to counteract its effects; but these dear +Venetians have no notion of sleep being necessary to their existence I +believe, as some or other of them seem constantly in motion; and there +is really no hour of the four and twenty in which the town seems +perfectly still and quiet; no moment in which it can be said, that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Night! fable goddess! from her ebon throne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In rayless majesty here stretches forth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumb'ring world.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Accordingly I never did meet with any description of Night in the +Venetian poets, so common with other authors; and I am persuaded if one +were to live here (which could <!-- Page 203 --><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>not be <i>long</i> I think) he should forget +the use of sleep; for what with the market folks bringing up the boats +from Terra Firma loaded with every produce of nature, neatly arranged in +these flat-bottomed conveyances, the coming up of which begins about +three o'clock in a morning and ends about six;—the Gondoliers rowing +home their masters and ladies about that hour, and so on till +eight;—the common business of the town, which it is then time to +begin;—the state affairs and <i>pregai</i>, which often like our House of +Commons sit late, and detain many gentlemen from the circles of morning +amusements—that I find very entertaining;—particularly the street +orators and mountebanks in Piazza St. Marco;—the shops and stalls where +chickens, ducks, &c. are sold by auction, comically enough, to the +highest bidder;—a flourishing fellow, with a hammer in his hand, +shining away in character of auctioneer;—the crowds which fill the +courts of judicature, when any cause of consequence is to be tried;—the +clamorous voices, keen observations, poignant sarcasms, and acute +contentions carried on by the advocates, who seem more awake, or in +their own phrase <!-- Page 204 --><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a><i>svelti</i> than all the rest:—all these things take up +so much time, that twenty-four hours do not suffice for the business and +diversions of Venice; where dinner must be eaten as in other places, +though I can scarcely find a minute to spare for it, while such fish +wait one's knife and fork as I most certainly did never see before, and +as I suppose are not to be seen in any sea but this, in such perfection. +Fresh sturgeon, <i>ton</i> as they call it, and fresh anchovies, large as +herrings, and dressed like sprats in London, incomparable; turbots, like +those of Torbay exactly, and plentiful as there, with enormous pipers, +are what one principally eats here. The fried liver, without which an +Italian can hardly go on from day to day, is so charmingly dressed at +Milan, that I grew to like it as well as they; but at Venice it is sad +stuff, and they call it <i>fegao</i>.</p> + +<p>Well! the ladies, who never hardly dine at all, rise about seven in the +evening, when the gentlemen are just got ready to attend them; and sit +sipping their chocolate on a chair at the coffee-house door with great +tranquillity, chatting over the common topics of the times: nor do they +appear half <!-- Page 205 --><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>so shy of each other as the Milanese ladies, who seldom +seem to have any pleasure in the soft converse of a female friend. But +though certainly no women can be more charming than these Venetian +dames, they have forgotten the old mythological fable, <i>that the +youngest of the Graces was married to Sleep.</i> By which it was intended +we should consider that state as necessary to the reparation not only of +beauty but of youth, and every power of pleasing.</p> + +<p>There are men here however who, because they are not quite in the gay +world, keep themselves awake whole nights at study; and much has been +told me, of a collection of books belonging to a private scholar, +Pinelli, who goes very little out, as worthy attentive examination.</p> + +<p>All literary topics are pleasingly discussed at Quirini's Casino, where +every thing may be learned by the conversation of the company, as Doctor +Johnson said of his literary Club; but more agreeably, because women are +always half the number of persons admitted here.</p> + +<p>One evening our society was amused by the entrance of a foreign +nobleman, exactly <!-- Page 206 --><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>what we should in London emphatically call a +<i>Character</i>,—learned, loud, and overbearing; though of a carriage that +impressed great esteem. I have not often listened to so well-furnished a +talker; nor one more capable of giving great information. He had seen +the Pyramids of Egypt, he told us; had climbed Mount Horeb, and visited +Damascus; but possessed the art of detaining our attention more on +himself, than on the things or places he harangued about; for +conversation that can scarcely be called, where one man holds the +company suspended on his account of matters pompously though +instructively related. He staid here a very little while among us; is a +native of France, a grandee of Spain, a man of uncommon talents, and a +traveller. I should be sorry never to meet him more.</p> + +<p>The Abate Arteaga, a Spanish ecclesiastic of the same agreeable coterie, +seemed of a very different and far more pleasing character;—full of +general knowledge, eminent in particular scholarship, elegant in his +sentiments, and sound in his learning. I liked his company exceedingly, +and respected his opinions.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 207 --><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>Zingarelli, the great musical composer, was another occasional member +of this charming society: his wit and repartie are famous, and his bons +mots are repeated wherever one runs to. I cannot translate any of them, +but will write one down, which will make such of my readers laugh as +understand Italian.—The Emperor was at Milan, and asked Zingarelli his +opinion of a favourite singer? "<i>Io penso maestà che non è cattivo +suddito del principi,</i>" replied the master, "<i>quantunque farà gran +nemico di giove.</i>" "How so?" enquired the King.—"<i>Maestà,</i>" answered +our lively Neapolitan, "<i>ella sà naturalmente che Giove</i> tuona, <i>ma +questo</i> stuona." This we see at once was <i>humour</i> not <i>wit</i>; and sallies +of humour are scarcely ever capable of translation.</p> + +<p>An odd thing to which I was this morning witness, has called my thoughts +away to a curious train of reflections upon the animal race; and how far +they may be made companionable and intelligent. The famous Ferdinand +Bertoni, so well known in London by his long residence among us, and +from the undisputed merit of his compositions, now inhabits this his +native city, and being fond <!-- Page 208 --><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>of <i>dumb creatures</i>, as we call them, took +to petting a pigeon, one of the few animals which can live at Venice, +where, as I observed, scarcely any quadrupeds can be admitted, or would +exist with any degree of comfort to themselves. This creature has, +however, by keeping his master company, I trust, obtained so perfect an +ear and taste for music, that no one who sees his behaviour, can doubt +for a moment of the pleasure he takes in hearing Mr. Bertoni play and +sing: for as soon as he sits down to the instrument, Columbo begins +shaking his wings, perches on the piano-forte, and expresses the most +indubitable emotions of delight. If however he or any one else strike a +note false, or make any kind of discord upon the keys, the dove never +fails to shew evident tokens of anger and distress; and if teized too +long, grows quite enraged; pecking the offender's legs and fingers in +such a manner, as to leave nothing less doubtful than the sincerity of +his resentment. Signora Cecilia Giuliani, a scholar of Bertoni's, who +has received some overtures from the London theatre lately, will, if she +ever arrives there, bear testimony to the truth of an assertion <!-- Page 209 --><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>very +difficult to believe, and to which I should hardly myself give credit, +were I not witness to it every morning that I chuse to call and confirm +my own belief. A friend present protested he should feel afraid to touch +the harpsichord before so nice a critic; and though we all laughed at +the assertion, Bertoni declared he never knew the bird's judgment fail; +and that he often kept him out of the room, for fear of his affronting +of tormenting those who came to take musical instructions. With regard +to other actions of life, I saw nothing particular in the pigeon, but +his tameness, and strong attachment to his master: for though never +winged, and only clipped a very little, he never seeks to range away +from the house or quit his master's service, any more than the dove of +Anacreon:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While his better lot bestows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet repast and soft repose;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when feast and frolic tire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drops asleep upon his lyre.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>All the difficulty will be indeed for us <i>other</i> two-legged creatures to +leave the sweet societies of charming Venice; but they begin to <!-- Page 210 --><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>grow +fatiguing now, as the weather increases in warmth.</p> + +<p>I do think the Turkish sailor gave an admirable account of a carnival, +when he told his Mahometan friends at his return, That those poor +Christians were all disordered in their senses, and nearly in a state of +actual madness, while he remained among them, till one day, on a sudden, +they luckily found out a certain grey powder that cured such symptoms; +and laying it on their heads one Wednesday morning, the wits of all the +inhabitants were happily restored at <i>a stroke</i>: the people grew sober, +quiet, and composed; and went about their business just like other +folks. He meant the ashes strewed on the heads of all one meets in the +streets through many a Catholic country; when all masquerading, +money-making, &c. subside for forty days, and give, from the force of +the contrast, a greater appearance of devotion and decorous behaviour in +Venice, than almost any where else during Lent.</p> + +<p>I do not for my own part think well of all that violence, that strong +light and shadow <!-- Page 211 --><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>in matters of religion; which requires rather an even +tenour of good works, proceeding from sound faith, than any of these +staring testimonials of repentance, as if it were a work to be done +<i>once a year only</i>. But neither do I think any Christian has a right to +condemn another for his opinions or practice; when St. Paul expressly +says, that "<i>One man esteemeth one day above another, another man +esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own +mind. But who art thou, that judgest another man's servant?</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Romans, chap. xiv.]</span>"</p> + +<p>The Venetians, to confess the truth, are not quite so strenuously bent +on the unattainable felicity of finding every man in the same mind, as +others of the Italians are; and one great reason why they are more gay +and less malignant, have fewer strong prejudices than others of their +countrymen, is merely because they are happier. Most of the second rank, +and I believe <i>all</i> of the first rank among them, have some share in +governing the rest; it is therefore necessary to exclude ignorance, and +natural to encourage social <!-- Page 212 --><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>pleasures. Each individual feels his own +importance, and scorns to contribute to the degradation of the whole, by +indulging a gross depravity of manners, or at least of principles. Every +person listed one degree from the lowest, finds it his interest as well +as duty to love his country, and lend his little support to the general +fabric of a state they all know how to respect; while the very vulgar +willingly perform the condition exacted, and punctually pay obedience +for protection. They have an unlimited confidence in their rulers, who +live amongst them; and can desire only their utmost good. <i>How</i> they are +governed, comes seldom into their heads to enquire; "<i>Che ne pensa +lù</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Let <i>him</i> look to that]</span>," says a low Venetian, if you ask +him, and humourously points at a Clarissimo passing by while you talk. +They have indeed all the reason to be certain, that where the power is +divided among such numbers, one will be sure to counteract another if +mischief towards the whole be intended.</p> + +<p>Of all aristocracies surely this is the most rationally and happily, as +well as most respectably founded; for though one's heart <!-- Page 213 --><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>revolts +against the names of Baron and Vassal, while the petty tyrants live +scattered far from each other, as in Poland, Russia, and many parts of +Germany, like lions in the desert, or eagles in the rock, secure in +their distance from equals or superiors; yet <i>here</i> at Venice, where +every nobleman is a baron, and all together inhabit one city, no subject +can suffer from the tyranny of the rest, though all may benefit from the +general protection: as each is separately in awe of his neighbour, and +desires to secure his client's tenderness by indulgence, instead of +wishing to disgust him by oppression: unlike the state so powerfully +delineated by our incomparable poet in his Paulina,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where dwelt in haughty wretchedness a lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose rage was justice, and whose law his word:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who saw unmov'd the vassal perish near,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The widow's anguish, and the orphan's tear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Insensible to pity—stern he stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like some rude rock amid the Caspian flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where shipwreck'd sailors unassisted lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as they curse its barren bosom, die.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And it is, I trust, for no deeper reason that the subjects of this +republic resident in the capital, are less savage and more happy than +those who live upon the Terra Firma; where <!-- Page 214 --><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>many outrages are still +committed, disgraceful to the state, from the mere facility offenders +find, either in escaping to the dominion of other princes, or of finding +shelter at home from the madly-bestowed protection these old barons on +the Continent cease not yet to give, to ruffians who profess their +service, and acknowledge dependence upon <i>them</i>. In the <i>town</i>, however, +little is known of these enormities, and less is talked on; and what +information has come to my ears of the murders done at Brescia and +Bergamo, was given me at <i>Milan</i>; where Blainville's accounts of that +country, though written so long ago, did not fail to receive +confirmation from the lips of those who knew perfectly well what they +were talking about. And I am told that <i>Labbia</i>, Giovanni Labbia, the +new Podestà sent to Brescia, has worked wonderful reformation among the +inhabitants of that territory; where I am ashamed to relate the +computation of subjects lost to the state, by being killed in cold blood +during the years 1780 and 1781.</p> + +<p>The following sonnet, addressed to the new Magistrate, by the elegant +and learned <!-- Page 215 --><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>Abbé Bettolini, will entertain such of my readers as +understand Italian:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No, Brenne, il popol tuo non è spietato,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Colpa non è di clima, o fuol nemico:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ma gli inulti delitti, e'l vezzo antico<br /></span> +<span class="i2">D'impune andar coi ferro e fuoco a lato,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ira noi finor nudriro un branco irato<br /></span> +<span class="i2">D'Orsi e di lupi, il malaccorto amico<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ti svenava un fellon sgherro mendico,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">E per cauto timor n'era onorato.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Al primiero spuntar d'un fausto lume<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Tutto cangiò: curvansi in falci i teh,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mille Pluto perdè vittime usate.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Viva l'Eroe, il comun padre, il nume<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gridan le gentè a si bei dì ferbate.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">E sia ché ardisca dir che siam crudelé.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>Imitation</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No, Brennus, no longer thy sons shall retain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of their founder ferocious, th'original stain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It cannot be natural cruelty sure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The reproaches for which from all men we endure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor climate nor soil shall henceforth bear the blame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis custom alone, and that custom our shame:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While arm'd at all points men were suffer'd to rove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And brandish the steel in defence of their love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What wonder that conduct or caution should fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And horrid Lycanthropy's terrors prevail?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><!-- Page 216 --><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>Now justice resumes her insignia, we find<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New light breaking in on each nebulous mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While commission'd from Heaven, a parent, a friend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sees our swords at his nod into reaping-hooks bend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And souls snatch'd from death round the hero attend.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>From these verses, written by a native of Brescia, one may see how +matters stood there very, <i>very</i> little while ago: but here at Venice +the people are of a particularly sweet and gentle disposition, +good-humoured with each other, and kind to strangers; little disposed to +public affrays (which would indeed be punished and put a sudden end to +in an instant), nor yet to any secret or hidden treachery. They watch +the hour of a Regatta with impatience, to make some merit with the woman +of their choice, and boast of their families who have won in the manly +contest forty or fifty years ago, perhaps when honoured with the badge +and livery of some noble house; for here almost every thing is +hereditary, as in England almost every thing is elective; nor had I an +idea how much state affairs influence the private life of individuals in +a country, till I left trusting to books, and looked a little about me. +The <!-- Page 217 --><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>low Venetian, however, knows that he works for the commonwealth, +and is happy; for things go round, says he, <i>Il Turco magna St. Marco; +St. Marco magna mi, mi magna ti, e ti tu magna un'altro</i><a name="FNanchor_S_49" id="FNanchor_S_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_S_49" class="fnanchor">[S]</a>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_S_49" id="Footnote_S_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_S_49"><span class="label">[S]</span></a> The Turk feeds on St. Mark, St. Mark devours me; I eat +thee, neighbour, and thou subsistest on somebody else.</p></div> + +<p>Apropos to this custom of calling Venice (when they speak of it) San +Marco; I heard so comical a story yesterday that I cannot refuse the +pleasure of inserting it; and if my readers do not find it as pleasant +as I did, they may certainly leave it out, without the smallest +prejudice either to the book, the author, or themselves.</p> + +<p>The procurator Tron was at Padua, it seems, and had a fancy to drive +forward to Vicenza that afternoon, but being particularly fond of a +favourite pair of horses which drew his chariot that day, would by no +means venture if it happened to rain; and took the trouble to enquire of +Abate Toaldo, "Whether he thought such a thing likely to happen, from +the appearance of the sky?" The professor, not knowing why the question +was asked, said, "he rather thought it would <i>not</i> <!-- Page 218 --><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>rain for four hours +at most." In consequence of this information our senator ordered his +equipage directly, got into it, and bid the driver make haste to +Vicenza: but before he was half-way on his journey, such torrents came +down from a black cloud that burst directly over their heads, that his +horses were drenched in wet, and their mortified master turned +immediately back to Padua, that they might suffer no further +inconvenience. To pass away the evening, which he did not mean to have +spent there, and to quiet his agitated spirits by thinking on something +else, he walked under the Portico to a neighbouring coffee-house, where +fate the Abate Toaldo in company of a few friends; wholly unconscious +that he had been the cause of vexing the Procuratore; who, after a short +pause, cried out, in a true Venetian spirit of anger and humour oddly +blended together, "<i>Mi dica Signor Professore Toaldo, chi è il più gran +minchion di tutti i fanti in Paradiso?</i>" Pray tell me Doctor (we should +say), who is the greatest blockhead among all the saints of Heaven? The +Abbé looked astonished, but hearing the question repeated in a more +peevish accent still, replied gravely, "<i>Eccelenza <!-- Page 219 --><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>non fon fatto io per +rispondere a tale dimande</i>"—My lord, I have no answer ready for such +extraordinary questions. Why then, replies the Procuratore Tron, I will +answer this question myself.—<i>St. Marco ved'ella—"e'l vero minchion: +mentre mantiene tanti professori per studiare (che so to mi) delle +stelle; roba astronomica che non vale un fico; è loro non sanno dirli +nemmeno s'hà da piovere o nò.</i>"—"Why it is St. Mark, do you see, that +is the true blockhead and dupe, in keeping so many professors to study +the stars and stuff; when with all their astronomy they cannot tell him +whether it will rain or no."</p> + +<p>Well, <i>pax tibi, Marce!</i> I see that I have said more about Venice, where +I have lived five weeks, than about Milan, where I stayed five months; +but</p> + +<table class="bracket" summary="Table to mark last three lines of poem with a bracket in the right margin"> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Si placeat varios hominum cognoscere vultus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Area longa patet, sancto contermina Marco,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Celsus ubi Adriacas, Venetus Leo despicit undas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hic circum gentes cunctis e partibus orbis,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æthiopes, Turcos, Slavos, Arabésque, Syrósque,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Inveniésque Cypri, Cretæ, Macedumque colonos,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Innumerósque alios varia regione profectos:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sæpe etiam nec visa prius, nec cognita cernes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quæ si cuncta velim tenui describere versu,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><!-- Page 220 --><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>Heic omnes citiùs nautas celeresque Phaselos,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Et simul Adriaci pisces numerabo profundi.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</td> +<td valign="bottom"> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p><i>Imitated loosely</i>.</p> + +<table class="bracket" summary="Table to mark last three lines of poem with a bracket in the right margin"> +<tr> +<td> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If change of faces please your roving sight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or various characters your mind delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To gay St. Mark's with eagerness repair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For curiosity may pasture there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Venetia's lion bending o'er the waves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There sees reflected—tyrants, freemen, slaves.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The swarthy Moor, the soft Circassian dame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The British sailor not unknown to fame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Innumerous nations crowd the lofty door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Innumerous footsteps print the sandy shore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While verse might easier name the scaly tribe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That in her seas their nourishment imbibe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than Venice and her various charms describe.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</td> +<td valign="bottom"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">}<br /></span> +<span class="i0">}<br /></span> +<span class="i0">}<br /></span> +</div></div> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>It is really pity ever to quit the sweet seducements of a place so +pleasing; which attracts the inclination and flatters the vanity of one, +who, like myself, has received the most polite attentions, and been +diverted with every amusement that could be devised. Kind, friendly, +lovely Venetians! who appear to feel real fondness for the inhabitants +of Great Britain, while Cavalier Pindemonte writes such verses in its +praise. Yet <i>must</i> <!-- Page 221 --><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>the journey go forward, no staying to pick every +flower upon the road.</p> + +<p>On Saturday next then am I to forsake—but I hope not for ever—this +gay, this gallant city, so often described, so certainly admired; seen +with rapture, quitted with regret: seat of enchantment! head-quarters of +pleasure, farewell!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Leave us as we ought to be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave the Britons rough and free.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was on the twenty-first of May then that we returned up the Brenta in +a barge to <i>Padua</i>, stopping from time to time to give refreshment to +our conductors and their horse, which draws on the side, as one sees +them at Richmond; where the banks are scarcely more beautifully adorned +by art, than here by nature; though the Brenta is a much narrower river +than the Thames at Richmond, and its villas, so justly celebrated, far +less frequent. The sublimity of their architecture however, the +magnificence of their orangeries, the happy construction of the cool +arcades, and general air of festivity which breathes upon the banks of +this truly <i>wizard stream</i>, planted with <i>dancing</i>, not <!-- Page 222 --><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a><i>weeping</i> +willows, to which on a bright evening the lads and lasses run for +shelter from the sun beams,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri<a name="FNanchor_T_50" id="FNanchor_T_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_T_50" class="fnanchor">[T]</a>;<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_T_50" id="Footnote_T_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_T_50"><span class="label">[T]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While tripping to the wood my wanton hies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She wishes to be seen before she flies.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + + +<p>are I suppose peculiar to itself, and best described by Monsieur de +Voltaire, whose Pococurante the Venetian senator in Candide that +possesses all delights in his villa upon the banks of the Brenta, is a +very lively portrait, and would be natural too; but that Voltaire, as a +Frenchman, could not forbear making his character speak in a very +unItalian manner, boasting of his felicity in a style they never use, +for they are really no puffers, no vaunters of that which they possess; +make no disgraceful comparisons between their own rarities and the want +of them in other countries, nor offend you as the French do, with false +pity and hateful consolations.</p> + +<p>If any thing in England seem to excite their wonder and ill-placed +compassion, it is our coal fires, which they persist in thinking +strangely unwholesome—and a melancholy proof that we are grievously +devoid of wood, <!-- Page 223 --><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>before we can prevail upon ourselves to dig the bowels +of old earth for fewel, at the hazard of our precious health, if not of +its certain loss; nor could I convince the wisest man I tried at, that +wood burned to chark is a real poison, while it would be difficult by +any process of chemistry to force much evil out of coal. They are +steadily of opinion, that consumptions are occasioned by these fires, +and that all the subjects of Great Britain are consumptively disposed, +merely because those who are so, go into Italy for change of air: though +I never heard that the wood smoke helped their breath, or a brazierfull +of ashes under the table their appetite. Mean time, whoever seeks to +convince instead of persuade an Italian, will find he has been employed +in a Sisyphean labour; the stone may roll to the top, but is sure to +return, and rest at his feet who had courage to try the experiment. +Logic is a science they love not, and I think steadily refuse to +cultivate; nor is argument a style of conversation they naturally +affect—as Lady Macbeth says, "<i>Question enrageth him</i>;" and the +dialogues of Socrates would to them be as disgusting as the violence of +Xantippe.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 224 --><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>Well, here we are at Padua again! where I will run, and see once more +the places I was before so pleased with. The beautiful church of Santa +Giustina, the ancient church adorned by Cimabue, Giotto, &c. where you +fancy yourself on a sudden transported to Dante's Paradiso, and with for +Barry the painter, to point your admiration of its sublime and +extraordinary merits; but not the shrine of St. Anthony, or the tomb of +Antenor, one rich with gold, the other venerable with rust, can keep my +attention fixed on <i>them</i>, while an Italian <i>May</i> offers to every sense, +the sweets of nature in elegant perfection. One view of a smiling +landschape, lively in verdure, enamelled with flowers, and exhilarating +with the sound of music under every tree,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where many a youth and many a maid<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dances in the chequer'd shade;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And young and old come forth to play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On a sun-shine holiday;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>drives Palladio and Sansovino from one's head; and leaves nothing very +strongly impressed upon one's heart but the recollection of kindness +received and esteem reciprocated. <!-- Page 225 --><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>Those pleasures have indeed pursued +me hither; the amiable Countess Ferris has not forgotten us; her +attentions are numerous, tender, and polite. I went to the play with +her, where I was unlucky enough to miss the representation of Romeo and +Juliet, which was acted the night before with great applause, under the +name of <i>Tragedia Veronese</i>. Monsieur de Voltaire was then premature in +his declarations, that Shakespear was unknown, or known only to be +censured, except in his native country. Count Kinigl at Milan took +occasion to tell me that they acted Hamlet and Lear when he was last at +Vienna; and I know not how it is, but to an English traveller each place +presents ideas originally suggested by Shakespear, of whom nature and +truth are the perpetual mirrors: other authors remind one of things +which one has seen in life—but the scenes of life itself remind one of +Shakespear. When I first looked on the Rialto, with what immediate +images did it supply me? Oh, the old long-cherished images of the +pensive merchant, the generous friend, the gay companion, and their +final triumph over the practices of a cruel Jew. Anthonio, <!-- Page 226 --><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>Gratiano, +met me at every turn; and when I confessed some of these feelings before +the professor of natural history here, who had spent some time in +London; he observed, that no native of our island could sit three hours, +and not speak of Shakespear: he added many kind expressions of partial +liking to our nation, and our poets: and l'Abate Cesarotti +good-humouredly confessed his little skill in the English language when +he translated their so much-admired Ossian; but he had studied it pretty +hard since, he said, and his version of Gray's Elegy is charming.</p> + +<p>Gray and Young are the favourite writers among us, as far as I have yet +heard them talked over upon the continent; the first has secured them by +his residence at Florence, and his Latin verses I believe; the second, +by his piety and brilliant thoughts. Even Romanists are disposed to +think dear Dr. Young very <i>near</i> to Christianity—an idea which must +either make one laugh or cry, while</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sweet peace, and heavenly hope, and humble joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Divinely beam on <i>his</i> exalted soul.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But I must tell what I have been seeing at the theatre, and should tell +it much <!-- Page 227 --><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>better had not the charms of Countess Ferris's conversation +engaged my mind, which would otherwise perhaps have been more seized on +than it <i>was</i>, by the sight of an old pantomime, or wretched farce (for +there was speaking in it, I remember), exploded long since from our very +lowest places of diversion, and now exhibited here at Padua before a +very polite and a very literary audience; and in a better theatre by far +than our newly-adorned opera-house in the Hay-market. Its subject was no +other than the birth of Harlequin; but the place and circumstances +combined to make me look on it in a light which shewed it to uncommon +advantage. The storm, for example, the thunder, darkness, &c. which is +so solemnly made to precede an incantation, apparently not meant to be +ridiculous, after which, a huge egg is somehow miraculously produced +upon the stage, put me in mind of the very old mythologists, who thus +desired to represent the chaotic state of things, when Night, Ocean, and +Tartarus disputed in perpetual confusion; till <i>Love</i> and <i>Music</i> +separated the elements, and as Dryden says,<!-- Page 228 --><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then hot and cold, and moist and dry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In order to their stations leap,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And music's power obey.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>For <i>Cupid</i>, advancing to a slow tune, steadies with his wand the +rolling mass upon the stage, that then begins to teem with its <i>motley +inhabitant</i>, and just representative of the <i>created world</i>, active, +wicked, gay, amusing, which gains your heart, but never your esteem: +tricking, shifting, and worthless as it is—but after all its <i>frisks</i>, +all its <i>escapes</i>, is condemned at last to burn in <i>fire, and pass +entirely away</i>. Such was, I trust, the idea of the person, whoever he +was, that had the honour first to compose this curious exhibition, and +model this mythological device into a pantomime! for the <i>mundane</i>, or +as Proclus calls it, the <i>orphick</i> egg, is possibly the earliest of all +methods taken to explain the rise, progress, and final conclusion of our +earth and atmosphere; and was the original <i>theory</i> brought from Egypt +into Greece by Orpheus. Nor has that prodigious genius, Dr. Thomas +Burnet, scorned to adopt it seriously in his <i>Telluris Theoria sacra</i>, +written less than a century ago, adapting it with <!-- Page 229 --><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>wonderful ingenuity +to the Christian system and Mosaical account of things; to which it +certainly does accommodate itself the better, as the form of an egg well +resembles that of our habitable globe; and the internal divisions, our +four elements, leaving the central fire for the yolk. I therefore +regarded our pantomime here at Padua with a degree of reverence I should +have found difficult to excite in myself at Sadler's Wells; where ideas +of antiquity would have been little likely to cross my fancy. Sure I am, +however, that the original inventor of this old pantomime had his head +very full at the time of some very ancient learning.</p> + +<p>Now then I must leave this lovely state of Venice, where if the paupers +in every town of it did not crowd about one, tormenting passengers with +unextinguishable clamour, and surrounding them with sights of horror +unfit to be surveyed by any eyes except those of the surgeon, who should +alleviate their anguish, or at least conceal their truly unspeakable +distresses—one should break one's heart almost at the thoughts of +quitting people who show such tenderness towards their friends, that +less than ocular conviction would scarce per<!-- Page 230 --><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>suade me to believe such +wandering misery could remain disregarded among the most amiable and +pleasing people in the world. His excellency Bragadin half promised me +that some steps should be taken at Venice at least, to remove a nuisance +so disgraceful; and said, that when I came again, I should walk about +the town in white sattin slippers, and never see a beggar from one end +of it to the other.</p> + +<p>On the twenty-sixth of May then, with the senator Quirini's letters to +Corilla, with the Countess of Starenberg's letters to some Tuscan +friends of her's; and with the light of a full moon, if we should want +it, we set out again in quest of new adventures, and mean to sleep this +night under the pope's protection:—may God but grant us his!<!-- Page 231 --><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a></p> + + + +<h3><a name="FERRERA" id="FERRERA"></a>FERRERA.</h3> + + +<p>We have crossed the Po, which I expected to have found more magnificent, +considering the respectable state I left it in at Cremona; but scarcely +any thing answers that expectation which fancy has long been fermenting +in one's mind.</p> + +<p>I took a young woman once with me to the coast of Sussex, who, at +twenty-seven years old and a native of England, had never seen the sea; +nor any thing else indeed ten miles out of London:—And well, child! +said I, are not you much surprised?—"It is a fine sight, to be sure," +replied she coldly, "but,"—but what? you are not disappointed are +you?—"No, not disappointed, but it is not quite what I expected when I +saw the ocean." Tell me then, pray good girl, and tell me quickly, what +did you expect to see? "<i>Why I expected</i>," with a hesitating accent, "<i>I +expected to see a great deal of water</i>." This answer set me <i>then</i> into +a fit of laugh<!-- Page 232 --><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>ter, but I have <i>now</i> found out that I am not a whit +wiser than Peggy: for what did I figure to myself that I should find the +Po? only a great deal of water to be sure; and a very great deal of +water it certainly is, and much more, God knows, than I ever saw before, +except between the shores of Calais and Dover; yet I did feel something +like disappointment too; when my imagination wandering over all that the +poets had said about it, and finding earth too little to contain their +fables, recollected that they had thought Eridanus worthy of a place +among the constellations, I wished to see such a river as was worthy all +these praises, and even then, says I,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And trees weep amber on the banks of Po.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But are we sure after all it was upon the <i>banks</i> these trees, not now +existing, were ever to be found? they grew in the Electrides if I +remember right, and even there Lucian laughingly said, that he spread +his garments in vain to catch the valuable distillation which poetry had +taught him to expect; and Strabo (worse news still!) said that there +<!-- Page 233 --><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>were no Electrides neither; so as we knew before—fiction is false: and +had I not discovered it by any other means, I might have recollected a +comical contest enough between a literary lady once, and Doctor Johnson, +to which I was myself a witness;—when she, maintaining the happiness +and purity of a country life and rural manners, with her best eloquence, +and she had a great deal; added as corroborative and almost +incontestable authority, that the <i>Poets</i> said so: "and didst thou not +know then," replied he, my darling dear, that the <i>Poets lye</i>?</p> + +<p>When they tell us, however, that great rivers have horns, which twisted +off become cornua copiæ, dispensing pleasure and plenty, they entertain +us it must be confessed; and never was allegory more nearly allied with +truth, than in the lines of Virgil;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gemina auratus taurino cornua vultu,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In mare purpureuin violentior influit amnis<a name="FNanchor_U_51" id="FNanchor_U_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_U_51" class="fnanchor">[U]</a>;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_U_51" id="Footnote_U_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_U_51"><span class="label">[U]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whence bull-fac'd, so adorn'd with gilded horns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than whom no river through such level meads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down to the sea in swifter torrents speeds.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p>so accurately translated by Doctor Warton, who would not reject the +epithet <i>bull-faced</i>, <!-- Page 234 --><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>because he knew it was given in imitation of the +Thessalian river Achelous, that fought for Dejanira; and Servius, who +makes him father to the Syrens, says that many streams, in compliment to +this original one, were represented with horns, because of their winding +course. Whether Monsieur Varillas, or our immortal Addison, mention +their being so perpetuated on medals now existing, I know not; but in +this land of rarities we shall soon hear or see.</p> + +<p>Mean time let us leave looking for these weeping Heliades, and enquire +what became of the Swan, that poor Phaeton's friend and cousin turned +into, for very grief and fear at seeing him tumble in the water. For my +part I believe that not only now he</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Eligit contraria flumina flammis,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but that the whole country is grown disagreeably hot to him, and the +sight of the sun's chariot so near frightens him still; for he certainly +lives more to his taste, and sings sweeter I believe on the banks of the +Thames, than in Italy, where we have never yet seen but <i>one</i>; and that +was kept in a <!-- Page 235 --><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>small marble bason of water at the Durazzo palace at +Genoa, and seemed miserably out of condition. I enquired why they gave +him no companion? and received for answer, "That it would be wholly +useless, as they were creatures who never bred <i>out if their own +country</i>." But any reply serves any common Italian, who is little +disposed to investigate matters; and if you tease him with too much +ratiocination, is apt to cry out, "<i>Cosa serve sosistieare cosi? ci farà +andare tutti matti</i><a name="FNanchor_V_52" id="FNanchor_V_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_V_52" class="fnanchor">[V]</a>." They have indeed so many external amusements in +the mere face of the country, that one is better inclined to pardon +<i>them</i>, than one would be to forgive inhabitants of less happy climates, +should they suffer <i>their</i> intellectual powers to pine for want of +exercise, not food: for here is enough to think upon, God knows, were +they disposed so to employ their time; where one may justly affirm that,</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_V_52" id="Footnote_V_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_V_52"><span class="label">[V]</span></a> What signifies all this minuteness of inquiry?—it will +drive us mad.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">On every thorn delightful wisdom grows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in each rill, some sweet instruction flows;<br /></span><!-- Page 236 --><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a> +<span class="i0">But some untaught o'erhear the murmuring rill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In spite of sacred leisure—blockheads still.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The road from Padua hither is not a good one; but so adorned, one cares +not much whether it is good or no: so sweetly are the mulberry-trees +planted on each side, with vines richly festooning up and down them, as +if for the decoration of a dance at the opera. One really expects the +flower-girls with baskets, or garlands, and scarcely can persuade one's +self that all is real.</p> + +<p>Never sure was any thing more rejoicing to the heart, than this lovely +season in this lovely country. The city of Ferrara too is a fine one; +Ferrara <i>la civile</i>, the Italians call it, but it seems rather to merit +the epithet <i>solenne</i>; so stately are its buildings, so wide and uniform +its streets. My pen was just upon the point of praising its cleanliness +too, till I reflected there was nobody to dirty it. I looked half an +hour before I could find one beggar, a bad account of poor Ferrara; but +it brought to my mind how unreasonably my daughter and myself had +laughed seven years ago, at reading in an extract from some of <!-- Page 237 --><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>the +foreign gazettes, how the famous Improvisatore Talassi, who was in +England about the year 1770, and entertained with his justly-admired +talents the literati at London; had published an account of his visit to +Mr. Thrale, at a villa eight miles from Westminster-bridge, during that +time, when he had the good fortune, he said, to meet many celebrated +characters at his country-seat; and the mortification which nearly +overbalanced it, to miss seeing the immortal Garrick then confined by +illness. In all this, however, there was nothing ridiculous; but we +fancied his description of Streatham village truly so; when we read that +he called it <i>Luogo assai popolato ed ameno</i><span class="label">[A populous and +delightful place]</span>, an expression apparently pompous, and inadequate to +the subject: but the jest disappeared when I got into <i>his</i> town; a +place which perhaps may be said to possess every other excellence but +that of being <i>popolato ed ameno</i>; and I sincerely believe that no +Ferrara-man could have missed making the same or a like observation; as +in this finely-constructed city, the grass literally grows in the +street; nor do I hear that the state of the air and water is such as is +likely <!-- Page 238 --><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>to tempt new inhabitants. How much then, and how reasonably must +he have wondered, and how easily must he have been led to express his +wonder, at seeing a village no bigger than that of Streatham, contain a +number of people equal, as I doubt not but it does, to all the dwellers +in Ferrara!</p> + +<p>Mr. Talassi is reckoned in his own country a man of great genius; in +ours he was, as I recollect, received with much attention, as a person +able and willing to give us demonstration that improviso verses might be +made, and sung extemporaneously to some well-known tune, generally one +which admits of and requires very long lines; that so alternate rhymes +may not be improper, as they give more time to think forward, and gain a +moment for composition. Of this power, many, till they saw it done, did +not believe the existence; and many, after they had seen it done, +persisted in <i>saying</i>, perhaps in <i>thinking</i>, that it could be done only +in Italian. I cannot however believe that they possess any exclusive +privileges or supernatural gifts; though it will be hard to find one who +thinks better of them than I do: but Spaniards can sing sequedillas +under their mistresses window <!-- Page 239 --><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>well enough; and our Welch people can +make the harper sit down in the church-yard after service is over, and +placing themselves round him, command the instrument to go over some old +song-tune: when having listened a while, one of the company forms a +stanza of verses, which run to it in well-adapted measure; and as he +ends, another begins: continuing the tale, or retorting the satire, +according to the style in which the first began it. All this too in a +language less perhaps than any other melodious to the ear, though Howell +found out a resemblance between their prosody and that of the Italian +writer in early days, when they held agnominations, or the inforcement +of consonant words and syllables one upon the other, to be elegant in a +more eminent degree than they do now. For example, in Welch, <i>Tewgris, +todykris, ty'r derrin, gwillt</i>, &c. in Italian, <i>Donne, O danno che selo +affronto affronta: in selva salvo a me</i>, with a thousand more. The whole +secret of improvisation, however, seems to consist in this; that +extempore verses are never written down, and one may easily conceive +that much may go off well with a <!-- Page 240 --><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>good voice in singing, which no one +would read if they were once registered by the pen.</p> + +<p>I have already asserted that the Italians are not a laughing nation: +were ridicule to step in among them, many innocent pleasures would soon +be lost; and this among the first. For who would risque the making +impromptu poems at Paris? <i>pour s'attirer persiflage</i> in every <i>Coterie +comme il faut</i><span class="footnoteinline">[To draw upon one's self the ridicule of every +polite assembly]</span>? Or in London, at the hazard of being <i>taken off, and +held up for a laughing-stock at every print-seller's window</i>? A man must +have good courage in England, before he ventures at diverting a little +company by such devices: while one would yawn, and one would whisper, a +third would walk gravely out of the room, and say to his friend upon the +stairs, "Why sure we had better read our old poets at home, than be +called together, like fools, to hear what comes uppermost in +such-a-one's head, about his <i>Daphne</i>! In good time! Why I have been +tired of <i>Daphne</i> since I was fourteen years old." But the best jest <!-- Page 241 --><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>of +all would be, to see an ordinary fellow, a strolling player for example, +set seriously to make or repeat verses in our streets or squares +concerning his sweetheart's <i>cruelty</i>; when he would be in more danger +from that of the mob and the magistrates; who, if the first did not +throw dirt at him, and drive him home quickly, would come themselves, +and examine into his sanity, and if they found him not <i>statutably mad</i>, +commit him for a vagrant.</p> + +<p>Different amusements, like different sorts of food, suit different +countries; and this is among the efforts of those who have learned to +refine their <i>pleasures</i> without so refining their <i>ideas</i> as to be able +no longer to hit on any pleasure subtle enough to escape their own power +of ridiculing it.</p> + +<p>This city of Ferrara has produced some curious and opposite characters +in times past, however empty it may now be thought: one painter too, and +one singer, both super-eminent in their professions, have dropped their +own names, and are best known to fame by that of <i>Il</i> and <i>La +Ferrarese</i>. Nor can I leave it without some reflections on the +extraor<!-- Page 242 --><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>dinary life of Renée de France, daughter of Louis XII surnamed +the Just, and Anne de Bretagne, his first wife. This lady having married +the famous Hercules D'Este, one of the handsomest men in Europe, lived +with him here in much apparent felicity as Duchess of Ferrara; but took +such an aversion to the church and court of Rome, from the superstitions +she saw practised in Italy, that though she resolved to dissemble her +opinions during the life of her husband, whom she wished not to disgust, +at the instant of his death she quitted all her dignities; and retiring +to France, was protected by her father in the open profession of +Calvinism, living a life of privacy and purity among the Huguenots in +the southern provinces. This <i>Louis le Juste</i> was he who gave the French +what little pretensions they have ever obtained on which to fix the +foundations of future liberty: he first established a parliament at +Rouen, another at Aix; but while thus gentle to his subjects, he was a +scourge to Italy, made his public entry into Genoa as Sovereign, and +tore the Milanese from the Sforza family, somewhat before the year 1550.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 243 --><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>The well-known Franciscus Ferrariensis, whose name was Silvester, is a +character very opposite to that of fair Renée: he wrote the best apology +for the Romanists against Luther, and gained applause from both sides +for his controversial powers; while the strictness of his life gave +weight to his doctrine, and ornamented the sect which he delighted to +defend.</p> + +<p>By a native of Ferrara too were first collected the books that were +earliest placed in the Ambrosian library at Milan, Barnardine Ferrarius, +whose deep erudition and simple manners gained him the favour of +Frederick Borromeo, who sent him to Spain to pick up literary rarities, +which he bestowed with pleasure on the place where he had received his +education. His treatise on the rites of sepulture used by the ancients +is in good estimation; and Sir Thomas Brown, in his <i>Urn Burial</i>, owes +him much obligation.</p> + +<p>The custom of wearing swords here seems to proceed from some connection +they have had with the Spaniards; and Dr. Moore has given us an +admirable account of why the Highland broad-sword is still called an +<i>Andrew Ferrara</i>.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 244 --><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>The Venetians, not often or easily intimidated by Papal power, having +taken this city in the year 1303, were obliged to restore it, for fear +of the consequences of Pope Boniface the Eighth's excommunications; his +displeasure having before then produced dreadful effects in the +conspiracy of Bajamonti Tiepulo; which was suppressed, and he killed, by +a woman, out of a flaming zeal for the honour and tranquillity of her +country: and so disinterested too was her spirit of patriotism, that the +only reward she required for a service so essential, was that a constant +memorial of it might be preserved in the dress of the Doge; who from +that moment obliged himself to wear a woman's cap under the state +diadem, and so his successors still continue to do.</p> + +<p>But Ferrara has other distinctions.—Bonarelli here, at the academy of +gl'Intrepidi, read his able defence of that pastoral comedy so much +applauded and censured, called <i>Filli di Sciro</i>; and here the great +Ariosto lived and died.</p> + +<p>Nothing leads however to a less gloomy train of thought, than the tomb +of a celebrated man; where virtue, wit, or valour <!-- Page 245 --><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>triumph over death, +and wait the consummation of all sublunary things, before the +remembrance of such superiority shall be lost. Italy must be shaken from +her deepest foundation, and England made a scene of general ruin, when +Shakespear and Ariosto shall be forgotten, and their names confounded +among deedless nobility, and worthless wasters of treasure, long ago +passed from hand to hand, perhaps from the dwellers in one continent to +the inhabitants of another. It has been equally the fate of these two +heroes of modern literature, that they have pleased their countrymen +more than foreigners; but is that any diminution of their merit? or +should it serve as a reason for making disgraceful comparisons between +Ariosto and Virgil, whom he scorned to imitate? A dead language is like +common ground;—all have a right to pasture, and all a claim to give or +to withhold admiration. Virgil is the old original trough at the corner +of the road, where every passer-by pays, drinks, and goes on his journey +well refreshed. But the clear spring in the meadow sure, though private +property, and lately dug, deserves attention: <!-- Page 246 --><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>and confers delight not +only on the actual master of the ground, but on all his visitants who +can climb the style, and lift the silver cup to their lips which hangs +by the fountain-side.</p> + +<p>I am glad, however, to be gone from a place where they are thinking less +of all these worthies just at present, than of a circumstance which +cannot redound to their honour, as it might have happened to any other +town, and could do great good to none: no less than the happy arrival of +Joseph, and Leopold, and Maximilian of Austria, on the thirtieth of May +1775; and this wonderful event have they recorded in a pompous +inscription upon a stone set at the inn door. But princes can make +poets, and scatter felicity with little exertion on their own parts.</p> + +<p>At Tuillemont, an English gentleman once told me he had the misfortune +to sleep one night where all the people's heads were full of the +Emperor, who had dined there the day before; and some <i>wise</i> fellow of +the place wrote these lines under his picture:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><!-- Page 247 --><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a> +<span class="i0">Ingreditur magnus magno de Cæsare Cæsar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thenas, sub signo Cervi, sua prandia sumit.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He immediately set down this distich under them:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our poor little town has no little to brag,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Emperor was here, and he dined at the Stag.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The people of the inn concluding that this must be a high-strained +compliment, it produced him many thanks from all, and a better breakfast +than he would otherwise have obtained at Tuillemont.</p> + +<p>To-morrow we go forward to Bologna.<!-- Page 248 --><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a></p> + + + +<h3><a name="BOLOGNA" id="BOLOGNA"></a>BOLOGNA.</h3> + + +<p>SEEMS at first sight a very sorrowful town, and has a general air of +melancholy that surprises one, as it is very handsomely and regularly +built; and set in a country so particularly beautiful, that it is not +easy to express the nature of its beauty, and to express it so that +those who inhabit other countries can understand me.</p> + +<p>The territory belonging to Bologna la Grassa concenters all its charms +in a happy <i>embonpoint</i>, which leaves no wrinkle unfilled up, no bone to +be discerned; like the fat figure of Gunhilda at Fonthill, painted by +Chevalier Cafali, with a face full of woe, but with a sleekness of skin +that denotes nothing less than affliction. From the top of the only +eminence, one looks down here upon a country which to me has a new and +singular appearance; the whole horizon appearing one thick carpet of the +softest and most vivid green, from the vicinity of the broad-leaved +mulberry trees, I trust, drawn still closer and closer together by +<!-- Page 249 --><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>their amicable and pacific companions the vines, which keep cluttering +round, and connect them so intimately that no object can be separately +or distinctly viewed, any more than the habitations formed by animals +who live in moss, when a large portion of it is presented to the +philosopher for speculation. One would not therefore, on a flight and +cursory inspection, suspect this of being a painter's country, where no +prominence of features arrests the sight, no expression of latent +meaning employs the mind, and no abruptness of transition tempts fancy +to follow, or imagination to supply, the sudden loss of what it +contemplated before.</p> + +<p>Here however the great Caraccis kept their school; here then was every +idea of dignity and majestic beauty to be met with; and if <i>I</i> meet with +nothing in nature near this place to excite such ideas, it is <i>my</i> +fault, not Bologna's.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If vain the toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We ought to blame the culture,—not the soil.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Wonderful indeed! yet not at all distracting is the variety of +excellence that one <!-- Page 250 --><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>contemplates here; such matters! and such scholars! +The sweetly playful pencil of Albano, I would compare to Waller among +our English poets; Domenichino to Otway, and Guido Rheni to Rowe; if +such liberties might be permitted on the old notion of <i>ut pictura +poesis</i>. But there is an idea about the world, that one ought in +delicacy to declare one's utter incapacity of understanding pictures, +unless immediately of the profession.—And why so? No man protests, that +he cannot read poetry, he can make no pleasure out of Milton or +Shakespear, or shudder at the ingratitude of Lear's daughters on the +stage. Why then should people pretend insensibility, when divine +Guercino exerts his unrivalled powers of the pathetic in the fine +picture at Zampieri palace, of Hagar's dismission into the desert with +her son? While none else could have touched with such truth of +expression the countenances of each; leaving him most to be pitied, +perhaps, who issues the command against his will; accompanying it +however with innumerable benedictions, and alleviating its severity with +the softest tenderness.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 251 --><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>He only among our poets could have planned such a picture, who penned +the Eloisa, and knew the agonies of a soul struggling against +unpermitted passions, and conquering from the noblest motives of faith +and of obedience.</p> + +<p>Glorious exertion of excellence! This is the first time my heart has +been made really alive to the powers of this magical art. Candid +Italians! let me again exclaim; they shewed us a Vandyke in the same +palace, surrounded by the works of their own incomparable countrymen; +and <i>there</i> say they, "<i>Quasi quasi si può circondarla</i><span class="footnoteinline">[You +may almost run round her]</span>." You may almost run round it, was the +expression. The picture was a very fine one; a single figure of the +Madona, highly painted, and happily placed among those who knew, because +they possessed his perfections who drew it. Were Homer alive, and +acquainted with our language, he would admire that Shakespear whom +Voltaire condemns. Twice in this town has Guido shewed those powers +which critics have denied him: the power of grouping his figures with +propriety, and distributing<!-- Page 252 --><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a> his light and shadow to advantage: as he +has shewn it <i>but twice</i>, however, it is certain the connoisseurs are +not very wrong, and even in those very performances one may read their +justification: for Job, though surrounded by a crowd of people, has a +strangely insulated look, and the sweet sufferer on the fore-ground of +his Herodian cruelty seems wholly uninterested in the general distress, +and occupies herself and every spectator completely and solely with her +own particular grief.</p> + +<p>The boasted Raphael here does not in my eyes triumph over the wonders of +this Caracci school. At Rome, I am told, his superiority is more +visible. <i>Nous verrons</i><span class="footnoteinline">[We shall see]</span>.</p> + +<p>The reserved picture of St. Peter and St. Paul, kept in the last chamber +of the Zampieri palace, and covered with a silk curtain, is valued +beyond any specimen of the painting art which can be moved from Italy to +England. We are taught to hope it will soon come among us; and many say +the sale cannot be now long delayed. Why Guido should never draw another +picture like that, or at all in the same style, who can <!-- Page 253 --><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>tell? it +certainly does unite every perfection, and every possible excellence, +except choice of subject, which cannot be happy I think, when the +subject itself is left disputable.</p> + +<p>I will mention only one other picture: it is in an obscure church, not +an unfrequented one by these pious Bolognese, who are the most devout +people I ever lived amongst, but I think not much visited by travellers. +It is painted by Albano, and represents the Redeemer of mankind as a boy +scarce thirteen years old: ingenuous modesty, and meek resignation, +beaming from each intelligent feature of a face divinely beautiful, and +throwing out luminous rays round his sacred head, while the blessed +Virgin and St. Joseph, placed on each side him, adore his goodness with +transport not unmixed with wonder: the instruments of his future passion +cast at his feet, directing us to consider him as in that awful moment +voluntarily devoting himself for the sins of the whole world.</p> + +<p>This picture, from the sublimity of the subject, the lively colouring, +and clear expression, has few equals; the pyramidal group drops in as of +itself, unsought for, from the <!-- Page 254 --><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>raised ground on which our Saviour +stands; and among numberless wild conceits and extravagant fancies of +painters, not only permitted but encouraged in this country, to deviate +into what <i>we</i> justly think profane representations of the deity:—this +is the most pleasing and inoffensive device I have seen.</p> + +<p>The august Creator too is likewise more wisely concealed by Albano than +by other artists, who daringly presume to exhibit that of which no +mortal man can give or receive a just idea. But we will have done for a +while with connoisseurship.</p> + +<p>This fat Bologna has a tristful look, from the numberless priests, +friars, and women all dressed in black, who fill the streets, and stop +on a sudden to pray, when I see nothing done to call forth immediate +addresses to Heaven. Extremes do certainly meet however, and my Lord +Peter in this place is so like his fanatical brother Jack, that I know +not what is come to him. To-morrow is the day of <i>corpus domini</i>; why it +should be preceded by such dismal ceremonies I know not; there is +nothing melancholy in the idea, but we shall be sure of a magnificent +procession.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 255 --><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>So it was too, and wonderfully well attended: noblemen and ladies, with +tapers in their hands, and their trains borne by well-dressed pages, had +a fine effect. All still in black.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Black, but such as in esteem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prince Memnon's sister might beseem;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sable stole of cypress lawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er their decent shoulders drawn.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I never saw a spectacle so stately, so solemn a show in my life before, +and was much less tired of the long continued march, than were my Roman +Catholic companions.</p> + +<p>Our inn is not a good one; the Pellegrino is engaged for the King of +Naples and his train: the place we are housed in, is full of bugs, and +every odious vermin: no wonder, surely, where such oven-like porticoes +catch and retain the heat as if constructed on set purpose so to do. The +Montagnola at night was something of relief, but contrary to every other +resort of company: the less it is frequented the gayer it appears; for +Nature there has been lavish of her bounties, which seem disregarded by +the Bolognese, who unluckily find out that there is a burying-ground +<!-- Page 256 --><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>within view, though at no small distance really; and planting +themselves over against that, they stand or kneel for many minutes +together in whole rows, praying, as I understand, for the souls which +once animated the bodies of the people whom they believe to lie interred +there; all this too even at the hours dedicated to amusement.</p> + +<p>Cardinal Buon Compagni, the legate, sent from Rome here, is gone home; +and the vice-legate officiated in his place, much to the consolation of +the inhabitants, who observed with little delight or gratitude his +endeavours to improve their trade, or his care to maintain their +privileges; while his natural disinclination to hypocritical manners, or +what we so emphatically call <i>cant</i>, gave them an aversion to his person +and dislike of his government, which he might have prevented by +formality of look, and very trifling compliances. But every thing helps +to prove, that if you would please people, it must be done <i>their</i> way, +not your own.</p> + +<p>Here are some charming manufactures in this town, and I fear it requires +much self-denial in an Englishwoman not to long at <!-- Page 257 --><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>least for the fine +crapes, tiffanies, &c. which might here be bought I know not how cheap, +and would make one <i>so</i> happy in London or at Bath. But these +Customhouse officers! these <i>rats de cave</i>, as the French comically call +them, will not let a ribbon pass. Such is the restless jealousy of +little states, and such their unremitted attention to keep the goods +made in one place out of the gates of another. Few things upon a journey +contribute to torment and disgust one more than the teasing enquiries at +the door of every city, who one is, what one's name is? what one's rank +in life or employment is; that so all may be written down and carried to +the chief magistrate for his information, who immediately dispatches a +proper person to examine whether you gave in a true report; where you +lodge, why you came, how long you mean to stay; with twenty more +inquisitive speeches, which to a subject of more liberal governments +must necessarily appear impertinent as frivolous, and make all my hopes +of bringing home the most trifling presents for a friend abortive. So +there is an end of that felicity, and we must sit like the girl at the +fair, described by Gay,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><!-- Page 258 --><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a> +<span class="i0">Where the coy nymph knives, combs, and scissars spies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The Specola, so they call their museum here, of natural and artificial +rarities, is very fine indeed; the inscription too denoting its +universality, is sublimely generous: I thought of our Bath hospital in +England; more usefully, if not more magnificently so; but durst not tell +the professor, who shewed the place. At our going in he was apparently +much out of humour, and unwilling to talk, but grew gradually kinder, +and more communicative; and I had at last a thousand thanks to pay for +an attention that rendered the sight of all more valuable. Nothing can +surpass the neatness and precision with which this elegant repository is +kept, and the curiosities contained in it have specimens very uncommon. +The native gold shewed here is supposed to be the largest and most +perfect lump in Europe; wonderfully beautiful it certainly is, and the +coral here is such as can be seen nowhere else; they shewed me some +which looked like an actual tree.</p> + +<p>It might reasonably lower the spirits of philosophy, and tend to +restraining the genius of <!-- Page 259 --><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>remote enquiry, did we reflect that the very +first substance given into our hand as an amusement, or subject of +speculation, as soon as we arrive in this great world of wonders, never +gets fully understood by those who study hardest, or live longest in it.</p> + +<p>Coral is a substance, concerning which the natural historians have had +many disputes, and settled nothing yet; knowing, as it should seem, but +little more of its original, than they did when they sucked it first. Of +gold we have found perhaps but too many uses; but when the professor +told us here at Bologna, that silver in the mine was commonly found +mixed with <i>arsenick</i>, a corroding poison, or <i>lead</i>, a narcotic one; +who could help being led forward to a train of thought on the nature and +use and abuse of money and minerals in general. <i>Suivez</i> (as Rousseau +says), <i>la chaine de tout cela</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Follow this clue, and see +where it will lead you to]</span>.</p> + +<p>The astronomical apparatus at this place is a splendid one; but the +models of architecture, fortifications, &c. are only more numerous; not +so exact or elegant I think as those the King of England has for his own +private use at the Queen's house in <!-- Page 260 --><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a>St. James's Park. The specimens of +a human figure in wax are the work of a woman, whose picture is +accordingly set up in the school: they are reckoned incomparable of +their kind, and bring to one's fancy Milton's fine description of our +first parents:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Two of far nobler kind—erect and tall.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This University has been particularly civil to women; many very learned +ladies of France and Germany have been and are still members of it;—and +la Dottoressa Laura Bassi gave lectures not many years ago in this very +spot, upon the mathematics and natural philosophy, till she grew very +old and infirm; but her pupils always handed her very respectfully to +and from the Doctor's chair, <i>Che brava donnetta ch'era!</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Ah, +what a fine woman was that!]</span> says the gentleman who shewed me the +academy, as we came out at the door; over which a marble tablet, with an +inscription more pious than pompous, is placed to her memory; but +turning away his eyes—while they filled with tears—<i>tutli +muosono</i><span class="footnoteinline">[All must die.]</span>, added he, and I followed; as nothing +either of energy or pathos could be added to a reflection so just, so +<!-- Page 261 --><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>tender, and so true: we parted sadly therefore with our agreeable +companion and instructor just where her cenotaph (for the body lies +buried in a neighbouring church) was erected; and shall probably meet no +more; for as he said and sighed—<i>tutti muosono</i><span class="footnoteinline">[All must die]</span>.</p> + +<p>The great Cassini too, who though of an Italian family, was born at Nice +I think, and died at Paris, drew his meridian line through the church of +St. Petronius in this city, across the pavement, where it still remains +a monument to his memory, who discovered the third and fifth satellites +of Jupiter. Such was in his time the reputation of a mineral spring near +Bologna, that Pope Alexander the Seventh set him to analyse the waters +of it; and so satisfactory were his proofs of its very slight importance +to health, that the same pope called him to Rome to examine the waters +round that capital; but dying soon after his arrival, he had no time to +recompence Cassini's labours, though a very elegantly-minded man, and a +great encourager of learning in all its branches. The successor to this +sovereign, Rospigliosi, had different <!-- Page 262 --><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>employment found for <i>him</i>, in +helping the Venetians to regain Candia from the Turks, his +disappointment in not being able to accomplish which design broke his +heart; and Cassini, returning to Bologna, found it less pleasing than it +was before he left it, so went to Paris, and died there at ninety or +ninety-one years old, as I remember, early in this present century, but +not till after he had enjoyed the pleasure of hearing that Count +Marsigli had founded an academy at the place where he had studied whilst +his faculties were strong.</p> + +<p>Another church, situated on the only hill one can observe for miles, is +dedicated to the Madonna St. Luc, as it is called; and a very beautiful +and curiously covered way is made to it up the hill, for three miles in +length, and at a prodigious expence, to guard the figure from the rain +as it is carried in procession. The ascent is so gentle that one hardly +feels it. Pillars support the roof, which defends you from a sun-stroke, +while the air and prospect are let in between them on the right hand as +you go. The left side is closed up by a wall, adorned from time to time +with fresco paintings, representing the birth <!-- Page 263 --><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>and most distinguished +passages in the life of the blessed Virgin. Round these paintings a +little chapel is railed in, open, airy, and elegantly, not very +pompously, adorned; there are either seven or twelve of them, I forget +which, that serve to rest the procession as it passes, on days +particularly dedicated to her service. When you arrive at the top, a +church of a most beautiful construction recompenses your long but not +tedious walk, and there are some admirable pictures in it, particularly +one of St. William laying down his armour, and taking up the habit of a +Carthusian, very fine—but the figure of the Madonna is the prize they +value, and before this I did see some men kneel with a truly idolatrous +devotion. That it was painted by St. Luke is believed by them all. But +if it <i>was</i> painted by St. Luke, said I, what then? do you think <i>he</i>, +or the still more excellent person it was done for, would approve of +your worshipping any thing but God? To this no answer was made; and I +thought one man looked as if he had grace enough to be ashamed of +himself.</p> + +<p>The girls, who sit in clusters at the chapel doors as one goes up, +singing hymns in <!-- Page 264 --><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>praise of the Virgin Mary, pleased me much, as it was +a mode of veneration inoffensive to religion, and agreeable to the +fancy; but seeing them bow down to that black figure, in open defiance +of the Decalogue, shocked me. Why all the <i>very very</i> early pictures of +the Virgin, and many of our blessed Saviour himself, done in the first +ages of Christianity should be <i>black</i>, or at least tawny, is to me +wholly incomprehensible, nor could I ever yet obtain an explanation of +its cause from men of learning or from connoisseurs.</p> + +<p>We have in England a black Madonna, very ancient of course, and of +immense value, in the cathedral of Wells in Somersetshire; it is painted +on glass, and stands in the middle pane of the upper window I think, is +a profile face, and eminently handsome. My mind tells me that I have +seen another somewhere in Great Britain, but cannot recollect the spot, +unless it were Arundel Castle in Sussex, but I am not sure: none was +ever painted so since the days of Pietro Perugino I believe, so their +antiquity is unquestionable: he and his few contemporaries drew her +white, as Sir Joshua Reynolds and Pompeio Battoni.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 265 --><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>Whilst I perambulated the palaces of the Bolognese nobility, gloomy +though spacious, and melancholy though splendid, I could not but admire +at Richardson's judgment when he makes his beautiful Bigot, his +interesting Clementina, an inhabitant of superstitious Bologna. The +unconquerable attachment she shews to original prejudices, and the +horror of what she has been taught to consider as heresy, could scarcely +have been attributed so happily to the dweller in any town but this: +where I hear nothing but the sound of people saying their rosaries, and +see nothing in the street but people telling their beads. The Porretta +palace is hourly presenting itself to my imagination, which delights in +the assurance that genius cannot be confined by place. Dear Richardson +at Salisbury Court Fleet Street, and Parson's Green Fulham, felt all +within him that travelling can tell, or experience confirm: he had seen +little, and Johnson has often told me that he had read little; but what +he did read never forsook a memory that was not contented with +retaining, but fermented all that fell into it, and made a new creation +from the fertility of his own <!-- Page 266 --><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>rich mind.—These are the men for whom +monuments need not be erected.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They in our pleasure and astonishment,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do build themselves a live long monument;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as Milton says of a much greater writer still.</p> + +<p>But the King of Naples is arrived, and that attention which wits and +scholars can retain for centuries, may not be unjustly paid to princes +while they last.</p> + +<p>Our Bolognese have hit upon an odd method of entertaining him however: +no other than making a representation of Mount Vesuvius on the +Montagnuola, or place of evening resort, hoping at least to treat him +with something new I trow. Were the King of England to visit these <i>cari +Bolognese</i>, surely they would shew him Westminster Bridge, with a view +of the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth on one side the river, and +Somerset-house on the other.</p> + +<p>A pretty throne, or state-box, was soon got in order, <i>that it was</i>; and +the motion excited by carrying the fire-works to have them prepared for +the evening's show, gave life to the morning, which hung less heavily +than <!-- Page 267 --><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a>usual; nor did the people recollect the church-yard at a distance, +while the merry King of Naples was near them. His Majesty appeared +perfectly contented and good-humoured, and happy with whatever was done +for his amusement. I remember his behaviour at Milan though, too well to +be surprised at his pleasantness of disposition, when my maid was +delighted to see him dance among the girls at a Festa di Ballo, from +whence I retired early myself, and sent her back to enjoy it all in my +domino. He played at cards too when at Milan I recollect, in the common +Ridotto Chamber at the Theatre, and played for common sums, so as to +charm every one with his kindness and affability.</p> + +<p>I am glad however that we shall now be soon released from this upon the +whole disagreeable town, where there is the best possible food too for +body and mind; but where the inhabitants seem to think only of the next +world, and do little to amuse those who have not yet quite done with +this. If they are sincere mean time, God will bless them with a long +continuance of the appellation they so <!-- Page 268 --><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>justly deserve; and those +travellers who pass through will find some amends in the rich cream and +incomparable dinners every day, for the insects that devour them every +night; and will, if they are wise, seek compensation from the company of +the half animated pictures that crowd the palaces and churches, for the +half dead inhabitants who kneel in the streets of Bologna.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="FLORENCE" id="FLORENCE"></a>FLORENCE.</h3> + + +<p>We slept no-where, except perhaps in the carriage, between our last +residence at Bologna and this delightful city, to which we passed +apparently through a new region of the earth, or even air; clambering up +mountains covered with snow, and viewing with amazement the little +vallies between, where, after quitting the summer season, all glowing +with heat and spread into verdure, we found cherry-trees in blossom, +oaks and walnuts scarcely beginning to bud. These mountains are however +much below those of Savoy for dignity and beauty of appearance, <!-- Page 269 --><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>though +high enough to be troublesome, and barren enough to be desolate. These +Appenines have been called by some the Back Bone of Italy, as Varenius +and others style the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, Back Bone of the +World; and these, as they do, run in a long chain down the middle of the +Peninsula they are placed in; but being rounded at top are supposed to +be aquatick, while the Alps, Andes, &c. are of late acknowledged by +philosophers to be volcanic, as the most lofty of <i>them</i> terminate in +points of granite, wholly devoid of horizontal strata, and without +petrifactions contained in them,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Here</i> the tracts around display<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How impetuous ocean's sway<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once with wasteful fury spread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wild waves o'er each mountain's head.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Parsons</span>. +</div></div> + +<p>But the offspring of fire somehow <i>should</i> be more striking than that of +water, however violent might have been the concussion that produced +them; and there is no comparison between the sensations felt in passing +the Roche Melon, and these more neatly-moulded Appenines; upon whose +tops I am told too no <!-- Page 270 --><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>lakes have been formed, as on Mount Cenis, or +even on Snowdon in North Wales, where a very beautiful lake adorns the +summit of the rock; which affords trout precisely such as you eat before +you go down to Novalesa, but not so large.</p> + +<p>Sir William Hamilton, however, is the man to be referred to in all these +matters; no man has examined the peculiar properties and general nature +of mountains, those which vomit fire in particular, with half as much +application, inspired by half as much genius, as he has done.</p> + +<p>We arrived late at our inn, an English one they say it is; and many of +the last miles were passed very pleasantly by my maid and myself, in +anticipating the comforts we should receive by finding ourselves among +our own country folks. In good time! and by once more eating, sleeping, +&c. <i>all in the English way</i>, as her phrase is. Accordingly, here are +small low beds again, soft and clean, and down pillows; here are currant +tarts, which the Italians scorn to touch, but which we are happy and +delighted to pay not ten but twenty times their value for, because a +currant tart is so much <i>in the English way</i>: and <!-- Page 271 --><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>here are beans and +bacon in a climate where it is impossible that bacon should be either +wholesome or agreeable; and one eats infinitely worse than one did at +Milan, Venice, or Bologna: and infinitely dearer too; but that makes it +still more completely <i>in the English way</i>.</p> + +<p>Mean time here we are however in Arno's Vale; the full moon shining over +Fiesole, which I see from my windows. Milton's verses every moment in +one's mouth, and Galileo's house twenty yards from one's door,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whence her bright orb the Tuscan artist view'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At evening from the top of Fesole;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or in Val d'Arno to descry new lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rivers or mountains on her spotty globe.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Our apartments here are better than we hoped for, situated most sweetly +on the banks of this classical stream; a noble terrace underneath our +window, broad as the south parade at Bath I think, and the fine Ponte +della Santa Trinità within sight. Many people have asserted that this is +the first among all bridges in the world; but architecture triumphs in +the art of building bridges, and, though this is a most exquisitely +beautiful <!-- Page 272 --><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>fabric, I can scarcely venture to call it an unrivalled one: +it shall, if the fine statues at the corners can assist its power over +the fancy, and if cleanliness can compensate for stately magnificence, +or for the fire of original and unassisted genius, it shall obliterate +from my mind the Rialto at Venice, and the fine arch thrown over the +Conway at Llanwrst in our North Wales.</p> + +<p>I wrote to a lady at Venice this morning though, to say, however I might +be charmed by the sweets of Arno's side, I could not forbear regretting +the Grand Canal.</p> + +<p>Count Manucci, a nobleman of this city, formerly intimate with Mr. +Thrale in London and Mr. Piozzi at Paris, came early to our apartments, +and politely introduced us to the desirable society of his sisters and +his friends. We have in his company and that of Cavalier d'Elci, a +learned and accomplished man, of high birth, deep erudition, and +polished manners, seen much, and with every possible advantage.</p> + +<p>This morning they shewed us La Capella St. Lorenzo, where I could but +think how surprisingly Mr. Addison's prediction was verified, that these +slow Florentines would <!-- Page 273 --><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>not perhaps be able to finish the burial-place +of their favourite family, before the family itself should be extinct. +This reflection felt like one naturally suggested to me by the place; +Doctor Moore however has the original merit of it, as I afterwards found +it in his book: but it is the peculiar property of natural thoughts well +expressed, to sink into one's mind and incorporate themselves with it, +so as to make one forget they were not all one's own.</p> + +<p><i>Poets, as well as jesters, do oft prove prophets:</i> Prior's happy +prediction for the female wits in one of his epilogues is come true +already, when he says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Your time, poor souls! we'll take your very money,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Female <i>third nights</i> shall come so thick upon ye, &c.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and every hour gives one reason to hope that Mr. Pope's glorious +prophecy in favour of the Negroes will not now remain long +unaccomplished, but that liberty will extend her happy influence over +the world;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Till the <i>freed Indians</i>, in their native groves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 274 --><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>I will not extend myself in describing the heaps of splendid ruin in +which the rich chapel of St. Lorenzo now lies: since the elegant Lord +Corke's letters were written, little can be said about Florence not +better said by him; who has been particularly copious in describing a +city which every body wishes to see copiously described.</p> + +<p>The libraries here are exceedingly magnificent; and we were called just +now to that which goes under Magliabechi's name, to hear an eulogium +finely pronounced upon our circumnavigator Captain Cook; whose character +has attracted the attention, and extorted the esteem of every European +nation: far less was the wonder that it forced my tears; they flowed +from a thousand causes: my distance from England! my pleasure in hearing +an Englishman thus lamented in a language with which he had no +acquaintance!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By strangers honoured, and by strangers mourn'd!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Every thing contributed to soften my heart, though not to lower my +spirits. For when a Florentine asked me, how I came to cry so? I +answered, in the words of their divine Mestastasio:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><!-- Page 275 --><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a> +<span class="i0">"Che questo pianto mio<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tutto non è dolor;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E meraviglia, e amore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E riverenza, e speme,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Son mille affetti assieme<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tutti raccolti al cor."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Tis not grief alone, or fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swells the heart, or prompts the tear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reverence, wonder, hope, and joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thousand thoughts my soul employ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Struggling images, which less<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than falling tears can ne'er express.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Giannetti, who pronounced the panegyric, is the justly-celebrated +improvisatore so famous for making Latin verses <i>impromptu</i>, as others +do Italian ones: the speech has been translated into English by Mr. +Merry, with whom I had the honour here first to make acquaintance, +having met him at Mr. Greatheed's, who is our fellow-lodger, and with +whom and his amiable family the time passes in reciprocations of +confidential friendship and mutual esteem.</p> + +<p>Lord and Lady Cowper too contribute to make the society at this place +more pleasing than can be imagined; while English hospitality <!-- Page 276 --><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a>softens +down the stateliness of Tuscan manners.</p> + +<p>Sir Horace Mann is sick and old; but there are conversations at his +house of a Saturday evening, and sometimes a dinner, to which we have +been almost always asked.</p> + +<p>The fruits in this place begin to astonish me; such cherries did I never +yet see, or even hear tell of, as when I caught the Laquais de Place +weighing two of them in a scale to see if they came to an ounce. These +are, in the London street phrase, <i>cherries like plums</i>, in size at +least, but in flavour they far exceed them, being exactly of the kind +that we call bleeding-hearts, hard to the bite, and parting easily from +the stone, which is proportionately small. Figs too are here in such +perfection, that it is not easy for an English gardener to guess at +their excellence; for it is not by superior size, but taste and colour, +that <i>they</i> are distinguished; small, and green on the outside, a bright +full crimson within, and we eat them with raw ham, and truly delicious +is the dainty. By raw ham, I mean ham cured, not boiled or roasted. It +is no wonder though that fruits should mature in such a sun as this is; +which, to give a just <!-- Page 277 --><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a>notion of its penetrating fire, I will take leave +to tell my countrywomen is so violent, that I use no other method of +heating the pinching-irons to curl my hair, than that of poking them out +at a south window, with the handles shut in, and the glasses darkened to +keep us from being actually fired in his beams. Before I leave off +speaking about the fruit, I must add, that both fig and cherry are +produced by standards; that the strawberries here are small and +high-flavoured, like our <i>woods</i>, and that there are no other. England +affords greater variety in <i>that</i> kind of fruit than any nation; and as +to peaches, nectarines, or green-gage plums, I have seen none yet. Lady +Cowper has made us a present of a small pine-apple, but the Italians +have no taste to it. Here is sun enough to ripen them without hot-houses +I am sure, though they repeatedly told us at Milan and Venice, that +<i>this</i> was the coolest place to pass the summer in, because of the +Appenine mountains shading us from the heat, which they confessed to be +intolerable with <i>them</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Here</i> however, they inform us, that it is madness to retire into the +country as English people do during the hot season; for as there <!-- Page 278 --><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>is no +shade from high timber trees, one is bit to death by animals, gnats in +particular, which here are excessively troublesome, even in the town, +notwithstanding we scatter vinegar, and use all the arts in our power; +but the ground-floor is coolest, and every body struggles to get +themselves a <i>terreno</i> as they call it.</p> + +<p>Florence is full just now, and Mr. Jean Figliazzi, an intelligent +gentleman who lives here, and is well acquainted with both nations, +says, that all the genteel people come to take refuge <i>from</i> the country +to Florence in July and August, as the subjects of Great Britain run +<i>to</i> the country from the heats of London or Bath.</p> + +<p>The flowers too! how rich they are in scent here! how brilliant in +colour! how magnificent in size! Wall-flowers perfuming every street, +and even every passage; while pinks and single carnations grow beside +them, with no more soil than they require themselves; and from the tops +of houses, where you least expect it, an aromatic flavour highly +gratifying is diffused. The jessamine is large, broad-leaved, and +beautiful as an orange-flower; but I have seen no roses equal to those +at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect <!-- Page 279 --><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a>counting eighty-four within +my own reach; it grew against the house of Doctor Darwin. Such a +profusion of sweets made me enquire yesterday morning for some scented +pomatum, and they brought me accordingly one pot impelling strong of +garden mint, the other of rue and tansy.</p> + +<p>Thus do the inhabitants of every place forfeit or fling away those +pleasures, which the inhabitants of another place think <i>they</i> would use +in a much wiser manner, had Providence bestowed the blessing upon +<i>them</i>.</p> + +<p>A young Milanese once, whom I met in London, saw me treat a hatter that +lives in Pallmall with the respect due to his merit: when the man was +gone, "Pray, madam, says the Italian, "is this a <i>gran riccone?</i>"<span class="footnoteinline">[Heavy-pursed fellow.]</span> "He is perhaps," replied I, "worth twenty or +thirty thousand pounds; I do not know what ideas you annex to a <i>gran +riccone" "Oh santissima vergine!</i>" exclaims the youth, <i>"s'avessi io mai +settanta mila zecchini! non so pur troppo cosa nesarei; ma questo é +chiaro—non venderei mai cappelli</i>"—"Oh dear me! had I once seventy +thousand sequins in my pocket, <!-- Page 280 --><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a>I would—dear—I cannot think myself +<i>what</i> I should do with them all: but this at least is certain, I would +not <i>sell hats</i>"</p> + +<p>I have been carried to the Laurentian library, where the librarian Bandi +shewed me all possible, and many unmerited civilities; which, for want +of deeper erudition, I could not make the use I wished of. We asked +however to see some famous manuscripts. The Virgil has had a <i>fac +simile</i> made of it, and a printed copy besides; so that it cannot now +escape being known all over Europe. The Bible in Chaldaic characters, +spoken of by Langius as inestimable, and brought hither, with many other +valuable treasures of the same nature, by Lascaris, after the death of +Lorenzo de Medici, who had sent him for the second time to +Constantinople for the purpose of collecting Greek and Oriental books, +but died before his return, is in admirable preservation. The old +geographical maps, made out in a very early age, afforded me much +amusement; and the Latin letters of Petrarch, with the portrait of his +Laura, were interesting to me perhaps more than many other things rated +much <!-- Page 281 --><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>higher by the learned, among those rarities which adorn a library +so comprehensive.</p> + +<p>Every great nation except ours, which was immersed in barbarism, and +engaged in civil broils, seems to have courted the residence of +Lascaris, but the university of Paris fixed his regard: and though Leo +X. treated with favour, and even friendship, the man whom he had +encouraged to intimacy when Cardinal John of Medicis; though he made him +superintendant of a Greek college at Rome; it is said he always wished +to die in France, whither he returned in the reign of Francis the First; +and wrote his Latin epigrams, which I have heard Doctor Johnson prefer +even to the Greek ones preserved in Anthologia; and of which our Queen +Elizabeth, inspired by Roger Ascham, desired to see the author; but he +was then upon a visit to Rome, where he died of the gout at ninety-three +years old.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>June 24, 1785.</p> + +<p>St. John the Baptist is the tutelary Saint of this city, and upon this +day of course all <!-- Page 282 --><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a>possible rejoicings are made. After attending divine +service in the morning, we were carried to a house whence we could +conveniently see the procession pass by. It was not solemn and stately +as that I saw at Bologna, neither was it gaudy and jocund like the show +made at Venice upon St. George's day; but consisted chiefly in vast +heavy pageants, or a sort of temporary building set on wheels, and drawn +by oxen some, and some by horses; others carried upon things made not +unlike a chairman's horse in London, and supported by men, while +priests, in various coloured dresses, according to their several +stations in the church, and to distinguish the parishes, &c. to which +they belong, follow singing in praise of the saint.</p> + +<p>Here is much emulation shewed too, I am told, in these countries, where +religion makes the great and almost the sole amusement of men's lives, +who shall make most figure on St. John the Baptist's day, produce most +music, and go to most expence. For all these purposes subscriptions are +set on foot, for ornamenting and venerating such a picture, statue, &c. +which are then added to the procession by the managers, and called a +<!-- Page 283 --><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a>Confraternity, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angel Raphael, +or who comes in their heads.</p> + +<p>The lady of the house where we went to partake the diversion, was not +wanting in her part; there could not be fewer than a hundred and fifty +people assembled in her rooms, but not crowded as we should have been in +England; for the apartments in Italy are all high and large, and run in +suits like Wanstead house in Essex, or Devonshire house in London +exactly, but larger still: and with immense balconies and windows, not +sashes, which move all away, and give good room and air. The ices, +refreshments, &c. were all excellent in their kinds, and liberally +dispensed. The lady seemed to do the honours of her house with perfect +good-humour; and every body being full-dressed, though so early in a +morning, added much to the general effect of the whole.</p> + +<p>Here I had the honour of being introduced to Cardinal Corsini, who put +me a little out of countenance by saying suddenly, "<i>Well, madam! you +never saw one of us red-legged partridges before I believe; but you are +going to <!-- Page 284 --><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>Rome I hear, where you will find such fellows as me no +rarities</i>" The truth is, I had seen the amiable Prince d'Orini at Milan, +who was a Cardinal; and who had taken delight in showing me prodigious +civilities: nothing ever struck me more than his abrupt entrance one +night at our house, when we had a little music, and every body stood up +the moment he appeared: the Prince however walked forward to the +harpsichord, and blessed my husband in a manner the most graceful and +affecting: then sate the amusement out, and returned the next morning to +breakfast with us, when he indulged us with two hours conversation at +least; adding the kindest and most pressing invitations to his +country-seat among the mountains of Brianza, when we should return from +our tour of Italy in spring 1786. Florence therefore was not the first +place that shewed me a Cardinal.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon we all looked out of our windows which faced the +street,—not mine, as they happily command a view of the river, the +Caseine woods, &c. and from them enjoyed a complete sight of an Italian +horse-race. For after the coaches have paraded up <!-- Page 285 --><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>and down some time to +shew the equipages, liveries, &c. all have on a sudden notice to quit +the scene of action; and all <i>do</i> quit it, in such a manner as is +surprising. The street is now covered with sawdust, and made fast at +both ends: the starting-post is adorned with elegant booths, lined with +red velvet, for the court and first nobility: at the other end a piece +of tapestry is hung, to prevent the creatures from dashing their brains +out when they reach the goal. Thousands and ten thousands of people on +foot fill the course, that it is standing wonder to me still that +numbers are not killed. The prizes are now exhibited to view, quite in +the old classical style; a piece of crimson damask for the winner +perhaps; a small silver bason and ewer for the second; and so on, +leaving no performer unrewarded. At last come out the <i>concurrenti</i> +without riders, but with a narrow leathern strap hung across their +backs, which has a lump of ivory fastened to the end of it, all set full +of sharp spikes like a hedge-hog, and this goads them along while +galloping, worse than any spurs could do; because the faster they run, +the more this odd machine keeps jumping up and down, and pricking <!-- Page 286 --><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>their +sides ridiculously enough; and it makes one laugh to see that some of +them are not provoked by it not to run at all, but set about plunging, +in order to rid themselves of the inconvenience, instead of driving +forward to divert the mob; who leap and shout and caper with delight, +and lash the laggers along with great indignation indeed, and with the +most comical gestures. I never saw horses in so droll a state of +degradation before, for they are all striped or spotted, or painted of +some colour to distinguish them each from other; and nine or ten often +start at a time, to the great danger of lookers-on I think, but +exceedingly to my entertainment, who have the comfort of Mrs. +Greatheed's company, and the advantage of seeing all safely from her +well-situated <i>terreno</i>, or ground-floor.</p> + +<p>The chariot-race was more splendid, but less diverting: this was +performed in the Piazza, or Square, an unpaved open place not bigger +than Covent Garden I believe, and the ground strangely uneven. The cars +were light and elegant; one driver and two horses to each: the first +very much upon the principle of the antique chariots described by old +poets, and the last trapped showily in <!-- Page 287 --><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a>various colours, adapted to the +carriages, that people might make their betts accordingly upon the pink, +the blue, the green, &c. I was exceedingly amused with seeing what so +completely revived all classic images, and seemed so little altered from +the classic times. Cavalier D'Elci, in reply to my expressions of +delight, told me that the same spirit still subsisted exactly; but that +in order to prevent accidents arising from the disputants' endeavours to +overturn or circumvent each other, it was now sunk into a mere +appearance of contest; for that all the chariots belonged to one man, +who would doubtless be careful enough that his coachmen should not go to +sparring at the hazard of their horses. The farce was carried on to the +end however, and the winner spread his velvet in triumph, and drove +round the course to enjoy the acclamations and caresses of the crowd.</p> + +<p>That St. John the Baptist's birth-day should be celebrated by a horse or +chariot race, appears to have little claim to the praise of propriety; +but mankind seems agreed that there must be some excuse for merriment; +and surely if any saint is to be venerated, he stands foremost whom +Christ himself declared <!-- Page 288 --><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a>to be the greatest man ever born of a woman.</p> + +<p>The old Romans had an institution in this month of games to Neptune +Equester, as they called their Sea God, with no great appearance of good +sense neither; but the horse he produced at the naming of Athens was the +cause assigned—these games are perhaps half transmitted ones from those +in the ancient mythology.</p> + +<p>The evening concluded, and the night began with fire-works; the church, +or duomo, as a cathedral is always called in Italy, was illuminated on +the outside, and very beautiful, and very very magnificent was the +appearance. The reflection of the cupola's lights in the river gave us +back a faint image of what we had been admiring; and when I looked at +them from my window, as we were retiring to rest; such, thought I, and +fainter still are the images which can be given of a show in written or +verbal description; yet my English friends shall not want an account of +what I have seen; for Italy, at last, is only a fine well-known academy +figure, from which we all sit down to make drawings according as the +light falls; and <!-- Page 289 --><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a>our seat affords opportunity. Every man sees that, and +indeed most things, with the eyes of his then present humour, and begins +describing away so as to convey a dignified or despicable idea of the +object in question, just as his disposition led him to interpret its +appearance.</p> + +<p>Readers now are grown wiser, however, than very much to mind us: they +want no further telling that one traveller was in pain, and one in love +when the tour of Italy was made by them; and so they pick out their +intelligence accordingly, from various books, written like two letters +in the Tatler, giving an account of a rejoicing night; one endeavouring +to excite majestic ideas, the other ludicrous ones of the very same +thing.</p> + +<p>Well 'tis true enough, however, and has been often enough laughed at, +that the Italian horses run without riders, and scamper down a long +street with untrimmed heels, hundreds of people hooking them along, as +naughty boys do a poor dog, that has a bone tied to his tail in England. +This diversion was too good to end with the day.</p> + +<p>Dulness, dear Queen, repeats the jest again.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 290 --><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a>We had another, and another just such a race for three or four evenings +together, and they got an English <i>cock-tailed nag</i>, and set <i>him</i> to +the business, as they said <i>he was trained to it</i>; but I don't recollect +his making a more brilliant figure than his painted and chalked +neighbours of the Continent.</p> + +<p>We will not be prejudiced, however; that the Florentines know how to +manage horses is certain, if they would take the trouble. Last night's +theatre exhibited a proof of skill, which might shame Astley and all his +rivals. Count Pazzi having been prevailed on to lend his four beautiful +chesnut favourites from his own carriage to draw a pageant upon the +stage, I saw them yesterday evening harnessed all abreast, their own +master in a dancer's habit I was told, guiding them himself, and +personating the Cid, which was the name of the ballet, if I remember +right, making his horses go clear round the stage, and turning at the +lamps of the orchestra with such dexterity, docility, and grace, that +they seemed rather to enjoy than feel disturbance at the deafening noise +of instruments, the repeated bursts of applause, and hollow sound of +their own hoofs upon the boards of a theatre. <!-- Page 291 --><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a>I had no notion of such +discipline, and thought the praises, though very loud, not ill bestowed: +as it is surely one of man's earliest privileges to replenish the earth +with animal life, and to subdue it.</p> + +<p>I have, for my own part, generally speaking, little delight in the +obstreperous clamours of these heroic pantomimes;—their battles are so +noisy, and the acclamations of the spectators so distressing to weak +nerves, I dread an Italian theatre—it distracts me.—And always the +same thing so, every and every night! how tedious it is!</p> + +<p>This want of variety in the common pleasures of Italy though, and that +surprising content with which a nation so sprightly looks on the same +stuff, and laughs at the same joke for months and months together, is +perhaps less despicable to a thinking mind, than the affectation of +weariness and disgust, where probably it is not felt at all; and where a +gay heart often lurks under a clouded countenance, put on to deceive +spectators into a notion of his philosophy who wears it; and what is +worse, who wears it chiefly as a mark of distinction cheaply obtained; +for neither science, wit, nor courage are <i>now</i> found necessary to form +a man of <!-- Page 292 --><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a>fashion, or the <i>ton</i>, to which may be said as justly as ever +Mr. Pope affirmed it of silence,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That routed reason finds her sure retreat in thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Affectation is certainly that faint and sickly weed which is the curse +of cultivated,—not naturally fertile and extensive countries; an insect +that infests our forcing stoves and hot-house plants: and as the +naturalists tell us all animals may be bred <i>down</i> to a state very +different from that in which they were originally placed; that +<i>carriers</i>, and <i>fantails</i>, and <i>croppers</i>, are produced by early +caging, and minutely attending to the common blue pigeon, flights of +which cover the ploughed fields in distant provinces of England, and +shew the rich and changeable plumage of their fine neck to the summer +sun; so from the warm and generous Briton of ancient days may be +produced, and happily bred <i>down</i>, the clay-cold coxcomb of St. +James's-street.</p> + +<p>In Italy, so far at least as I have gone, there is no impertinent desire +of appearing what one is <i>not</i>: no searching for talk, and torturing +expression to vary its phrases with something new and something fine; or +else sinking into silence from despair of diverting <!-- Page 293 --><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>the company, and +taking up the opposite method, contriving to impress them with an idea +of bright intelligence, concealed by modest doubts of our own powers, +and stifled by deep thought upon abstruse and difficult topics. To get +quit of all these deep-laid systems of enjoyment, where</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To take our breakfast we project a scheme,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor drink our tea without a stratagem,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>like the lady in Doctor Young; the surest method is to drop into Italy; +where a conversazione at Venice or Florence, after the society of +London, or <i>les petit soupers de Paris</i>, where, in their own phrase, <i>un +tableau n'attend pas l'autre</i><span class="footnoteinline">[One picture don't wait for +another]</span>, is like taking a walk in Ham Gardens, or the Leasowes, after +<i>les parterres de Versailles ed i Terrazzi di Genoa</i>. We are affected in +the house, but natural in the gardens. Italians are natural in society, +affected and constrained in the disposition of their grounds. No one, +however, is good or bad, or wise or foolish without a reason why. +Restraint is made for man, and where religious and political liberty is +enjoyed to its full extent, <!-- Page 294 --><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a>as in Great Britain, the people will forge +shackles for themselves, and lay the yoke heavy on society, to which, on +the contrary, Italians give a loose, as compensation for their want of +freedom in affairs of church or state.</p> + +<p>It is, I think, observable of uncontradicted, homebred, and, as we say, +spoiled children, that when a dozen of them get together for the purpose +of passing a day in mutual amusement, they will make to themselves the +strictest laws for their game, and rigidly punish whatever breach of +rule has been made while the time allotted for diversion lasts: but in a +school of girls, strictly kept, at <i>their</i> hours of permitted recreation +no distinct sounds can be heard through the general clamour of joy and +confusion; nor does any thing come less into their heads than the notion +of imposing regulations on themselves, or making sport out of the harsh +sounds of <i>rule and government</i>.</p> + +<p>Ridicule too points her arrows only among highly-polished +societies—<i>Paris</i> and <i>London</i>, in the first of which all wit is +comprised in the power of ridiculing one's neighbours, and in the other +every artifice is put in practice to <!-- Page 295 --><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a>escape it. In Italy no such +terrors restrain conversation; no public censure pursues that +fantastical behaviour which leads to no public offence; and as it is +only fear which can beget falsehood, these people seek such behavior as +naturally suits them; and in our theatrical phrase, they let the +character come to them, they do not go to the character.</p> + +<p>Let us not fail to remember after all, that such severity as we use, +quickens the desire of pleasing, and deadens the diffusion of immoral +sentiments, or indelicate language, in England; where, I must add, for +the honour of my country, that if such liberties were taken upon the +stage as are frequent in the first ranks of Italian society, they would +be hissed by those who paid only a shilling for their entrance: so that +affectation and a forced refinement may be considered as the bad leaden +statues still left in our delicately-neat and highly-ornamented gardens; +of which elegance and science are the white and red roses: but to be +possessed of their <i>sweets</i>, one must venture a little through the +<i>thorns</i>.—<i>Thorns</i>, though figurative, remind one of the <i>cicala</i>, a +creature which leaves nothing else untouched here. Surely their clamours +and <!-- Page 296 --><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a>depredations have no equal. I used to walk in the Boboli Gardens, +defying the heat, till they had eaten up the little shade some hedges +there afforded me; and till, by their incessant noise, all thought is +disturbed, and no line presented itself to my memory but</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sole sob ardenti resonant arbusta Cicadis<a name="FNanchor_W_63" id="FNanchor_W_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_W_63" class="fnanchor">[W]</a>;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_W_63" id="Footnote_W_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_W_63"><span class="label">[W]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While in the scorching sun I trace in vain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy flying footsteps o'er the burning plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The creaking locusts with my voice conspire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They fried with heat, and I with fierce desire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Dryden</span>. +</div></div> +</div> + +<p>till Mr. Merry's sweet ode to summer here at Florence made one less +discontented,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To hear the light cicala's ceaseless din,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That vibrates shrill; or the near-weeping brook<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That feebly winds along,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mourns his channel shrunk.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Merry</span>. +</div></div> + +<p>This animal has four wings, four eyes, and two membranes like parchment +under the hard scales he is covered with; and these, it is said, create +the uncommon noise he makes, by blowing them somewhat like bellows, to +sharpen the sound; which, whatever it proceeds from, is louder than can +be guessed at by those who have not heard it in Tuscany. He is of the +locust kind, an inch and <!-- Page 297 --><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a>a half long, and wonderfully light in +proportion; though no small feeder, I should imagine, by the total +destruction his noisy tribe make amongst the leaves, which are now +wholly stript by them of all their verdure, the fibres only being left; +and I observed yesterday evening, as we returned from airing, another +strange deprivation practised on the mulberry leaves round the city, +which being all forcibly torn away for the use of the silk-worms, make +an odd fort of artificial winter near the town walls; and remind one of +the wretched geese in Lincolnshire, plucked once a year for their +feathers by their truly unfeeling proprietors. I am told indeed, that +both revegetate, though I trust neither tree nor bird can fail to +experience fatal effects one day or other in consequence of so unnatural +an operation. Here is some ivy of uncommon growth, but I have seen +larger both at Beaumaris castle in North Wales, and at the abbey of +Glastonbury in Somersetshire: but the great pines in the Caseine woods +have, I suppose, no rival nearer than the Castagno a Cento Cavalli, +mentioned by Mr. Brydone. They afford little shade or shelter from heat +however, as their umbrella-like <!-- Page 298 --><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>covering is strangely small in +proportion to their height and size; some of them being ten, and some +twelve feet in diameter. These venerable, these glorious productions of +nature are all now marked for destruction however; all going to be put +in wicker baskets, and feed the Grand Duke's fires. I saw a fellow +hewing one down to-day, and the rest are all to follow;—the feeble +Florentines had much ado to master it;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Seemed the harmful hatchet to fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to wound holy Eld would forbear,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as Spenser says: I did half hope they could not get it down; but the +loyal Tuscans (evermore awed by the name <i>principe</i>) told us it was +right to get rid of them, as one of the cones, of which they bore vast +quantities, might chance to drop upon the head of a <i>Principettino</i>, or +little Prince, as he passed along.</p> + +<p>I was observing that restraint was necessary to man; I have now learned +a notion that noise is necessary too. The clatter made here in the +Piazza del Duomo, where you sit in your carriage at a coffee-house door, +and chat with your friends according to Italian <!-- Page 299 --><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a>custom, while <i>one</i> +eats ice, and <i>another</i> calls for lemonade, to while away the time after +dinner, the noise made then and there, I say, is beyond endurance.</p> + +<p>Our Florentines have nothing on earth to do; yet a dozen fellows crying +<i>ciambelli</i>, little cakes, about the square, assisted by beggars, who +lie upon the church steps, and pray or rather promise to pray as loud as +their lungs will let them, for the <i>anime sante di purgatorio</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Holy souls in purgatory.]</span>; ballad-singers meantime endeavouring to drown +these clamours in their own, and gentlemen's servants disputing at the +doors, whose master shall be first served; ripping up the pedigrees of +each to prove superior claims for a biscuit or macaroon; do make such an +intolerable clatter among them, that one cannot, for one's life, hear +one another speak: and I did say just now, that it were as good live at +Brest or Portsmouth when the rival fleets were fitting out, as here; +where real tranquillity subsists under a bustle merely imaginary. Our +Grand Duke lives with little state for aught I can observe here; but +where there is least pomp, there <!-- Page 300 --><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a>is commonly most power; for a man must +have <i>something pour se de dommages</i><span class="footnoteinline">[To make himself amends.]</span>, +as the French express it; and this gentleman possessing the <i>solide</i> has +no care for the <i>clinquant</i>, I trow. He tells his subjects when to go to +bed, and who to dance with, till the hour he chuses they should retire +to rest, with exactly that sort of old-fashioned paternal authority that +fathers used to exercise over their families in England before commerce +had run her levelling plough over all ranks, and annihilated even the +name of subordination. If he hear of any person living long in Florence +without being able to give a good account of his business there, the +Duke warns him to go away; and if he loiter after such warning given, +sends him out. Does any nobleman shine in pompous equipage or splendid +table; the Grand Duke enquires soon into his pretensions, and scruples +not to give personal advice, and add grave reproofs with regard to the +management of each individual's private affairs, the establishment of +their sons, marriage of their sisters, <!-- Page 301 --><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a>&c. When they appeared to +complain of this behaviour to <i>me</i>, I know not, replied I, what to +answer: one has always read and heard that the Sovereigns ought to +behave in despotic governments like the <i>fathers of their family</i>: and +the Archbishop of Cambray inculcates no other conduct than this, when +advising his pupil, heir to the crown of France. "Yes, Madam," replied +one of my auditors, with an acuteness truly Italian; "but this Prince is +<i>our father-in-law</i>." The truth is, much of an English traveller's +pleasure is taken off at Florence by the incessant complaints of a +government he does not understand, and of oppressions he cannot remedy. +Tis so dull to hear people lament the want of liberty, to which I +question whether they have any pretensions; and without ever knowing +whether it is the tyranny or the tyrant they complain of. Tedious +however and most uninteresting are their accounts of grievances, which a +subject of Great Britain has much ado to comprehend, and more to pity; +as they are now all heart-broken, because they must say their prayers in +their own language and not in Latin, which, how it <!-- Page 302 --><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a>can be construed +into misfortune, a Tuscan alone can tell.</p> + +<p>Lord Corke has given us many pleasing anecdotes of those who were +formerly Princes in this land. Had they a sovereign of the old Medici +family, they would go to bed when <i>he</i> bid them quietly enough I +believe, and say their prayers in what language <i>he</i> would have them: +'tis in our parliamentary phrase, the <i>men</i>, not the <i>measures</i> that +offend them; and while they pretend to whine as if despotism displeased +them, they detest every republican state, feel envy towards Venice, and +contempt for Lucca.</p> + +<p>I would rather talk of their gallery than their government: and surely +nothing made by man ever so completely answered a raised expectation, as +the apparent contest between Titian's recumbent beauty, glowing with +colour and animated by the warmest expression, and the Greek statue of +symmetrical perfection and fineness of form inimitable, where sculpture +supplies all that fancy can desire, and all that imagination can +suggest. These two models of excellence seem placed near each other, at +once <!-- Page 303 --><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a>to mock all human praise, and defy all future imitation. The +listening slave appears disturbed by the blows of the wrestlers in the +same room, and hearkens with an attentive impatience, such as one has +often felt when unable to distinguish the words one wishes to repeat. +You really then do not seem as if you were alone in this tribune, so +animated is every figure, so full of life and soul: yet I commend not +the representing of St Catharine with leering eyes, as she is here +painted by Titian; that it is meant for a portrait, I find no excuse; +some character more suited to the expression should have been chosen; +and if it were only the picture of a saint, that expression was +strangely out of character. An anachronism may be found in the Tobit +over the door too, by acute observers, who will deem it ill-managed to +paint the cross in the clouds, where it is an old testament story, and +that story apocryphal beside; might I add, that Guido's meek Madonna, so +divinely contrasted to the other women in the room, loses something of +dignity by the affected position of the thumbs. I think I might leave +the tribune without a word said of the St. John by Raphael, which no +words are worthy <!-- Page 304 --><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"></a>to extol: 'tis all sublimity; and when I look on it I +feel nothing but veneration pushed to astonishment. Unlike the elegant +figure of the Baptist at Padua, covered with glass, and belonging to a +convent of friars, who told me, and truly, That it had no equal; it is +painted by Guido with every perfection of form and every grace of +expression. I agree with them it has no equal; but in the tribune at +Florence maybe found its superior.</p> + +<p>We were next conducted to the Niobe, who has an apartment to herself: +and now, thought I, dear Mrs. Siddons has never seen this figure: but +those who can see it or her, without emotions equally impossible to +contain or to suppress, deserve the fate of Niobe, and have already +half-suffered it. Their hearts and eyes are stone.</p> + +<p>Nothing is worth speaking of after this Niobe! Her beauty! her maternal +anguish! her closely-clasped Chloris! her half-raised head, scarcely +daring to deprecate that vengeance of which she already feels such +dreadful effects! What can one do</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But drop the shady curtain on the scene,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 305 --><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a>and run to see the portraits of those artists who have exalted one's +ideas of human nature, and shewn what man can perform. Among these +worthies a British eye soon distinguishes Sir Joshua Reynolds; a citizen +of the world fastens his to Leonardo da Vinci.</p> + +<p>I have been out to dinner in the country near Prato, and what a +charming, what a delightful thing is a nobleman's seat near Florence! +How cheerful the society! how splendid the climate! how wonderful the +prospects in this glorious country! The Arno rolling before his house, +the Appenines rising behind it! a sight of fertility enjoyed by its +inhabitants, and a view of such defences to their property as nature +alone can bestow.</p> + +<p>A peasantry so rich too, that the wives and daughters of the farmer go +dressed in jewels; and those of no small value. A pair of one-drop +ear-rings, a broadish necklace, with a long piece hanging down the +bosom, and terminated with a cross, all of set garnets clear and +perfect, is a common, a <i>very</i> common treasure to the females about this +country; and on every Sunday or holiday, when they dress and mean to +look pretty, their <!-- Page 306 --><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a>elegantly-disposed ornaments attract attention +strongly; though I do not think them as handsome as the Lombard lasses, +and our Venetian friends protest that the farmers at Crema in <i>their</i> +state are still richer.</p> + +<p>La Contadinella Toscana however, in a very rich white silk petticoat, +exceedingly full and short, to shew her neat pink slipper and pretty +ancle, her pink <i>corps de robe</i> and straps, with white silk lacing down +the stomacher, puffed shirt sleeves, with heavy lace robbins ending at +the elbow, and fastened at the shoulders with at least eight or nine +bows of narrow pink ribbon, a lawn handkerchief trimmed with broad lace, +put on somewhat coquettishly, and finishing in front with a nosegay, +must make a lovely figure at any rate: though the hair is drawn away +from the face in a way rather too tight to be becoming, under a red +velvet cushion edged with gold, which helps to wear it off I think, but +gives the small Leghorn hat, lined with green, a pretty perking air, +which is infinitely nymphish and smart. A tolerably pretty girl so +dressed may surely more than vie with a <i>fille d' opera</i> upon the Paris +stage, even were she not set off as these are with <!-- Page 307 --><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"></a>a very rich suit of +pearls or set garnets, that in France or England would not be purchased +for less than forty or fifty pounds: and I am now speaking of the women +perpetually under one's eye; not one or two picked from the crowd, like +Mrs. Vanini, an inn-keeper's wife in Florence, who, when she was dressed +for the masquerade two nights ago, submitted her finery to Mrs. +Greatheed's inspection and my own; who agreed she could not be so +adorned in England for less than a thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>It is true the nobility are proud of letting you see how comfortably +their dependants live in Tuscany; but can any pride be more rational or +generous, or any desire more patriotick? Oh may they never look with +less delight on the happiness of their inferiors! and then they will not +murmur at their prince, whose protection of <i>this</i> rank among his +subjects is eminently tender and attentive.</p> + +<p>Returning home from our splendid dinner and agreeable day passed at +Conte Mannucci's country-seat, while our noble friends amused me with +various chat, I thought some unaccountable sparks of fire seemed to +strike up and down the hedges as if in perpetual mo<!-- Page 308 --><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a>tion, but checked +the fancy concluding it a trick of the imagination only; till the +evening, which shuts in strangely quick here in Tuscany, grew dark, and +exhibited an appearance wholly new to me; whose surprise that no flame +followed these wandering fires was not small, when I recollected the +state of desiccation that nature suffered, and had done for some months. +My dislike of interrupting an agreeable conversation kept me long from +enquiring into the cause of this appearance, which however I doubted not +was electrick, till they told me it was the <i>lucciola</i>, or fire-fly; of +which a very good account is given in twenty books, but I had forgotten +them all. As the Florence Miscellany has never been published, I will +copy out what is said of it <i>there</i>, because the Abate Fontana was +consulted when that description was given.</p> + +<p>"This insect then differs from every other of the luminous tribe, +because its light is by no means continual, but emitted by flashes, +suddenly striking out as it flies; when crushed it leaves a lustre on +the spot for a considerable time, from whence one may conclude its +nature is phosphorick."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><!-- Page 309 --><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"></a> +<span class="i0">Oh vagrant insect, type of our short life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis thus we shine, and vanish from the view;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the cold season comes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all our lustre's o'er.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Merry's</span> Ode to Summer.<br /> +</div></div> + +<p>It is said I think, that no animal affords an acid except ants, which +are therefore most quickly destroyed by lime, pot-ash, &c. or any strong +alkali of course; yet acid must the lucciola be proved, or she can never +be phosphorick surely; as upon its analysis that strangest of all +compositions appears to be a union of violent acid with inflammable +matter, whence it may be termed an animal sulphur, and is actually found +to burn successfully under a common glass-bell; and to afford flowers +too, which, by attracting the humidity of the air, become a liquor like +<i>oleum sulphuris per campanam</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Oil of sulphur by the bell]</span>.</p> + +<p>The colour of the sky viewed, when one dares to look at it, through this +pure atmosphere is particularly beautiful; of a much more brilliant and +celestial blue I think, than it appeared from the tower of St. Mark's +<!-- Page 310 --><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a>Place, Venice. Were I to affirm that the sea is of a more peculiar +transparent brightness upon the coast of North Wales than elsewhere, it +would seem prejudice perhaps, and yet is strictly true: I am not less +persuaded that the sky appears of a finer tint in Tuscany than any other +country I have visited:—Naples is however the vaunted climate, and that +yet remains to be examined.</p> + +<p>I have been shewed, at the horse-race, the theatre, &c. the unfortunate +grandson of King James the Second. He goes much into publick still, +though old and sickly; gives the English arms and livery, and wears the +garter, which he has likewise bestowed upon his natural daughter. The +Princess of Stoldberg, his consort, whom he always called Queen, has +left him to end a life of disappointment and sorrow by <i>himself</i>, with +the sad reflection, that even conjugal attachment, and of course +domestic comfort, was denied to <i>him</i>, and fled—in defiance of poetry +and fiction—fled with the crown, to its powerful and triumphant +possessors.</p> + +<p>The Duomo, or Cathedral, has engaged my attention all to-day: its +prodigious size, <!-- Page 311 --><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a>perfect proportions, and exquisite taste, ought to +have detained me longer. Though the outside does not please me as well +as if it had been less rich and less magnificent. Superfluity always +defeats its own purpose, of striking you with awe at its superior +greatness; while simplicity looks on, and laughs at its vain attempts. +This wonderful church, built of striped marbles, white, black, and red +alternately, has scarcely the air of being so composed, but looks like +painted ivory to <i>me</i>, who am obliged to think, and think again, before +I can be sure it is of so ponderous and massy, as well as so inestimable +a substance: nor can I, without more than equal difficulty, persuade +myself to give its sudden view the decided preference over St. Paul's in +London, which never, never misses its immediate effect on a spectator,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But stands sublime in simplest majesty.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The Battisterio is another structure close to the church, and of +surprising beauty; Michael Angelo said the gates of it deserved to be +those which open Paradise: and that speech was more the speech of a good +workman, <!-- Page 312 --><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312"></a>than of a man whose mind was exalted by his profession. The +gates are of brass, divided into ninety-six compartments each, and +carved with such variety of invention, such elaboration of art and +ingenuity, that no praise except that which he gave them could have been +too high. The font has not been used since the days when immersion in +baptism was deemed necessary to salvation; a ceremony still considered +by the Greek church as indispensable. Why the disputes concerning <i>this</i> +sacrament were carried on with more decency and less lasting rancour +among Christians, than those which related to the other great pledge of +our pardon, the communicating with our Saviour Christ in his last +Supper, I know not, nor can imagine. Every page of ecclesiastical +history exhibits the tenaciousness with which the smallest attendant +circumstance on this last-mentioned sacrament has been held fast by the +Romanists, who dropped the immersion at baptism of themselves; and in so +warm a climate too! it moves my wonder; when nothing is more obvious to +the meanest understanding, than that if the first sacrament is not +rightly and duly <!-- Page 313 --><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a>administered, we never shall arrive at receiving the +other at all. I hope it is impossible for any one less than myself to +wish the continuance or revival of contentions so disgraceful to +humanity in general; so peculiarly repugnant to the true spirit of +Christianity, which consists chiefly in charity, and that brotherly love +we know to have been cemented by the blood of our blessed Lord: yet very +strange it is to think, that while other innovations have been resisted +even to death, scarcely any among the many sects we have divided into, +retain the original form in that ceremony so emphatically called +<i>christening</i>.</p> + +<p>These observations suggested by the sight of the old font at Florence +shall now be succeeded by lighter subjects of reflection; among which +the first that presents itself is the superior elegance of the language; +for till we arrive <i>here</i>, all is dialect; though by this word I would +not have any one mistake me, or understand it as meant in the limited +sense of a provincial jargon, such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire, or +Cornwall, present us with; where every sound is corruption, barbarism, +and vulgarity.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 314 --><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314"></a>The States of Italy being all under different rulers, are kept separate +from each other, and speak a different dialect; that of Milan full of +consonants and harsh to the ear, but abounding with classical +expressions that rejoice one's heart, and fill one with the oddest but +most pleasing sensations imaginable. I heard a lady there call a runaway +nobleman <i>Profugo</i> mighty prettily; and added, that his conduct had put +all the town into <i>orgasmo grande</i>. All this, however, the Tuscans may +possibly have in common with them. My knowledge of the language must +remain ever too imperfect for me to depend on my own skill in it; all I +can assert is, that the Florentines <i>appear</i>, as far as I have been +competent to observe, to depend more on their own copious and beautiful +language for expression, than the Milanese do; who run to Spanish, +Greek, or Latin for assistance, while half their tongue is avowedly +borrowed from the French, whose pronunciation, in the letter <i>u</i>, they +even profess to retain.</p> + +<p>At Venice, the sweetness of the patois is irresistible; their lips, +incapable of uttering any but the sweetest sounds, reject all +conso<!-- Page 315 --><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"></a>nants they can get quit of; and make their mouths drop honey more +completely than it can be said by any eloquence less mellifluous than +their own.</p> + +<p>The Bolognese dialect is detested by the other Italians, as gross and +disagreeable in its sounds: but every nation has the good word of its +own inhabitants; and the language which Abbate Bianconi praises as +nervous and expressive, I would advise no person, less learned than +himself, to censure as disgusting, or condemn as dull. I staid very +little at Bologna; saw nothing but their pictures, and heard nothing but +their prayers: those were superior, I fancy, to all rivals. Language can +be never spoken of by a foreigner to any effect of conviction. I have +heard our countryman. Mr. Greatheed himself, who perhaps possesses more +Italian than almost any Englishman, and studies it more closely, refuse +to decide in critical disputations among his literary friends here, +though the sonnets he writes in the Tuscan language are praised by the +natives, who best understand it, and have been by some of them preferred +to those written by Milton himself. Mean time this is <!-- Page 316 --><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316"></a>acknowledged to +be the prime city for purity of phrase and delicacy of expression, +which, at last, is so disguised to me by the guttural manner in which +many sounds are pronounced, that I feel half weary of running about from +town to town so, and never arriving at any, where I can understand the +conversation without putting all the attention possible to their +discourse. I am now told that less efforts will be necessary at Rome.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be prettier, however, than the slow and tranquil manners of +a Florentine; nothing more polished than his general address and +behaviour: ever in the third person, though to a blackguard in the +street, if he has not the honour of his particular acquaintance, while +intimacy produces <i>voi</i> in those of the highest rank, who call one +another Carlo and Angelo very sweetly; the ladies taking up the same +notion, and saying Louisa, or Maddalena, without any addition at all.</p> + +<p>The Don and Donna of Milan were offensive to me somehow, as they +conveyed an idea of Spain, not Italy. Here Signora is the term, which +better pleases one's ear, and <!-- Page 317 --><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317"></a>Signora Contessa, Signora Principessa, if +the person is of higher quality, resembles our manners more when we say +my Lady Dutchess, &c. What strikes me as most observable, is the +uniformity of style in all the great towns.</p> + +<p>At Venice the men of literature and fashion speak with the same accent, +and I believe the same quick turns of expression as their Gondolier; and +the coachman at Milan talks no broader than the Countess; who, if she +does not speak always in French to a foreigner, as she would willingly +do, tries in vain to talk Italian; and having asked you thus, <i>alla +capi?</i> which means <i>ha ella capita?</i> laughs at herself for trying to +<i>toscaneggiare</i>, as she calls it, and gives the point up with <i>no cor +altr.</i> that comes in at the end of every sentence, and means <i>non +occorre altro</i>; there is no more occurs upon the subject.</p> + +<p>The Laquais de Place who attended us at Bologna was one of the few +persons I had met then, who spoke a language perfectly intelligible to +me. "Are you a Florentine, pray friend, said I?" "No, madam, but the +<i>combinations</i> of this world having led me <!-- Page 318 --><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318"></a>to talk much with strangers, +I contrive to <i>tuscanize</i> it all I can for <i>their</i> advantage, and doubt +not but it will tend to my own at last."</p> + +<p>Such a sentiment, so expressed by a footman, would set a plain man in +London a laughing, and make a fanciful Lady imagine he was a nobleman +disguised. Here nobody laughs, nor nobody stares, nor wonders that their +valet speaks just as good language, or utters as well-turned sentences +as themselves. Their cold answer to my amazement is as comical as the +fellow's fine style—<i>è battizzato</i><span class="footnoteinline">[He has been baptized.]</span>, +say they, <i>come noi altri</i><span class="footnoteinline">[As well as we.]</span>. But we are called +away to hear the fair Fantastici, a young woman who makes improviso +verses, and sings them, as they tell me, with infinite learning and +taste. She is successor to the celebrated Corilla, who no longer +exhibits the power she once held without a rival: yet to <i>her</i> +conversations every one still strives for admittance, though she is now +ill, and old, and hoarse with repeated colds. She spares, however, now +by no labour or fatigue to obtain and keep that superiority and +admiration <!-- Page 319 --><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319"></a>which one day perhaps gave her almost equal trouble to +receive and to repay. But who can bear to lay their laurels by? Corilla +is gay by nature, and witty, if I may say so, by habit; replete with +fancy, and powerful to combine images apparently distant. Mankind is at +last more just to people of talents than is universally allowed, I +think. Corilla, without pretensions either to immaculate character (in +the English sense), deep erudition, or high birth, which an Italian +esteems above all earthly things, has so made her way in the world, that +all the nobility of both sexes crowd to her house; that no Prince passes +through Florence without waiting on Corilla; that the Capitol will long +recollect her being crowned there, and that many sovereigns have not +only sought her company, but have been obliged to put up with slights +from her independent spirit, and from her airy, rather than haughty +behaviour. She is, however, (I cannot guess why) not rich, and keeps no +carriage; but enjoying all the effect of money, convenience, company, +and general attention, is probably very happy; as she does not much +suffer her thoughts of the <!-- Page 320 --><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320"></a>next world to disturb her felicity in +<i>this</i>, I believe, while willing to turn every thing into mirth, and +make all admire <i>her wit</i>, even at the expence of <i>their own virtue</i>. +The following Epigram, made by her, will explain my meaning, and give a +specimen of her present powers of improvisation, undecayed by ill +health; and I might add, <i>undismayed</i> by it. An old gentleman here, one +Gaetano Testa Grossa had a young wife, whose name was Mary, and who +brought him a son when he was more than seventy years old. Corilla led +him gaily into the circle of company with these words:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Miei Signori Io vi presento<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Il buon Uomo Gaetano;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Che non sà che cosa sia<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Il misterio sovr'umano<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Del Figliuolo di Maria."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Let not the infidels triumph however, or rank among them the +truly-illustrious Corilla! 'Twas but the rage, I hope, of keeping at any +rate the fame she has gained, when the sweet voice is gone, which once +enchanted all who heard it—like the daughters of Pierius in Ovid.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 321 --><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321"></a>And though I was exceedingly entertained by the present improvisatrice, +the charming Fantastici, whose youth, beauty, erudition, and fidelity to +her husband, give her every claim upon one's heart, and every just +pretension to applause, I could not, in the midst of that delight, which +classick learning and musical excellence combined to produce, forbear a +grateful recollection of the civilities I had received from Corilla, and +half-regretting that her rival should be so successful;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For tho' the treacherous tapster, Thomas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hangs a new angel ten doors from us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We hold it both a shame and sin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To quit the true old Angel Inn.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Well! if some people have too little appearance of respect for religion, +there are others who offend one by having too much, and so the balance +is kept even.</p> + +<p>We were a walking last night in the gardens of Porto St. Gallo, and met +two or three well-looking women of the second rank, with a baby, four or +five years old at most, dressed in the habit of a Dominican Friar, +bestowing the benediction as he walked along like an officiating Priest. +I felt a shock given to all <!-- Page 322 --><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"></a>my nerves at once, and asked Cavalier +D'Elci the meaning of so strange a device. His reply to me was, "<i>E +divozione mal intesa, Signora</i><span class="footnoteinline">['Tis ill-understood devotion, +madam]</span>;" and turning round to the other gentlemen, "Now this folly," +said he, "a hundred years ago would have been the object of profound +veneration and prodigious applause. Fifty years hence it would be +censured as hypocritical; it is now passed by wholly unnoticed, except +by this foreign Lady, who, I believe, thought it was done for a joke.</p> + +<p>I have had a little fever since I came hither from the intense heat I +trust; but my maid has a worse still. Doctor Bicchierei, with that +liberality which ever is found to attend real learning, prescribed +James's powders to <i>her</i>, and bid me attend to Buchan's Domestick +Medicine, and I should do well enough he said.</p> + +<p>Mr. Greatheed, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Biddulph, and Mr. Piozzi, have been +together on a party of pleasure to see the renowned Vallombrosa, and +came home contradicting Milton, who says the devils lay bestrewn<!-- Page 323 --><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323"></a></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa:<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Whereas, say they, the trees are all evergreen in those woods. Milton, +it seems, was right notwithstanding: for the botanists tell me, that +nothing makes more litter than the shedding of leaves, which, replace +themselves by others, as on the plants stiled ever-green, which change +like every tree, but only do not change all at once, and remain stript +till spring. They spoke highly of their very kind and hospitable +reception at the convent, where</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Safe from pangs the worldling knows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here secure in calm repose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far from life's perplexing maze,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pious fathers pass their days;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the bell's shrill-tinkling sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Regulates their constant round.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here the traveller elate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Finds an ever-open gate:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All his wants find quick supply,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While welcome beams from every eye.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Parsons</span>.<br /> +</div></div> + +<p>This pious foundation of retired Benedictines, situated in the +Appenines, about eighteen miles from Florence, owes its original <!-- Page 324 --><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324"></a>to +Giovanni Gualberto, a Tuscan nobleman, whose brother Hugo having been +killed by a relation in the year 1015, he resolved to avenge his death; +but happening to meet the assassin alone and in a solitary place, +whither he appeared to have been driven by a sense of guilt, and seeing +him suddenly drop down at his feet, and without uttering a word produce +from his bosom a crucifix, holding it up in a supplicating gesture, with +look submissively imploring, he felt the force of this silent rhetoric, +and generously gave his enemy free pardon.</p> + +<p>On further reflection upon the striking scene, Gualberto felt still more +affected; and from seeing the dangers and temptations which surround a +bustling life, resolved to quit the too much mixed society of mankind, +and settle in a state of perpetual retirement. For this purpose he chose +Vallombrosa, and there founded the famous convent so justly admired by +all who visit it.</p> + +<p>Such stories lead one forward to the tombs of Michael Angelo and the +great Galileo, which last I looked on to-day with reverence, pity, and +wonder; to think that a change so surprising should be made in worldly +affairs <!-- Page 325 --><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325"></a>since his time; that the man who no longer ago than the year +1636, was by the torments and terrors of the Inquisition obliged +formally to renounce, as heretical, accursed, and contrary to religion, +the revived doctrines of Copernicus, should now have a monument erected +to his memory, in the very city where he was born, whence he was cruelly +torn away to answer at Rome for the supposed offence; to which he +returned; and strange to tell, in which he lived on, by his own desire, +with the wife who, by her discovery of his sentiments, and information +given to the priests accordingly, had caused his ruin; and who, after +his death, in a fit of mad mistaken zeal, flung into the fire, in +company with her confessor, all the papers she could find in his study.</p> + +<p>How wonderful are these events! and how sweet must the science of +astronomy have been to that poor man, who suffered all but actual +martyrdom in its cause! How odd too, that ever Galileo's son, by such a +mother as we have just described, should apply himself to the same +studies, and be the inventor of the simple pendulum so necessary to +every kind of clock-work!</p> + +<p><!-- Page 326 --><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326"></a>Religious prejudices however, and their effects—and thanks be to God +their almost final conclusion too—may be found nearer home than +Galileo's tomb; while Milton has a monument in the same cathedral with +Dr. South, who perhaps would have given credit to no <i>human</i> +information, which should have told him that event would take place.</p> + +<p>We are now going soon to leave Florence, seat of the arts and residence +of literature! I shall be sincerely sorry to quit a city where not a +step can be taken without a new or a revived idea being added to our +store;—where such statues as would in England have colleges founded, or +palaces built for their reception, stand in the open street; the +Centaur, the Sabine woman, and the Justice: Where the Madonna della +Seggiola reigns triumphant over all pictures for brilliancy of colouring +and vigour of pencil.</p> + +<p>It was the portrait of Raphaelle's favourite mistress, and his own child +by her sate for the Bambino:—is it then wonderful that it should want +that heavenly expression of dignity divine, and grace unutterable, which +<!-- Page 327 --><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327"></a>breathes through the school of Caracci? Connoisseurs will have all +excellence united in one picture, and quarrel unkindly if merit of any +kind be wanting: Surely the Madonna della Seggiola has nature to +recommend it, and much more need not be desired. If the young and tender +and playful innocence of early infancy is what chiefly delights and +detains one's attention, it may be found to its utmost possible +perfection in a painter far inferior to Raphael, Carlo Marratt.</p> + +<p>If softness in the female character, and meek humility of countenance, +be all that are wanted for the head of a Madonna, we must go to +Elisabetta Sirani and Sassoferrata I think; but it is ever so. The +Cordelia of Mrs. Cibber was beyond all comparison softer and sweeter +than that of her powerful successor Siddons; yet who will say that the +actresses were equal?</p> + +<p>But I must bid adieu to beautiful Florence, where the streets are kept +so clean one is afraid to dirty <i>them</i>, and not <i>one's self</i>, by walking +in them: where the public walks are all nicely weeded, as in England, +and the gardens have a homeish and Bath-like look, that is excessively +cheering to an English <!-- Page 328 --><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328"></a>eye:—where, when I dined at Prince Corsini's +table, I heard the Cardinal say grace, and thought of the ceremonies at +Queen's College, Oxford; where I had the honour of entertaining, at my +own dinner on the 25th of July, many of the Tuscan, and many of the +English nobility; and Nardini kindly played a solo in the evening at a +concert we gave in Meghitt's great room:—where we have compiled the +little book amongst us, known by the name of the Florence Miscellany; as +a memorial of that friendship which does me so much honour, and which I +earnestly hope may long subsist among us:—where in short we have lived +exceeding comfortably, but where dear Mrs. Greatheed and myself have +encouraged each other, in saying it would be particularly sad to <i>die</i>, +not of the gnats, or more properly musquitoes, for they do not sting one +quite to death, though their venom has swelled my arm so as to oblige me +to carry it for this last week in a sling; but of the <i>mal di petto</i>, +which is endemial in this country, and much resembling our pleurisy in +its effects.</p> + +<p>Blindness too seems no uncommon misfortune at Florence, from the strong +reverberation <!-- Page 329 --><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329"></a>of the sun's rays on houses of the cleanest and most +brilliant whiteness; kept so elegantly nice too, that I should despair +of seeing more delicacy at Amsterdam.</p> + +<p>Apoplexies are likewise frequent enough: I saw a man carried out stone +dead from St. Pancrazio's church one morning about noon-day; but nobody +seemed disturbed at the event I think, except myself. Though this is no +good town to take one's last leave of life in neither; as the body one +has been so long taking care of, would in twenty-four hours be hoisted +up upon a common cart, with those of all the people who died the same +day, and being fairly carried out of Porto San Gallo towards the dusk of +evening, would be shot into a hole dug away from the city, properly +enough, to protect Florence, and keep it clear of putrid disorders and +disagreeable smells. All this with little ceremony to be sure, and less +distinction; for the Grand Duke suffers the pride of birth to last no +longer than life however, and demolishes every hope of the woman of +quality lying in a separate grave from the distressed object who begged +at her carriage door when she was last on an airing.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 330 --><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330"></a>Let me add, that his liberality of sentiment extends to virtue on the +one hand, if hardness of heart may be complained of on the other. He +suffers no difference of opinions to operate on his philosophy, and I +believe we heretics here should sleep among the best of his Tuscan +nobles. But there is no comfort in the possibility of being buried alive +by the excessive haste with which people are catched up and hurried +away, before it can be known almost whether all sparks of life are +extinct or no. Such management, and the lamentations one hears made by +the great, that they should thus be forced to keep <i>bad company</i> after +death, remind me for ever of an old French epigram, the sentiment of +which I perfectly recollect, but have forgotten the verses, of which +however these lines are no unfaithful translation;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I dreamt that in my house of clay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A beggar buried by me lay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rascal! go stink apart, I cry'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor thus disgrace my noble side.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heyday! cries he, what's here to do?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'm on my dunghill sure, as well as you.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Of elegant Florence then, so ornamented and so lovely, so neat that it +is said she should <!-- Page 331 --><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331"></a>be seen only on holidays; dedicated of old to Flora, +and still the residence of sweetness, grace, and the fine arts +particularly; of these kind friends too, so amiable, so hospitable, +where I had the choice of four boxes every night at the theatre, and a +certainty of charming society in each, we must at last unwillingly take +leave; and on to-morrow, the twelfth day of September 1785, once more +commit ourselves to our coach, which has hitherto met with no accident +that could affect us, and in which, with God's protection, I fear not my +journey through what is left of Italy; though such tremendous tales are +told in many of our travelling books, of terrible roads and wicked +postillions, and ladies labouring through the mire on foot, to arrive at +bad inns where nothing eatable could be found. All which however is less +despicable than Tournefort, the great French botanist; who, while his +works swell with learning, and sparkle with general knowledge; while he +enlarges <i>your</i> stock of ideas, and displays <i>his own</i>; laments +pathetically that he could not get down the partridges caught for him in +one of the Archipelagon islands, <!-- Page 332 --><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332"></a>because they were not larded—<i>à la +mode de Paris</i>.</p> + + + +<h3><a name="LUCCA" id="LUCCA"></a>LUCCA.</h3> + + +<p>From the head-quarters of painting, sculpture, and architecture then, +where art is at her acme, and from a people polished into brilliancy, +perhaps a little into weakness, we drove through the celebrated vale of +Arno; thick hedges on each side us, which in spring must have been +covered with blossoms and fragrant with perfume; now loaded with +uncultivated fruits; the wild grape, raspberry, and azaroli, inviting to +every sense, and promising every joy. This beautiful and fertile, this +highly-adorned and truly delicious country carried us forward to Lucca, +where the panther sits at the gate, and liberty is written up on every +wall and door. It is so long since I have seen the word, that even the +letters of it rejoice my heart; but how the panther came to be its +emblem, who can tell? Unless the philosophy we learn from old Lilly in +our childhood were true, <i>nec vult panthera domari</i><span class="footnoteinline">[That the +panther will never be tamed]</span>.<!-- Page 333 --><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333"></a></p> + +<p>That this fairy commonwealth should so long have maintained its +independency is strange; but Howel attributes her freedom to the active +and industrious spirit of the inhabitants, who, he says, resemble a hive +of bees, for order and for diligence. I never did see a place so +populous for the size of it: one is actually thronged running up and +down the streets of Lucca, though it is a little town enough for a +capital city to be sure; larger than Salisbury though, and prettier than +Nottingham, the beauties of both which places it unites with all the +charms peculiar to itself.</p> + +<p>The territory they claim, and of which no power dares attempt to +dispossess them, is much about the size of <i>Rutlandshire</i> I fancy; +surrounded and apparently fenced in on every side, by the Appenines as +by a wall, that wall a hot one, on the southern side, and wholly planted +over with vines, while the soft shadows which fall upon the declivity of +the mountains make it inexpressibly pretty; and form, by the particular +disposition of their light and shadow, a variety which no other prospect +so confined can possibly enjoy.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 334 --><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334"></a>This is the Ilam gardens of Europe; and whoever has seen that singular +spot in Derbyshire belonging to Mr. Port, has seen little Lucca in a +convex mirror. Some writer calls it a ring upon the finger of the +Emperor, under whose protection it has been hitherto preserved safe from +the Grand Duke of Tuscany till these days, in which the interests of +those two sovereigns, united by intimacy as by blood and resemblance of +character, are become almost exactly the same.</p> + +<p>A Doge, whom they call the <i>Principe</i>, is elected every two months; and +is assisted by ten senators in the administration of justice.</p> + +<p>Their armoury is the prettiest plaything I ever yet saw, neatly kept, +and capable of furnishing twenty-five thousand men with arms. Their +revenues are about equal to the Duke of Bedford's I believe, eighty or +eighty-five thousand pounds sterling a year; every spot of ground +belonging to these people being cultivated to the highest pitch of +perfection that agriculture, or rather gardening (for one cannot call +these enclosures fields), will admit: and though it is holiday time just +now, I see no neglect of necessary <!-- Page 335 --><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335"></a>duty. They were watering away this +morning at seven o'clock, just as we do in a nursery-ground about +London, a hundred men at once, or more, before they came home to make +themselves smart, and go to hear music in their best church, in honour +of some saint, I have forgotten who; but he is the patron of Lucca, and +cannot be accused of neglecting his charge, that is certain.</p> + +<p>This city seems really under admirable regulations; here are fewer +beggars than even at Florence, where however one for fifty in the states +of Genoa or Venice do not meet your eyes: And either the word liberty +has bewitched me, or I see an air of plenty without insolence, and +business without noise, that greatly delight me. Here is much +cheerfulness too, and gay good-humour; but this is the season of +devotion at Lucca, and in these countries the ideas of devotion and +diversion are so blended, that all religious worship seems connected +with, and to me now regularly implies, <i>a festive show</i>.</p> + +<p>Well, as the Italians say, "<i>Il mondo è bello perche è +variabile</i><span class="footnoteinline">[The world is pleasant because it is various.]</span>." We +English dress <!-- Page 336 --><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336"></a>our clergymen in black, and go ourselves to the theatre +in colours. Here matters are reversed, the church at noon looked like a +flower-garden, so gaily adorned were the priests, confrairies, &c. while +the Opera-house at night had more the air of a funeral, as every body +was dressed in black: a circumstance I had forgotten the meaning of, +till reminded that such was once the emulation of finery among the +persons of fashion in this city, that it was found convenient to +restrain the spirit of expence, by obliging them to wear constant +mourning: a very rational and well-devised rule in a town so small, +where every body is known to every body; and where, when this silly +excitement to envy is wisely removed, I know not what should hinder the +inhabitants from living like those one reads of in the Golden Age; +which, above all others, this climate most resembles, where pleasure +contributes to sooth life, commerce to quicken it, and faith extends its +prospects to eternity. Such is, or such at least appears to me this +lovely territory of Lucca: where cheap living, free government, and +genteel society, may be enjoyed with a tranquillity unknown to larger +states: where <!-- Page 337 --><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337"></a>there are delicious and salutary baths a few miles out of +town, for the nobility to make <i>villeggiatura</i> at; and where, if those +nobility were at all disposed to cultivate and communicate learning, +every opportunity for study is afforded.</p> + +<p>Some drawbacks will however always be found from human felicity. I once +mentioned this place with warm expectations of delight, to a Milanese +lady of extensive knowledge, and every elegant accomplishment worthy her +high birth, <i>the Contessa Melzi Resla</i>. "Why yes," said she, "if you +would find out the place where common sense stagnates, and every topic +of conversation dwindles and perishes away by too frequent or too +unskilful touching and handling, you must go to Lucca. My ill-health +sent me to their beautiful baths one summer; where all the faculties of +my body were restored, thank God, but those of my soul were stupified to +such a degree, that at last I was fit to keep no other company but <i>Dame +Lucchesi</i> I think; and <i>our</i> talk was soon ended, heaven knows, for when +they had once asked me of an evening, what I had for dinner? and told me +how many pair of <!-- Page 338 --><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338"></a>stockings their neighbours sent to the wash, we had +done."</p> + +<p>This was a young, a charming, a lively lady of quality; full of +curiosity to know the world, and of spirits to bustle through it; but +had she been battered through the various societies of London and Paris +for eighteen or twenty years together, she would have loved Lucca +better, and despised it less. "We must not look for whales in the Euxine +Sea," says an old writer; and we must not look for great men or great +things in little nations to be sure, but let us respect the innocence of +childhood, and regard with tenderness the territory of Lucca: where no +man has been murdered during the life or memory of any of its peaceful +inhabitants; where one robbery alone has been committed for sixteen +years; and the thief hanged by a Florentine executioner borrowed for the +purpose, no Lucchese being able or willing to undertake so horrible an +office, with terrifying circumstances of penitence and public +reprehension: where the governed are so few in proportion to the +governors; all power being circulated among four hundred and fifty +nobles, and the whole country pro<!-- Page 339 --><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339"></a>ducing scarcely ninety thousand souls. +A great boarding-school in England is really an infinitely more +licentious place; and grosser immoralities are every day connived at in +it, than are known to pollute this delicate and curious commonwealth; +which keeps a council always subsisting, called the <i>Discoli</i>, to +examine the lives and conduct, professions, and even <i>health</i> of their +subjects: and once o'year they sweep the town of vagabonds, which till +then are caught up and detained in a house of correction, and made to +work, if not disabled by lameness, till the hour of their release and +dismission. I wondered there were so few beggars about, but the reason +is now apparent: these we see are neighbours, come hither only for the +three days gala.</p> + +<p>I was wonderfully solicitous to obtain some of their coin, which carries +on it the image of no <i>earthly</i> prince; but his head only who came to +redeem us from general slavery on the one side, <i>Jesus Christ</i>; on the +other, the word <i>Libertas</i>.</p> + +<p>Our peasant-girls here are in a new dress to me; no more jewels to be +seen, no more pearls; the finery of which so dazzled me in Tuscany: +these wenches are prohibited such <!-- Page 340 --><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340"></a>ornaments it seems. A muslin +handkerchief, folded in a most becoming manner, and starched exactly +enough to make it wear clean four days, is the head-dress of Lucchese +lasses; it is put on turban-wise, and they button their gowns close, +with long sleeves <i>à la Savoyarde</i>; but it is made often of a stiff +brocaded silk, and green lapels, with cuffs of the same colour; nor do +they wear any hats at all, to defend them from a sun which does +undoubtedly mature the fig and ripen the vine, but which, by the same +excess of power, exalts the venom of the viper, and gives the scorpion +means to keep me in perpetual torture for fear of his poison, of which, +though they assure us death is seldom the consequence among <i>them</i>, I +know his sting would finish me at once, because the gnats at Florence +were sufficient to lame me for a considerable time.</p> + +<p>The dialect has lost much of the guttural sound that hurt one's ear at +the last place of residence; but here is an odd squeaking accent, that +distinguishes the Tuscan of Lucca.</p> + +<p>The place appropriated for airing, showing fine equipages, &c. is +beautiful beyond all <!-- Page 341 --><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341"></a>telling; from the peculiar shadows on the +mountains. They make the bastions of the town their Corso, but none +except the nobles can go and drive upon one part of it. I know not how +many yards of ground is thus let apart, sacred to sovereignty; but it +makes one laugh.</p> + +<p>Our inn here is an excellent one, as far as I am concerned; and the +sallad-oil green, like Irish usquebaugh, nothing was ever so excellent. +I asked the French valet who dresses our hair, "<i>Si ce n'etait pas une +republique mignonne?</i><a name="FNanchor_X_72" id="FNanchor_X_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_X_72" class="fnanchor">[X]</a>"—"<i>Ma foy, madame, je la trouve plus tôt la +republique des rats et des souris<a name="FNanchor_Y_73" id="FNanchor_Y_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_Y_73" class="fnanchor">[Y]</a>;</i>" replies the fellow, who had not +slept all night, I afterwards understood, for the noise those +troublesome animals made in his room.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="footnoteslegend">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_X_72" id="Footnote_X_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_X_72"><span class="label">[X]</span></a> If it were not a dear little pretty commonwealth—this?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Y_73" id="Footnote_Y_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Y_73"><span class="label">[Y]</span></a> Faith, madam, I call it the republic of the rats and +mice.</p></div></div> + + + +<h3><!-- Page 342 --><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342"></a><a name="PISA" id="PISA"></a>PISA.</h3> + + +<p>This town has been so often described that it is as well known in +England as in Italy almost; where I, like others, have seen the +magnificent cathedral; have examined the two pillars which support its +entrance, and which once adorned Diana's temple at Ephesus, one of the +seven wonders of the world. Their carving is indeed beyond all idea of +workmanship; and the possession of them is inestimable. I have seen the +old stones with inscriptions on them, bearing date the reign of +Antoninus Pius, stuck casually, some with the letters reversed, some +sloping, according to accident merely, as it appears to me, in the body +of the great church: and I have seen the leaning tower that Lord +Chesterfield so comically describes our English travellers eagerness to +see. It is a beautiful building though after all, and a strange thing +that it should lean so. The cylindrical form, and marble pillars that +support each story, may rationally enough attract a stranger's notice, +<!-- Page 343 --><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343"></a>and one is sorry the lower stories have sunk from their foundations, +originally defective ones I trust they were, though, God knows, if the +Italians do not build towers well, it is not for want either of skill or +of experience; for there is a tower to every town I think, and commonly +fabricated with elaborate nicety and well-fixed bases. But as +earthquakes and subterranean fires here are scarcely a wonder, one need +not marvel much at seeing the ground retreat just <i>here</i>. It is nearer +our hand, and quite as well worth our while to enquire, why the tower at +<i>Bridgnorth</i> in Shropshire leans exactly in the same direction, and is +full as much out of the perpendicular as this at Pisa.</p> + +<p>The brazen gates here, carved by John of Bologna, at least begun by him, +are a wonderful work; and the marbles in the baptistery beat those of +Florence for value and for variety. A good lapidary might find perpetual +amusement in adjusting the claims of superiority to these precious +columns of jasper, granite, alabaster, &c. The different animals which +support the font being equally <!-- Page 344 --><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344"></a>admirable for their composition as for +their workmanship.</p> + +<p>The Campo Santo is an extraordinary place, and, for aught I know, +unparalleled for its power over the mind in exciting serious +contemplations upon the body's decay, and suggesting consolatory +thoughts concerning the soul's immortality. Here in three days, owing to +quick-lime mixed among the earth, vanishes every vestige, every trace of +the human being carried thither seventy hours before, and here round the +walls Giotto and Cimabue have exhausted their invention to impress the +passers-by with deep and pensive melancholy.</p> + +<p>The four stages of man's short life, infancy, childhood, maturity, and +decrepit age, not ill represented by one of the ancient artists, shew +the sad but not slow progress we make to this dark abode; while the last +judgment, hell, and paradise inform us what events of the utmost +consequence are to follow our journey. All this a modern traveller finds +out to be <i>vastly ridiculous!</i> though Doctor Smollet <i>(whose book I +think he has read)</i> confesses, that the spacious Corridor round <!-- Page 345 --><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345"></a>the +Campo Santo di Pisa would make the noblest walk in the world perhaps for +a contemplative philosopher.</p> + +<p>The tomb of Algarotti produces softer ideas when one looks at the +sepulchre of a man who, having deserved and obtained such solid and +extensive praise, modestly contented himself with desiring that his +epitaph might be so worded, as to record, upon a simple but lasting +monument, that he had the honour of being disciple to the immortal +<i>Newton</i>.</p> + +<p>The battle of the bridge here at Pisa drew a great many spectators this +year, as it has not been performed for a considerable time before: the +waiters at our inn here give a better account of it than one should have +got perhaps from Cavalier or Dama, who would have felt less interested +in the business, and seen it from a greater distance. The armies of +Sant' Antonio, and I think San Giovanni Battista, but I will not be +positive as to the last, disputed the possession of the bridge, and +fought gallantly I fancy; but the first remained conqueror, as our very +conversible <i>Camerieres</i> took care to inform us, as it was on that side +it seems that they had exerted their valour.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 346 --><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346"></a>Calling theatres, and ships, and running horses, and mock fights, and +almost every thing so by the names of Saints, whom we venerate in +silence, and they themselves publicly worship, has a most profane and +offensive sound with it to be sure; and shocks delicate ears very +dreadfully: and I used to reprimand my maids at Milan for bringing up +the blessed Virgin Mary's name on every trivial, almost on every +ludicrous occasion, with a degree of sharpness they were not accustomed +to, because it kept me in a constant shivering. Yet let us reflect a +moment on our own conduct in England, and we shall be forced candidly to +confess that the Puritans alone keep their lips unpolluted by breach of +the third commandment, while the common exclamation of <i>good God!</i> +scrupled by few people on the slightest occurrences, and apparently +without any temptation in the world, is no less than gross irreverence +of his sacred name, whom we acknowledge to be</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Father of all, in <i>every</i> age<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In <i>every</i> clime ador'd;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By saint, by savage, and by sage,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Jehovah, Jove, or Lord.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 347 --><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347"></a>Nor have the ladies at a London card-table Italian ignorance to plead +in their excuse; as not instruction but docility is wanted among almost +all ranks of people in Great Britain, where, if the Christian religion +were practised as it is understood, little could be wished for its +eternal, as little is left out among the blessings of its temporal +welfare.</p> + +<p>I have been this morning to look at the Grand Duke's camels, which he +keeps in his park as we do deer in England. There were a hundred and +sixteen of them, pretty creatures! and they breed very well here, and +live quite at their ease, only housing them the winter months: they are +perfectly docile and gentle the man told me, apparently less tender of +their young than mares, but more approachable by human creatures than +even such horses as have been long at grass. That dun hue one sees them +of, is, it seems, not totally and invariably the same, though I doubt +not but it is so in their native deserts. Let it once become a fashion +for sovereigns and other great men to keep and to caress them, we shall +see camels as variegated as cats, which in the woods are all of the +uniformly-streaked tabby—the males inclining <!-- Page 348 --><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348"></a>to the brown shade—the +females to blue among them;—but being bred <i>down</i>, become +tortoise-shell, and red, and every variety of colour, which +domestication alone can bestow.</p> + +<p>The misery of Tuscany is, that <i>all animals</i> thrive so happily under +this productive sun; so that if you scorn the Zanzariere, you are +half-devoured before morning, and so disfigured, that I defy one's +nearest friends to recollect one's countenance; while the spiders sting +as much as any of their insects; and one of them bit me this very day +till the blood came.</p> + +<p>With all this not ill-founded complaint of these our active companions, +my constant wonder is, that the grapes hang untouched this 20th of +September, in vast heavy clusters covered with bloom; and unmolested by +insects, which, with a quarter of this heat in England, are encouraged +to destroy all our fruit in spite of the gardener's diligence to blow up +nests, cover the walls with netting, and hang them about with bottles of +syrup, to court the creatures in, who otherwise so damage every fig and +grape and plum of ours, that nothing but the skins are left remaining +<!-- Page 349 --><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349"></a><i>by now. Here</i> no such contrivances are either wanted or thought on; +and while our islanders are sedulously bent to guard, and studious to +invent new devices to protect their half dozen peaches from their half +dozen wasps, the standard trees of Italy are loaded with high-flavoured +and delicious fruits.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here figs sky-dy'd a purple hue disclose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here dangling pears exalted scents unfold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yellow apples ripen into gold.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The roadside is indeed hedged with festoons of vines, crawling from +olive to olive, which they plant in the ditches of Tuscany as we do +willows in Britain: mulberry trees too by the thousand, and some +pollarded poplars serve for support to the glorious grapes that will now +soon be gathered. What least contributes to the beauty of the country +however, is perhaps most subservient to its profits. I am ashamed to +write down the returns of money gained by the oil alone in this +territory and that of Lucca, where I was much struck with the colour as +well as the excellence of this useful commodity. Nor can I tell why none +of that green cast comes over <!-- Page 350 --><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350"></a>to England, unless it is, that, like +essential oil of chamomile, it loses the tint by exposure to the air.</p> + +<p>An olive tree, however, is no elegantly-growing or happily-coloured +plant: straggling and dusky, one is forced to think of its produce, +before one can be pleased with its merits, as in a deformed and ugly +friend or companion.</p> + +<p>The fogs now begin to fall pretty heavily in a morning, and rising about +the middle of the day, leave the sun at liberty to exert his violence +very powerfully. At night come forth the inhabitants, like dor-beetles +at sunset on the coast of Sussex; then is their season to walk and chat, +and sing and make love, and run about the street with a girl and a +guittar; to eat ice and drink lemonade; but never to be seen drunk or +quarrelsome, or riotous. Though night is the true season of Italian +felicity, they place not their happiness in brutal frolics, any more +than in malicious titterings; they are idle and they are merry: it is, I +think, the worst we can say of them; they are idle because there is +little for them to do, and merry because they have little given them to +think about. To the busy Englishman <!-- Page 351 --><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351"></a>they might well apply these verses +of his own Milton in the Masque of Comus:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What have we with day to do?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sons of Care! 'twas made for you.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<h3><a name="LEGHORN" id="LEGHORN"></a>LEGHORN.</h3> + + +<p>Here we are by the sea-side once more, in a trading town too; and I +should think myself in England almost, but for the difference of dresses +that pass under my balcony: for here we were immediately addressed by a +young English gentleman, who politely put us in possession of his +apartments, the best situated in the town; and with him we talked of the +dear coast of Devonshire, agreed upon the resemblance between that and +these environs, but gave the preference to home, on account of its +undulated shore, finely fringed with woodlands, which here are wanting: +nor is this verdure equal to ours in vivid colouring, or variegated with +so much taste as those lovely hills which are adorned by the antiquities +of Powderham Castle, and the fine disposition of Lord Lisburne's park.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 352 --><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352"></a>But here is an English consul at Leghorn. Yes indeed! an English chapel +too; our own King's arms over the door, and in the desk and pulpit an +English clergyman; high in character, eminent for learning, genteel in +his address, and charitable in every sense of the word: as such, truly +loved and honoured by those of his own persuasion, exceedingly respected +by those of every other, which fill this extraordinary city: a place so +populous, that Cheapside alone can surpass it.</p> + +<p>It is not a large place however; one very long straight street, and one +very large wide square, not less than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, but I think +bigger, form the whole of Leghorn; which I can compare to nothing but a +<i>camera obscura,</i> or magic lanthron, exhibiting prodigious variety of +different, and not uninteresting figures, that pass and re-pass to my +incessant delight, and give that sort of empty amusement which is <i>à la +portée de chacun</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Within every one's reach.]</span> so completely, +that for the present it really serves to drive every thing else from my +head, and makes me little desirous to quit for any other diversion the +windows or balcony, whence I look down now upon a Levantine <!-- Page 353 --><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353"></a>Jew, +dressed in long robes, a sort of odd turban, and immense beard: now upon +a Tuscan contadinella, with the little straw hat, nosegay and jewels, I +have been so often struck with. Here an Armenian Christian, with long +hair, long gown, long beard, all black as a raven; who calls upon an old +grey Franciscan friar for a walk; while a Greek woman, obliged to cross +the street on some occasion, throws a vast white veil all over her +person, lest she should undergo the disgrace of being seen at all.</p> + +<p>Sometimes a group goes by, composed of a broad Dutch sailor, a +dry-starched puritan, and an old French officer; whose knowledge of the +world and habitual politeness contrive to conceal the contempt he has of +his companions.</p> + +<p>The geometricians tell us that the figure which has most angles bears +the nearest resemblance to that which has no angles at all; so here at +Leghorn, where you can hardly find forty men of a mind, dispute and +contention grow vain, a comfortable though temporary union takes place, +while nature and opinion bend to interest and necessity.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 354 --><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354"></a>The <i>Contorni</i> of Leghorn are really very pretty; the Appenine +mountains degenerate into hills as they run round the bay, but gain in +beauty what in sublimity they lose.</p> + +<p>To enjoy an open sea view, one must drive further; and it really affords +a noble prospect from that rising ground where I understand that the +rich Jews hold their summer habitations. They have a synagogue in the +town, where I went one evening, and heard the Hebrew service, and +thought of what Dr. Burney says of their singing.</p> + +<p>It is however no credit to the Tuscans to tell, that of all the people +gathered together here, they are the worst-looking—I speak of the +<i>men</i>—but it is so. When compared with the German soldiery, the English +sailors, the Venetian traders, the Neapolitan peasants, for I have seen +some of <i>them</i> here, how feeble a fellow is a genuine Florentine! And +when one recollects the cottagers of Lombardy, that handsome hardy race; +bright in their expression, and muscular in their strength; it is still +stranger, what can have weakened these too delicate Tuscans so. As they +are very rich, and might be very happy <!-- Page 355 --><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355"></a>under the protection of a prince +who lets slip no opportunity of preferring his plebeian to his patrician +subjects; yet here at Leghorn they have a tender frame and an unhealthy +look, occasioned possibly by the stagnant waters, which tender the +environs unwholesome enough I believe; and the millions of live +creatures they produce are enough to distract a person not accustomed to +such buzzing company.</p> + +<p>We went out for air yesterday morning three or four miles beyond the +town-walls, where I looked steadily at the sea, till I half thought +myself at home. The ocean being peculiarly British property favoured the +idea, and for a moment I felt as if on our southern coast; we walked +forward towards the shore, and I stepped upon some rocks that broke the +waves as they rolled in, and was wishing for a good bathing house that +one might enjoy the benefit of salt-water so long withheld; till I saw +our <i>laquais de place</i> crossing himself at the carriage door, and +wondering, as I afterwards found out, at my matchless intrepidity. The +mind however took another train of thought, and we returned to the +coach, which when we arrived at I refused to enter; <!-- Page 356 --><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356"></a>not without +screaming I fear, as a vast hornet had taken possession in our absence, +and the very notion of such a companion threw me into an agony. Our +attendant's speech to the coachman however, made me more than amends: +"<i>Ora si vede amico</i>" (says he), "<i>cos'è la Donna; del mare istesso non +hà paura è pur và in convulsioni per via d'una mosca</i><a name="FNanchor_Z_75" id="FNanchor_Z_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_Z_75" class="fnanchor">[Z]</a>." This truly +Tuscan and highly contemptuous harangue, uttered with the utmost +deliberation, and added to the absence of the hornet, sent me laughing +into the carriage, with great esteem of our philosophical <i>Rosso</i>, for +so the fellow was called, because he had red hair.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Z_75" id="Footnote_Z_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Z_75"><span class="label">[Z]</span></a> Now, my friend, do but observe what a thing is a woman! she +is not afraid even of the roaring ocean, and yet goes into fits almost +at the sight of a fly.</p></div> + +<p>In a very clear day, it is said, one may see Corsica from hence, though +not less than forty or fifty miles off: the pretty island Gorgona +however, whence our best anchovies are brought to England, lies +constantly in view,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Assurgit ponti medio circumflua Gorgon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Rutelius's</span> Itinerary. +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 357 --><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357"></a>How she came by that extraordinary name though, is not I believe well +known; perhaps her likeness to one of the Cape Verd islands, the +original Hesperides, might be the cause; for it was <i>there</i> the +daughters of Phorcus fixed their habitation: or may be, as Medusa was +called <i>Gorgon par eminence</i>, because she applied herself to the +enriching of ground, this fertile islet owes its appellation from being +particularly manured and fructified.</p> + +<p>Here is an extraordinary good opera-house; admirable dancers, who +performed a mighty pretty pantomime Comedie <i>larmoyante</i> without words; +I liked it vastly. The famous Soprano singer Bedini was at Lucca; but +here is our old London favourite Signora Giorgi, improved into a degree +of perfection seldom found, and from her little expected.</p> + +<p>Mr. Udney the British Consul is alone now; his lady has been obliged to +leave him, and take her children home for health's sake; but we saw his +fine collection of pictures, among which is a Danae that once belonged +to Queen Christina of Sweden, and fell from her possession into that of +some nobleman, who being tormented by scruples of morality <!-- Page 358 --><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358"></a>upon his +death-bed, resolved to part with all his undraped figures, but not +liking to lose the face of this Danae, put the picture into a painter's +hands to cut and clothe her: the man, instead of obeying orders he +considered as barbarous, copied the whole, and dressed the copy +decently, sending it to his sick friend, who never discerned the trick; +and kept the original to dispose of, where fewer scruples impeded an +advantageous sale. The gentleman who bought it then, died; when Mr. +Udney purchased Danae, and highly values her; though some connoisseurs +say she is too young and ungrown a female for the character. There is a +Titian too in the same collection, of Cupid riding on a lion's back, to +which some very remarkable story is annexed; but one's belief is so +assailed by such various tales, told of all the striking pictures in +Italy, that one grows more tenacious of it every day I think; so that at +last the danger will be of believing too little, instead of too much +perhaps. Happy for travellers would it be, were that disposition of mind +confined to <i>painting</i> only: but if it should prove extended to more +serious subjects, we can only hope that the violent excess of the +<!-- Page 359 --><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359"></a>temptation may prove some excuse, or at least in a slight degree +extenuate the offence: A wise man cannot believe half he hears in Italy +to be sure, but a pious man will be cautious not to discredit it all.</p> + +<p>Our evening's walk was directed towards the burying-ground appointed +here to receive the bodies of our countrymen, and consecrated according +to the rites of the Anglican church: for <i>here</i>, under protection of a +factory, we enjoy that which is vainly sought for under the auspices of +a king's ambassador.—<i>Here</i> we have a churchyard of our own, and are +not condemned as at other towns in Italy, to be stuffed into a hole like +dogs, after having spent our money among them like princes. Prejudice +however is not banished from Leghorn, though convenience keeps all in +good-humour with each other. The Italians fail not to class the subjects +of Great Britain among the Pagan inhabitants of the town, and to +distinguish themselves, say, "<i>Noi altri Christiani</i><span class="footnoteinline">[We that +are Christians]</span>:" their aversion to a Protestant, conceal it as they +may, is ever implacable; and the last <!-- Page 360 --><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360"></a>day only will convince them that +it is criminal.</p> + +<p> +<i>Coelum non animum mutant</i><span class="footnoteinline">[One changes one's sky but not +one's soul]</span>, is an old observation; I passed this afternoon in +confirming the truth of it among the English traders settled here: whose +conversation, manners, ideas, and language, were so truly <i>Londonish</i>, +so little changed by transmigration, that I thought some enchantment had +suddenly operated, and carried me to drink tea in the regions of +<i>Bucklersbury</i>.</p> + +<p>Well! it is a great delight to see such a society subsisting in Italy +after all; established where distress may run for refuge, and sickness +retire to prepare for lasting repose; whence narrowness of mind is +banished by principles of universal benevolence, and prejudice precluded +by Christian charity: where the purse of the British merchant, ever open +to the poor, is certain to succour and to soothe affliction; and where +it is agreed that more alms are given by the natives of our island +alone, than by all the rest of Leghorn, and the palaces of Pisa put +together.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 361 --><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361"></a>I have here finished that work which chiefly brought me hither; the +Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson's Life. It is from this port they take their +flight for England, while we retire for refreshment to the</p> + + + +<h3><a name="BAGNI_DI_PISA" id="BAGNI_DI_PISA"></a>BAGNI DI PISA.</h3> + + +<p>But not only the waters here are admirable, every look from every window +gives images unentertained before; sublimity happily wedded with +elegance, and majestick greatness enlivened, yet softened by taste.</p> + +<p>The haughty mountain St. Juliano lifting its brown head over our house +on one side, the extensive plain stretched out before us on the other; a +gravel walk neatly planted by the side of a peaceful river, which winds +through a valley richly cultivated with olive yards and vines; and +sprinkled, though rarely, with dwellings, either magnificent or +pleasing: this lovely prospect, bounded only by the sea, makes a variety +incessant as the changes of the sky; exhibiting early tranquillity, and +evening splendour by turns.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 362 --><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362"></a>It was perhaps particularly delightful to me, to obtain once more a +cottage in the country, after running so from one great city to another; +and for the first week I did nothing but rejoice in a solitude so new, +so salutiferous, so total. I therefore begged my husband not to hurry us +to Rome, but take the house we lived in for a longer term, as I would +now play the English housewife in Italy I said; and accordingly began +calling the chickens and ducks under my window, tasted the new wine as +it ran purple from the cask, caressed the meek oxen that drew it to our +door; and felt sensations so unaffectedly pastoral, that nothing in +romance ever exceeded my felicity.</p> + +<p>The cold bath here is the most delicate imaginable; of a moderate degree +of coldness though, not three degrees below Matlock surely; but +omitting, simply enough, to carry a thermometer, one can measure the +heat of nothing. Our hot water here seems about the temperature of the +Queen's bath in Somersetshire; it is purgative, not corroborant, they +tell me; and its taste resembles Cheltenham water exactly.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 363 --><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363"></a>These springs are much frequented by the court I find, and here are +very tolerable accommodations; but it is not the season now, and our +solitude is perfect in a place which beggars all description, where the +mountains are mountains of marble, and the bushes on them bushes of +myrtle; large as our hawthorns, and white with blossoms, as <i>they</i> are +at the same time of year in Devonshire; where the waters are salubrious, +the herbage odoriferous, every trodden step breathing immediate +fragrance from the crushed sweets of thyme, and marjoram, and winter +savoury: while the birds and the butterflies frolick around, and flutter +among the loaded lemon, and orange, and olive trees, till imagination is +fatigued with following the charms that surround one.</p> + +<p>I am come home this moment from a long but not tedious walk, among the +crags of this glorious mountain; the base of which nearly reaches, +within half a mile perhaps, to the territories of Lucca. Some country +girls passed me with baskets of fruit, chickens, &c. on their heads. I +addressed them as natives of the last-named place, saying I knew them to +be such by their dress and air; one of them <!-- Page 364 --><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364"></a>instantly replied, "<i>Oh si, +siamo Lucchesi, noi altri; già si può vedere subito una Reppubblicana, e +credo bene ch'ella fe n' é accorta benissimo che siamo del paese della +libertà</i><a name="FNanchor_AA_78" id="FNanchor_AA_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_AA_78" class="fnanchor">[AA]</a>."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AA_78" id="Footnote_AA_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AA_78"><span class="label">[AA]</span></a> Oh yes, we are Lucca people sure enough, and I am +persuaded that you soon saw in our faces that we come from a land of +liberty.</p></div> + +<p>I will add that these females wear no ornaments at all; are always proud +and gay, and sometimes a little fancy too. The Tuscan damsels, loaded +with gold and pearls, have a less assured look, and appear disconcerted +when in company with their freer neighbours—Let them tell why.</p> + +<p>Mean time my fairy dream of fantastic delight seems fading away apace. +Mr. Piozzi has been ill, and of a putrid complaint in his throat, which +above all things I should dread in this hot climate. This accident, +assisted by other concurring circumstances, has convinced me that we are +not shut up in measureless content as Shakespeare calls it, even under +St. Julian's Hill: for here was no help to be got in the first place, +except the useless conversation of a medical gentleman whose accent and +language might have pleased a disengaged mind, but had little chance to +tranquilize <!-- Page 365 --><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365"></a>an affrighted one. What is worse, here was no rest to be +had, for the multitudes of vermin up stairs and below. When we first +hired the house, I remember my maid jumping up on one of the kitchen +chairs while a ragged lad cleared <i>that</i> apartment for her of scorpions +to the number of seventeen. But now the biters and stingers drive me +<i>quite wild</i>, because one must keep the windows open for air, and a sick +man can enjoy none of that, being closed up in the Zanzariere, and +obliged to respire the same breath over and over again; which, with a +sore throat and fever, is most melancholy: but I keep it wet with +vinegar, and defy the hornets how I can.</p> + +<p>What is more surprising than all, however, is to hear that no lemons can +be procured for less than two pence English a-piece; and now I am almost +ready to join myself in the general cry against Italian imposition, and +recollect the proverb which teaches us</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Chi hà da far con Tosco,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Non bisogna esser losco<a name="FNanchor_AB_79" id="FNanchor_AB_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_AB_79" class="fnanchor">[AB]</a>;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AB_79" id="Footnote_AB_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AB_79"><span class="label">[AB]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who has to do with Tuscan wight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of both his eyes will need the light.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p><!-- Page 366 --><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366"></a>as I am confident they cannot be worth even two pence a hundred here, +where they hang like apples in our cyder countries; but the rogues know +that my husband is sick, and upon poor me they have no mercy.</p> + +<p>I have sent our folks out to gather fruit at a venture: and now this +misery will soon be ended with his illness; driven away by deluges of +lemonade, I think, made in defiance of wasps, flies, and a kind of +volant beetle, wonderfully beautiful and very pertinacious in his +attacks; and who makes dreadful depredations on my sugar and +currant-jelly, so necessary on this occasion of illness, and so +attractive to all these detestable inhabitants of a place so lovely.</p> + +<p>My patient, however, complaining that although I kept these harpies at a +distance, no sleep could yet be obtained;—I resolved when he was risen, +and had changed his room, to examine into the true cause: and with my +maid's assistance, unript the mattress, which was without exaggeration +or hyperbole <i>all alive</i> with creatures wholly unknown to me. +Non-descripts in nastiness I believe they are, like maggots with horns +and tails; such a race as I never saw or heard of, and as would <!-- Page 367 --><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367"></a>have +disgusted Mr. Leeuenhoeck himself. My willingness to quit this place and +its hundred-footed inhabitants was quickened three nights after by a +thunder storm, such as no dweller in more northern latitudes can form an +idea of; which, afflicted by some few slight shocks of an earthquake, +frighted us all from our beds, sick and well, and gave me an opportunity +of viewing such flashes of lightning as I had never contemplated till +now, and such as it appeared impossible to escape from with life. The +tremendous claps of thunder re-echoing among these Appenines, which +double every sound, were truly dreadful. I really and sincerely thought +St. Julian's mountain was rent by one violent stroke, accompanied with a +rough concussion, and that the rock would fall upon our heads by +morning; while the agonies of my English maid and the French valet, +became equally insupportable to themselves and me; who could only repeat +the same unheeded consolations, and protest our resolution of releasing +them from this theatre of distraction the moment our departure should +become practicable. Mean time the rain fell, and such a torrent came +tumbling down the sides of St. Juliano, as I am <!-- Page 368 --><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368"></a>persuaded no female +courage could have calmly looked on. I therefore waited its abatement in +a darkened room, packed up our coach without waiting to copy over the +verses my admiration of the place had prompted, and drove forward to +Sienna, through Pisa again, where our friends told us of the damages +done by the tempest; and shewed us a pretty little church just out of +town, where the officiating priest at the altar was saved almost by +miracle, as the lightning melted one of the chalices completely, and +twisted the brazen-gilt crucifix quite round in a very astonishing +manner.</p> + +<p>Here, however, is the proper place, if any, to introduce the poem of +seventy-three short lines, calling itself an Ode to Society written in a +state of perfect solitude, secluded from all mortal tread, as was our +habitation at the Bagni di Pisa.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><!-- Page 369 --><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369"></a> +<span class="nbi0">ODE</span> <span class="smcap">to</span> SOCIETY.<br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">SOCIETY! gregarious dame!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who knows thy favour'd haunts to name?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether at Paris you prepare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The supper and the chat to share,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While fix'd in artificial row,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laughter displays its teeth of snow:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grimace with raillery rejoices,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And song of many mingled voices,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till young coquetry's artful wile<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some foreign novice shall beguile,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who home return'd, still prates of thee,<br /></span> +<span class="nbi0">Light, flippant, French</span> <span class="smcap">Society</span>.<br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">II.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or whether, with your zone unbound,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You ramble gaudy Venice round,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resolv'd the inviting sweets to prove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of friendship warm, and willing love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where softly roll th' obedient seas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sacred to luxury and ease,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In coffee-house or casino gay<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the too quick return of day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Th' enchanted votary who sighs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For sentiments without disguise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><!-- Page 370 --><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370"></a>Clear, unaffected, fond, and free,<br /></span> +<span class="nbi0">In Venice finds</span> <span class="smcap">Society</span>.<br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">III.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or if to wiser Britain led,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your vagrant feet desire to tread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With measur'd step and anxious care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The precincts pure of Portman square;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While wit with elegance combin'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And polish'd manners there you'll find;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The taste correct—and fertile mind:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Remember vigilance lurks near,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And silence with unnotic'd sneer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who watches but to tell again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your foibles with to-morrow's pen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till titt'ring malice smiles to see<br /></span> +<span class="nbi0">Your wonder—grave</span> <span class="smcap">Society</span>.<br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">IV.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Far from your busy crowded court,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tranquillity makes her report;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where 'mid cold Staffa's columns rude,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resides majestic solitude;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or where in some sad Brachman's cell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Meek innocence delights to dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weeping with unexperienc'd eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The death of a departed fly:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or in <i>Hetruria</i>'s heights sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where science self might fear to climb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><!-- Page 371 --><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371"></a>But that she seeks a smile from thee,<br /></span> +<span class="nbi0">And wooes thy praise,</span> <span class="smcap">Society</span>.<br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">V.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thence let me view the plains below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From rough St. Julian's rugged brow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hear the loud torrents swift descending,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or mark the beauteous rainbow bending,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till Heaven regains its favourite hue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Æther divine! celestial blue!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then bosom'd high in myrtle bower,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">View letter'd Pisa's pendent tower;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sea's wide scene, the port's loud throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of rude and gentle, right and wrong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A motley groupe which yet agree<br /></span> +<span class="nbi0">To call themselves</span> <span class="smcap">Society</span>.<br /> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">VI.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh! thou still sought by wealth and fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dispenser of applause and blame:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While flatt'ry ever at thy side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With slander can thy smiles divide;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far from thy haunts, oh! let me stray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But grant one friend to cheer my way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose converse bland, whose music's art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May cheer my soul, and heal my heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let soft content our steps pursue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bliss eternal bound our view:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pow'r I'll resign, and pomp, and glee,<br /></span> +<span class="nbi0">Thy best-lov'd sweets—</span><span class="smcap">Society</span>.<br /> +</div></div> + + + +<h3><!-- Page 372 --><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372"></a><a name="SIENNA" id="SIENNA"></a>SIENNA.</h3> + + +<p>20th October 1786.</p> + +<p>We arrived here last night, having driven through the sweetest country +in the world; and here are a few timber trees at last, such as I have +not seen for a long time, the Tuscan spirit of mutilation being so +great, that every thing till now has been pollarded that would have +passed twenty feet in height: this is done to support the vines, and not +suffer their rambling produce to run out of the way, and escape the +gripe of the gatherers. I have eaten too many of these delicious grapes +however, and it is now my turn to be sick—No wonder, I know few who +would resist a like temptation, especially as the inn afforded but a +sorry dinner, whilst every hedge provided so noble a dessert. <i>Paffera +pur la malattia</i><span class="footnoteinline">[The disorder will die away though.]</span>, as these +soft-mouthed people tell me; the sooner perhaps, as we are not here +annoyed by insects, which poison the pleasure of other <!-- Page 373 --><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373"></a>places in Italy; +here are only <i>lizards</i>, lovely creatures! who being of a beautiful +light green colour upon the back and legs, reside in whole families at +the foot of every tree, and turn their scarlet bosoms to the sun, as if +to display the glories of colouring which his beams alone can bestow.</p> + +<p>The pleasing tales told of this pretty animal's amical disposition +towards man are strictly true, I hear; and it is no longer ago than +yesterday I was told an odd anecdote of a young farmer, who, carrying a +basket of figs to his mistress, lay down in the field as he crossed it, +quite overcome with the weather, and fell fast asleep. A serpent, +attracted by the scent, twined round the basket, and would have bit the +fellow as well as robbed him, had not a friendly lizard waked, and given +him warning of the danger.</p> + +<p>Swift says, that in the course of life he meets many asses, but they +have not <i>lucky names</i>. I have met many <i>vipers, and so few lizards</i>, it +is surprising! but they will not live in London.</p> + +<p>All the stories one has ever heard of sweetness in language and delicacy +in pronunciation, fall short of Siennese converse. The <!-- Page 374 --><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374"></a>girls who wait +on us at the inn here, would be treasures in England, could one get them +thither; and they need move nothing but their tongues to make their +fortunes. I told Rosetta so, and said I would steal from them a poor +girl of eight years old, whom they kept out of charity, and called +Olympia, to be my language mistress, "<i>Battezata com' è, la lascieremo +Christiana</i><a name="FNanchor_AC_81" id="FNanchor_AC_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_AC_81" class="fnanchor">[AC]</a>," was the answer. It is impossible, without their +manners, to express their elegance, their superior delicacy, graceful +without diffusion, and terse without laconicism. You ask the way to the +town of a peasant girl, and she replies, "<i>Passato'l Ponte, o pur +barcato'l Fiume, eccola a Sienna</i><a name="FNanchor_AD_82" id="FNanchor_AD_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_AD_82" class="fnanchor">[AD]</a>." And as we drove towards the city +in the evening, our postillion sung improviso verses on his sweetheart, +a widow who lived down at Pistoja, they told me. I was ashamed to think +that no desk or study was likely to have produced better on so trite a +subject. Candour must confess, however, that no thought was new, though +the language made them for a moment seem so.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="footnoteslegend">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AC_81" id="Footnote_AC_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AC_81"><span class="label">[AC]</span></a> Being baptized as she is, we will leave her a Christian.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AD_82" id="Footnote_AD_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AD_82"><span class="label">[AD]</span></a> The bridge once passed, or the river crossed, Sienna lies +before you.</p></div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 375 --><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375"></a>This town is neat and cleanly, and comfortable and airy. The prospect +from the public walks wants no beauty but water; and here is a +suppressed convent on the neighbouring hill, where we half-longed to +build a pretty cottage, as the ground is now to be disposed of vastly +cheap; and half one's work is already done in the apartments once +occupied by friars. With half a word's persuasion I should fix for life +here. The air is so pure, the language so pleasing, the place so +inviting;—<i>but we drive on</i>.</p> + +<p>There is, mean time, resident in the neighbourhood an English gentleman, +his name Greenfield, who has formed to himself a mighty sweet habitation +in the English taste, but not extensive, as his property don't reach +far: he is however a sort of little oracle in the country I am told; +gives money, and dispenses James's powders to the poor, is happy in the +esteem of numberless people of fashion, and the comfort of his country +people's lives beside; who, travelling to Sienna, as many do for the +advantage of studying Italian to <!-- Page 376 --><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376"></a>perfection, find a friend and +companion where perhaps it is least expected.</p> + +<p>The cathedral here at Sienna deserves a volume, and I shall scarcely +give it a page. The pavement of it is the just pride of Italy, and may +challenge the world to produce its equal. St. Mark's at Venice floored +with precious stones dies away upon the comparison; this being all +inlaid with dove-coloured and white marbles representing historical +subjects not ill told. Were this operation performed in mosaic work, +others of rival excellence might be found. The pavement of Sienna's dome +is so disposed by an effort of art one never saw but here, that it +produces an effect most resembling that of a very fine and beautiful +damask table-cloth, where the large patterns are correctly drawn.</p> + +<p><i>Rome</i> however is to be our next stage, and many of our English +gentlemen now here, are with ourselves impatiently waiting for the +numberless pleasures it is expected to afford us. I will here close this +chapter upon our various desires; one wishing to see St. Peters; one +setting his heart upon entering the Capitol: to-morrow's sun will light +us all upon our search.<!-- Page 377 --><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377"></a></p> + + + +<h3><a name="ROME" id="ROME"></a>ROME.</h3> + + +<p>The first sleeping place between Sienna and this capital shall not +escape mentioning; its name is Radicosani, its title an inn, and its +situation the summit of an exhausted volcano. Such a place did I never +see. The violence of the mountain, when living, has split it in a +variety of places, and driven it to a breadth of base beyond +credibility, its height being no longer formidable. Whichever way you +turn your eyes, nothing but portions of this black rock appear +therefore; so here is extent without sublimity, and here is terror +mingled with disgust. The inside of the house is worthy of the prospect +seen from its windows; wild, spacious, and scantily provided. Never had +place so much the appearance of a haunted hall, where Sir Rowland or Sir +Bertrand might feel proud of their courage when</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The knight advancing strikes the fatal door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hollow chambers send a sullen roar.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Merry</span> +</div></div> + +<p><!-- Page 378 --><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378"></a>To this truly dismal reposing place is however kindly added a little +chapel; and few persons can imagine what a comfortable feel it gave me +on entering it in the morning after hearing the winds howl all night in +the black mountain. Here too we first made acquaintance with Signor +Giovanni Ricci, a mighty agreeable gentleman, who was kindly assistant +to us in a hundred little difficulties, afterwards occasioned by horses, +postillions, &c. which at last brought us through a bad country enough +to Viterbo, where we slept.</p> + +<p>The melancholy appearance of the Campagna has been remarked and +described by every traveller with displeasure, by all with truth. The +ill look of the very few and very unhealthy inhabitants confirms their +descriptions; and beside the pale and swelled faces which shock one's +sight, here is a brassy scent in the air as of verdigris, which offends +one's smell; the running water is of an odd colour too, like that in +which copper has been steeped. These are sad desolated scenes indeed, +though this is not the season for <i>mal' aria</i> neither, which, it is +said, begins in May, and ends with September. The <!-- Page 379 --><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379"></a>present sovereign is +mending matters as fast as he can, we hear; and the road now cutting, +will greatly facilitate access to his capital, but cannot be done +without a prodigious expence. The first view of Rome is wonderfully +striking.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ye awful wrecks of ancient times!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Proud monuments of ages past<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now mould'ring in decay.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Merry</span>. +</div></div> + +<p>But mingled with every crowding, every classical idea, comes to one's +recollection an old picture painted by R. Wilson about thirty years ago, +which I am now sure must have been a very excellent representation.</p> + +<p>Well, then! here we are, admirably lodged at Strofani's in the Piazza di +Spagna, and have only to chuse what we will see and talk on first among +this galaxy of rarities which dazzles, diverts, confounds, and nearly +fatigues one. I will speak of the oldest things first, as I was earnest +to see something of Rome in its very early days, if possible; for +example the Sublician Bridge, defended by Cocles when the infant +republic, like their favourite Hercules in his cradle, strangled <!-- Page 380 --><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380"></a>the +serpent despotism: and of this bridge some portion may yet be seen when +the water is very low.</p> + +<p>The prison is more ancient still however; it was built by the kings; and +by the solidity of its walls, and depth of its dungeon, seems built for +eternity. Was it not this place to which Juvenal alludes, when he says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Felicia dicas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tempora quæ quondam sub regibus atque tribunis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And it is in this horrible spot they shew you the miraculous mark of St. +Peter's head struck against the wall in going down, with the fountain +which burst out of the ground for his refreshment. Antiquaries, however, +assure us, that he could not have ever been confined there, as it was a +place for state prisoners only, and those of the highest rank: they +likewise tell us that Jugurtha passed seven months there, which is as +difficult to believe as any miracle ever wrought; for the world was at +least somewhat civilized in those days, and how it should be contented +with looking quietly on whilst a Prince of Jugurtha's <!-- Page 381 --><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381"></a>consequence +should be so kept, appears incredible at the distance of 1900 years. +That Christians should be treated still worse, if worse could be found +for them, is less strange, when every step one treads is upon the bones +of martyrs; and who dares say that the surrounding campagna, so often +drenched in innocent blood, may not have been cursed with pestilence and +sterility to all succeeding ages? I have examined the place where Sylla +massacred 8000 fellow-citizens at once, and find that it produces no +herb but thistles, a weed almost unknown in any other part of Italy; and +one of the first punishments bestowed on sinful man.</p> + +<p>Marcellus's Theatre, an old fountain erected by Camillus when Dictator, +and the Tarpeian rock, attract attention powerfully: the last +particularly,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where brave Manlius stood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hurl'd indignant decads down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And redden'd Tyber's flood.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><br /></span><span class="smcap">Greatheed</span>. +</div></div> + +<p>People have never done contradicting Burnet, who says, in his travels, +that a man might jump down it now and not do himself <!-- Page 382 --><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382"></a>much harm: the +truth is, its present appearance is not formidable; but I believe it is +not less than forty feet high at this moment, though the ground is +greatly raised.</p> + +<p>Of all things at Rome the Cloaca is acknowledged most ancient; a very +great and a very useful work it is, of Ancus Martius, fourth king of +Rome. The just and zealous detestation of Christians towards Pontius +Pilate, is here comically expressed by their placing his palace just at +its exit into the Tyber; and one who pretended to doubt of its being his +residence, would be thought the worse of among them.</p> + +<p>I recollect nothing else built before the days of the Emperors, who, for +the most part, were such disgracers of human nature and human reason, +that one would almost wish their names expunged, and all their deeds +obliterated from the face of the globe, which could ever tamely submit +to such truly wretched rulers.</p> + +<p>The Capitol, built by Tarquin, stood till the days of Marius and Sylla +it seems; that last-named Dictator erected a new one, <!-- Page 383 --><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383"></a>which was +overthrown in the contests about Vitellius; Vespasian set it up again, +but his performance was burned soon after its author's death; and this +we contemplate now, is one of the works of Domitian, and celebrated by +Martial of course. Adrian however added one room to it, dedicated to +Egyptian deities alone: as a matter of mere taste I fancy, like our +introducing Chinese temples into the garden; but many hold that it was +very serious and superstitious regard, inspired by the victory Canopus +won over the Persian divinity of fire, by the subtlety of the Egyptian +priests, who, to defend their idol from that all-subduing element, +wisely set upon his head a vessel filled with water, and having +previously made the figure of Terra Cotta hollow, and full of water, +with holes bored at the bottom stopped only by wax to keep it in, a +seeming miracle extinguished the flames, as soon as approached by +Canopus; whose triumph was of course proclaimed, and he respected +accordingly. The figure was a monkey, whose sitting attitude favoured +the imposture: our antiquaries tell us the story after <i>Suidas</i>.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 384 --><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384"></a>As cruelty is more detestable than fraud, one feels greater disgust at +the sight of captive monarchs without hands and arms, than even these +idolatrous brutalities inspire; and no greater proof can be obtained of +Roman barbarity, than the statues one is shewn here of kings and +generals over whom they triumphed; being made on purpose for them +without hands and arms, of which they were deprived immediately on their +arrival at Rome.</p> + +<p>Enormous heads and feet, to which the other parts are wanting, let one +see, or at least guess; what colossal figures were once belonging to +them; yet somehow these celebrated artists seem to me to have a little +confounded the ideas of <i>big</i> and <i>great</i> like my countryman Fluellyn in +Shakespear's play: while the two famous demi-gods Castor and Pollux, +each his horse in his hand, stand one on each side the stairs which lead +to the Capitol, and are of a prodigious size—fifteen feet, as I +remember. The knowing people tell us they are portraits, and bid us +observe that one has pupils to his eyes, the other <i>not</i>; but our +<i>laquais de place</i>, who was a very sensible fellow too, as he saw me +stand looking at them, cried out, "Why now to be sure here <!-- Page 385 --><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385"></a>are a vast +many miracles in this holy city—that there are:" and I heard one of our +own folks telling an Englishman the other day, how these two monstrous +statues, horses and all I believe, <i>came out of an egg</i>: a very +extraordinary thing certainly; but it is our business to believe, not to +enquire. He saw my countenance express something he did not like, and +continued, "<i>Eh basta! sarà stato un uovo strepitoso, è cosi sinisce +l'istoria</i><a name="FNanchor_AE_83" id="FNanchor_AE_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_AE_83" class="fnanchor">[AE]</a>."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AE_83" id="Footnote_AE_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AE_83"><span class="label">[AE]</span></a> Well, well! it was a famous egg we'll say, and there's an +end.</p></div> + +<p>In this repository of wonders, this glorious <i>campidoglio</i>, one is first +shewn as the most valuable curiosity, the two pigeons mentioned by Pliny +in old mosaic; and of prodigious nicety is the workmanship, though done +at such a distant period: and here is the very wolf which bears the very +mark of the lightning mentioned by Cicero:—and here is the beautiful +Antinous again; <i>he</i> meets one at every turn, I think, and always hangs +his head as if ashamed: here too is the dying gladiator; wonderfully +fine! savage valour! mean extraction! horrible anguish! all marking, all +strongly characteristical expressions—<i>all <!-- Page 386 --><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386"></a>there</i>; yet all swallowed +up, in that which does inevitably and certainly swallow up all +things—approaching death.</p> + +<p>The collection of pictures here would put any thing but these statues +out of one's head: Guido's Fortune flying over the globe, scattering her +gifts; of which she gave him <i>one</i>, the most precious, the most +desirable. How elegantly gay and airy is this picture! But St. Sebastian +stands opposite, to shew that he could likewise excel in the pathetic. +Titian's famous Magdalen, of which the King of France boasts one copy, a +noble family at Venice another, is protested by the Roman connoisseurs +to reside here only; but why should not the artist be fond of repeating +so fine an idea? Guercino's Sybil however, intelligently pensive, and +sweetly sensible, is the single figure I should prefer to them all.</p> + +<p>Before we quit the Capitol, it is pity not to name Marforio; broken, +old, and now almost forgotten: though once companion, or rather +respondent to Pasquin, and once, a thousand years before those days, a +statue of the river <i>Nar</i>, as his recumbent posture testifies; not <i>Mars +in the forum</i>, as <!-- Page 387 --><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387"></a>has been by some supposed. The late Pope moved him +from the street, and shut him up with his betters in the Capitol.</p> + +<p>Of Trajan and Antonine's Pillars what can one say? That St. Peter and +St. Paul stand on the tops of each, setting forth that uncertainty of +human affairs which they preached in their life-time, and shewing that +<i>they</i>, who were once the objects of contempt and abhorrence, are now +become literally <i>the head stones of the corner</i>; being but too +profoundly venerated in that very city, which once cruelly persecuted, +and unjustly put them to death. Let us then who look on them recollect +their advice, and set our affections on a place of greater stability. +The columns are of very unequal excellence, that of Trajan's confessedly +the best; one grieves to think he never saw it himself, as few princes +were less puffed up by well-deserved praise than he; but dying at +Seleucia of a dysenteric fever, his ashes were brought home, and kept on +the top of his own pillar in a gilt vase; which Sextus Quintus with more +zeal than taste took down, I fear destroyed, and placed St. Peter there. +Apollodorus was the architect of the elegant structure, on which, says +Ammianus <!-- Page 388 --><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388"></a>Marcellinus, the Gods themselves gazed with wonder, seeing +that nothing but heaven itself was finer. "<i>Singularem sub omni cælo +structuram etiam numinum ascensione mirabilem</i>."</p> + +<p>I know not whether this is the proper place to mention that the good +Pope Gregory, who added to the possession of every cardinal virtue the +exertion of every Christian one, having looked one day with peculiar +stedfastness at this column, and being naturally led to reflect on his +character to whose honour it was erected, felt just admiration of a mind +so noble; and retiring to his devotions in a church not far off, began +praying earnestly for Trajan's soul: till a preternatural voice, +accompanied with rays of light round the altar he knelt at, commanded +his forbearance of further solicitation; assuring him that Trajan's soul +was secure in the care of his Creator. Strange! that those who record, +and give credit to such a story, can yet continue as a duty their +intercessions for the dead!</p> + +<p>But I have seen the Coliseo, which would swallow that of pretty Verona; +it is four <!-- Page 389 --><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389"></a>times as large I am told, and would hold fourscore thousand +spectators. After all the depredations of all the Goths, and afterwards +of the Farnese family, the ruin is gloriously beautiful; possibly more +beautiful than when it was quite whole; there is enough left now for +Truth to repose upon, and a perch for Fancy beside, to fly out from, and +fetch in more.</p> + +<p>The orders of its architecture are easily discerned, though the height +of the upper story is truly tremendous; I climbed it once, not to the +top indeed, but till I was afraid to look down from the place I was in, +and penetrated many of its recesses. The modern Italians have not lost +their taste of a prodigious theatre; were they once more a single +nation, they would rebuild <i>this</i> I fancy; for here are all the +conveniencies in <i>grande</i>, as they call it, that amaze one even in +<i>piccolo</i> at Milan and Turin: Here were supper-rooms, and taverns, and +shops, and I believe baths; certainly long galleries big enough to drive +a coach round, and places where slaves waited to receive the commands of +masters and ladies, who perhaps if they did not wait to please them, +would scarcely scruple to de<!-- Page 390 --><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390"></a>tain them in the cage of offenders, and +keep them to make sport upon a future day.</p> + +<p>The cruelties then exercised on servants at Rome were truly dreadful; +and we all remember reading that in Augustus's time, when he did a +private friend the honour to dine with him, one of the waiters broke a +glass he was about to present full of liquor to the King; at which +offence the master being enraged, suddenly caused him to be seized by +the rest, and thrown instantly out of the window to feed his lampreys, +which lived in a pond on which the apartment looked. Augustus said +nothing at the moment; to punish the nobleman's inhumanity however, he +sent his officers next morning to break every glass in the house: A +curious chastisement enough, and worthy of a nation who, being powerful +to erect, populous to fill, and elegantly-skilful to adorn such a fabric +as this Coliseum which I have just been contemplating, were yet +contented and even happy to view from its well-arranged seats, +exhibitions capable of giving nothing but disgust and horror;—lions +rending unarmed wretches in pieces; or, to the still deeper disgrace of +poor <!-- Page 391 --><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391"></a>Humanity, those wretches armed unwillingly against each other, and +dying to divert a brutal populace.</p> + +<p>These reflections upon Pagan days and classical cruelties do not disturb +however the peace of an old hermit, who has chosen one of these +close-concealed recesses for his habitation, and accordingly dwells, +dismally enough, in a hole seldom visited by travellers, and certainly +never enquired about by the natives. I stumbled on his strange apartment +by mere chance, and asked him why he had chosen it? He had been led in +early youth, he said, to reflect upon the miseries suffered by the +original professors of Christianity; the tortures inflicted on them in +this horrible amphitheatre, and the various vicissitudes of Rome since: +that he had dedicated himself to these meditations: that he had left the +world seventeen years, never stirring from his cell but to buy food, +which he eat alone and sparingly, and to pay his devotions in the <i>Via +Crucis</i>, for so the old Arena is now called; a simple plain wooden cross +occupying the middle of it, and round the Circus twelve neat, not +splendid chapels; a picture to each, representing the various stages of +our Sa<!-- Page 392 --><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392"></a>viour's passion. Such are the meek triumphs of our meek religion! +And that such substitutes should have replaced the African savages, +tigers, hyænas, &c. and Roman gladiators, not less ferocious than their +four-legged antagonists, I am quite as willing to rejoice at as the +hermit: They must be better antiquarians too than I am, who regret that +a nunnery now covers the spot where ambitious Tullia drove over the +bleeding body of her murdered parent,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pressit et inductis membra paterna rotis:<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That nunnery, supported by the arch of Nerva, which is all that is now +left standing of that Emperor's Forum.</p> + +<p>I must not however quit the Coliseum, without repeating what passed +between the King of Sweden and his Roman <i>laquais de place</i> when he was +here; and the fellow, in the true cant of his Ciceroneship, exclaimed as +they looked up, "<i>Ah Maesta!</i> what cursed Goths those were that tore +away so many fine things here, and pulled down such magnificent pillars, +&c." "Hold, hold friend," replies the King of Sweden; "I am one of those +cursed Goths myself you know: <!-- Page 393 --><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393"></a>but what were your Roman nobles a-doing, +I would ask, when they laboured to destroy an edifice like this, and +build their palaces with its materials?"</p> + +<p>The baths of Livia are still elegantly designed round her small +apartments; and one has copies sold of them upon fans; the curiosity of +the original is to see how well the gilding stands; in many places it +appears just finished. These baths are difficult of access somehow; I +never could quite understand how we got in or out of them, but they did +belong to the Imperial palace, which covered this whole Palatine hill, +and here was Nero's golden house, by what I could gather, but of that I +thank Heaven there is no trace left, except some little portion of the +wall, which was 120 feet high, and some marbles in shades, like women's +worsted work upon canvass, very curious, and very wonderful; as all are +natural marbles, and no dye used: the expence must have surpassed +credibility.</p> + +<p>The Temple of Vesta, supposed to be the <i>very</i> temple to which Horace +alludes in his second Ode, is a pretty rotunda, and has twenty pillars +fluted of Parian marble: it is now a church, as are most of the heathen +temples.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 394 --><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394"></a>Such adaptations do not please one, but then it must be allowed and +recollected that one is very hard to please: finding fault is so easy, +and doing right so difficult!</p> + +<p>The good Pope Gregory, who feared (by sacred inspiration one would +think) all which should come to pass, broke many beautiful antique +statues, "lest," said he, "induced by change of dress or name perhaps +our Christians may be tempted to adore them:" and we say he was a +blockhead, and burned Livy's decads, and so he did; but he refused all +titles of earthly dignity; he censured the Oriental Patriarchs for +substituting temporal splendours in the place of primitive simplicity; +which he said ought <i>alone</i> to distinguish the followers of Jesus +Christ. He required a strict attention to morality from all his inferior +clergy; observed that those who strove to be first, would end in being +last; and took himself the title of servant to the servants of God.</p> + +<p>Well! Sabinian, his successor, once his favourite Nuncio, flung his +books in the fire as soon as he was dead; so his injunctions were obeyed +but while he lived to enforce them; and every day now shews us how +necessary they were: when, even in these enlightened <!-- Page 395 --><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395"></a>times, there +stands an old figure that every Abate in the town knows to have been +originally made for the fabulous God of Physic, Esculapius, is prayed to +by many old women and devotees of all ages indeed, just at the Via +Sacra's entrance, and called St. Bartolomeo.</p> + +<p>A beautiful Diana too, with her trussed-up robes, the crescent alone +wanting, stands on the high altar to receive homage in the character of +St. Agnes, in a pretty church dedicated to her <i>fuor delle Porte</i>, where +it is supposed she suffered martyrdom; and why? Why for not venerating +that <i>very Goddess Diana</i>, and for refusing to walk in her procession at +the <i>New Moon</i>, like a good Christian girl. "<i>Such contradictions put +one from one's self</i>" as Shakespear says.</p> + +<p>We are this moment returned home from Tivoli; have walked round Adrian's +Villa, and viewed his Hippodrome, which would yet make an admirable open +Manège. I have seen the Cascatelle, so sweetly elegant, so rural, so +romantic; and I have looked with due respect on the places once +inhabited, and ever justly celebrated by genius, wit, and learning; have +shuddered at revisiting the <!-- Page 396 --><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396"></a>spot I hastened down to examine, while +curiosity was yet keen enough to make me venture a very dangerous and +scarcely-trodden path to Neptune's Grotto; where, as you descend, the +Cicerone shews you a wheel of some coarse carriage visibly stuck fast in +the rock till it is become a part of it; distinguished from every other +stone only by its shape, its projecting forward, and its shewing the +hollow places in its fellies, where nails were originally driven. This +truly-curious, though little venerable piece of antiquity, serves to +assist the wise men in puzzling out the world's age, by computing how +many centuries go to the petrifying a cart wheel. A violent roar of +dashing waters at the bottom, and a fall of the river at this place from +the height of 150 feet, were however by no means favourable to my +arithmetical studies; and I returned perfectly disposed to think the +world's age a less profitable, a less diverting contemplation, than its +folly.</p> + +<p>We looked at the temple of the old goddess that cured coughs, now a +Christian church, dedicated to <i>la Madonna della Tosse</i>; it is exactly +all it ever was, I believe; and we dined in the temple of Sibylla +Tiburtina, a beautiful <!-- Page 397 --><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397"></a>edifice, of which Mr. Jenkins has sent the model +to London in cork, which gives a more exact representation after all +than the best-chosen words in the world. I would rather make use of +<i>them</i> to praise Mr. Jenkins's general kindness and hospitality to all +his country-folks, who find a certain friend in him; and if they please, +a very competent instructor.</p> + +<p>In order however to understand the meaning of some spherical <i>pots</i> +observed in the Circus of Caracalla, I chose above all men to consult +Mr. Greatheed, whose correct taste, deep research, and knowledge of +architecture, led me to prefer his account to every other, of their use +and necessity: it shall be given in his own words, which I am proud of +his permission to copy.</p> + +<p>"Of those <i>pots</i> you mention, there are not any remaining in the Circus +Maxiouis, as the walls, seats and apodium of that have entirely +disappeared. They are to be seen in the Circus of Caracalla, on the +Appian way; of this, and of this alone, enough still exists to ascertain +the form, structure, and parts of a Roman course. It was surrounded by +two parallel walls which supported the seats of the spectators. The +exterior wall rose to the <!-- Page 398 --><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398"></a>summit of the gallery; the interior one was +much lower, terminated with the lowest rows, and formed the apodium. +This <a href="#illus405">rough section</a> may serve to elucidate my +description. From wall to wall an arch was turned which formed a +quadrant, and on this the seats immediately rested: but as the upper +rows were considerably distant from the crown of the arch, it was +necessary to fill the intermediate space with materials sufficiently +strong to support the upper stone benches and the multitude. Had these +been of solid substance, they would have pressed prodigious and +disproportionate weight on the summit of the arch, a place least able to +endure it from its horizontal position. To remedy this defect, the +architect caused <i>spherical pots</i> to be baked; of these each formed of +itself an arch sufficiently powerful to sustain its share of the +incumbent weight, and the whole was rendered much less ponderous by the +innumerable vacuities.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 241px;"> +<a name="illus405"></a><a href="images/illus405_full.png"><img src="images/illus405.png" width="241" height="278" alt="Cross-section of the Circus of Caracall" title="Cross-section of the Circus of Caracall" /></a> +</div> + +<p><!-- Page 399 --><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399"></a>"A similiar expedient was likewise used to diminish the pressure of +their domes, by employing the scoriæ of lava brought for that purpose +from the Lipari Islands. The numberless bubbles of this volcanic +substance give it the appearance of a honeycomb, and answer the same +purpose as the pots in Caracalla's Circus, so much so, that though very +hard, it is of less specific gravity than wood, and consequently floats +in water."</p> + +<p>Before I quit the Circus of Caracalla, I must not forbear mentioning his +bust, which so perfectly resembles Hogarth's idle 'Prentice; but why +should they not be alike?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For black-guards are black-guards in every degree,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I suppose, and the people here who shew one things, always take delight +to souce an Englishman's hat upon his head, as if they thought so too.</p> + +<p>This morning's ramble let us to see the old grotto, sacred to Numa's +famous nymph, Ægeria, not far from Rome even now. I wonder that it +should escape being built round when Rome was so extensive as to contain +the crowds which we are told were <!-- Page 400 --><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400"></a>lodged in it. That the city spread +chiefly the other way, is scarce an answer. London spreads chiefly the +Marybone way perhaps, yet is much nearer to Rumford than it was fifty or +sixty years ago.</p> + +<p>The same remark may be made of the Temple of Mars without the walls, +near the Porta Capena: a rotunda it was on the road side <i>then</i>: it is +on the road side <i>now</i>, and a very little way from the gate.</p> + +<p>Caius Cestius's sepulchre however, without the walls, on the other side, +is one of the most perfect remains of antiquity we have here. Aurelian +made use of that as a boundary we know: it stands at present half +without and half within the limit that Emperor set to the city; and is a +very beautiful pyramid a hundred and ten feet high, admirably +represented in Piranesi's prints, with an inscription on the white +marble of which it is composed, importing the name and office and +condition of its wealthy proprietor: <i>C. Cestius, septem vir epulonum</i>. +He must have lived therefore since Julius Caesar's time it is plain, as +he first increased the number of epulones to seven, from three their +original institution. It was probably a very lucrative <!-- Page 401 --><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401"></a>office for a man +to be Jupiter's caterer; who, as he never troubled himself with looking +over the bills, they were such commonly, I doubt not, as made ample +profits result to him who went to market; and Caius Cestius was one of +the rich contractors of those days, who neglected no opportunity of +acquiring wealth for himself, while he consulted the honour of Jupiter +in providing for his master's table very plentiful and elegant banquets.</p> + +<p>That such officers were in use too among the Persians during the time +their monarchy lasted, is plain from the apocryphal story of Bel and the +Dragon in our Bibles, where, to the joy of every child that reads it, +Daniel detects the fraud of the priests by scattering ashes or saw-dust +in the temple.</p> + +<p>But I fear the critics will reprove me for saying that Julius Caesar +only increased the number to seven, while many are of opinion he added +three more, and made them a decemvirate: mean time Livy tells us the +institution began in the year of Rome 553, during the consulate of +Fulvius Purpurio and Marcellus, upon a motion of Romuleius if I +remember. They had the privilege granted afterwards of edging the gown +with purple like the pontiffs, when <!-- Page 402 --><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402"></a>increased to seven in number; and +they were always known by the name <i>Septemviratus,</i> or <i>Septemviri +Epulonum</i>, to the latest hours of Paganism.</p> + +<p>The tomb of Caius Cestius is supposed to have cost twelve thousand +pounds sterling of our money in those days; and little did he dream that +it should be made in the course of time a repository for the bones of +<i>divisos orbe Britannos</i>: for such it is now appointed to be by +government. All of us who die at Rome, sleep with this purveyor of the +gods; and from his monument shall at the last day rise the re-animated +body of our learned and incomparable Sir James Macdonald: whose numerous +and splendid acquirements, though by the time he had reached twenty-four +years old astonished all who knew him, never overwhelmed one little +domestic virtue. His filial piety however; his hereditary courage, his +extensive knowledge, his complicated excellencies, have now, I fear, no +other register to record their worth, than a low stone near the stately +pyramid of Jupiter's caterer.</p> + +<p>The tomb of Cæcilia Metella, wife of the rich and famous Crassus, claims +our next attention; it is a beautiful structure, and still <!-- Page 403 --><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403"></a>called <i>Capo +di Bove</i> by the Italians, on account of its being ornamented with the +<i>oxhead and flowers</i> which now flourish over every door in the new-built +streets of London; but the original of which, as Livy tells us, and I +believe Plutarch too, was this. That Coratius, a Sabine farmer, who +possessed a particularly fine cow, was advised by a soothsayer to +sacrifice her to Diana upon the Aventine Hill; telling him, that the +city where <i>she</i> now presided—<i>Diana</i>—should become mistress of the +world, and he who presented her with that cow should become master over +that city. The poor Sabine went away to wash in the Tyber, and purify +himself for these approaching honours<a name="FNanchor_AF_84" id="FNanchor_AF_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_AF_84" class="fnanchor">[AF]</a>; but in the mean time, a boy +having heard the discourse, and reported it to <i>Servius Tullius</i>, he +hastened to the spot, killed Coratius's cow for him, sacrificed her to +Diana, and hung her head with the horns on, and the garland just as she +died, upon the temple door as an ornament. From that time, it seems, the +ornament called <i>Caput Bovis</i> was in a manner consecrated to Diana, and +her particular votaries used it on their tombs. Nor could one easily +<!-- Page 404 --><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404"></a>account for the decorations of many Roman sarcophagi, till one +recollects that they were probably adapted to that divinity in whose +temple they were to be placed, rather than to the particular person +occupying the tomb, or than to our general ideas of death, time, and +eternity. It is probably for this reason that the immense sarcophagus +lately dug up from under the temple of Bacchus without the walls, cut +out of one solid piece of red porphyry, has such gay ornaments round it, +relative to the sacrifices of Bacchus, &c.; and I fancy these stone +coffins, if we may call them so, were often made ready and sold to any +person who wished to bury their friend, and who chose some story +representing the triumph of whatever deity they devoted themselves to. +Were the modern inhabitants of Rome who venerate St. Lorenzo, St. +Sebastiano, &c. to place, not uncharacteristically at all—a gridiron, +or an arrow on their tombstone, it might puzzle succeeding antiquarians, +and yet be nothing out of the way in the least.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AF_84" id="Footnote_AF_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AF_84"><span class="label">[AF]</span></a> A circumstance alluded to and parodied by Ben Johnson in +his Alchemist. See the conduct of Dapper, &c.</p></div> + +<p>Of the Egyptian obelisks at Rome I will not strive to give any account, +or even any idea. They are too numerous, too wonderful, too learned for +me to talk about; but I <!-- Page 405 --><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405"></a>must not forbear to mention the broken thing +which lies down somewhere in a heap of rubbish, and is said to be the +greatest rarity in Rome, column, or <i>obelisk</i> and the greatest antiquity +surely, if 1630 years before the birth of Christ be its date; as that +was but two centuries after the invention of letters by <i>Memnon</i>, and +just about the time that Joseph the favourite of Pharaoh died. There is +a sphinx upon it, however, mighty clearly expressed; and some one said, +how strange it was, if the world was no older than we think it, that +they should, in so early a stage of existence, represent, or even +imagine to themselves a compound animal<a name="FNanchor_AG_85" id="FNanchor_AG_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_AG_85" class="fnanchor">[AG]</a>: though the chimæra came in +play when the world was pretty young too, and the Prophet Isaiah speaks +of centaurs; but that was long after even Hesiod's time.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AG_85" id="Footnote_AG_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AG_85"><span class="label">[AG]</span></a> The ornaments of the ark and tabernacle exhibit much +improvement in the arts of engraving, carving, &c. Nor did it seem to +cost Aaron any trouble to make a cast of Apis in the Wilderness for the +Israelites' amusement, 1491 years before Christ; while the dog Anubis +was probably another figure with which Moses was not unacquainted, and +that was certainly composite: a cynopephalus I believe.</p></div> + +<p>A modern traveller has however, with much ingenuity of conjecture, given +us an <!-- Page 406 --><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406"></a>excellent reason why the Sphinx was peculiar to Egypt, as the +Nile was observed to overflow when the sun was in those signs of the +Zodiack:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The lion virgin Sphinx, which shows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What time the rich Nile overflows.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And sure I think, as people lived longer then than they do now; as Moses +was contemporary with Cecrops, so that monarchy and a settled form of +government had begun to obtain footing in Greece, and apparently +migrated a little westward even then; that this column might have +employed the artists of those days, without any such exceeding stretch +of probability as our modern Aristotelians study to make out, from their +zeal to establish his doctrine of the world's eternity. While, if +conjecture were once as liberally permitted to believers as it is +generously afforded to scepticks, I know not whether a hint concerning +Sphinx's original might not be deduced from old Israel's last blessing +to his sons; <i>The lion of Judah</i>, with the <i>head of a virgin</i>, in whose +offspring that lion was one day to sink and be lost, except his hinder +parts; might naturally enough grow into a favourite emblem among the +inhabitants of a nation <!-- Page 407 --><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407"></a>who owed their existence to one of the family; +and who would be still more inclined to commemorate the mystical +blessing, if they observed the fructifying inundation to happen +regularly, as Mr. Savary says, when the Sun left Leo for Virgo.</p> + +<p>The broken pillar has however carried me too far perhaps, though every +day passed in the Pope's Musæum confirms my belief, nay certainty, that +they did mingle the veneration of Joseph with that of their own gods: +The bushel or measure of corn on the Egyptian Jupiter's head is a proof +of it, and the name <i>Serapis</i>, a further corroboration: the dream which +he explained for Pharaoh relative to the event that fixed his favour in +that country, was expressed by <i>cattle</i>; and <i>for apis</i>, the <i>ox's +head</i>, was perfectly applicable to him for every reason.</p> + +<p>But we will quit mythology for the Corso. This is the first town in +Italy I have arrived at yet, where the ladies fairly drive up and down a +long street by way of shewing their dress, equipages, &c. without even a +pretence of taking fresh air. At Turin the view from the place destined +to this amusement, would tempt one out merely for its own sake; and at +Milan they drive along a planted <!-- Page 408 --><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408"></a>walk, at least a stone's throw beyond +the gates. Bologna calls its serious inhabitants to a little rising +ground, whence the prospect is luxuriantly verdant and smiling. The +Lucca bastions are beyond all in a peculiar style of miniature beauty; +and even the Florentines, though lazy enough, creep out to Porto St. +Gallo. But here at Roma la Santa, the street is all our Corso; a fine +one doubtless, and called the <i>Strada del Popolo</i>, with infinite +propriety, for except in that strada there is little populousness enough +God knows. Twelve men to a woman even there, and as many ecclesiastics +to a lay-man: all this however is fair, when celibacy is once enjoined +as a duty in one profession, encouraged as a virtue in all. Where +females are superfluous, and half prohibited, it were as foolish to +complain of the decay of population, as it was comical in Omai the South +American savage, when he lamented that no cattle bred upon their island; +and one of our people replying, That they left some beasts on purpose to +furnish them; he answered, "Yes, but the idol worshipped at Bola-bola, +another of the islands, insisted on the males and females living +separate: so <!-- Page 409 --><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409"></a>they had sent <i>him</i> the cows, and kept only the bulls at +home."</p> + +<p><i>Au reste</i>, as the French say, we must not be too sure that all who +dress like Abates are such. Many gentlemen wear black as the court garb; +many because it is not costly, and many for reasons of mere convenience +and dislike of change.</p> + +<p>I see not here the attractive beauty which caught my eye at Venice; but +the women at Rome have a most Juno-like carriage, and fill up one's idea +of Livia and Agrippina well enough. The men have rounder faces than one +sees in other towns I think; bright, black, and somewhat prominent eyes, +with the finest teeth in Europe. A story told me this morning struck my +fancy much; of an herb-woman, who kept a stall here in the market, and +who, when the people ran out flocking to see the Queen of Naples as she +passed, began exclaiming to her neighbours—"<i>Ah, povera Roma! tempo fù +quando passò qui prigioniera la regina Zenobia; altra cosa amica, robba +tutta diversa di questa</i> reginuccia<a name="FNanchor_AH_86" id="FNanchor_AH_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_AH_86" class="fnanchor">[AH]</a>!"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AH_86" id="Footnote_AH_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AH_86"><span class="label">[AH]</span></a> "Ah, poor degraded Rome! time was, my dear, when the great +Zenobia passed through these streets in chains; anotherguess figure from +this little Queeney, in good time!"</p></div> + +<p><!-- Page 410 --><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410"></a>A characteristic speech enough; but in this town, unlike to every other, +the <i>things</i> take my attention all away from the <i>people</i>; while, in +every other, the people have had much more of my mind employed upon +them, than the things.</p> + +<p>The arch of Constantine, however, must be spoken of; the sooner, because +there is a contrivance at the top of it to conceal musicians, which +added, as it passed, to the noise and gaiety of the triumph. Lord +Scarsdale's back front at Keddlestone exhibits an imitation of this +structure; a motto, expressive of hospitality, filling up the part +which, in the original, is adorned with the siege of Verona, that to me +seems well done; but Michael Angelo carried off Trajan's head they tell +us, which had before been carried thither from the arch of Trajan +himself. The arch of Titus Vespasian struck me more than all the others +we have named though; less for its being the first building in which the +Composite order of architecture is made use of, among the numberless +fabrics that surround one, than for the evident completion of the +prophecies which it exhibits. Nothing can appear less injured by time +than the bas-reliefs, on one side re<!-- Page 411 --><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411"></a>presenting the ark, and golden +candlesticks; on the other, Titus himself, delight of human kind, drawn +by four horses, his look at once serene and sublime. The Jews cannot +endure, I am told, to pass under this arch, so lively is the +<i>annihilation</i> of their government, and utter <i>extinction</i> of their +religion, carved upon it. When reflecting on the continued captivity +they have suffered ever since this arch was erected here at Rome, and +which they still suffer, being strictly confined to their own miserable +Ghetto, which they dare not leave without a mark upon their hat to +distinguish them, and are never permitted to stir without the walls, +except in custody of some one whose business it is to bring them back; +when reflecting, I say, on their sorrows and punishments, one's heart +half inclines to pity their wretchedness; the dreadful recollection +immediately crosses one, that these are the direct and lineal progeny of +those very Jews who cried out aloud—"<i>Let his blood be upon us, and +upon our children!</i>"—Unhappy race! how sweetly does St. Austin say of +them—"<i>Librarii nostri facti sunt, quemadmodum solent libros post +dominos ferre</i>."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 412 --><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412"></a>The <i>arca degli orefici</i> is a curious thing too, and worth observing: +the goldsmiths set it up in honour of Caracalla and Geta; but one +plainly discerns where poor Geta's head has been carried off in one +place, his figure broken in another, apparently by Caracalla's order. +The building is of itself of little consequence, but as a confirmation +of historical truth.</p> + +<p>The fountains of Rome should have been spoken of long ago; the number of +them is known to all though, and of their magnificence words can give no +idea. One print of the Trevi is worth all the words of all the +describers together. Moses striking the rock, at another fountain, where +water in torrents tumble forth at the touch of the rod, has a glorious +effect, from the happiness of the thought, and an expression so suitable +to the subject. When I was told the story of Queen Christina admiring +the two prodigious fountains before St. Peter's church, and begging that +they might leave off playing, because she thought them occasional, and +in honour of her arrival, not constant and perpetual; who could help +recollecting a similar tale told about the Prince of Monaco, who was +said to <!-- Page 413 --><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413"></a>have expressed his concern, when he saw the roads lighted up +round London, that our king should put himself to so great an expence on +his account—in good time!—thinking it a temporary illumination made to +receive him with distinguished splendour. These anecdotes are very +pretty now, if they are strictly true; because they shew the mind's +petty but natural disposition, of reducing and attributing all <i>to +self</i>: but if they are only inventions, to raise the reputation of +London lamps, or Roman cascades, one scorns them;—I really do hope, and +half believe, that they are true.</p> + +<p>But I have been to see the two Auroras of Guido and Guercino. Villa +Ludovisi contains the last, of which I will speak first for forty +reasons—the true one because I like it best. It is so sensible, so +poetical, so beautiful. The light increases, and the figure advances to +the fancy: one expects Night to be waked before one looks at her again, +if ever one can be prevailed upon to take one's eyes away. The bat and +owl are going soon to rest, and the lamp burns more faintly as when day +begins to approach. The personification of Night is wonderfully hit off. +But Guercino is <i>such</i> a <!-- Page 414 --><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414"></a>painter! We were driving last night to look at +the Colisseo by moon-light—there were a few clouds just to break the +expanse of azure and shew the gilding. I thought how like a sky of +Guercino's it was; other painters remind one of nature, but nature when +most lovely makes one think of Guercino and his works. The Ruspigliosi +palace boasts the Aurora of Guido—both are ceilings, but this is not +rightly named sure. We should call it the Phoebus, for Aurora holds only +the second place at best: the fun is driving over her almost; it is a +more luminous, a more graceful, a more showy picture than the other, +more universal too, exciting louder and oftener repeated praises; yet +the other is so discriminated, so tasteful, so classical! We must go see +what Domenichino has done with the same subject.</p> + +<p>I forget the name of the palace where it is to be admired: but had we +not seen the others, one should have said this was divine. It is a +Phoebus again, <i>this</i> is; not a bit of an Aurora: and Truth is springing +up from the arms of Time to rejoice in the sun's broad light. Her +expression of transport at being <!-- Page 415 --><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415"></a>set free from obscurity, is happy in +an eminent degree; but there are faults in her form, and the Apollo has +scarcely dignity enough in <i>his</i>. The horses are best in Guide's +picture: Aurora at the Villa Ludovisi has but two; they are very +spirited, but it is the spirit of three, not six o'clock in a summer +morning. Surely Thomson had been living under these two roofs when he +wrote such descriptions as seem to have been made on purpose for them; +could any one give a more perfect account of Guercino's performance than +these words afford?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The meek-ey'd morn appears, mother of dews,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At first faint-gleaming in the dappled East<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till far o'er æther spreads the widening glow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from before the lustre of her face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White break the clouds away: with quicken'd step<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brown Night retires, young Day pours in apace<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And opens all the lawny prospect wide.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As for the Ruspigliosi palace I left these lines in the room, written by +the same author, and think them more capable than any description I +could make, of giving some idea of Guido's Phoebus.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"><!-- Page 416 --><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416"></a> +<span class="i0">While yonder comes the powerful King of Day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rejoicing in the East; the lessening cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The kindling azure, and the mountains brow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betoken glad; lo, now apparent all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He looks in boundless majesty abroad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sheds the shining day.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>So charming Thomson wrote from his lodgings at a milliner's in +Bond-street, whence he seldom rose early enough to see the sun do more +than glisten on the opposing windows of the street: but genius, like +truth, cannot be kept down. So he wrote, and so they painted! <i>Ut +pictura poesis</i>.</p> + +<p>The music is not in a state so capital as we left it in the north of +Italy; we regret Nardini of Florence, Alessandri of Venice, and Ronzi of +Milan; and who that has heard Signior Marchesi sing, could ever hear a +successor (for rival he has none), without feeling total indifference to +all their best endeavours?</p> + +<p>The conversations of Cardinal de Bernis and Madame de Boccapaduli are +what my countrywomen talk most of; but the Roman ladies cannot endure +perfumes, and faint away even at an artificial rose. I went but <!-- Page 417 --><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417"></a>once +among them, when Memmo the Venetian ambassador did me the honour to +introduce me <i>somewhere</i>, but the conversation was soon over, not so my +shame; when I perceived all the company shrink from me very oddly, and +stop their noses with rue, which a servant brought to their assistance +on open salvers. I was by this time more like to faint away than +they—from confusion and distress; my kind protector informed me of the +cause; said I had some grains of marechale powder in my hair perhaps, +and led me out of the assembly; to which no intreaties could prevail on +me ever to return, or make further attempts to associate with a delicacy +so very susceptible of offence.</p> + +<p>Mean time the weather is exceedingly bad, heavy, thick, and foggy as our +own, for aught I see; but so it was at Milan too I well remember: one's +eye would not reach many mornings across the Naviglio that ran directly +under our windows. For fine bright Novembers we must go to +Constantinople I fancy; certain it is that Rome will not supply them.</p> + +<p>What however can make these Roman ladies fly from <i>odori</i> so, that a +drop of lavender<!-- Page 418 --><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418"></a>water in one's handkerchief, or a carnation in one's +stomacher, is to throw them all into, convulsions thus? Sure this is the +only instance in which they forbear to <i>fabbricare fu +l'antico</i><span class="footnoteinline">[Build upon the old foundations]</span>, in their own +phrase: the dames, of whom Juvenal delights to tell, liked perfumes well +enough if I remember; and Horace and Martial cry "<i>Carpe rosas</i>" +perpetually. Are the modern inhabitants still more refined than <i>they</i> +in their researches after pleasure? and are the present race of ladies +capable of increasing, beyond that of their ancestors, the keenness of +any corporeal sense? I should think not. Here are however amusements +enough at Rome without trying for their conversations.</p> + +<p>The Barberini palace, whither I carried a distracting tooth-ach, amused +even that torture by the variety of its wonders. The sleeping faun, +praised on from century to century, and never yet praised enough; so +drunk, so fast asleep, so like a human body! Modesty reproving Vanity, +by Leonardo da Vinci, so totally beyond my expectation or comprehension, +great! wise! and fine! <!-- Page 419 --><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419"></a>Raphael's Mistress, painted by himself, and +copied by Julio Romano; this picture gives little satisfaction though +except from curiosity gratified, the woman is too coarse. Guido's +Magdalen up stairs, the famous Magdalen, effacing every beauty, of +softness mingled with distress. A St. John too, by dear Guercino, +transcendent! but such was my anguish the very rooms turned round: I +must come again when less ill I believe.</p> + +<p>Nothing can equal the nastiness at one's entrance to this magazine of +perfection: but the Roman nobles are not disgusted with <i>all sorts</i> of +scents it is plain; these are not what we should call perfumes indeed, +but certainly <i>odori</i>: of the same nature as those one is obliged to +wade through before Trajan's Pillar can be climbed.</p> + +<p>That the general appearance of a city which contains such treasures +should be mean and disgusting, while one literally often walks upon +granite, and tramples red porphyry under one's feet, is one of the +greatest wonders to me, in a town of which the wonders seem innumerable: +that it should be nasty beyond all telling, all endurance, with such +<!-- Page 420 --><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420"></a>perennial streams of the purest water liberally dispersed, and +triumphantly scattered all over it, is another unfathomable wonder: that +so many poor should be suffered to beg in the streets, when not a hand +can be got to work in the fields, and that those poor should be +permitted to exhibit sights of deformity and degradations of our species +to me unseen till now, at the most solemn moments, and in churches where +silver and gold, and richly-arrayed priests, scarcely suffice to call +off attention from their squallid miseries, I do not try to comprehend. +That the palaces which taste and expence combine to decorate should look +quietly on, while common passengers use their noble vestibules, nay +flairs, for every nauseous purpose; that princes whose incomes equal +those of our Dukes of Bedford and Marlborough, should suffer their +servants to dress other men's dinners for hire, or lend out their +equipages for a day's pleasuring, and hang wet rags out of their palace +windows to dry, as at the mean habitation of a pauper; while looking in +at those very windows, nothing is to be seen but proofs of opulence, and +scenes of splendour, I will not <!-- Page 421 --><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421"></a>undertake to explain; sure I am, that +whoever knows Rome, will not condemn this <i>ebauche</i> of it.</p> + +<p>When I spoke of their beggars, many not unlike Salvator Rosa's Job at +the Santa Croce palace, I ought not to have omitted their eloquence, and +various talents. We talked to a lame man one day at our own door, whose +account of his illness would not have disgraced a medical professor; so +judicious were his sentiments, so scientific was his discourse. The +accent here too is perfectly pleasing, intelligible, and expressive; and +I like their <i>cantilena</i> vastly.</p> + +<p>The excessive lenity of all Italian states makes it dangerous to live +among them; a seeming paradox, yet certainly most true; and whatever is +evil in this way at any other town, is worst at Rome; where those who +deserve hanging, enjoy almost a moral certainty of never being hanged; +so unwilling is everybody to detect the offender, and so numerous the +churches to afford him protection if found out.</p> + +<p>A man asked importunately in our antichamber this morning for the +<i>padrone,</i> naming no names, and our servants turned <!-- Page 422 --><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422"></a>him out. He went +however only five doors, further, found a sick old gentleman sitting in +his lodging attended by a feeble servant, whom he bound, stuck a knife +in the master, rifled the apartments, and walked coolly out again at +noon-day: nor should we have ever heard of <i>such a trifle</i>, but that it +happened just by so; for here are no newspapers to tell who is murdered, +and nobody's pity is excited, unless for the malefactor when they hear +he is caught.</p> + +<p>But the Palazzo Farnese is a more pleasing speculation; the Hercules +faces us entering; Guglielmo della Porta made his legs I hear, and when +the real ones were found, <i>his were better:</i> and Michael Angelo said, it +was not worth risquing the statue to try at restoring the old ones. +There is another Hercules stands near, as a foil to Glycon's, I suppose; +and the Italians tell you of our Mr. Sharp's acuteness in finding some +fault till then undiscovered, a very slight one though, with some of the +neck muscles: they tell it approvingly however, and make one admire +their candour, even beyond their Flora, who carries that in her +countenance which they possess in their hearts. Under a shed on the +<!-- Page 423 --><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423"></a>right hand you find the famous groupe called Toro Farnese. It has been +touched and repaired, they tell you, till much of the spirit is lost; +but I did not miss it. The Bull and the Brothers are greatness itself; +but Dirce draws no compassion by her looks somehow, and the lady who +comes to her relief, seems too cold a spectatress of the scene.</p> + +<p>There were several broken statues in the place, and while my companions +were examining the groupe after I had done, the wench's conversation who +shewed it made my amusement: as we looked together at an Egyptian +<i>Isis</i>, or, as many call her, <i>the Ephesian Diana</i>, with a hundred +breasts, very hideous, and swathed about the legs like a mummy at Cairo, +or a baby at Rome, I said to the girl, "<i>They worshipped these filthy +things formerly before Jesus Christ came; but he taught us better</i>," +added I, "<i>and we are wiser now: how foolish was not it to pray to this +ugly stone</i>?"—"The people were <i>wickeder</i> then, very likely;" replied +my friend the wench, "but I do not see that it <i>was foolish at all."</i></p> + +<p>Who says the modern Romans are degenerated? I swear I think them so like +their <!-- Page 424 --><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424"></a>ancestors, that it is my delight to contemplate the resemblance. +A statue of a peasant carrying game at this very palace, is habited +precisely in the modern dress, and shews how very little change has yet +been made. The shoes of the low fellows too particularly attract my +notice: they exactly resemble the ancient ones, and when Persius +mentions his ploughman <i>peronatus arator</i>, one sees he would say so +to-day.</p> + +<p>The Dorian palace calls however, and people must give way to things +where the miraculous powers of Benvenuto Garofani are concerned; where +Lodovico Caracci exhibits a <i>testa del redentore</i> beyond all praise, +uniting every excellence, and expressing every perfection; where, in the +deluge represented by Bonati, one sees the eagle drooping from a weight +of rain, majestic in his distress, and looking up to the luminous part +of the picture as if hoping to discover some ray of that sun he never +shall see again. How characteristic! how tasteful is the expression! The +famous Virgin and Child too, so often engraved and copied.</p> + +<p>I will run away from this Doria; it is too full of beauty—it dazzles: +and I will let <!-- Page 425 --><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425"></a>them shew the pale green Gaspar Pouffins, so valuable, +so curious, to whom they please, while Nature and Claude content my +fancy and fill up every idea.</p> + +<p>At the Colonna palace what have I remarked? That it possesses the gayest +gallery belonging to any subject upon earth: one hundred and thirty-nine +feet long, thirty-four broad, and seventy high: profusely ornamented +with pillars, pictures, statues, to a degree of magnificence difficult +to express. The Herodias here by Guido, is the perfection of dancing +grace. No Frenchman enters the room that does not bear testimony to its +peculiar excellence. But here's Guercino's sweet returning Prodigal, and +here is a <i>Madonna disperata</i> bursting as from a cavern to embrace the +body of her dead son and saviour.—Such a sky too! But it is treating +too theatrically a subject which impresses one more at last in the +simple <i>Pietà</i><a name="FNanchor_AI_88" id="FNanchor_AI_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_AI_88" class="fnanchor">[AI]</a> d'Annibale Caracci at Palazzo Doria.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_AI_88" id="Footnote_AI_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_AI_88"><span class="label">[AI]</span></a> The Christ in his mother's lap, after crucifixion, is +always called in Italy a <i>Pietà</i>.</p></div> + +<p>One wonderfully-imagined picture by Andrea Sacchi, of Cain flying from +the sight of his murdered brother, shall alone detain me from mentioning +here at Rome what certainly <!-- Page 426 --><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426"></a>would never have been thought on by +Englishmen had it remained at Windsor; no other than our old King +Charles's cabinet, sold to the Colonna family by Cromwell, and set about +in the old-fashioned way with gems, cameos, &c. one of which has been +stolen.</p> + +<p>And now to the Borghese, which I am told is for a time to finish my +fatigues, as after three days more we go to Naples. News perfectly +agreeable to me, who never have been well here for two hours together.</p> + +<p>All the great churches remain yet unvisited: they are to be taken at our +return in spring; mean while I will go see Mons Sacer in spite of +connoisseurship, though the place it seems is nothing, and the prospect +from it dull; but it produces thoughts, or what is next to +thought,—recollection of books read, and events related in one's early +youth, when names and stories make impression on a mind not yet hardened +by age, or contracted by necessary duty, so as no longer to receive with +equal relish the <i>tales of other times.</i> The lake too, with the floating +islands, should be mentioned; the colour of which is even blue with +venom, and left a brassy taste in my mouth for a whole day, after only +observing how it boiled with rage on dropping <!-- Page 427 --><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427"></a>in a stone, and incrusted +a stick with its tartar in two minutes. One of our companions indeed +leaped upon the little spots of ground which float in it, and deserved +to feel some effect of his rashness; but it is sufficient to stand near, +I think; one scarcely can escape contagion. The sudden and violent +powers observable in this lake should at least check the computists from +thinking they can gather the world's age from its petrefactions.</p> + +<p>But we are called to the Vatican, where the Apollo, Laocoon, Antinous, +and Meleager, with others of less distinguished merit, suffer one to +think on nothing but themselves, and of the artists who framed such +models of perfection. Laocoon's agonies torment one. I was forced to +recollect the observation Dr. Moore says was first made by Mr. Locke, in +order to harden my heart against him who appears to feel only for +himself, when two such youths are expiring close beside him. But though +painting can do much, and sculpture perhaps more, at least one learns to +think so here at Rome, the comfort is, that poetry beats them both. +Virgil knew, and Shakespeare would have known, how to heighten <!-- Page 428 --><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428"></a>even +this distress, by adding paternal anguish:—here is distress enough +however.</p> + +<p>Let us once more acknowledge the modesty and candour of Italians, when +we repeat what has been so often recorded, that Michael Angelo refused +adding the arm that was wanting to this chef d'oeuvre; and when +Bernini undertook the task, he begged it might remain always a different +colour, that he might not be suspected of hoping that his work could +ever lie confounded with that of the Greek artist.</p> + +<p>Such is not the spirit of the French: they have been always adding to +Don Quixote! a personage whose adventures were little likely to cross +one's fancy in the Vatican; but perfection is perfection.</p> + +<p>Here stands the Apollo though, in whom alone no fault has yet been +found. They tell you, he has just killed the serpent Python. "Let us beg +of him," says one of the company, "just to turn round and demolish those +cursed snakes which are devouring the poor old man and his boys yonder." +This was like the speech of <i>Marchez donc</i> to the fine bronze horse +under the heavenly statue of Marcus Aurelius at the Capitol, and made me +<!-- Page 429 --><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429"></a>hope that story might be true. It is the fashion for every body to go +see Apollo by torch light: he looks like <i>Phoebus</i> then, the Sun's +bright deity, and seems to say to his admirers, as that Divinity does to +the presumptuous hero in Homer,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh son of Tydeus, cease! be wise, and see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How vast the difference 'twixt the gods and thee.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Indeed every body finds the remark obvious, that this statue is of +beauty and dignity beyond what human nature now can boast; and the +Meleager just at hand, with the Antinous, confirm it; for all elegance +and all expression, unpossessed by the Apollo, <i>they have</i>, while none +can miss the inferiority of their general appearance to his.</p> + +<p>The Musæum Clementinum is altogether such though, that these singularly +excellent productions of art are only proper and well-adapted ornaments +of a gallery, so stately as, on the other hand, that noble edifice seems +but the due repository of such inhabitants. Never were place and +decorations so adapted: never perhaps was so refined a taste engaged on +subjects so worthy its exertion. The statues <!-- Page 430 --><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430"></a>are disposed with a +propriety that charms one; the situation of the pillars so contrived, +the colours of them so chosen to carry the eye forward—not fatigue it; +the rooms so illuminated: Hagley park is not laid out with more +judicious attention to diversify, and relieve with various objects a +mind delighting in the contemplation of ornamented nature; than is the +Pope's Musæum calculated to enchain admiration, and fix it in those +apartments where sublimity and beauty have established their residence; +and those would be worse than Goths, who could think of moving even an +old torso from the place where Pius Sextus has commanded it to remain.</p> + +<p>The other parts of this prodigious structure would take up one's life +almost to see completely, to remember distinctly, and to describe +accurately. When the reader recollects that St. Peter's, with all its +appurtenances, palace, library, musæum, every thing that we include in +the word <i>Vatican</i>, is said by the Romans to occupy an equal quantity of +space, to that covered by the city of Turin: the assertion need not any +longer be thought hyperbolical.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 431 --><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431"></a>I will say no more about it till at our return from Naples we visit all +the churches.</p> + +<p>Vopiscus said, that the statues in his time at Rome out-numbered the +people; and I trust the remark is now almost doubly true, as every day +and hour digs up dead worthies, and the unwholesome weather must surely +send many of the living ones to their ancestors: upon the whole, the men +and women of Porphyry, &c. please me best, as they do not handle long +knives to so good an effect as the others do, "<i>qui aime bien a +s'ègorger encore<span class="footnoteinline">[Who have still a taste to be cut-throats]</span>,"</i> +says a French gentleman of them the other day. There is however an air +of cheerfulness in the streets at a night among the poor, who fry fish, +and eat roots, sausages, &c. as they walk about gaily enough, and though +they quarrel too often, never get drunk at least.</p> + +<p>The two houses belonging to the Borghese family shall conclude my first +journey to Rome, and with that the first volume of my observations and +reflexions.</p> + +<p>Their town palace is a suite of rooms constructed like those at Wanstead +exactly; and where you turn at the end to come back by <!-- Page 432 --><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432"></a>another suite, +you find two alabaster fountains of superior beauty, and two glass +lustres made in London, but never wiped since they left Fleet-street +certainly. They do not however <i>want</i> cleaning as the fountains do; +which, by the extraordinary use made of them, give the whole palace an +offensive smell.</p> + +<p>Among the pictures here, the entombing our blessed Saviour by Rafaelle +is most praised: It is supposed indeed wholly inestimable, and I believe +is so, while Venus, binding Cupid's eyes, by Titian, engraved by +Strange, is possibly one of the pleasantest pictures in Rome. The Christ +disputing with the Doctors is inimitable, one of the wonderful works of +Leonardo da Vinci: but here is Domenichino's Diana among her nymphs, +very laboured, and very learned. Why did it put me in mind of Hogarth's +strolling actresses dressing in a barn?</p> + +<p>Villa Borghese presents more to one's mind at once than it will bear, +from the bas relief of Curtius over the door that faces you going in, to +the last gate of the garden you drive out at;—large as the saloon is +however, the figure of Curtius seems too near you; and the horse's hind +quarters are heavy, and ill-suited to the forehand; <!-- Page 433 --><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433"></a>but here are men +and women enough, and odd things that are neither, at this house; so we +may let the horse of Curtius alone.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be gayer or more happily expressed in its way than the +Centaur, which Dr. Moore, like Dr. Young, finds <i>not</i> fabulous; while +the brute runs away with the man, and Cupid keeps urging him forward. +The fawn nursing Bacchus when a baby, is another semi-human figure of +just and high estimation; and that very famous composition for which +Cavalier Bernini has executed a mattress infinitely softer to the eye +than any real one I ever found in <i>his</i> country, has here an apartment +appropriated to itself.</p> + +<p>From monsters the eye turns of its own accord towards Nero, and here is +an incomparable one of about ten years old, in whose face I vainly +looked for the seeds of parricide, and murderous tyranny; but saw only a +sturdy boy, who might have been made an honest man perhaps, had not the +rod been spared by his old tutor, whose lenity is repaid by death here +in the next room. It is a relief to look upon the smiling Zingara; her +lively character is exquisitely touched, her face the only <!-- Page 434 --><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434"></a>one perhaps +where Bernini could not go beyond the proper idea of arch waggery and +roguish cunning, adorned with beauty that must have rendered its +possessor, while living, irresistible. His David is scarcely young +enough for a ruddy shepherd swain; he seems too muscular, and confident +of his own strength; <i>this</i> fellow could have worn Saul's armour well +enough. Æneas carrying his father, I understand, is by the other +Bernini; but the famous groupe of Apollo and Daphne is the work of our +Chevalier himself.</p> + +<p>There is a Miss Hillisberg, a dancer on the stage, who reminds every +body of this graceful statue, when theatrical distress drives her to +force expression: I mean the stage in Germany, not Rome, whence females +are excluded. But the vases in this Borghese villa! the tables! the +walls! the cameos stuck in the walls! the frames of the doors, all +agate, porphyry, onyx, or verd antique! the enormous riches contained in +every chamber, actually takes away my breath and leaves me stunned. Nor +are the gardens unbecoming or inadequate to the house, where on the +outside appear such bas-reliefs as would be <!-- Page 435 --><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435"></a>treasured up by the +sovereigns of France or England, and shewn as valuable rarities. The +rape of Europa first; it is a beautiful antique. Up stairs you see the +rooms constantly inhabited; in the princess's apartment, her +chimney-piece is one elegant but solid amethyst: over the prince's bed, +which changes with the seasons, hangs a Ganymede painted by Titian, to +which the connoisseurs tell you no rival has yet been found. The +furniture is suitably magnificent in every part of the house, and our +English friends assured me, that they met the lady of it last night, +when one gentleman observing how pretty she was, another replied he +could not see her face for the dazzling lustre of her innumerable +diamonds, that actually by their sparkling confounded his sight, and +surrounded her countenance so that he could not find it.</p> + +<p>Among all the curiosities however belonging to this wealthy and +illustrious family, the single one most prized is a well-known statue, +called in Catalogues by the name of the Fighting Gladiator, but +considered here at Rome as deserving of a higher appellation. They now +dispute only what hero it can be, as every limb and feature is +expressive of a lof<!-- Page 436 --><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436"></a>tier character than the ancients ever bestowed in +sculpture upon those degraded mortals whom Pliny contemptuously calls +<i>Hordiarij</i>, and says they were kept on barley bread, with ashes given +in their drink to strengthen them. Indeed the statue of the expiring +Gladiator at the Capitol, his rope about his neck, and his unpitied +fate, marked strongly in his vulgar features, exhibits quite a separate +class in the variety of human beings; and though Faustina's favourite +found in the same collection was probably the showiest fellow then among +them, we see no marks of intelligent beauty or heroic courage in his +form or face, where an undaunted steadiness and rustic strength make up +the little merit of the figure.</p> + +<p>This charming statue of the prince Borghese is on the other hand the +first in Rome perhaps, for the distinguished excellencies of animated +grace and active manliness: his head raised, the body's attitude, not +studied surely, but the apparent and seemingly sudden effect of +patriotic daring. Such one's fancy forms young Isadas the Spartan; who, +hearing the enemy's approach while at the baths, starts off unmindful of +his own defenceless state, snatches a spear and shield from <!-- Page 437 --><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437"></a>one he +meets, flies at the foe, performs prodigies of valour, is looked on by +both armies as a descended God, and returns home at last unhurt, to be +fined by the Ephori for breach of discipline, at the same time that a +statue was ordered to commemorate his exploits, and erected at the +state's expence. Monsignor Ennio Visconti, who saw that the figure +reminded me of this story, half persuaded himself for a moment that this +was the very Isadas; and that Jason, for whom he had long thought it +intended, was not young enough, and less likely to fight undefended by +armour against bulls, of whose fury he had been well apprised. Mr. +Jenkins recollected an antique ring which confirmed our new hypothesis, +and I remained flattered, whether they were convinced or no.</p> + + +<p>END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.</p> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> +<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/16445-h/images/illus405.png b/16445-h/images/illus405.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26a1086 --- /dev/null +++ b/16445-h/images/illus405.png diff --git a/16445-h/images/illus405_full.png b/16445-h/images/illus405_full.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e81fd49 --- /dev/null +++ b/16445-h/images/illus405_full.png diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d8a395 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #16445 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16445) diff --git a/old/16445-8.txt b/old/16445-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f357635 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/16445-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8813 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Observations and Reflections Made in the +Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I, by Hester Lynch Piozzi + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I + +Author: Hester Lynch Piozzi + +Release Date: August 5, 2005 [EBook #16445] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Connal, Mark Stewart and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +Produced from images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliothèque nationale de France) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + + + + + + + + +OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS + +MADE IN THE COURSE OF A + +JOURNEY + +THROUGH + +_FRANCE, ITALY, AND GERMANY_. + + +By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI. + + +IN TWO VOLUMES + +Vol. I. + + +LONDON: + +Printed for A. STRAHAN; and T. CADELL in the Strand, + +MDCCLXXXIX. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +I was made to observe at Rome some vestiges of an ancient custom very +proper in those days--it was the parading of the streets by a set of +people called _Preciæ_, who went some minutes before the _Flamen Dialis_ +to bid the inhabitants leave work or play, and attend wholly to the +procession; but if ill omens prevented the pageants from passing, or if +the occasion of the show was deemed scarcely worthy its celebration, +these _Preciæ_ stood a chance of being ill-treated by the spectators. A +Prefatory introduction to a work like this, can hope little better usage +from the Public than they had; it proclaims the approach of what has +often passed by before, adorned most certainly with greater splendour, +perhaps conducted too with greater regularity and skill: Yet will I not +despair of giving at least a momentary amusement to my countrymen in +general, while their entertainment shall serve as a vehicle for +conveying expressions of particular kindness to those foreign +individuals, whose tenderness softened the sorrows of absence, and who +eagerly endeavoured by unmerited attentions to supply the loss of their +company on whom nature and habit had given me stronger claims. + +That I should make some reflections, or write down some observations, in +the course of a long journey, is not strange; that I should present them +before the Public is I hope not too daring: the presumption grew up out +of their acknowledged favour, and if too kind culture has encouraged a +coarse plant till it runs to seed, a little coldness from the same +quarter will soon prove sufficient to kill it. The flattering partiality +of private partisans sometimes induces authors to venture forth, and +stand a public decision; but it is often found to betray them too; not +to be tossed by waves of perpetual contention, but rather to sink in the +silence of total neglect. What wonder! He who swims in oil must be +buoyant indeed, if he escapes falling certainly, though gently, to the +bottom; while he who commits his safety to the bosom of the +wide-embracing ocean, is sure to be strongly supported, or at worst +thrown upon the shore. + +On this principle it has been still my study to obtain from a humane and +generous Public that shelter their protection best affords from the +poisoned arrows of private malignity; for though it is not difficult to +despise the attempts of petty malice, I will not say with the +Philosopher, that I mean to build a monument to my fame with the stones +thrown at me to break my bones; nor yet pretend to the art of Swift's +German Wonder-doer, who promised to make them fall about his head like +so many pillows. Ink, as it resembles Styx in its colour, should +resemble it a little in its operation too; whoever has been once _dipt_ +should become _invulnerable_: But it is not so; the irritability of +authors has long been enrolled among the comforts of ill-nature, and the +triumphs of stupidity; such let it long remain! Let me at least take +care in the worst storms that may arise in public or in private life, to +say with Lear, + + --I'm one + More sinn'd against, than sinning. + +For the book--I have not thrown my thoughts into the form of private +letters; because a work of which truth is the best recommendation, +should not above all others begin with a lie. My old acquaintance rather +chose to amuse themselves with conjectures, than to flatter me with +tender inquiries during my absence; our correspondence then would not +have been any amusement to the Public, whose treatment of me deserves +every possible acknowledgment; and more than those acknowledgments will +I not add--to a work, which, such as it is, I submit to their candour, +resolving to think as little of the event as I can help; for the labours +of the press resemble those of the toilette, both should be attended to, +and finished with care; but once complete, should take up no more of our +attention; unless we are disposed at evening to destroy all effect of +our morning's study. + + + + +OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS + +MADE IN A JOURNEY THROUGH + +France, Italy, and Germany. + + * * * * * + + + +FRANCE. + + + +CALAIS. + + +September 7, 1784. + +Of all pleasure, I see much may be destroyed by eagerness of +anticipation: I had told my female companion, to whom travelling was +new, how she would be surprized and astonished, at the difference found +in crossing the narrow sea from England to France, and now she is not +astonished at all; why should she? We have lingered and loitered six and +twenty hours from port to port, while sickness and fatigue made her feel +as if much more time still had elapsed since she quitted the opposite +shore. The truth is, we wanted wind exceedingly; and the flights of +shaggs, and shoals of maycril, both beautiful enough, and both uncommon +too at this season, made us very little amends for the tediousness of a +night passed on ship-board. + +Seeing the sun rise and set, however, upon an unobstructed horizon, was +a new idea gained to me, who never till now had the opportunity. It +confirmed the truth of that maxim which tells us, that the human mind +must have something left to supply for itself on the sight of all +sublunary objects. When my eyes have watched the rising or setting sun +through a thick crowd of intervening trees, or seen it sink gradually +behind a hill which obstructed my closer observation, fancy has always +painted the full view finer than at last I found it; and if the sun +itself cannot satisfy the cravings of a thirsty imagination, let it at +least convince us that nothing on this side Heaven can satisfy them, and +_set our affections_ accordingly. + +Pious reflections remind one of monks and nuns; I enquired of the +Franciscan friar who attended us at the inn, what was become of Father +Felix, who did the duties of the quête; as it is called, about a dozen +years ago, when I recollect minding that his manners and story struck +Dr. Johnson exceedingly, who said that so complete a character could +scarcely be found in romance. He had been a soldier, it seems, and was +no incompetent or mean scholar: the books we found open in his cell, +shewed he had not neglected modern or colloquial knowledge; there was a +translation of Addison's Spectators, and Rapin's Dissertation on the +contending Parties of England called Whig and Tory. He had likewise a +violin, and some printed music, for his entertainment. I was glad to +hear he was well, and travelling to Barcelona on foot by orders of the +superior. + +After dinner we set out to see Miss Grey, at her convent of Dominican +Nuns; who, I hoped, would have remembered me, as many of the ladies +there had seized much of my attention when last abroad; they had however +all forgotten me, nor could call to mind how much they had once admired +the beauty of my eldest daughter, then a child, which I thought +impossible to forget: one is always more important in one's own eyes +than in those of others; but no one is of importance to a Nun, who is +and ought to be employed in other speculations. + +When the Great Mogul showed his splendour to a travelling dervise, who +expressed his little admiration of it--"Shall you not often be thinking +of me in future?" said the monarch. "Perhaps I might," replied the +religieux, "if I were not always thinking upon God." + +The women spinning at their doors here, or making lace, or employing +themselves in some manner, is particularly consolatory to a British eye; +yet I do not recollect it struck me last time I was over: industry +without bustle, and some appearance of gain without fraud, comfort one's +heart; while all the profits of commerce scarcely can be said to make +immediate compensation to a delicate mind, for the noise and brutality +observed in an English port. I looked again for the chapel, where the +model of a ship, elegantly constructed, hung from the top, and found it +in good preservation: some scrupulous man had made the ship, it seems, +and thought, perhaps justly too, that he had spent a greater portion of +time and care on the workmanship than he ought to have done; so +resolving no longer to indulge his vanity or fondness, fairly hung it up +in the convent chapel, and made a solemn vow to look on it no more. I +remember a much stronger instance of self-denial practised by a pretty +young lady of Paris once, who was enjoined by her confessor to wring off +the neck of her favourite bullfinch, as a penance for having passed too +much time in teaching him to pipe tunes, peck from her hand, &c.--She +obeyed; but never could be prevailed on to see the priest again. + +We are going now to leave Calais, where the women in long white camblet +clokes, soldiers with whiskers, girls in neat slippers, and short +petticoats contrived to show them, who wait upon you at the +inn;--postillions with greasy night-caps, and vast jack-boots, driving +your carriage harnessed with ropes, and adorned with sheep-skins, can +never fail to strike an Englishman at his first going abroad:--But what +is our difference of manners, compared to that prodigious effect +produced by the much shorter passage from Spain to Africa; where an +hour's time, and sixteen miles space only, carries you from Europe, from +civilization, from Christianity. A gentleman's description of his +feelings on that occasion rushes now on my mind, and makes me half +ashamed to sit here, in Dessein's parlour, writing remarks, in good +time!--upon places as well known as Westminster-bridge to almost all +those who cross it at this moment; while the custom-house officers +intrusion puts me the less out of humour, from the consciousness that, +if I am disturbed, I am disturbed from doing _nothing_. + + + +CHANTILLY. + + +Our way to this place lay through Boulogne; the situation of which is +pleasing, and the fish there excellent. I was glad to see Boulogne, +though I can scarcely tell why; but one is always glad to see something +new, and talk of something old: for example, the story I once heard of +Miss Ashe, speaking of poor Dr. James, who loved profligate conversation +dearly,--"That man should set up his quarters across the water," said +she; "why Boulogne would be a seraglio to him." + +The country, as far as Montreuil, is a coarse one; _thin herbage in the +plains and fruitless fields_. The cattle too are miserably poor and +lean; but where there is no grass, we can scarcely expect them to be +fat: they must not feed on wheat, I suppose, and cannot digest tobacco. +Herds of swine, not flocks of sheep, meet one's eye upon the hills; and +the very few gentlemen's feats that we have passed by, seem out of +repair, and deserted. The French do not reside much in private houses, +as the English do; but while those of narrower fortunes flock to the +country towns within their reach, those of ampler purses repair to +Paris, where the rent of their estate supplies them with pleasures at no +very enormous expence. The road is magnificent, like our old-fashioned +avenue in a nobleman's park, but wider, and paved in the middle: this +convenience continued on for many hundred miles, and all at the king's +expence. Every man you meet, politely pulls off his hat _en passant_; +and the gentlemen have commonly a good horse under them, but certainly a +dressed one. + +Sporting season is not come in yet, but, I believe the idea of sporting +seldom enters any head except an English one: here is prodigious plenty +of game, but the familiarity with which they walk about and sit by our +road-side, shews they feel no apprehensions. + +Harvest, even in France, is extremely backward this year, I see; no +crops are yet got in, nor will reaping be likely to pay its own charges. +But though summer is come too late for profit, the pleasure it brings is +perhaps enhanced by delay: like a life, the early part of which has been +wasted in sickness, the possessor finds too little time remaining for +work, when health _does_ come; and spends all that he has left, +naturally enough, in enjoyment. + +The pert vivacity of _La Fille_ at Montreuil was all we could find there +worth remarking: it filled up my notions of French flippancy agreeably +enough; as no English wench would so have answered one to be sure. She +had complained of our avant-coureur's behaviour. "_Il parle sur le bant +ton, mademoiselle_" (said I), "_mais il à le coeur bon_[A]:" "_Ouydà_" +(replied she, smartly), "_mais c'est le ton qui fait le chanson_[B]." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: He sets his talk to a sounding tune, my dear, but he is an +honest fellow.] + +[Footnote B: But I always thought it was the tune which made the +musick.] + +The cathedral at Amiens made ample amends for the country we passed +through to see it; the _Nef d'Amiens_ deserves the fame of a first-rate +structure: and the ornaments of its high altar seem particularly well +chosen, of an excellent taste, and very capital execution. The vineyards +from thence hither shew, that either the climate, or season, or both, +improve upon one: the grapes climbing up some not very tall +golden-pippin trees, and mingling their fruits at the top, have a mighty +pleasing effect; and I observe the rage for Lombardy poplars is in equal +force here as about London: no tolerable house have I passed without +seeing long rows of them; all young plantations, as one may perceive by +their size. Refined countries always are panting for speedy enjoyment: +the maxim of _carpe diem_[Footnote: Seize the present moment.] came into +Rome when luxury triumphed there; and poets and philosophers lent their +assistance to decorate and dignify her gaudy car. Till then we read of +no such haste to be happy; and on the same principle, while Americans +contentedly wait the slow growth of their columnal chesnut, our hot-bed +inhabitants measure the slender poplar with canes, anxiously admiring +its quick growth and early elegance; yet are often cut down themselves, +before their youthful favourite can afford them either pleasure or +advantage. + +This charming palace and gardens were new to neither of us, yet lovely +to both: the tame fish, I remember so well to have fed from my hand +eleven or twelve years ago, are turned almost all white; can it be with +age I wonder? the naturalists must tell. I once saw a carp which weighed +six pounds and an half taken out of a pond in Hertfordshire, where the +owners knew it had resided forty years at least; and it was not white, +but of the common colour: Quere, how long will they live? and when will +they begin to change? The stables struck me as more magnificent this +time than the last I saw them; the hounds were always dirtily and ill +kept; but hunting is not the taste of any nation now but ours; none but +a young English heir says to his estate as Goliah did to David, _Come to +me, and I will give thee to the beasts of the field, and to the fowls of +the air_; as some of our old books of piety reproach us. Every trick +that money can play with the most lavish abundance of water is here +exhibited; nor is the sight of a _jet d'eau_, or the murmur of an +artificial cascade, undelightful in a hot day, let the Nature-mongers +say what they please. The prince's cabinet, for a private collection, is +not a mean one; but I was sorry to see his quadrant rusted to the globe +almost, and the poor planetarium out of all repair. The great stuffed +dog is a curiosity however; I never saw any of the canine species so +large, and withal so beautiful, living or dead. + +The theatre belonging to the house is a lovely one; and the truly +princely possessor, when he heard once that an English gentleman, +travelling for amusement, had called at Chantilly too late to enjoy the +diversion, instantly, though past twelve o'clock at night, ordered a new +representation, that his curiosity might be gratified. This is the same +Prince of Condè, who going from Paris to his country-seat here for a +month or two, when his eldest son was nine years old, left him fifty +louis d'ors as an allowance during his absence. At his return to town, +the boy produced his purse, crying "_Papa! here's all the money safe, I +have never touched it once_"--The Prince, in reply, took him gravely to +the window, and opening it, very quietly poured all the louis d'ors into +the street; saying, "Now, if you have neither virtue enough to give away +your money, nor spirit enough to spend it, always _do this_ for the +future, do you hear; that the poor may at least have a _chance for it_." + + + +PARIS. + + +The fine paved road to this town has many inconveniencies, and jars the +nerves terribly with its perpetual rattle; the approach however always +strikes one as very fine, I think, and the boulevards and guingettes +look always pretty too: as wine, beer, and spirits are not permitted to +be sold there, one sees what England does not even pretend to exhibit, +which is gaiety without noise, and a crowd without a riot. I was pleased +to go over the churches again too, and re-experience that particular +sensation which the disposition of St. Rocque's altars and ornaments +alone can give. In the evening we looked at the new square called the +Palais Royal, whence the Due de Chartres has removed a vast number of +noble trees, which it was a sin and shame to profane with an axe, after +they had adorned that spot for so many centuries.--The people were +accordingly as angry, I believe, as Frenchmen can be, when the folly was +first committed: the court, however, had wit enough to convert the place +into a sort of Vauxhall, with tents, fountains, shops, full of frippery, +brilliant at once and worthless, to attract them; with coffeehouses +surrounding it on every side; and now they are all again _merry_ and +_happy_, synonymous terms at Paris, though often disunited in London; +and _Vive le Duc de Chartres_! + +The French are really a contented race of mortals;--precluded almost +from possibility of adventure, the low Parisian leads a gentle humble +life, nor envies that greatness he never can obtain; but either wonders +delightedly, or diverts himself philosophically with the sight of +splendours which seldom fail to excite serious envy in an Englishman, +and sometimes occasion even suicide, from disappointed hopes, which +never could take root in the heart of these unaspiring people. +Reflections of this cast are suggested to one here in every shop, where +the behaviour of the matter at first sight contradicts all that our +satirists tell us of the _supple Gaul_, &c. A mercer in this town shews +you a few silks, and those he scarcely opens; _vous devez +choisir_[Footnote: Chuse what you like.], is all he thinks of saying, to +invite your custom; then takes out his snuff-box, and yawns in your +face, fatigued by your inquiries. For my own part, I find my natural +disgust of such behaviour greatly repelled, by the recollection that the +man I am speaking to is no inhabitant of + + A happy land, where circulating pow'r + Flows thro' each member of th'embodied state-- + + S. JOHNSON. + + +and I feel well-inclined to respect the peaceful tenor of a life, which +likes not to be broken in upon, for the sake of obtaining riches, which +when gotten must end only in the pleasure of counting them. A Frenchman +who should make his fortune by trade tomorrow, would be no nearer +advancement in society or situation: why then should he solicit, by arts +he is too lazy to delight in the practice of, that opulence which would +afford so slight an improvement to his comforts? He lives as well as he +wishes already; he goes to the Boulevards every night, treats his wife +with a glass of lemonade or ice, and holds up his babies by turns, to +hear the jokes of _Jean Pottage_. Were he to recommend his goods, like +the Londoner, with studied eloquence and attentive flattery, he could +not hope like him that the eloquence he now bestows on the decorations +of a hat, or the varnish of an equipage, may one day serve to torment a +minister, and obtain a post of honour for his son; he could not hope +that on some future day his flattery might be listened to by some lady +of more birth than beauty, or riches perhaps, when happily employed upon +a very different subject, and be the means of lifting himself into a +state of distinction, his children too into public notoriety. + +Emulation, ambition, avarice, however, must in all arbitrary governments +be confined to the great; the _other_ set of mortals, for there are none +there of _middling_ rank, live, as it should seem, like eunuchs in a +seraglio; feel themselves irrevocably doomed to promote the pleasure of +their superiors, nor ever dream of sighing for enjoyments from which an +irremeable boundary divides them. They see at the beginning of their +lives how that life must necessarily end, and trot with a quiet, +contented, and unaltered pace down their long, straight, and shaded +avenue; while we, with anxious solicitude, and restless hurry, watch the +quick turnings of our serpentine walk; which still presents, either to +sight or expectation, some changes of variety in the ever-shifting +prospect, till the unthought-of, unexpected end comes suddenly upon us, +and finishes at once the fluctuating scene. Reflections must now give +way to facts for a moment, though few English people want to be told +that every hotel here, belonging to people of condition, is shut out +from the street like our Burlington-house, which gives a general gloom +to the look of this city so famed for its gaiety: the streets are narrow +too, and ill-paved; and very noisy, from the echo made by stone +buildings drawn up to a prodigious height, many of the houses having +seven, and some of them even eight stories from the bottom. The +contradictions one meets with every moment likewise strike even a +cursory observer--a countess in a morning, her hair dressed, with +diamonds too perhaps, a dirty black handkerchief about her neck, and a +flat silver ring on her finger, like our ale-wives; a _femme publique_, +dressed avowedly for the purposes of alluring the men, with not a very +small crucifix hanging at her bosom;--and the Virgin Mary's sign at an +alehouse door, with these words, + + Je suis la mere de mon Dieu, + Et la gardienne de ce lieu[C]. + +[Footnote C: + The mother of my God am I, + And keep this house right carefully. +] + +I have, however, borrowed Bocage's Remarks upon the English nation, +which serve to damp my spirit of criticism exceedingly: She had more +opportunities than I for observation, not less quickness of discernment +surely; and her stay in London was longer than mine in Paris.--Yet, how +was she deceived in many points! + +I will tell nothing that I did not _see_; and among the objects one +would certainly avoid seeing if it were possible, is the deformity of +the poor.--Such various modes of warping the human figure could hardly +be observed in England by a surgeon in high practice, as meet me about +this country incessantly.--I have seen them in the galleries and +outer-courts even of the palace itself, and am glad to turn my eyes for +relief on the Duke of Orleans's pictures; a glorious collection! The +Italian noblemen, in whose company we saw it, acknowledged with candour +the good taste of the selection; and I was glad to see again what had +delighted me so many years before: particularly, the three Marys, by +Annibale Caracci; and Rubens's odd conceit of making Juno's Peacock peck +Paris's leg, for having refused the apple to his mistress. + +The manufacture at the Gobelins seems exceedingly improved; the +colouring less inharmonious, the drawing more correct; but our Parisians +are not just now thinking about such matters; they are all wild for love +of a new comedy, written by Mons. de Beaumarchais, and called, "Le +Mariage de Figaro," full of such wit as we were fond of in the reign of +Charles the Second, indecent merriment, and gross immorality; mixed, +however, with much acrimonious satire, as if Sir George Etherege and +Johnny Gay had clubbed their powers of ingenuity at once to divert and +to corrupt their auditors; who now carry the verses of this favourite +piece upon their fans, pocket-handkerchiefs, &c. as our women once did +those of the Beggar's Opera. + +We have enjoyed some very agreeable society here in the company of Comte +Turconi, a Milanese Nobleman who, desirous to escape all the frivolous, +and petty distinction which birth alone bestows, has long fixed his +residence in Paris, where talents find their influence, and where a +great city affords that unobserved freedom of thought and action which +can scarcely be expected by a man of high rank in a smaller circle; but +which, when once tasted, will not seldom be preferred to the attentive +watchfulness of more confined society. + +The famous Venetian too, who has written so many successful comedies, +and is now employed upon his own Memoirs, at the age of eighty-four, +was a delightful addition to our Coterie, _Goldoni_. He is garrulous, +good-humoured, and gay; resembling the late James Harris of Salisbury in +person not manner, and seems justly esteemed, and highly, by his +countrymen. + +The conversation of the Marquis Trotti and the Abate Bucchetti is +likewise particularly pleasing; especially to me, who am naturally +desirous to live as much as possible among Italians of general +knowledge, good taste, and polished manners, before I enter their +country, where the language will be so very indispensable. Mean time I +have stolen a day to visit my old acquaintance the English Austin Nuns +at the Fossée, and found the whole community alive and cheerful; they +are many of them agreeable women, and having seen Dr. Johnson with me +when I was last abroad, enquired much for him: Mrs. Fermor, the +Prioress, niece to Belinda in the Rape of the Lock, taking occasion to +tell me, comically enough, "That she believed there was but little +comfort to be found in a house that harboured _poets_; for that she +remembered Mr. Pope's praise made her aunt very troublesome and +conceited, while his numberless caprices would have employed ten +servants to wait on him; and he gave one" (said she) "no amends by his +talk neither, for he only sate dozing all day, when the sweet wine was +out, and made his verses chiefly in the night; during which season he +kept himself awake by drinking coffee, which it was one of the maids +business to make for him, and they took it by turns." + +These ladies really live here as comfortably for aught I see as peace, +quietness, and the certainty of a good dinner every day can make them. +Just so much happier than as many old maids who inhabit Milman Street +and Chapel Row, as they are sure not to be robbed by a treacherous, or +insulted by a favoured, servant in the decline of life, when protection +is grown hopeless and resistance vain; and as they enjoy at least a +moral certainty of never living worse than they do to-day: while the +little knot of unmarried females turned fifty round Red Lion Square +_may_ always be ruined by a runaway agent, a bankrupted banker, or a +roguish steward; and even the petty pleasures of six-penny quadrille may +become by that misfortune too costly for their income.--_Aureste_, as +the French say, the difference is small: both coteries sit separate in +the morning, go to prayers at noon, and read the chapters for the day: +change their neat dress, eat their little dinner, and play at small +games for small sums in the evening; when recollection tires, and chat +runs low. + +But more adventurous characters claim my present attention. All Paris I +think, myself among the rest, assembled to see the valiant brothers, +Robert and Charles, mount yesterday into the air, in company with a +certain Pilâtre de Rosier, who conducted them in the new-invented flying +chariot fastened to an air-balloon. It was from the middle of the +Tuilleries that they set out, a place very favourable and well-contrived +for such public purposes. But all was so nicely managed, so cleverly +carried on somehow, that the order and decorum of us who remained on +firm ground, struck me more than even the very strange sight of human +creatures floating in the wind: but I have really been witness to ten +times as much bustle and confusion at a crowded theatre in London, than +what these peaceable Parisians made when the whole city was gathered +together. Nobody was hurt, nobody was frighted, nobody could even +pretend to feel themselves incommoded. Such are among the few comforts +that result from a despotic government. + +My republican spirit, however, boiled up a little last Monday, when I +had to petition Mons. de Calonne for the restoration of some trifles +detained in the custom-house at Calais. His politeness, indeed, and the +sight of others performing like acts of humiliation, reconciled me in +some measure to the drudgery of running from subaltern to subaltern, +intreating, in pathetic terms, the remission of a law which is at last +either just or unjust; if just, no felicitation should, methinks, be +permitted to change it; if unjust, what can be so grating as the +obligation to solicit? + +We mean to quit Paris to-morrow; I therefore enquired this evening, what +was become of our aërial travellers. A very grave man replied, "_Je +crois, Madame, qu'ils sont dejá arrivès ces Messieurs là, au lieu ou +les vents se forment_[D]." + +[Footnote D: I fancy, Ma'am, the gentlemen are gone to see the place +where all the winds blow from.] + + + +LYONS. + + +Sept. 25, 1784. + +We left the capital at our intended time, and put into the carriage, for +amusement, a book seriously recommended by Mr. Goldoni; but which +diverted me only by the fanfaronades that it contained. The author has, +however, got the premium by this performance, which the Academy of +Berlin promised to whoever wrote best this year on any Belles Lettres +subject. This gentleman judiciously chose to give reasons for the +universality of the French language, and has been so gaily insolent to +every other European nation in his flimsy pamphlet, that some will +probably praise, many reply to, all read, and all forget it. I will +confess myself so seized on by his sprightly impertinence, that I wished +for leisure to translate, and wit to answer him at first, but the want +of one solid thought by which to recollect his existence has cured me; +and I now find that he was deliciously cool and sharp, like the ordinary +wine of the country we are passing through, which having _no body_, can +neither keep its little power long, nor even use it while fresh to any +sensible effect. + +The country is really beautiful; but descriptions are _so_ fallacious, +one half despairs of communicating one's ideas as they are: for either +well-chosen words do not present themselves, or being well-chosen they +detain the reader, and fix his mind on _them_, instead of the things +described. Certain it is that I had formed no adequate notion of the +fine river called the Yonne, with cattle grazing on its fertile banks: +those banks not clothed indeed with our soft verdure, but with royal +purple, proceeding from an autumnal daisy of that colour that enamels +every meadow at this season. Here small enclosures seem unknown to the +inhabitants, who are strewed up and down expansive views of a most +productive country; where vineyards swell upon the rising grounds, and +young wheat ornaments the valleys below: while clusters of aspiring +poplars, or a single walnut-tree of greater size and dignity unite in +attracting attention, and inspiring poetical ideas. Here is no tedious +uniformity to fatigue the eye, nor rugged asperities to disgust it; but +ceaseless variety of colouring among the plants, while the cærulean +willow, the yellow walnut, the gloomy beech, and silver theophrastus, +seem scattered by the open hand of lavish Nature over a landscape of +respectable extent, uniting that sublimity which a wide expanse always +conveys to the mind, with that distinctness so desired by the eye; which +cultivation alone can offer and fertility bestow. Every town that should +adorn these lovely plains, however, exhibits, upon a nearer approach, +misery; the more mortifying, as it is less expected by a spectator, who +requires at least some days experience to convince him that the squallid +scenes of wretchedness and dirt in which he is obliged to pass the +night, will prove more than equivalent to the pleasures he has enjoyed +in the day-time, derived from an appearance of elegance and +wealth--elegance, the work of Nature, not of man; and opulence, the +immediate gift of God, and not the result of commerce. He who should fix +his residence in France, lives like Sir Gawaine in our old romance, +whose wife was bound by an enchantment, that obliged her at evening to +lay down the various beauties which had charmed admiring multitudes all +day, and become an object of odium and disgust. + +The French do seem indeed an idle race; and poverty, perhaps for that +reason, forces her way among them, through a climate that might tempt +other mortals to improve its blessings; but, as the motto to the arms +they are so proud of expresses it--"they _toil not, neither do they +spin_." Content, the bane of industry, as Mandeville calls it, renders +them happy with what Heaven has unsolicited shaken into their lap; and +who knows but the spirit of blaming such behaviour may be less pleasing +to God that gives, than is the behaviour itself? + +Let us not, mean time, be forward to suppose, that whatever one sees +done, is done upon principle, as such fancies will for ever mislead one: +much must be left to chance, when we are judging the conduct either of +nations or individuals. And surely I never knew till now, that so little +religion could exist in any Christian country as in this, where they +drive their carts, and keep their little shops open on a Sunday, +forbearing neither pleasure nor business, as I see, on account of +observing that day upon which their Redeemer rose again. They have a +tradition among the meaner people, that when Christ was crucified, he +turned his head towards France, over which he pronounced his last +blessing; but we must accuse them, if so, of being very ungrateful +favourites. + +This stately city, Lyons, is very happily and finely situated; the +Rhone, which flows by its side, inviting mills, manufactures, &c. seems +resolved to contradict and wash away all I have been saying; but we must +remember, it is five days journey from Paris hither, and I have been +speaking only of the little places we passed through in coming along. + +The avenue here, which leads to one of the greatest objects in the +nation, is most worthy of that object's dignity indeed: the marriage of +two rivers, which having their sources at a prodigious distance from +each other, meet here, and together roll their beneficial tribute to the +sea. Howell's remark, "That the Saone resembles a Spaniard in the +slowness of its current, and that the Rhone is emblematic of French +rapidity," cannot be kept a moment out of one's head: it is equally +observable, that the junction adds little in appearance to their +strength and grandeur, and that each makes a better figure _separate_ +than _united_. + +La Montagne d'Or is a lovely hill above the town, and I am told that +many English families reside upon it, but we have no time to make minute +enquiries. L'Hotel de la Croix de Malthe affords excellent +accommodations within, and a delightful prospect without. The Baths too +have attracted my notice much, and will, I hope, repair my strength, so +as to make me no troublesome fellow-traveller. How little do those +ladies consult their own interest, who make impatience of petty +inconveniences their best supplement for conversation!--fancy themselves +more important as less contented; and imagine all delicacy to consist in +the difficulty of being pleased! Surely a dip in this delightful river +will restore my health, and enable me to pass the mountains, of which +our present companions give me a very formidable account. + +The manufacturers here, at Lyons, deserve a volume, and I shall +scarcely give them a page; though nothing I ever saw at London or Paris +can compare with the beauty of these velvets, or with the art necessary +to produce such an effect, while the wrong side is smooth, not struck +through. The hangings for the Empress of Russia's bed-chamber are +wonderfully executed; the design elegant, the colouring brilliant: A +screen too for the Grand Signor is finely finished here; he would, I +trust, have been contented with magnificence in the choice of his +furniture, but Mr. Pernon has added taste to it, and contrived in +appearance to sink an urn or vase of crimson velvet in a back ground of +gold tissue with surprising ingenuity. + +It is observable, that the further people advance in elegance, the less +they value splendour; distinction being at last the positive thing which +mortals elevated above competency naturally pant after. Necessity must +first be supplied we know, convenience then requires to be contented; +but as soon as men can find means after that period to make themselves +eminent for taste, they learn to despise those paltry distinctions +which riches alone can bestow. + +Talking of Taste leads one to speak of gardening; and having passed +yesterday between two villas belonging to some of the most opulent +merchants of Lyons, I gained an opportunity of observing the disposal of +those grounds that are appropriated to pleasure; where the shade of +straight long-drawn alleys, formed by a close junction of ancient elm +trees, kept a dazzling sun from incommoding our sight, and rendering the +turf so mossy and comfortable to one's tread, that my heart never felt +one longing wish for the beauties of a lawn and shrubbery--though I +should certainly think such a manner of laying out a Lancashire +gentleman's seat in the north of England a mad one, where the heat of +the sun ought to be invited in, not shut out; and where a large lake of +water is wanted for his beams to sparkle upon, instead of a fountain to +trickle and to murmur, and to refresh one with the idea of coolness +which it excites. Here, however, where the Rhone is navigable up to the +very house, I see not but it is rational enough to form jet d'eaux of +the superfluous water, and to content one's self with a Bird Cage Walk, +when we are sure at the end of it to find ourselves surrounded by an +horizon, of extent enough to give the eye full employment, and of a +bright colouring which affords it but little relief. That among the gems +of Europe our island holds the rank of an _emerald_, was once suggested +to me, and I could never part with the idea; surely France must in the +same scale be rated as the _ruby_; for here is no grass, no verdure to +repose the sight upon, except that of high forest trees, the vineyards +being short cut, and supported by white sticks, the size of those which +in our flower gardens support a favourite carnation; and these placed +close together by thousands on a hill rather perplex than please a +spectator of the country, who must wait till he recollects the +superiority of their produce, before he prefers them to a Herefordshire +orchard or a Kentish hop-ground. + +Well! well! it is better to waste no more words on places however, where +the people have done so much to engage and to deserve our attention. + +Such was the hospitality I have here been witness to, and such the +luxuries of the Lyonnois at table, that I counted six and thirty dishes +where we dined, and twenty-four where we supped. Every thing was served +up in silver at both places, and all was uniformly magnificent, except +the linen, which might have been finer. We were not a very numerous +company--from eighteen to twenty-two, as I remember, morning and +evening; but the ladies played upon the pedal harp, the gentlemen sung +gaily, if not sweetly after supper: I never received more kindness for +my own part in any fortnight of my life, nor ever heard that kindness +more pleasingly or less coarsely expressed. These are merchants, I am +told, with whom I have been living; and perhaps my heart more readily +receives and repays their caresses for having heard so. Let princes +dispute, and soldiers reciprocally support their quarrels; but let the +wealthy traders of every nation unite to pour the oil of commerce over +the too agitated ocean of human life, and smooth down those asperities +which obstruct fraternal concord. + +The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland lodge here at our hotel; I saw them +treated with distinguished respect to-night at the theatre, where _a +force de danser_[Footnote: By dint of dancing alone], I actually was +moved to shed many tears over the distresses of _Sophie de Brabant_. +Surely these pantomimes will very soon supplant all poetry, when, as +Gratiano says, "Our words will suddenly become superfluous, and +discourse grow commendable in none but parrots." + +Some conversation here, however, struck me as curious; the more so as I +had heard the subject slightly touched upon at Paris; but faintly there, +as the last sounds of an echo, while here they are all loud, all in +earnest, and all their heads seemed turned, I think, about something, or +nothing, which they call _animal magnetism_. I cannot imagine how it has +seized them so: a man who undertakes to cure disorders by the touch, is +no new thing; our Philosophical Transactions make mention of Gretrex the +stroaker, in Charles the Second's reign. The present mountebank, it is +true, seems more hardy in his experiments, and boasts of being able to +cause disorders in the human frame, as well as to remove them. A +gentleman at yesterday's dinner-party mentioned, that he took pupils; +and, before I had expressed the astonishment I felt, professed himself a +disciple; and was happy to assure us, he said, that though he had not +yet attained the desirable power of putting a person into a catalepsy at +pleasure, he could throw a woman into a deep swoon, from which no arts +but his own could recover her. How difficult is it to restrain one's +contempt and indignation from a buffoonery so mean, or a practice so +diabolical!--This folly may possibly find its way into England--I should +be very sorry. + +To-morrow we leave Lyons. I should have liked to pass through +Switzerland, the Derbyshire of Europe; but I am told the season is too +far advanced, as we mean to spend Christmas at Milan. + + + + +ITALY + + + +TURIN. + + +October 17, 1784. + +We have at length passed the Alps, and are safely arrived at this lovely +little city, whence I look back on the majestic boundaries of Italy, +with amazement at his courage who first profaned them: surely the +immediate sensation conveyed to the mind by the sight of such tremendous +appearances must be in every traveller the same, a sensation of fulness +never experienced before, a satisfaction that there is something great +to be seen on earth--some object capable of contenting even fancy. Who +he was who first of all people pervaded these fortifications, raised by +nature for the defence of her European Paradise, is not ascertained; but +the great Duke of Savoy has wisely left his name engraved on a monument +upon the first considerable ascent from Pont Bonvoisin, as being author +of a beautiful road cut through the solid stone for a great length of +way, and having by this means encouraged others to assist in +facilitating a passage so truly desirable, till one of the great wonders +now to be observed among the Alps, is the ease with which even a +delicate traveller may cross them. In these prospects, colouring is +carried to its utmost point of perfection, particularly at the time I +found it, variegated with golden touches of autumnal tints; immense +cascades mean time bursting from naked mountains on the one side; +cultivated fields, rich with vineyards, on the other, and tufted with +elegant shrubs that invite one to pluck and carry them away to where +they would be treated with much more respect. Little towns flicking in +the clefts, where one would imagine it was impossible to clamber; light +clouds often sailing under the feet of the high-perched inhabitants, +while the sound of a deep and rapid though narrow river, dashing with +violence among the insolently impeding rocks at the bottom, and bells in +thickly-scattered spires calling the quiet Savoyards to church upon the +steep sides of every hill--fill one's mind with such mutable, such +various ideas, as no other place can ever possibly afford. + +I had the satisfaction of seeing a chamois at a distance, and spoke with +a fellow who had killed five hungry bears that made depredation on his +pastures: we looked on him with reverence as a monster-tamer of +antiquity, Hercules or Cadmus; he had the skin of a beast wrapt round +his middle, which confirmed the fancy--but our servants, who borrowed +from no fictitious records the few ideas that adorned their talk, told +us he reminded _them_ of _John the Baptist_. I had scarce recovered the +shock of this too sublime comparison, when we approached his cottage, +and found the felons nailed against the wall, like foxes heads or spread +kites in England. Here are many goats, but neither white nor large, like +those which browze upon the steeps of Snowdon, or clamber among the +cliffs of Plinlimmon. + +I chatted with a peasant in the Haute Morienne, concerning the endemial +swelling of the throat, which is found in seven out of every ten persons +here: he told me what I had always heard, but do not yet believe, that +it was produced by drinking the snow water. Certain it is, these places +are not wholesome to live in; most of the inhabitants are troubled with +weak and sore eyes: and I recollect Sir Richard Jebb telling me, more +than seven years ago, that when he passed through Savoy, the various +applications made to him, either for the cure or prevention of blindness +by numberless unfortunate wretches that crowded round him, hastened his +quitting a province where such horrible complaints prevailed. One has +heard it related that the goîstre or gozzo of the throat is reckoned a +beauty by those who possess it; but I spoke with many, and all agreed to +lament it as a misfortune. That it does really proceed merely from +living in a snowy country, would be well confirmed by accounts of a +similar sickness being endemial in Canada; but of an American goîstre I +have never yet heard--and Wales, methinks, is snowy enough, and +mountainous enough, God knows; yet were such an excrescence to be seen +_there_, the people would never have done wondering, and blessing +themselves. + +The mines of Derbyshire, however, do not very unfrequently exhibit +something of the same appearance among those who work in _them_; and as +Savoy is impregnated with many minerals, I should be apter to attribute +this extension of the gland to their influence over the constitution, +than to that of snow water, which can scarcely be efficacious in a +degree of power equal to the producing so very violent an effect. + +The wolves do certainly come down from these mountains in large troops, +just as Thomson describes them: + + Burning for blood; boney, and gaunt, and grim.-- + +But it is now the fashionable philosophy every where to consider this +creature as the original of our domestic friend, the dog. It was a long +time before my heart assented to its truth, yet surely their hunting +thus in packs confirms it; and the Jackall's willingness to connect with +either race, shews one that the species cannot be far removed, and that +he makes the shade between the wolf and rough haired shepherd's cur. + +Of the longevity of man this district affords us no pleasing examples. +The peasants here are apparently unhealthy, and they say--short-lived. +We are told by travellers of former days, that there is a region of the +air so subtle as to extinguish the two powers of taste and smell; and +those who have crossed the Cordilleras of the Andes say, that situations +have been explored among their points in South America, where those +senses have been found to suffer a temporary suspension. Our _voyageurs +aeriens_[Footnote: Our aerostatic travellers] may now be useful to +settle that question among others, and Pambamarca's heights may remain +untrodden. + +As for Mount Cenis, I never felt myself more hungry, or better enjoyed a +good dinner, than I did upon it's top: but the trout in the lake there +have been over praised; their pale colour allured me but little in the +first place, nor is their flavour equal to that of trout found in +running water. Going down the Italian side of the Alps is, after all, an +astonishing journey; and affords the most magnificent scenery in nature, +which varying at every step, gives new impression to the mind each +moment of one's passage; while the portion of terror excited either by +real or fancied dangers on the way, is just sufficient to mingle with +the pleasure, and make one feel the full effect of sublimity. To the +chairmen who carry one though, nothing can be new; it is observable that +the glories of these objects have never faded--I heard them speak to +each other of their beauties, and the change of light since they had +passed by last time, while a fellow who spoke English as well as a +native told us, that having lived in a gentleman's service twenty years +between London and Dublin, he at length begged his discharge, chusing to +retire and finish his days a peasant upon these mountains, where he +first opened his eyes upon scenes that made all other views of nature +insipid to his taste. + +If impressions of beauty remain, however, those of danger die away by +frequent reiteration; the men who carried me seemed amazed that I should +feel any emotions of fear. _Qu'est ce donc, madame_?[Footnote: What's +the matter, my lady?] was the coldly-asked question to my repeated +injunction of _prenez garde_[Footnote: Take care.]: not very apparently +unnecessary neither, where the least slip must have been fatal both to +them and me. + +Novalesa is the town we stopped at, upon entering Piedmont; where the +hollow sound of a heavy dashing torrent that has accompanied us +hitherto, first grows faint, and the ideas of common life catch hold of +one again; as the noise of it is heard from a greater distance, its +stream grows wider, and its course more tranquil. For compensation of +danger, ease should be administered; but one's quiet is here so +disturbed by insects, and polluted by dirt, that one recollects the +conduct of the Lapland rein-deer, who seeks the summit of the hill at +the hazard of his life, to avoid those gnats which sting him to madness +in the valley. + +Suza shewed nothing that I took much interest in, except its name; and +nobody tells me why it is honoured with that old Asiatick appellation. +At the next town, called St. Andrè, or St. Ambroise, I forget which, we +got an admirable dinner; and saw our room decorated with a large map of +London, which I looked on with sensations different from those ever +before excited by the same object, Amsterdam and Constantinople covered +the other sides of the wall; and over the door of the chamber itself was +written, as our people write the Lamb or the Lion, "_Les trois Villes +Heretiques_[Footnote: The three Heretical Cities]." + +The avenue to Turin, most magnificently planted, and drawn in a wide +straight line, shaded like the Bird-cage walk in St. James's Park, for +twelve miles in length, is a dull work, but very useful and convenient +in so hot a country; it has been completed by the taste, and at the sole +expence, of his Sardinian majesty, that he may enjoy a cool shady drive +from one of his palaces to the other. The town to which this long +approach conveys one does not disgrace its entrance. It is built in form +of a star, with a large stone in its centre, on which you are desired to +stand, and see the streets all branch regularly from it, each street +terminating with a beautiful view of the surrounding country, like spots +of ground seen in many of the old-fashioned parks in England, when the +etoile and vista were the mode. I think there is[5] still one +subsisting even now, if I remember right, in Kensington Gardens. Such +symmetry is really a soft repose for the eye, wearied with following a +soaring falcon through the half-sightless regions of the air, or darting +down immeasurable precipices, to examine if the human figure could be +discerned at such a depth below one. Model of elegance, exact Turin! +where Italian hospitality first consoled, and Italian arts first repaid, +the fatigues of my journey: how shall I bear to leave my new-obtained +acquaintance? how shall I consent to quit this lovely city? where, from +the box put into my possession by the Prince de la Cisterna, I first saw +an Italian opera acted in an Italian theatre; where the wonders of +Porporati's hand shewed me that our Bartolozzi was not without a +competitor; and where every pleasure which politeness can invent, and +kindness can bestow, was held out for my acceptance. Should we be +seduced, however, to waste time here, we should have reason in a future +day to repent our choice; like one who, enamoured of Lord Pembroke's +great hall at Wilton, should fail to afford himself leisure for looking +over the better-furnished apartments. + +This charming town is the _salon_ of Italy; but it is a +finely-proportioned and well-ornamented _salon_ happily constructed to +call in the fresh air at the end of every street, through which a rapid +stream is directed, that _ought_ to carry off all nuisances, which here +have no apology from want of any convenience purchasable by money; and +which must for that reason be the choice of inhabitants, who would +perhaps be too happy, had they a natural taste for that neatness which +might here be enjoyed in its purity. The arches formed to defend +passengers from the rain and sun, which here might have even serious +effects from their violence, deserve much praise; while their +architecture, uniting our ideas of comfort and beauty together, form a +traveller's taste, and teach him to admire that perfection, of which a +miniature may certainly be found at Turin, when once a police shall be +established there to prevent such places being used for the very +grossest purposes, and polluted with smells that poison all one's +pleasure. + +It is said, that few European palaces exceed in splendour that of +Sardinia's king; I found it very fine indeed, and the pictures +dazzling. The death of a dropsical woman well known among all our +connoisseurs detained my attention longest: the value set on it here is +ten thousand pounds. The horse cut out of a block of marble at the +stairs-foot attracted me not a little; but we are told that the +impression it makes will soon be effaced by the sight of greater +wonders. Mean time I go about like Stephano and his ignorant companions, +who longed for all the glittering furniture of Prospero's cell in the +Tempest, while those who know the place better are vindicated in crying, +"_Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash_." + +Some letters from home directed me to enquire in this town for Doctor +Charles Allioni, who kindly received, and permitted me to examine the +rarities, of which he has a very capital collection. His fossil fish in +slate--blue slate, are surprisingly well preserved; but there is in the +world, it seems, a chrystalized trout, not flat, nor the flesh eaten +away, as I understand, but round; and, as it were, cased in chrystal +like our _aspiques_, or _fruit in jelly_: the colour still so perfect +that you may plainly perceive the spots upon it, he says. To my +enquiries after this wonderful petrefaction, he replied, "That it might +be bought for a thousand pounds;" and added, "that if he were a _Ricco +Inglese_[Footnote: Rich Englishman], he would not hesitate for the +price:" "Where may I see it, Sir?" said I; but to that question no +intreaties could produce an answer, after he once found I had no mind to +buy. + +That fresh-water fish have been known to remain locked in the flinty +bosom of Monte Uda in Carnia, the Academical Discourse of Cyrillo de +Cremona, pronounced there in the year 1749, might have informed us; and +we are all familiar, I suppose, with the anchor named in the fifteenth +book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Strabo mentions pieces of a galley found +three thousand stadii from any sea; and Dr. Allioni tells me, that Monte +Bolca has been long acknowledged to contain the fossils, now diligently +digging out under the patronage of some learned naturalists at +Verona.--The trout, however, is of value much beyond these productions +certainly, as it is closed round as if in a transparent case we find, +hermetically sealed by the soft hand of Nature, who spoiled none of her +own ornaments in preserving them for the inspection of her favourite +students. + +The amiable old professor from whom these particulars were obtained, and +who endured my teizing him in bad Italian for intelligence he cared not +to communicate, with infinite sweetness and patience grew kinder to me +as I became more troublesome to him: and shewing me the book upon botany +to which he had just then put the last line; turned his dim eyes from +me, and said, as they filled with tears, "You, Madam, are the last +visitor I shall ever more admit to talk upon earthly subjects; my work +is done; I finished it as you were entering:--my business now is but to +wait the will of God, and die; do you, who I hope will live long and +happily, seek out your own salvation, and pray for mine." Poor dear +Doctor Allioni! My enquiries concerning this truly venerable mortal +ended in being told that his relations and heirs teized him cruelly to +sell his manuscripts, insects, &c. and divide the money amongst _them_ +before he died. An English scholar of the same abilities would be apt +enough to despise such admonitions, and dispose at his own liking and +leisure of what his industry alone had gained, his learning only +collected; but there seems to be much more family fondness on the +Continent than in our island; more attention to parents, more care for +uncles, and nephews, and sisters, and aunts, than in a commercial +country like ours, where, for the most part, each one makes his own way +separate; and having received little assistance at the beginning of +life, considers himself as little indebted at the close of it. + +Whoever takes a long journey, however he may at his first commencement +be tempted to accumulate schemes of convenience and combinations of +travelling niceties, will cast them off in the course of his travels as +incumbrances; and whoever sets out in life, I believe, with a crowd of +relations round him, will, on the same principle, feel disposed to drop +one or two of them at every turn, as they hang about and impede his +progress, and make his own game single-handed. I speak of _Englishmen_, +whose religion and government inspire rather a spirit of public +benevolence, than contract the social affections to a point; and +co-operate, besides, to prompt that genius for adventure, and taste of +general knowledge, which has small chance to spring up in the +inhabitants of a feudal state; where each considers his family as +himself, and having derived all the comfort he has ever enjoyed from his +relations, resolves to return their favours at the end of a life, which +they make happy, in proportion as it _is_ so: and this accounts for the +equality required in continental marriages, which are avowedly made here +without regard to inclination, as the keeping up a family, not the +choice of a companion, is considered as important; while the lady bred +up in the same notions, complies with her _first_ duties, and considers +the _second_ as infinitely more dispensable. + + + +GENOA. + + +Nov. 1, 1784. + +It was on the twenty-first of last month that we passed from Turin to +Monte Casale; and I wondered, as I do still, to see the face of Nature +yet without a wrinkle, though the season is so far advanced. Like a +Parisian female of forty years old, dressed for court, and stored with +such variety of well-arranged allurements, that the men say to each +other as she passes.--"Des qu'elle à cessée d'estre jolie, elle n'en +devient que plus belle, ce me semble[E]." + +[Footnote E: She's grown handsomer, I think, since she has left off +being pretty.] + +The prospect from St. Salvadore's hill derives new beauties from the +yellow autumn; and exhibits such glowing proofs of opulence and +fertility, as words can with difficulty communicate. The animals, +however, do not seem benefited in proportion to the apparent riches of +the country: asses, indeed, grow to a considerable size, but the oxen +are very small, among pastures that might suffice for Bakewell's bulls; +and these are all little, and almost all _white_; a colour which gives +unfavourable ideas either of strength or duration. + +The blanche rose among vegetables scatters a less powerful perfume than +the red one; whilst in the mineral kingdom silver holds but the second +place to gold, which imbibing the bright hues of its parent-sun, becomes +the first and greatest of all metallic productions. One may observe too, +that yellow is the earliest colour to salute the rising year, the last +to leave it: crocuses, primroses, and cowslips give the first earnest of +resuscitating summer; while the lemon-coloured butterfly, whose name I +have forgotten, ventures out, before any others of her kind can brave +the parting breath of winter's last storms; stoutest to resist cold, and +steadiest in her manner of flying. The present season is yellow indeed, +and nothing is to be seen now but sun-flowers and African marygolds +around us; _one_ bough besides, on every tree we pass--_one_ bough at +least is tinged with the golden hue; and if it does put one in mind of +that presented to Proserpine, we may add the original line too, and say, + + Uno avulfo, non deficit alter[F]. + +[Footnote F: + Pluck one away, another still remains. +] + +The sure-footed and docile mule, with which in England I was but little +acquainted, here claims no small attention, from his superior size and +beauty: the disagreeable noise they make so frequently, however, hinders +one from wishing to ride them--it is not braying somehow, but worse; it +is neighing out of tune. + +I have put nothing down about eating since we arrived in Italy, where no +wretched hut have I yet entered that does not afford soup, better than +one often tastes in England even at magnificent tables. Game of all +sorts--woodcocks in particular. Porporati, the so justly-famed engraver, +produced upon his hospitable board, one of the pleasant days we passed +with him, a couple so exceedingly large, that I hesitated, and looked +again, to see whether they were really woodcocks, till the long bill +convinced me. + +One reads of the luxurious emperors that made fine dishes of the little +birds brains, phenicopter's tongues, &c. and of the actor who regaled +his guests with nightingale-pie, with just detestation of such curiosity +and expence: but thrushes, larks, and blackbirds, are so _very_ frequent +between Turin and Novi, I think they might serve to feed all the +fantastical appetites to which Vitellius himself could give +encouragement and example. + +The Italians retain their tastes for small birds in full force; and +consider beccafichi, ortolani, &c. as the most agreeable dainties: it +must be confessed that they dress them incomparably. The sheep here are +all lean and dirty-looking, few in number too; but the better the soil +the worse the mutton we know, and here is no land to throw away, where +every inch turns to profit in the olive-yards, vines, or something of +much higher value than letting out to feed sheep. + +Population seems much as in France, I think: but the families are not, +in either nation, disposed according to British notions of propriety; +all stuffed together into little towns and large houses, _entessées_, as +the French call it; one upon another, in such a strange way, that were +it not for the quantity of grapes on which the poor people live, with +other acescent food enjoined by the church, and doubtless suggested by +the climate, I think putrid fevers must necessarily carry off crowds of +them at once. + +The head-dress of the women in this drive through some of the northern +states of Italy varied at every post; from the velvet cap, commonly a +crimson one, worn by the girls in Savoia, to the Piedmontese plait round +the bodkin at Turin, and the odd kind of white wrapper used in the +exterior provinces of the Genoese dominions. Uniformity of almost any +sort gives a certain pleasure to the eye, and it seems an invariable +rule in these countries that all the women of every district should +dress just alike. It is the best way of making the men's task easy in +judging which is handsomest; for taste so varies the human figure in +France and England, that it is impossible to have an idea how many +pretty faces and agreeable forms would lose and how many gain admirers +in those nations, were a sudden edict to be published that all should +dress exactly alike for a year. Mean time, since we left Deffeins, no +such delightful place by way of inn have we yet seen as here at Novi. My +chief amusement at Alexandria was to look out upon the _huddled_ +marketplace, as a great dramatic writer of our day has called it; and +who could help longing there for Zoffani's pencil to paint the lively +scene? + +Passing the Po by moon-light near Casale exhibited an entertainment of a +very different nature, not unmixed with ill-concealed fear indeed; +though the contrivance of crossing it is not worse managed than a ferry +at Kew or Richmond used to be before our bridges were built. Bridges +over the rapid Po would, however, be truly ridiculous; when swelled by +the mountain snows it tears down all before it in its fury, and +inundates the country round. + +The drive from Novi on to Genoa is so beautiful, so grand, so replete +with imagery, that fancy itself can add little to its charms: yet, after +every elegance and every ornament have been justly admired, from the +cloud which veils the hill, to the wild shrubs which perfume the valley; +from the precipices which alarm the imagination, to the tufts of wood +which flatter and sooth it; the sea suddenly appearing at the end of +the Bocchetta terminates our view, and takes from one even the hope of +expressing our delight in words adequate to the things described. + +Genoa la Superba stands proudly on the margin of a gulph crowded with +ships, and resounding with voices, which never fail to animate a British +hearer--the Tailor's shout, the mariner's call, swelled by successful +commerce, or strengthened by newly-acquired fame. + +After a long journey by land, such scenes are peculiarly delightful; but +description tangles, not communicates, the sensations imbibed upon the +spot. Here are so many things to describe! such churches! such palaces! +such pictures! one would imagine the Genoese possessed the empire of the +ocean, were it not well known that they call but fix galleys their own, +and seventy years ago suffered all the horrors of a bombardment. + +The Dorian palace is exceedingly fine; the Durazzo palace, for ought I +know, is finer; and marble here seems like what one reads of silver in +King Solomon's time, which, says the Scripture, "_was nothing counted +on in the days of Solomon_" Casa Brignoli too is splendid and +commodious; the terraces and gardens on the house-tops, and the fresco +paintings outside, give one new ideas of human life; and exhibits a +degree of luxury unthought-on in colder climates. But here we live on +green pease and figs the first day of November, while orange and lemon +trees flaunt over the walls more common than pears in England. + +The Balbi mansion, filled with pictures, detained us from the churches +filled with more. I have heard some of the Italians confess that Genoa +even pretends to vie with Rome herself in ecclesiastical splendour. In +devotion I should think she would be with difficulty outdone: the people +drop down on their knees in the street, and crowd to the church doors +while the benediction is pronouncing, with a zeal which one might hope +would draw down stores of grace upon their heads. Yet I hear from the +inhabitants of other provinces, that they have a bad character among +their neighbours, who love not the _base Ligurian_ and accuse them of +many immoralities. They tell one too of a disreputable saying here, how +there are at Genoa men without honesty, women without modesty, a sea +with no fish, and a wood with no birds. Birds, however, here certainly +are by the million, and we have eaten fish since we came every day; but +I am informed they are neither cheap nor plentiful, nor considered as +excellent in their kinds. Here is macaroni enough however!--the people +bring in such a vast dish of it at a time, it disgusts one. + +The streets of the town are much too narrow for beauty or +convenience--impracticable to coaches, and so beset with beggars that it +is dreadful. A chair is therefore, above all things, necessary to be +carried in, even a dozen steps, if you are likely to feel shocked at +having your knees suddenly clasped by a figure hardly human; who perhaps +holding you forcibly for a minute, conjures you loudly, by the sacred +wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, to have compassion upon _his_; shewing +you at the same time such undeniable and horrid proofs of the anguish he +is suffering, that one must be a monster to quit him unrelieved. Such +pathetic misery, such disgusting distress, did I never see before, as I +have been witness to in this gaudy city--and that not occasionally or +by accident, but all day long, and in such numbers that humanity shrinks +from the description. Sure, charity is not the virtue that they pray +for, when begging a blessing at the church-door. + +One should not however speak unkindly of a people whose affectionate +regard for our country shewed itself so clearly during the late war: a +few days residence with the English consul here at his country seat gave +me an opportunity of hearing many instances of the Republic's generous +attachment to Great Britain, whose triumphs at Gibraltar over the united +forces of France and Spain were honestly enjoyed by the friendly +Genoese, who gave many proofs of their sincerity, more solid than those +clamorous ones of huzzaing our minister about wherever he went, and +crying _Viva il General_ ELIOTT; while many young gentlemen of +high station offered themselves to go volunteers aboard our fleet, and +were with difficulty restrained. + +We have been shewed some beautiful villas belonging to the noblemen of +this city, among which Lomellino's pleased me best; as the water there +was so particularly beautiful, that he had generously left it at full +liberty to roll unconducted, and murmur through his tasteful pleasure +grounds, much in the manner of our lovely Leasowes; happily uniting with +English simplicity, the glowing charms that result from an Italian sky. +My eyes were so wearied with square edged basons of marble, and jets +d'eaux, surrounded by water nymphs and dolphins, that I felt vast relief +from Lomellino's garden, who, like me, + + Tir'd with the joys parterres and fountains yield, + Finds out at last he better likes a field. + +Such felicity of situation I never saw till now, when one looks upon the +painted front of this gay mansion, commanding from its fine balcony a +rich and extensive view at once of the sea, the city, and the snow-topt +mountains; while from the windows on the other side the house, one's eye +sinks into groves of cedar, ilex, and orange trees, not apparently +cultivated with incessant care, or placed in pots, artfully sunk under +ground to conceal them from one's sight, but rising into height truly +respectable. + +The sea air, except in particular places where the land lies in some +direction that counteracts its influence, is naturally inimical to +timber; though the green coasts of Devonshire are finely fringed with +wood; and here, at Lomellino's villa, in the Genoese state, I found two +plane trees, of a size and serious dignity, that recalled to my mind the +solemn oak before our duke of Dorset's seat at Knowle--and chesnuts, +which would not disgrace the forests of America. A rural theatre, cut in +turf, with a concealed orchestra and sod seats for the audience, with a +mossy stage, not incommodious neither, and an admirable contrivance for +shifting the scenes, and savouring the exits, entrances, &c. of the +performers, gave me a perfect idea of that refined luxury which hot +countries alone inspire--while another elegantly constructed spot, meant +and often used for the entertainment of tenants and dependants who come +to rejoice on the birth or wedding day of a kind landlord, make one +suppress one's sighs after a free country--at least suspend them; and +fill one's heart with tenderness towards men, who have skill to soften +authority with indulgence, and virtue to reward obedience with +protection. + +A family coming last night to visit at a house where I had the honour +of being admitted as an intimate, gave me another proof of my present +state of remoteness from English manners. The party consisted of an old +nobleman, who could trace his genealogy unblemished up to one of the old +Roman emperors, but whose fortune is now in a hopeless state of +decay:--his lady, not inferior to himself in birth or haughtiness of air +and carriage, but much impaired by age, ill health, and pecuniary +distress; these had however no way lessened her ideas of her own +dignity, or the respect of her cavalier servente and her son, who waited +on her with an unremitted attention; presenting her their little dirty +tin snuff-boxes upon one knee by turns; which ceremony the less +surprised me, as having seen her train made of a dyed and watered +lutestring, borne gravely after her up stairs by a footman, the express +image of Edgar in the storm-scene of king Lear--who, as the fool says, +"_wisely reserv'd a blanket, else had we all been 'shamed_." + +Our conversation was meagre, but serious. There was music; and the door +being left at jar, as we call it, I watched the wretched servant who +staid in the antichamber, and found that he was listening in spight of +sorrow and starving. + +With this slight sketch of national manners I finish my chapter, and +proceed to the description of, or rather observations and reflections +made during a winter's residence at + + + +MILAN. + + +For we did not stay at Pavia to see any thing: it rained so, that no +pleasure could have been obtained by the sight of a botanical garden; +and as to the university, I have the promise of seeing it upon a future +day, in company of some literary friends. Truth to tell, our weather is +suddenly become so wet, the roads so heavy with incessant rain, that +king William's departure from his own foggy country, or his welcome to +our gloomy one, where this month is melancholy even, to a proverb, could +not have been clouded with a thicker atmosphere surely, than was mine to +Milan upon the fourth day of dismal November, 1784. + +Italians, by what I can observe, suffer their minds to be much under the +dominion of the sky; and attribute every change in their health, or even +humour, as seriously to its influence, as if there were no nearer causes +of alteration than the state of the air, and as if no doubt remained of +its immediate power, though they are willing enough here to poison it +with the scent of wood-ashes within doors, while fires in the grate seem +to run rather low, and a brazier full of that pernicious stuff is +substituted in its place, and driven under the table during dinner. It +is surprising how very elegant, not to say magnificent, those dinners +are in gentlemen's or noblemen's houses; such numbers of dishes at once; +not large joints, but infinite variety: and I think their cooking +excellent. Fashion keeps most of the fine people out of town yet; we +have therefore had leisure to establish our own household for the +winter, and have done so as commodiously as if our habitation was fixed +here for life. This I am delighted with, as one may chance to gain that +insight into every day behaviour, and common occurrences, which can +alone be called knowing something of a country: counting churches, +pictures, palaces, may be done by those who run from town to town, with +no impression made but on their bones. I ought to learn that which +before us lies in daily life, if proper use were made of my +demi-naturalization; yet impediments to knowledge spring up round the +very tree itself--for surely if there was much wrong, I would not tell +it of those who seem inclined to find all right in me; nor can I think +that a fame for minute observation, and skill to discern folly with a +microscopic eye, is in any wise able to compensate for the corrosions of +conscience, where such discoveries have been attained by breach of +confidence, and treachery towards unguarded, because unsuspecting +innocence of conduct. We are always laughing at one another for running +over none but the visible objects in every city, and for avoiding the +conversation of the natives, except on general subjects of +literature--returning home only to tell again what has already been +told. By the candid inhabitants of Italian states, however, much honour +is given to our British travellers, who, as they say, _viaggiono con +profitto_[Footnote: Travel for improvement], and scarce ever fail to +carry home with them from other nations, every thing which can benefit +or adorn their own. Candour, and a good humoured willingness to receive +and reciprocate pleasure, seems indeed one of the standing virtues of +Italy; I have as yet seen no fastidious contempt, or affected rejection +of any thing for being what we call _low_; and I have a notion there is +much less of those distinctions at Milan than at London, where birth +does so little for a man, that if he depends on _that_, and forbears +other methods of distinguishing himself from his footman, he will stand +a chance of being treated no better than him by the world. _Here_ a +person's rank is ascertained, and his society settled, at his immediate +entrance into life; a gentleman and lady will always be regarded as +such, let what will be their behaviour.--It is therefore highly +commendable when they seek to adorn their minds by culture, or pluck out +those weeds, which in hot countries will spring up among the riches of +the harvest, and afford a sure, but no immediately pleasing proof of the +soil's natural fertility. But my country-women would rather hear a +little of our _interieur_, or, as we call it, family management; which +appears arranged in a manner totally new to me; who find the lady of +every house as unacquainted with her own, and her husband's affairs, as +I who apply to her for information.--No house account, no weekly bills +perplex _her_ peace; if eight servants are kept, we will say, six of +these are men, and two of those men out of livery. The pay of these +principal figures in the family, when at the highest rate, is fifteen +pence English a day, out of which they find clothes and eating--for +fifteen pence includes board-wages; and most of these fellows are +married too, and have four or five children each. The dinners drest at +home are, for this reason, more exactly contrived than in England to +suit the number of guests, and there are always half a dozen; for dining +_alone_ or the master and mistress _tête-à-tête_ as _we_ do, is unknown +to them, who make society very easy, and resolve to live much together. +No odd sensation then, something like shame, such as _we_ feel when too +many dishes are taken empty from table, touches them at all; the common +courses are eleven, and eleven small plates, and it is their sport and +pleasure, if possible, to clear all away. A footman's wages is a +shilling a day, like our common labourers, and paid him, as they are +paid, every Saturday night. His livery, mean time, changed at least +_twice a year_, makes him as rich a man as the butler and valet--but +when evening comes, it is the comicallest sight in the world to see them +all go gravely home, and you may die in the night for want of help, +though surrounded by showy attendants all day. Till the hour of +departure, however, it is expected that two or three of them at least +sit in the antichamber, as it is called, to answer the bell, which, if +we confess the truth, is no light service or hardship; for the stairs, +high and wide as those of Windsor palace, all stone too, run up from the +door immediately to that apartment, which is very large, and very cold, +with bricks to set their feet on only, and a brazier filled with warm +wood ashes, to keep their fingers from freezing, which in summer they +employ with cards, and seem but little inclined to lay them down when +ladies pass through to the receiving room. The strange familiarity this +class of people think proper to assume, half joining in the +conversation, and crying _oibò_[Footnote: Oh dear!], when the master +affirms something they do not quite assent to, is apt to shock one at +beginning, the more when one reflects upon the equally offensive +humility they show on being first accepted into the family; when it is +exposed that they receive the new master, or lady's hand, in a half +kneeling posture, and kiss it, as women under the rank of Countess do +the Queen of England's when presented at our court.--This +obsequiousness, however, vanishes completely upon acquaintance, and the +footman, if not very seriously admonished indeed, yawns, spits, and +displays what one of our travel-writers emphatically terms his flag of +abomination behind the chair of a woman of quality, without the +slightest sensation of its impropriety. There is, however, a sort of odd +farcical drollery mingled with this grossness, which tends greatly to +disarm one's wrath; and I felt more inclined to laugh than be angry one +day, when, from the head of my own table, I saw the servant of a +nobleman who dined with us cramming some chicken pattés down his throat +behind the door; our own folks humorously trying to choak him, by +pretending that his lord called him, while his mouth was full. Of a +thousand comical things in the same way, I will relate one:--Mr. +Piozzi's valet was dressing my hair at Paris one morning, while some man +sate at an opposite window of the same inn, singing and playing upon the +violoncello: I had not observed the circumstance, but my perrucchiere's +distress was evident; he writhed and twisted about like a man pinched +with the cholic, and pulled a hundred queer faces: at last--What is the +matter, Ercolani, said I, are you not well? Mistress, replies the +fellow, if that beast don't leave off soon, I shall run mad with rage, +or else die; and so you'll see an honest Venetian lad killed by a French +dog's howling. + +The phrase of _mistress_ is here not confined to servants at all; +gentlemen, when they address one, cry, _mia padrona_[Footnote: My +mistress], mighty sweetly, and in a peculiarly pleasing tone. Nothing, +to speak truth, can exceed the agreeableness of a well-bred Italian's +address when speaking to a lady, whom they alone know how to flatter, +so as to retain her dignity, and not lose their own; respectful, yet +tender; attentive, not officious; the politeness of a man of fashion +_here_ is _true_ politeness, free from all affectation, and honestly +expressive of what he really feels, a true value for the person spoken +to, without the smallest desire of shining himself; equally removed from +foppery on one side, or indifference on the other. The manners of the +men here are certainly pleasing to a very eminent degree, and in their +conversation there is a mixture, not unfrequent too, of classical +allusions, which strike one with a sort of literary pleasure I cannot +easily describe. Yet is there no pedantry in their use of expressions, +which with us would be laughable or liable to censure: but Roman notions +here are not quite extinct; and even the house-maid, or _donna di gros_, +as they call her, swears by _Diana_ so comically, there is no telling. +They christen their boys _Fabius_, their daughters _Claudia_, very +commonly. When they mention a thing known, as we say, to _Tom o'Styles +and John o'Nokes_, they use the words, _Tizio and Sempronio_. A lady +tells me, she was at a loss about the dance yesterday evening, because +she had not been instructed in the _programma_; and a gentleman, +talking of the pleasures he enjoyed supping last night at a friend's +house, exclaims, _Eramo pur jeri sera in Appolline[G]!_ alluding to +Lucullus's entertainment given to Pompey and Cicero, as I remember, in +the chamber of Apollo. But here is enough of this--more of it, in their +own pretty phrase, _seccarebbe pur Nettunno_[H]. It was long ago that +Ausonius said of them more than I can say, and Mr. Addison has +translated the lines in their praise better than I could have done. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote G: We passed yester evening as if we had been in the Apollo.] + +[Footnote H: Would dry up old Neptune himself.] + + "Et Mediolani mira omnia copia rerum: + Innumeræ cultæque domus facunda virorum + Ingenia et mores læti." + + Milan with plenty and with wealth overflows, + And numerous streets and cleanly dwellings shows; + The people, bless'd by Nature's happy force, + Are eloquent and cheerful in discourse. + +What I have said this moment will, however, account in some measure for +a thing which he treats with infinite contempt, not unjustly perhaps; +yet does it not deserve the ridicule handed down from his time by all +who have touched the subject. It is about the author, who before his +theatrical representation prefixes an odd declaration, that though he +names Pluto, and Neptune, and I know not who, upon the stage, yet he +believes none of those fables, but considers himself as a Christian, a +Catholick, &c. All this _does_ appear very absurdly superfluous to _us_; +but as I observed, _they_ live nearer the original feats of paganism; +many old customs are yet retained, and the names not lost among them, or +laid up merely for literary purposes as in England. They swear _per +Bacco_ perpetually in common discourse; and once I saw a gentleman in +the heat of conversation blush at the recollection that he had said +_barba Fove_, where he meant God Almighty. + +It is likewise unkind enough in Mr. Addison, perhaps unjust too, to +speak with scorn of the libraries, or state of literature, at Milan. The +collection of books at Brera is prodigious, and has been lately much +increased by the Pertusanian and Firmian libraries falling into it: a +more magnificent repository for learning, a more comfortable situation +for students, so complete and perfect a disposition of the books, will +scarcely be found in any other city not professedly a university, I +believe; and here are professors worthy of the highest literary +stations, that do honour to learning herself. I will not indulge myself +by naming any one, where all deserve the highest praise; and it is so +difficult to restrain one's pen upon so favourite a subject, that I +shall only name some rarities which particularly struck me, and avoid +further temptations, where the sense of obligation, and the recollection +of partial kindness, inspire an inclination to praises which appear +tedious to those readers who could not enter into my feelings, and of +course would scarcely excuse them. + +Thirteen volumes of MS. Psalms, written with wonderful elegance and +manual nicety, struck me as very curious: they were done by the +Certosini monks lately eradicated, and with beautiful illuminations to +almost every page. A Livy, printed here in 1418, fresh and perfect; and +a Pliny, of the Parma press, dated 1472; are extremely valuable. But the +pleasure I received from observing that the learned librarian had not +denied a place to Tillotson's works, was counteracted by finding +Bolingbroke's philosophy upon the same shelf, and enjoying exactly the +same reputation as to the truth of the doctrine contained in either; for +both were English, and of course _heretical_. + +But I must not live longer at Milan without mentioning the Duomo, first +in all Europe of the Gothic race; whose solemn sadness and gloomy +dignity make it a most magnificent cathedral; while the rich treasures +it conceals below exceeded my belief or expectation. + +We came here just before the season of commemorating the virtues of the +immortal Carlo Borromeo, to whose excellence all Italy bears testimony, +and Milan _most_; while the Lazaretto erected by him remains a standing +monument of his piety, charity, and peculiar regard to this city, which +he made his residence during the dreadful plague that so devasted it; +tenderly giving to its helpless inhabitants the consolation of seeing +their priest, provider, and protector, all united under one incomparable +character, who fearless of death remained among them, and comforted +their sorrows with his constant presence. It would be endless to +enumerate the schools, hospitals, infirmaries, erected by this +surprising man. The peculiar excellence of his lazaretto, however, +depends on each habitation being nicely separated from every other, so +as to keep infection aloof; while uniformity of architecture is still +preserved, being built in a regular quadrangle, with a chapel in the +middle, and a fresh stream flowing round, so as to benefit every +particular house, and keep out all necessity of connection between the +sick. I am become better acquainted with these matters, as this is the +precise time when the immortal Carlo Borromeo's actions are rehearsed, +and his praises celebrated, by people appointed in every church to +preach his example and record his excellence. + +A statue of solid silver, large as life, and resembling, as they hope, +his person, decorated with rings, &c. of immense value, is now exposed +in church for people to venerate; and the subterranean chapel, where his +body lies, is all wainscoted, as I may say, with silver; every separate +compartment chased, like our old-fashioned watch-cases, with some story +out of his life, which lasted but forty-seven years, after having done +more good than any other person in ninety-four; as a capuchin friar said +this morning, who mounted the pulpit to praise him, and seemed to be +well thought on by his auditors. The chanting tone in which he spoke +displeased me, however, who can be at last no competent judge of +eloquence in any language but my own. + +There is a national rhetoric in every country, dependant on national +manners; and those gesticulations of body, or depressions of voice, +which produce pity and commiseration in one place, may, without censure +of the orator or of his hearers, excite contempt and oscitancy in +another. The sentiments of the preacher I heard were just and vigorous; +and if that suffices not to content a foreign ear, woe be to me, who now +live among those to whom I am myself a foreigner; and who at best can +but be expected to forgive, for the sake of the things said, that accent +and manner with which I am obliged to express them. + +By the indulgence of private friendship, I have now enjoyed the uncommon +amusement of seeing a theatrical exhibition performed by friars in a +convent for their own diversion, and that of some select friends. The +monks of St. Victor had, it seems, obtained permission, this carnival, +to represent a little odd sort of play, written by one of their +community chiefly in the Milanese dialect, though the upper characters +spoke Tuscan. The subject of this drama was taken, naturally enough, +from some events, real or fictitious, which were supposed to have +happened in, the environs of Milan, about a hundred years ago, when the +Torriani and Visconti families disputed for superiority. Its +construction was compounded of comic and distressful scenes, of which +the last gave me most delight; and much was I amazed, indeed, to feel my +cheeks wet with tears at a friar's play, founded on ideas of parental +tenderness. The comic part, however, was intolerably gross; the jokes +coarse, and incapable of diverting any but babies, or men who, by a kind +of intellectual privation, contrive to perpetuate babyhood, in the vain +hope of preferring innocence: nor could I shelter myself by saying how +little I understood of the dialect it was written in, as the action was +nothing less than equivocal; and in the burletta which was tacked to it +by way of farce, I saw the soprano fingers who played the women's parts, +and who see more of the world than these friars, blush for shame, two or +three times, while the company, most of them grave ecclesiastics, +applauded with rapturous delight. + +The wearisome length of the whole would, however, have surfeited me, had +the amusement been more eligible; but these dear monks do not get a +holiday often, I trust; so in the manner of school-boys, or rather +school-girls in England (for our boys are soon above such stuff), they +were never tired of this dull buffoonery, and kept us listening to it +till one o'clock in the morning. + +Pleasure, when it does come, always bursts up in an unexpected place; I +derived much from observing in the faces of these cheerful friars, that +intelligent shrewdness and arch penetration so visible in the +countenances of our Welch farmers, and curates of country villages in +Flintshire, Caernarvonshire, &c. which Howel (best judge in such a case) +observes in his Letters, and learnedly accounts for; but which I had +wholly forgotten till the monks of St. Victor brought it back to my +remembrance. + +The brothers who remained unemployed, and clear from stage occupations, +formed the orchestra; those that were left _then_ without any immediate +business upon their hands, chatted gaily with the company, producing +plenty of refreshments; and I was really very angry with myself for +feeling so cynically disposed, when every thing possible was done to +please me. Can one help however sighing, to think that the monastic +life, so capable of being used for the noblest purposes, and originally +suggested by the purest motives, should, from the vast diversity of +orders, the increase of wealth and general corruption of mankind, +degenerate into a state either of mental apathy, as among the +sequestered monks, or of vicious luxury, as among the more free and open +societies? + +Yet must one still behold both with regret and indignation, that rage +for innovation which delights to throw down places once the retreats of +Piety and Learning--Piety, who fought in vain to wall and fortify +herself against those seductions which since have sapped the venerable +fabric that they feared to batter; and Learning, who first opened the +eyes of men, that now ungratefully begin to turn them only on the +defeats of their benefactress. + +The Christmas functions here were showy, and I thought well-contrived; +the public ones are what I speak of: but I was present lately at a +private merrymaking, where all distinctions seemed pleasingly thrown +down by a spirit of innocent gaiety. The Marquis's daughter mingled in +country-dances with the apothecary's prentice, while her truly noble +parents looked on with generous pleasure, and encouraged the mirth of +the moment. Priests, ladies, gentlemen of the very first quality, romped +with the girls of the house in high good-humour, and tripped it away +without the incumbrance of petty pride, or the mean vanity of giving +what they expressively call _foggezzione_, to those who were proud of +their company and protection. A new-married wench, whose little fortune +of a hundred crowns had been given her by the subscription of many in +the room, seemed as free with them all, as the most equal distribution +of birth or riches could have made her: she laughed aloud, and rattled +in the ears of the gentlemen; replied with sarcastic coarseness when +they joked her, and apparently delighted to promote such conversation as +they would not otherwise have tried at. The ladies shouted for joy, +encouraged the girl with less delicacy than desire of merriment, and +promoted a general banishment of decorum; though I do believe with full +as much or more purity of intention, than may be often met with in a +polished circle at Paris itself. + +Such society, however, can please a stranger only as it is odd and as it +is new; when ceremony ceases, hilarity is left in a state too natural +not to offend people accustomed to scenes of high civilization; and I +suppose few of us could return, after twenty-five years old, to the +coarse comforts of _a roll and treacle._ + +Another style of amusement, very different from this last, called us +out, two or three days ago, to hear the famous Passione de Metastasio +sung in St. Celso's church. The building is spacious, the architecture +elegant, and the ornaments rich. A custom too was on this occasion +omitted, which I dislike exceedingly; that of deforming the beautiful +edifices dedicated to God's service with damask hangings and gold lace +on the capitals of all the pillars upon days of gala, so very +perversely, that the effect of proportion is lost to the eye, while the +church conveys no idea to the mind but of a tattered theatre; and when +the frippery decorations fade, nothing can exclude the recollection of +an old clothes shop. St. Celso was however left clear from these +disgraceful ornaments: there assembled together a numerous and +brilliant, if not an attentive audience; and St. Peter's part in the +oratorio was sung by a soprano voice, with no appearance of peculiar +propriety to be sure; but a satirical nobleman near me said, that +"Nothing could possibly be more happily imagined, as the mutilation of +poor St. Peter was continuing daily, and in full force;" alluding to the +Emperor's rough reformations: and he does not certainly spare the coat +any more than Jack in our Tale of a Tub, when he is rending away the +embroidery. Here, however, the parallel must end; for Jack, though +zealous, was never accused of burning the lace, if I remember right, +and putting the gold in his pocket. It happened oddly, that chatting +freely one day before dinner with some literary friends on the subject +of coat armour, we had talked about the Visconti serpent, which is the +arms of Milan; and the spread eagle of Austria, which we laughingly +agreed ought to _eat double _ because it had _two necks_: when the +conversation insensibly turned on the oppressions of the present hour; +and I, to put all away with a joke, proposed the _fortes Homericæ_ to +decide on their future destiny. Somebody in company insisted that _I_ +should open the book--I did so, at the omen in the twelfth book of the +Iliad, and read these words: + + Jove's bird on sounding pinions beat the skies; + A bleeding serpent of enormous size + His talons trussed; alive and curling round + She stung the bird, whose throat receiv'd the wound. + Mad with the smart he drops the fatal prey, + In airy circles wings his painful way, + Floats on the winds, and rends the heavens with cries: + Amid the hosts the fallen serpent lies; + They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll'd, + And Jove's portent with beating hearts behold. + +It is now time to talk a little of the theatre; and surely a receptacle +so capacious to contain four thousand people, a place of entrance so +commodious to receive them, a show so princely, so very magnificent to +entertain them, must be sought in vain out of Italy. The centre front +box, richly adorned with gilding, arms, and trophies, is appropriated to +the court, whose canopy is carried up to what we call the first gallery +in England; the crescent of boxes ending with the stage, consist of +nineteen on a side, _small boudoirs_, for such they seem; and are as +such fitted up with silk hangings, girandoles, &c. and placed so +judiciously as to catch every sound of the fingers, if they do but +whisper: I will not say it is equally advantageous to the figure, as to +the voice; no performers looking adequate to the place they recite upon, +so very stately is the building itself, being all of stone, with an +immense portico, and stairs which for width you might without hyperbole +drive your chariot up. An immense sideboard at the first lobby, lighted +and furnished with luxurious and elegant plenty, as many people send for +suppers to their box, and entertain a knot of friends there with +infinite convenience and splendour. A silk curtain, the colour of your +hangings, defends the closet from intrusive eyes, if you think proper to +drop it; and when drawn up, gives gaiety and show to the general +appearance of the whole: while across the corridor leading to these +boxes, another small chamber, numbered like _that_ it belongs to, is +appropriated to the use of your servants, and furnished with every +conveniency to make chocolate, serve lemonade, &c. + +Can one wonder at the contempt shewn by foreigners when they see English +women of fashion squeezed into holes lined with dirty torn red paper, +and the walls of it covered with a wretched crimson fluff? Well! but +this theatre is built in place of a church founded by the famous +Beatrice de Scala, in consequence of a vow she made to erect one if God +would be pleased to send her a son. The church was pulled down and the +playhouse erected. The Arch-duke lost a son that year; and the pious +folks cried, "A judgment!" but nobody minded them, I believe; many, +however, that are scrupulous will not go. Meantime it is a beautiful +theatre to be sure; the finest fabric raised in modern days, I do +believe, for the purposes of entertainment; but we must not be partial. +While London has twelve capital rooms for the professed amusement of the +Public, Milan has but one; there is in it, however, a ridotto chamber +for cards, of a noble size, where some little gaming goes on in carnival +time; but though the inhabitants complain of the enormities committed +there, I suppose more money is lost and won at one club in St. James's +street during a week, than here at Milan in the whole winter. + +Every nation complains of the wickedness of its own inhabitants, and +considers them as the worst people in the world, till they have seen +others no better; and then, like individuals with their private sorrows, +they find change produces no alleviation. The Mount of Miseries, in the +Spectator, where all the people change with their neighbours, lay down +an undutiful son, and carry away with them a hump-back, or whatever had +been the source of disquiet to another, whom he had blamed for bearing +so ill a misfortune thought trifling till he took it on himself, is an +admirably well constructed fable, and is applicable to public as well +as private complaints. + +A gentleman who had long practised as a solicitor, and was retired from +business, stored with a perfect knowledge of mankind so far as his +experience could inform him, told me once, that whoever died before +sixty years old, if he had made his own fortune, was likely to leave it +according as friendship, gratitude, and public spirit dictated: either +to those who had served, or those who had pleased him; or, not +unfrequently, to benefit some charity, set up some school, or the like: +"but let a man once turn sixty," said he, "and his natural heirs _are +sure of him_:" for having seen many people, he has likewise been +disgusted by many; and though he does not love his relations better than +he did, the discovery that others are but little superior to them in +those excellencies he has sought about the world in vain for, he begins +to enquire for his nephew's little boy, whom as he never saw, never +could have offended him; and if he does not break the chain of a +favourite watch, or any other such boyish trick, the estate is his for +ever, upon no principle but this in the testator. + +So it is by those who travel a good deal; by what I have seen, every +country has so much in it to be justly complained of, that most men +finish by preferring their own. + +That neither complaints nor rejoicings here at Milan, however, proceed +from affectation, is a choice comfort: the Lombards possess the skill to +please you without feigning; and so artless are their manners, you +cannot even suspect them of insincerity. They have, perhaps for that +very reason, few comedies, and fewer novels among them: for the worst of +every man's character is already well known to the rest; but be his +conduct what it will, the heart is commonly right enough--_il luon cuor +Lombardo_ is famed throughout all Italy, and nothing can become +proverbial without an excellent reason. Little opportunity is therefore +given to writers who carry the dark lanthorn of life into its deepest +recesses--unwind the hidden wickedness of a Maskwell or a Monkton, +develope the folds of vice, and spy out the internal worthlessness of +apparent virtue; which from these discerning eyes cannot be cloked even +by that early-taught affectation which renders it a real ingenuity to +discover, if in a highly polished capital a man or woman has or has not +good parts or principles--so completely are the first overlaid with +literature, and the last perverted by refinement. + + * * * * * + +April 2, 1785. + +The cold weather continues still, and we have heavy snows; but so +admirable is the police of this well-regulated town, that when +over-night it has fallen to the height of four feet, no very uncommon +occurrence, no one can see in the morning that even a flake has been +there, so completely do the poor and the prisoners rid us of it all, by +throwing immense loads of it into a navigable canal that runs quite +round the city, and carries every nuisance with it clearly away--so that +no inconveniencies can arise. + +Italians seem to me to have no feeling of cold; they open the +casements--for windows we have none (now in winter), and cry, _che bel +freschetto_![Footnote: What a fresh breeze!] while I am starving +outright. If there is a flash of a few faggots in the chimney that just +scorches one a little, no lady goes near it, but sits at the other end +of a high-roofed room, the wind whistling round her ears, and her feet +upon a perforated brass box, filled with wood embers, which the +_cavalier fervente_ pulls out from time to time, and replenishes with +hotter ashes raked out from between the andirons. How sitting with these +fumes under their petticoats improves their beauty of complexion I know +not; certain it is, they pity _us_ exceedingly for our manner of +managing ourselves, and enquire of their countrymen who have lived here +a-while, how their health endured the burning _fossils_ in the chambers +at London. I have heard two or three Italians say, _vorrei anch' io +veder quell' Inghilterra, ma questo carbone fossile_![Footnote: I would +go see this same England myself I think, but that fuel made of minerals +frights me!] To church, however, and to the theatre, ladies have a great +green velvet bag carried for them, adorned with gold tassels, and lined +with fur, to keep their feet from freezing, as carpets are not in use +here. Poor women run about the streets with a little earthen pipkin +hanging on their arm, filled with fire, even if they are sent on an +errand; while men of all ranks walk wrapped up in an odd sort of white +riding coat, not buttoned together, but folded round their body after +the fashion of the old Roman dress that one has seen in statues, and +this they call _Gaban_, retaining many Spanish words since the time that +they were under Spanish government. _Buscar_, to seek, is quite familiar +here as at Madrid, and instead of Ragazzo, I have heard the Milanese say +_Mozzo_ di Stalla, which is originally a Castilian word I believe, and +spelt by them with the _c con cedilla_, Moço. They have likewise Latin +phrases oddly mingled among their own: a gentleman said yesterday, that +he was going to Casa _Sororis_, to his sister's; and the strange word +_Minga_, which meets one at every turn, is corrupted, I believe, from +_Mica_, a crumb. _Piaz minga_, I have not a crumb of pleasure in it, &c. + +The uniformity of dress here pleases the eye, and their custom of going +veiled to church, and always without a hat, which they consider as +profanation of the _temple_ as they call it, delights me much; it has an +air of decency in the individuals, of general respect for the place, and +of a resolution not to let external images intrude on devout thoughts. +The hanging churches, and even public pillars, set up in the streets or +squares for purposes of adoration, with black, when any person of +consequence dies, displeases me more; it is so very dismal, so paltry a +piece of pride and expiring vanity, and so dirty a custom, calling bugs +and spiders, and all manner of vermin about one so in those black +trappings, it is terrible; but if they remind us of our end, and set us +about preparing for it, the benefit is greater than the evil. + +The equipages on the Corso here are very numerous, in proportion to the +size of the city, and excessively showy: the horses are long-tailed, +heavy, and for the most part black, with high rising forehands, while +the sinking of the back is artfully concealed by the harness of red +Morocco leather richly ornamented, and white reins. To this magnificence +much is added by large leopard, panther, or tyger skins, beautifully +striped or spotted by Nature's hand, and held fast on the horses by +heavy shining tassels of gold, coloured lace, &c. wonderfully handsome; +while the driver, clothed in a bright scarlet dress, adorned and trimmed +with bear's skin, makes a noble figure on the box at this season upon +days of gala. The carnival, however, exhibits a variety unspeakable; +boats and barges painted of a thousand colours, drawn upon wheels, and +filled with masks and merry-makers, who throw sugar-plums at each other, +to the infinite delight of the town, whose populousness that show +evinces to perfection, for every window and balcony is crowded to +excess; the streets are fuller than one can express of gazers, and +general mirth and gaiety prevail. When the flashing season is over, and +you are no longer to be dazzled with finery or stunned with noise, the +nobility of Milan--for gentry there are none--fairly slip a check case +over the hammock, as we do to our best chairs in England, clap a coarse +leather cover on the carriage top, the coachman wearing a vast brown +great coat, which he spreads on each side him over the corners of his +coach-box, and looks as somebody was saying--like a sitting hen. + +The paving of our streets here at Milan is worth mentioning, only +because it is directly contrary to the London method of performing the +same operation. They lay the large flag stones at this place in two +rows, for the coach wheels to roll smoothly over, leaving walkers to +accommodate themselves, and bear the sharp pebbles to their tread as +they may. In every thing great, and every thing little, the diversity of +government must perpetually occur; where that is despotic, small care +will be taken of the common people; where that is popular, little +attention will be paid to the great ones. I never in my whole life heard +so much of birth and family as since I came to this town; where blood +enjoys a thousand exclusive privileges, where Cavalier and Dama are +words of the first, nay of the only importance; where wit and beauty are +considered as useless without a long pedigree; and virtue, talents, +wealth, and wisdom, are thought on only as medals to hang upon the +branch of a genealogical tree, as we tie trinkets to a watch in England. + +I went to church, twenty yards from our own door, with a servant to wait +on me, three or four mornings ago; there was a lady particularly well +dressed, very handsome, two footmen attending on her at a distance, took +my attention. Peter, said I, to my own man, as we came out, _chi è +quella dama? who is that lady? Non è dama_, replies the fellow, +contemptuously smiling at my simplicity--_she is no lady_. I thought +she might be somebody's kept mistress, and asked him whose? _Dio ne +liberi_, returns Peter, in a kinder accent--for there _heart_ came in, +and he would not injure her character--God forbid: _è moglie d'un ricco +banchiere_--she is a rich banker's wife. You may see, added he, that she +is no lady if you look--the servants carry no velvet stool for her to +kneel upon, and they have no coat armour in the lace to their liveries: +_she_ a lady! repeated he again with infinite contempt. + +I am told that the Arch-duke is very desirous to close this breach of +distinction, and to draw merchants and traders with their wives up into +higher notice than they were wont to remain in. I do not _think_ he will +by that means conciliate the affection of any rank. The prejudices in +favour of nobility are too strong to be shaken here, much less rooted +out so: the very servants would rather starve in the house of a man of +family, than eat after a person of inferior quality, whom they consider +as their equal, and almost treat him as such to his face. Shall we then +be able to refuse our particular veneration to those characters of high +rank here, who add the charm of a cultivated mind to that situation +which, united even with ignorance, would ensure them respect? When +scholarship is found among the great in Italy, it has the additional +merit of having grown up in their own bosoms, without encouragement from +emulation, or the least interested motive. His companions do not think +much the more of him--for _that_ kind of superiority. I suppose, says a +friend of his, he must be fond of study; for _chi pensa di una maniera, +chi pensa d' un altra, per me sono stato sempre ignorantissimo_[I]. + +[Footnote I: One man is of one mind, another of another: I was always a +sheer dunce for my own part.] + +These voluntary confessions of many a quality, which, whether possessed +or not by English people, would certainly never be avowed, spring from +that native sincerity I have been praising--for though family +connections are prized so highly here, no man seems ashamed that he has +no family to boast: all feigning would indeed be useless and +impracticable; yet it struck me with astonishment too, to hear a +well-bred clergyman who visits at many genteel houses, say gravely to +his friend, no longer ago than yesterday--that friend a man too eminent +both for talents and fortune--"Yes, there is a grand invitation at such +a place to-night, but I don't go, because _I am not a gentleman--perche +non sono cavaliere_; and the master desired I would let you know that +_it was for no other reason_ that you had not a card too, my good +friend; for it is an invitation of none but _people of fashion you +see_." At all this nobody stares, nobody laughs, and nobody's throat is +cut in consequence of their sincere declarations. + +The women are not behind-hand in openness of confidence and comical +sincerity. We have all heard much of Italian cicisbeism; I had a mind to +know how matters really stood; and took the nearest way to information +by asking a mighty beautiful and apparently artless young creature, _not +noble_, how that affair was managed, for there is no harm done _I am +sure_, said I: "Why no," replied she, "no great _harm_ to be sure: +except wearisome attentions from a man one cares little about: for my +own part," continued she, "I detest the custom, as I happen to love my +husband excessively, and desire nobody's company in the world but his. +We are not _people of fashion_ though you know, nor at all rich; so how +should we set fashions for our betters? They would only say, see how +jealous he is! if _Mr. Such-a-one_ sat much with me at home, or went +with me to the Corso; and I _must_ go with some gentleman you know: and +the men are such ungenerous creatures, and have such ways with them: I +want money often, and this _cavaliere servente_ pays the bills, and so +the connection draws closer--_that's all_." And your husband! said +I--"Oh, why he likes to see me well dressed; he is very good natured, +and very charming; I love him to my heart." And your confessor! cried +I.--"Oh, why he is _used to it_"--in the Milanese dialect--_è assuefaà_. + +Well! we will not send people to Milan to study delicacy or very refined +morality to be sure; but were the crust of British affectation lifted +off many a character at home, I know not whether better, that is +_honester_, hearts would be found under it than that of this pretty +girl, God forbid that I should prove an advocate for vice; but let us +remember, that the banishment of all hypocrisy and deceit is a vast +compensation for the want of _one great virtue_.--The certainty that +the worst, whatever that worst may be, meets your immediate inspection, +gives great repose to the mind: you know there is no latent poison +lurking out of sight; no colours to come out stronger by throwing water +suddenly against them, as you do to old fresco paintings: and talking +freely with women in this country, though you may have a chance to light +on ignorance, you are never teized by folly. + +The mind of an Italian, whether man or woman, seldom fails, for ought I +see, to make up in _extent_ what is wanted in _cultivation_; and that +they possess the art of pleasing in an eminent degree, the constancy +with which they are mutually beloved by each other is the best proof. + +Ladies of distinction bring with them when they marry, besides fortune, +as many clothes as will last them seven years; for fashions do not +change here as often as at London or Paris; yet is pin-money allowed, +and an attention paid to the wife that no Englishwoman can form an idea +of: in every family her duties are few; for, as I have observed, +household management falls to the master's share of course, when all +the servants are men almost, and those all paid by the week or day. +Children are very seldom seen by those who visit great houses: if they +_do_ come down for five minutes after dinner, the parents are talked of +as _doting_ on them, and nothing can equal the pious and tender return +made to fathers and mothers in this country, for even an apparently +moderate share of fondness shewn to them in a state of infancy. I saw an +old Marchioness the other day, who had I believe been exquisitely +beautiful, lying in bed in a spacious apartment, just like ours in the +old palaces, with the tester touching the top almost: she had her three +grown-up sons standing round her, with an affectionate desire of +pleasing, and shewing her whatever could sooth or amuse her--so that it +charmed me; and I was told, and observed indeed, that when they quitted +her presence a half kneeling bow, and a kind kiss of her still white +hand, was the ceremony used. I knew myself brought thither only that she +might be entertained with the sight of the foreigner--and was equally +struck at her appearance--more so I should imagine than she could be at +mine; when these dear men assisted in moving her pillows with emulative +attention, and rejoiced with each other apart, that their mother looked +so well to-day. Two or three servants out of livery brought us +refreshments I remember; but her maid attended in the antichamber, and +answered the bell at her bed's head, which was exceedingly magnificent +in the old style of grandeur--crimson damask, if I recollect right, with +family arms at the back; and she lay on nine or eleven pillows, laced +with ribbon, and two large bows to each, very elegant and expensive in +any country:--with all this, to prove that the Italians have little +sensation of cold, here was no fire, but a suffocating brazier, which +stood near the door that opened, and was kept open, into the maid's +apartment. + +A woman here in every stage of life has really a degree of attention +shewn her that is surprising:--if conjugal disputes arise in a family, +so as to make them become what we call town-talk, the public voice is +sure to run against the husband; if separation ensues, all possible +countenance is given to the wife, while the gentleman is somewhat less +willingly received; and all the stories of past disgusts are related to +_his_ prejudice: nor will the lady whom he wishes to serve look very +kindly on a man who treats his own wife with unpoliteness. _Che cuore +deve avere!_ says she: What a heart he must have! _Io non mene fido +sicuro_: I shall take care not to trust him sure. + +National character is a great matter: I did not know there had been such +a difference in the ways of thinking, merely from custom and climate, as +I see there is; though one has always read of it: it was however +entertaining enough to hear a travelled gentleman haranguing away three +nights ago at our house in praise of English cleanliness, and telling +his auditors how all the men in London, _that were noble_, put on a +clean shirt every day, and the women washed the street before his +house-door every morning. "_Che schiavitù mai!_" exclaimed a lady of +quality, who was listening: "_ma natural mente farà per commando del +principe_."--"_What a land of slavery!_" says Donna Louisa, I heard her; +"_but it is all done by command of the sovereign, I suppose_." + +Their ideas of justice are no less singular than of delicacy: but those +are more easily accounted for; so is their amiable carriage towards +inferiors, calling their own and their friends servants by tender names, +and speaking to all below themselves with a graciousness not often used +by English men or women even to their equals. The pleasure too which the +high people here express when the low ones are diverted, is +charming.--We think it vulgar to be merry when the mob is so; but if +rolling down a hill, like Greenwich, was the custom here, as with us, +all Milan would run to see the sport, and rejoice in the felicity of +their fellow-creatures. When I express my admiration of such +condescending sweetness, they reply--_è un uomo come un altro;--è +battezzato come noi_; and the like--Why he is a man of the same nature +as we: he has been christened as well as ourselves, they reply. Yet do I +not for this reason condemn the English as naturally haughty above their +continental neighbours. Our government has left so narrow a space +between the upper and under ranks of people in Great Britain--while our +charitable and truly Christian religion is still so constantly employed +in raising the depressed, by giving them means of changing their +situation, that if our persons of condition fail even for a moment to +watch their post, maintaining by dignity what they or their fathers have +acquired by merit, they are instantly and suddenly broken in upon by the +well-employed talents, or swiftly-acquired riches, of men born on the +other side the thin partition; whilst in Italy the gulph is totally +impassable, and birth alone can entitle man or woman to the society of +gentlemen and ladies. This firmly-fixed idea of subordination (which I +once heard a Venetian say, he believed must exist in heaven from one +angel to another) accounts immediately for a little conversation which I +am now going to relate. + +Here were two men taken up last week, one for murdering his +fellow-servant in cold blood, while the undefended creature had the +lemonade tray in his hand going in to serve company; the other for +breaking the new lamps lately set up with intention to light this town +in the manner of the streets at Paris. "I hope," said I, "that they will +hang the murderer." "I rather hope," replied a very sensible lady who +sate near me, "that they will hang the person who broke the lamps: for," +added she, "the first committed his crime only out of revenge, poor +fellow! because the other had got his mistress from him by treachery; +but this creature has had the impudence to break our fine new lamps, all +for the sake of spiting _the Arch-duke_." The Arch-duke meantime hangs +nobody at all; but sets his prisoners to work upon the roads, public +buildings, &c. where they labour in their chains; and where, strange to +tell! they often insult passengers who refuse them alms when asked as +they go by; and, stranger still! they are not punished for it when they +do. + +Here is certainly much despotic power in Italy, but, I fancy, very +little oppression; perhaps authority, once acknowledged, does not +delight itself always by the fatigue of exertion. _Sat est prostrasse +leoni_ is an old adage, with which perhaps I may be the better +acquainted, as it is the motto to my own coat of arms; and unless +sovereignty is hungry, for ought I see, he does not certainly _devour_. + +The certainty of their irrevocable doom, softened by kind usage from +their superiors, makes, in the mean time, an odd sort of humorous +drollery spring up among the common people, who are much happier here at +Milan than I expected to find them: every great house giving meat, +broth, &c. to poor dependents with liberal good-nature enough, so that +mighty little wandering misery is seen in the streets; unlike those of +Genoa, who seem mocked with the word _liberty_, while sorrow, sickness, +and the most pinching want, pine at the doors of marble palaces, whose +owners are unfeeling as their walls. + +Our ordinary people here in Lombardy are well clothed, fat, stout, and +merry; and desirous to divert themselves, and their protectors, whom +they love at their hearts. There is however a degree of effrontery among +the women that amazes me, and of which I had no idea, till a friend +shewed me one evening from my own box at the opera, fifty or a hundred +low shop-keepers wives, dispersed about the pit at the theatre, dressed +in men's clothes, _per disimpegno_ as they call it; that they might be +more _at liberty_ forsooth to clap and hiss, and quarrel and jostle, +&c. I felt shocked. "_One who comes from a free government need not +wonder so_," said he: "On the contrary, Sir," replied I, "where every +body has hopes, at least possibility, of bettering his station, and +advancing nearer to the limits of upper life, none except the most +abandoned of their species will wholly lose sight of such decorous +conduct as alone can grace them when they have reached their wish: +whereas your people know their destiny, future as well as present, and +think no more of deserving a higher post, than they think of obtaining +it." Let me add, however, that if these women _were_ a little riotous +during the Easter holidays, they are _dilletantes_ only. In this city no +female _professors_ of immorality and open libertinage, disgraceful at +once, and pernicious to society, are permitted to range the streets in +quest of prey; to the horror of all thinking people, and the ruin of all +heedless ones. + +With which observation, to continue the tour of Italy, we this day +leave, for a twelvemonth at least, Milano il grande, after having spent, +though not quite finished the winter in it; as there fell a very heavy +snow last Saturday, which hindered our setting out a week ago, though +this is the sixth of April; and exactly five months have now since last +November been passed among those who have I hope approved our conduct +and esteemed our manners. That they should trouble themselves to examine +our income, report our phrases, and listen, perhaps with some little +mixture of envy, after every instance of unshakable attachment shewn to +each other, would be less pleasing; but that I verily believe they have +at last dismissed us with general good wishes, proceeding from innate +goodness of heart, and the hope of seeing again, in a year's time or so, +two people who have supplied so many tables here with materials for +conversation, when the fountain of talk was stopt by deficiencies, and +the little stream of prattle ceased to murmur for want of a few pebbles +to break its course. + +We are going to Venice by the way of Cremona, and hope for amusement +from external objects: let us at least not deserve or invite +disappointment by seeking for pleasure beyond the limits of innocence. + + + +FROM MILAN TO PADUA. + + +The first evening's drive carried us no farther than Lodi, a place +renowned through all Europe for its excellent cheese, as out well-known +ballad bears testimony: + + Let Lodi or Parmesan bring up the rear. + +Those verses were imitated, I fancy, from a French song written by +Monsieur des Yveteaux, of whose extraordinary life and death much has +been said by his cotemporary wits, particularly how some of them found +him playing at shepherd and shepherdess in his own garden with a pretty +Savoyard wench, at seventy-eight years old, _en habit de berger, avec un +chapeau couleur de rose_[Footnote: In a pastoral habit, and a hat turned +up with pink], &c. when he shewed them the famous lines, _Avoir peu de +parens, moins de train que de rente_, &c. which do certainly bear a very +near affinity to our Old Man's Wish, published in Dryden's +Miscellanies; who, among other luxuries, resolves to eat Lodi cheese, I +remember. + +The town, however, bringing no other ideas either new or old to our +minds, we went to the opera, and heard Morichelli sing: after which they +gave us a new dramatic dance, made upon the story of Don John, or the +Libertine; a tale which, whether true or false, fact or fable, has +furnished every Christian country in the world, I believe, with some +subject of representation. It makes me no sport, however; the idea of an +impenitent sinner going to hell is too seriously terrifying to make +amusement out of. Let mythology, which is now grown good for little +else, be danced upon the stage; where Mr. Vestris may bounce and +struggle in the character of Alcides on his funeral pile, with no very +glaring impropriety; and such baubles serve beside to keep old classical +stories in the heads of our young people; who, if they _must_ have +torches to blaze in their eyes, may divert themselves with Pluto +catching up Ceres's daughter, and driving her away to Tartarus; but let +Don John alone. I have at least _half a notion_ that the horrible +history is _half true_; if so, it is surely very gross to represent it +by dancing. Should such false foolish taste prevail in England (but I +hope it will not), we might perhaps go happily through the whole book of +God's Revenge against Murder, or the Annals of Newgate, on the stage, as +a variety of pretty stories may be found there of the same cast; while +statues of Hercules and Minerva, with their insignia as heathen deities, +might be placed, with equal attention to religion, costume, and general +fitness, as decorations for the monuments of _Westminster Abbey_. + +The country we came through to Cremona is rich and fertile, the roads +deep and miry of course; very few of the Lombardy poplars, of which I +expected to see so many: but Phaeton's sisters seem to have danced all +away from the odoriferous banks of the Po, to the green sides of the +Thames, I think; meantime here is no other timber in the country but a +few straggling ash, and willows without end. The old Eridanus, however, +makes a majestic figure at Cremona, and frights the inhabitants when it +overflows. There are not many to be frighted though, for the town is +thinly peopled; but exquisitely clean, perhaps for that very reason; +and the cathedral, of a mixed Grecian and Gothic architecture, has a +respectable appearance; while two enormous lions, of red marble, frown +at its door, and the crucifixion, painted by Pordenone, with a rough but +powerful pencil, strikes one at the entrance: I have seen nothing finer +than the figure of the Centurion upon the fore-ground, who seems to cry +out, with soldier-like courage and apostolic fervour, Truly this is the +Son of God. + +The great clock here too is very curious: having, besides the +twenty-four hours, a minute and second finger, like a stop watch, and +shews the phases of the moon, with her triple rotation clearly to all +who walk across the piazza. Yet I trust the dwellers at Cremona are no +better astronomers than those who live in other places; to what purpose +then all these representations with which Italy is crowded; processions, +paintings, &c. besides the moral dances, as they call them now? One word +of solid instruction to the ear, conveys more knowledge to the mind at +last, than all these marionettes presented to the eye. + +The tower of Cremona is of a surprising height and elegant form; we +climbed, not without some difficulty, to its top, and saw the flat +plains of Lombardy stretched out all round us. Prospects, however, and +high towers have I seen; that in Mr. Hoare's grounds, dedicated to King +Alfred, is a much finer structure than this, and the view from it much +more variegated certainly; I think of greater extent; though there is +more dignity in these objects, while the Po twists through them, and +distant mountains mingle with the sky at the end of a lengthened +horizon. + +What I have never seen till now, we were made to observe in the octagon +gallery which crowns this pretty structure, where in every compartment +there are channels cut in the stone to guide the eye or rest the +telescope, that so a spectator need not be fruitlessly teized, as one +almost always is, by those who shew one a prospect, with _Look there! +See there!_ &c. At this place nothing needs be done but lay the glass or +put the eye even with the lines which point to Bergamo, Mantua, or where +you please; and _look there_ becomes superfluous as offensive. + +The bells in the tower amused us in another way: an old man who has the +care of them, delighted much in telling us how he rung tunes upon them +before the Duke of Parma, who presented him with money, and bid him ring +again: and not a little was the good man amazed, when one of our company +sate down and played on them himself: a thing he had never before been +witness to, he said, except once, when a surprising musician arrived +from England, and performed the like seat: by his description of the +person, and the time of his passing through Cremona, we conjectured he +meant Dr. Burney. + +The most dreadful of all roads carried us next morning to Mantua, where +we had letters for an agreeable friend, who neglected nothing that could +entertain or instruct us. He shewed me the field where it is supposed +the house stood in which Virgil was born, and told me what he knew of +the evidence that he was born there: certain it is that much care is +taken to keep the place fenced, from an idea of its being the identical +spot, and I hope it is so. + +The theatres here are beautiful beyond all telling: it is a shame not to +take the model of the small one, and build a place of entertainment on +the plan. There cannot surely be any plan more elegant. + +We had a concert of admirable music at the house of our new +acquaintance, in the evening, and were introduced by his means to many +people of fashion; the ladies were pretty, and dressed with much taste; +no caps at all, but flowers in their heads, and earrings of silver +fillagree finely worked; long, light, and thin: I never saw such before, +but it would be an exceeding pretty fashion. They hung down quite low +upon the neck and shoulders, and had a pleasing effect. + +Mantua stands in the middle of a deep swampy marsh, that sends up a +thick foggy vapour all winter, a stench intolerable during the summer +months. Its inhabitants lament the want of population; and indeed I +counted but five carriages in the streets while we remained in the town. +Seven thousand Jews occupy a third part of the city, founded by old +Tiresias's daughter, where they have a synagogue, and live after their +own fashion. The dialect here is closer to that Italian which foreigners +learn, and the ladies speak more Tuscan, I think, than at Milan, but it +is a _lady's_ town as I told them. + + "Ille etiam patriis agmen ciet Ocnus ab oris + Fatidicæ _Mantûs_ et Tusci filius amnis, + Qui muros matrisque dedit tibi. _Mantua_ nomen." + + Ocnus was next, who led his native train + Of hardy warriors thro' the wat'ry plain, + The son of Manto by the Tuscan stream, + From whence the _Mantuan_ town derives its name. + + DRYDEN. + +The annual fair is what contributes most to keeping their folks alive +though, for such are the roads it is scarce possible any strangers +should come near them, and our people complain that the inns are very +extortionate: here is one building, however, that promises wonders from +its prodigious size and magnificence; I only wonder such accommodation +should be thought necessary. + +The gentleman who shewed us the Ducal palace, seemed himself much struck +with its convenience and splendour; but I had seen Versailles, Turin, +and Genoa. What can be seen here, and here alone, are the numerous and +incomparable works of Giulio Romano; of which no words that I can use +would give my readers any adequate idea.--For such excellence language +has no praise, and of such performances taste will admit no criticism. +The giants could scarcely have been more amazed at Jupiter's thunder, +than I was at their painted fall. If Rome is to exhibit any thing beyond +this, I shall really be more dazzled than delighted; for imagination +will stretch no further, and admiration will endure no more. + + * * * * * + +Sunday, April 10. + +Here is no appearance of spring yet, though so late in the year; what +must it be in England? One almond and one plum tree have I seen in +blossom; but no green leaf out of the bud: so cheerless has been the +road between Mantua and Verona, which, however, makes amends for all on +our arrival. How beautiful the entrance is of this charming city, how +grand the gate, how handsome the drive forward, may all be read here in +a printed book called _Verona illustrata_: but my felicity in finding +the amphitheatre so well preserved, can only be found in my own heart, +which began sensibly to dilate at the seeing an old Roman colisseum kept +so nicely, and repaired so well. It is said that the arena here is +absolutely perfect; and if the galleries are a little deficient, there +can be no dispute concerning the _podium_, or lower seats, which remain +exactly as they were in old times: while I have heard that the building +of the same kind now existing at Nismes, shews the manner of entering +exceeding well; and the great one built by Vespasian has every thing +else: so that an exact idea of the old Circus may be obtained among them +all. That something should always be left to conjecture, is however not +unpleasing; various opinions animate the arguments on both sides, and +bring out fire by collision with the understanding of others engaged in +the same researches. + +A bull-feast given here to divert the Emperor as he passed through, must +have excited many pleasing sensations, while the inhabitants sate on +seats once occupied by the masters of the world; and what is more worth +wonder, fate at the feet of a Transalpine _Cæsar_, for so the sovereign +of Germany is even now called by his Milanese subjects in common +discourse; and when one looks upon the arms of Austria, a spread eagle, +and recollects that when the Roman empire was divided, the old eagle was +split, one face looking toward the East, the other toward the West, in +token of shared possession, it affects one; and calls up classic imagery +to the mind. + +The collection of antiquities belonging to the Philharmonic society is +very respectable; they reminded me of the Arundel marbles at Oxford, and +I said so. "_Oh!_" replied the man who shewed these, "_that collection +was very valuable to be sure, but the bad air, and the smoke of coal +fires in England, have ruined them long ago_." I suspected that my +gentleman talked by rote, and examining the book called _Verona +illustrata_, found the remark there; but that is _malasede_, and a very +ridiculous prejudice. I will confess however, if they please, that our +original treaty between Mardonius and the Persian army, at the end of +which the Greek general Aristides, although himself a Sabian, attested +the fun as witness, in compliance with their religion who worshipped +that luminary, at least held it in the highest veneration, as the +residence of Oromasdes the good Principle, who was considered by the +Magians as for ever clothed with light: I will consider _that_, I say, +if they insist upon it, as a marble of less consequence than the last +will and testament of an old inhabitant of Sparta which is shewn at +Verona, and which _they say_ disposes of the iron money used during the +first of many years that the laws of Lycurgus lasted. + +Here is a very fine palace belonging to the Bevi-l'acqua family, besides +the Casa Verzi, as famous for its elegant Doric architecture, as the +charming mistress of it for her Attic wit. + +St. Zeno is the church which struck me most: the eternal and all-seeing +eye placed over the door; Fortune's wheel too, composed of six figures +curiously disposed, and not unlike our man alphabet, two mounting, two +sitting, and two tumbling, over against it: on the outside of the wheel +this distich, + + En ego Fortuna moderor mortalibus usum, + Elevo, depono, bona cunctis vel mala dono[J]-- + +this other on the inside of the wheel, less plainly to be read: + + Induo nudatos, denudo veste paratos, + In me confidit, si quis derisus abibit[K]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote J: + Here I Madam Fortune my favours bestow, + Some good and some ill to the high and the low. +] + +[Footnote K: + The naked I clothe, and the pompous I strip; + If in me you confide, I may give you the slip. +] + +This is a town full of beauties, wits, and rarities: numberless persons +of the first eminence have always adorned it, and the present +inhabitants have no mind to degenerate; while the Nobleman that is +immediately descended from that house which Giambattista della Torre +made famous for his skill in astronomy, employs himself in a much more +useful, if not a nobler study; and is completing for the press a new +system of education. It was very petulantly, and very spitefully said by +Voltaire, that Italy was now no more than _la boutique_[Footnote: The +old clothes shop.], and the Italians, _les merchands fripiers de +l'Europe_[Footnote: The slop-sellers of Europe]. The Greek remains here +have still an air of youthful elegance about them, which strikes one +very forcibly where so good opportunity offers of comparing them with +the fabrics formed by their destructive successors, the Goths; who have +left some fine old black-looking monuments (which look as if they had +stood in our _coal smoke_ for centuries) to the memory of the Scaligers; +and surely the great critic of that name could not have taken a more +certain method of proving his descent from these his barbarous +ancestors, than that which his relationship to them naturally, I +suppose, inspired him with--the avowed preference of birth to talents, +of long-drawn genealogy to hardly-acquired literature. We will however +grow less prejudiced ourselves; and since there are still whole nations +of people existing, who consider the counting up many generations back +as a felicity not to be exchanged for any other without manifest loss, +we may possibly reconcile the opinion to common sense, by reflecting +that one preconception of the sovereign good is, that it should +certainly be _indeprivable_ and except birth, what is there earthly +after all that may not drop, or else be torn from its possessor by +accident, folly, force, or malice? + +James Harris says, that virtue answers to the character of +indeprivability, but one is left only to wish that his position were +true; the continuance of virtue depends on the continuance of reason, +from which a blow on the head, a sudden fit of terror, or twenty other +accidents may separate us in a moment. Nothing can make us not one's +father's child however, and the advantages of _blood_, such as they are, +may surely be deemed _indeprivable_. + +Gothic and Grecian architecture resembles Gothic and Grecian manners, +which naturally do give their colour to such arts as are naturally the +result of them. Tyranny and gloomy suspicion are the characteristics of +the one, openness and sociability strongly mark the other--when to the +gay portico succeeded the sullen drawbridge, and to the lively corridor, +a secret passage and a winding staircase. + +It is difficult, if not impossible however, to withhold one's respect +from those barbarians who could thus change the face of art, almost of +nature; who could overwhelm courage and counteract learning; who not +only devoured the works of wisdom and the labours of strength, but left +behind them too a settled system of feudatorial life and aristocratic +power, still undestroyed in Europe, though hourly attacked, battered by +commerce, and sapped by civilization. + +When Smeathman told us about twelve years ago, how an immense body of +African ants, which appeared, as they moved forwards, like the whole +earth in agitation--covered and suddenly arrested a solemn elephant, as +he grazed unsuspiciously on the plain; he told us too that in eight +hours time no trace was left either of the devasters or devasted, +excepting the skeleton of the noble creature neatly picked; a standing +proof of the power of numbers against single force. + +These northern emigrants the Goths, however, have done more; they have +fixed a mode of carrying on human affairs, that I think will never be so +far exterminated as to leave no vestiges behind: and even while one +contemplates the mischief they have made--even while one's pen engraves +one's indignation at their success; the old baron in his castle, +preceded and surrounded by loyal dependants, who desired only to live +under his protection and die in his defence, inspires a notion of +dignity unattainable by those who, seeking the beautiful, are by so far +removed from the sublime of life, and affords to the mind momentary +images of surly magnificence, ill exchanged perhaps by _fancy_, though +_truth_ has happily substituted a succession of soft ideas and social +comforts: knowledge, virtue, riches, happiness. Let it be remembered +however, that if the theme is superior to the song, we always find those +poets who live in the second class, celebrating the days past by those +who had their existence in the first. These reflections are forced upon +me by the view of Lombard manners, and the accounts I daily pick up +concerning the Brescian and Bergamase nobility; who still exert the +Gothic power of protecting murderers who profess themselves their +vassals; and who still exercise those virtues and vices natural to man +in his semi-barbarous state: fervent devotion, constant love, heroic +friendship, on the one part; gross superstition, indulgence of brutal +appetite, and diabolical revenge, on the other. + +In all hot countries, however, flowers and weeds shoot up to enormous +growth: in colder climes, where poison can scarce be feared, perfumes +can seldom be boasted. + +Verona is the gayest looking town I ever lived in; beautifully +situated, the hills around it elegant, the mountains at a distance +venerable: the silver Adige rolling through the Valley, while such a +glow of blossoms now ornament the rising grounds, and such cheerfulness +smiles in the sweet countenances of its inhabitants, that one is tempted +to think it the birth-place of Euphrosyne, where + + Zephyr with Aurora playing, + As he met her once a maying, &c. + Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair, + So buxom, blythe, and debonair-- + +as Milton says. Here are vines, mulberries, olives; of course, wine, +silk, and oil: every thing that can seduce, every thing that ought to +satisfy desiring man. Here then in consequence do actually delight to +reside mirth and good-humour in their holiday dress. _A verona mezzi +matti_[Footnote: The people at Verona are half out of their wits], say +the Italians themselves of them, and I see nothing seemingly go forward +here but Improvisatori, reciting stories or verses to entertain the +populace; boys flying kites, cut square like a diamond on the cards, and +called Stelle; men amusing themselves at a game called Pallamajo, +something like our cricket, only that they throw the ball with a hollow +stick, not with the hand, but it requires no small corporal strength; +and I know not why our English people have such a notion of Italian +effeminacy: games of very strong exertion are in use among them; and I +have not yet felt one hot day since I left France. + +They shewed us an agreeable garden here belonging to some man of +fashion, whose name I know not; it was cut in a rock, yet the grotto +disappointed me: they had not taken such advantages of the situation as +Lomellino would have done, and I recollected the tasteful creations in +my own country, _Pains Hill_ and _Stour Head_. + +The Veronese nobleman shewed however the spirit of _his_ country, if we +let loose the genius of _ours_. The emperor had visited his improvements +it seems, and on the spot where he kissed the children of the house, +their father set up a stone to record the honour. + +Our attendant related a tender story to _me_ more interesting, which +happened in this garden, of an English gentleman, who having hired the +house, &c. one season, found his favourite servant ill there, and like +to die: the poor creature expressed his concern at the intolerant +cruelty of that fact which denies Christians of any other denomination +but their own a place in consecrated ground, and lamented his distance +from home with an anxious earnestness that hastened his end: when the +humanity of his master sent him to the landlord, who kindly gave +permission that he might lie undisturbed under his turf, as one places +one's lap-dog in England; and _there_, as our Laquais de place observed, +_he did no harm_, though _he was a heretic_; and the English gentleman +wept over his grave. + +I never saw cypress trees of such a growth as in this spot--but then +there are no other trees; _inter viburna cypressi_ came of course into +one's head: and this noble plant, rich in foliage, and bright, not dusky +in colour, looked from its manner of growing like a vast evergreen +poplar. + +Our equipages here are strangely inferior to those we left behind at +Milan. Oil is burned in the conversation rooms too, and smells very +offensively--but they _lament our suffocation in England, and black +smoke_, while what proceeds from these lamps would ruin the finest +furniture in the world before five weeks were expired; I saw no such +used at Turin, Genoa, or Milan. + +The horses here are not equal to those I have admired on the Corso at +other great towns; but it is pleasing to observe the contrast between +the high bred, airy, elegant English hunter, and the majestic, docile, +and well-broken war horse of Lombardy. Shall we fancy there is Gothic +and Grecian to be found even among the animals? or is not that _too_ +fanciful? + +That every thing useful, and every thing ornamental, first revived in +Italy, is well known; but I was never aware till now, though we talk of +Italian book-keeping, that the little cant words employed in +compting-houses, took their original from the Lombard language, unless +perhaps that of Ditto, which every moment recurs, meaning Detto or +Sudetto, as that which was already said before: but this place has +afforded me an opportunity of discovering what the people meant, who +called a large portion of ground in Southwark some years ago a _plant_, +above all things. The ground was destined to the purposes of extensive +commerce, but the appellation of a _plant_ gave me much disturbance, +from my inability to fathom the meaning of it. I have here found out, +that the Lombards call many things a _plant_; and say of their cities, +palaces, &c. in familiar discourse--_che la pianta è buona, la pianta è +cattiva_[Footnote: The _plant_ is a good or a bad one], &c. + +Thus do words which carry a forcible expression in one language, appear +ridiculous enough in another, till the true derivation is known. Another +reflection too occurs as curious; that after the overthrow of all +business, all knowledge, and all pleasure resulting from either, by the +Goths, Italy should be the first to cherish and revive those +money-getting occupations, which now thrive better in more Northern +climates: but the chymists say justly, that fermentation acts with a +sort of creative power, and that while the mass of matter is fermenting, +no certain judgment can be made what spirit it will at last throw up: so +perhaps we ought not to wonder at all, that the first idea of banking +came originally from this now uncommercial country; that the very name +of _bankrupt_ was brought over from their money-changers, who sat in +the market-place with a bench or _banca_ before them, receiving and +paying; till, unable sometimes to make the due returns, the enraged +creditors broke their little board, which was called making +_bancarotta_, a phrase but too well known in the purlieus, which because +they first settled there in London was called _Lombard Street_, where +the word is still in full force I believe. + + --oh word of fear! + Unpleasing to commercial ear. + +A visit to the collection of Signor Vincenzo Bozza best assisted me in +changing, or at least turning the course of my ideas. Nothing in natural +history appears more worthy the consideration of the learned world, than +does this repository of petrefactions, so uncommon that scarcely any +thing except the testimony of one's own eyes could convince one that +flying fish, natives, and intending to remain inhabitants, of the +Pacific Ocean, are daily dug out of the bowels of Monte Bolca near +Verona, where they must doubtless have been driven by the deluge, as no +less than omnipotent power and general concussion could have sufficed to +seize and fix them for centuries in the hollow cavities of a rock at +least seventy-two miles from the nearest sea. Their learned proprietor, +however, who was obligingly desirous to shew me every attention, +answering a hundred troublesome questions with much civility, told us, +that few of his numerous visitants gave that plain account of the +phenomenon, shewing greater disposition to conjure up more difficult +causes, and attribute the whole to the world's eternity: a notion not +less contrary to found philosophy and common sense, than it is repugnant +to faith, and the doctrines of Revelation; which prophesied long ago, +that in the last days should come _scoffers, walking after their own +lusts_, and saying, _Where is now the promise of his coming? for since +the time that our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were +from the beginning of the creation._ + +Well! these are unpleasant reflections: I would rather, before leaving +the plains of Lombardy, give my country-women one reason for detaining +them so long there: it cannot be an uninteresting reason to us, when we +ref left that our first head-dresses were made by _Milaners_; that a +court gown was early known in England by the name of a _mantua_, from +_Manto,_ the daughter of Teresias, who founded the city so called; and +that some of the best materials for making these mantuas is still named +from the town it is manufactured in--a _Padua_ soy. + +We are going thither immediately through Vicenza; where the works of +Palladio's immortal hand appear in full perfection; and nothing sure can +add to the elegancies of architecture displayed in its environs. I +fatigued myself to death almost by walking three miles out of town, to +see the famous villa from whence Merriworth Castle in Kent was modelled; +and drew incessant censures on his taste who built at the bottom of a +deep valley the imitation of a house calculated for a hill. Here I +pleased my eyes by glancing them over an extensive prospect, bounded by +mountains on the one side, on another by the sea, at so prodigious a +distance however as to be wholly undiscoverable by the naked eye; nor +could I, or any other unaccustomed spectator, have seen, as my Italian +companions did, the effect produced by marine vapours upon the +intermediate atmosphere, which they made me remark from the windows of +the palace, inferior in every thing _but_ situation to Merriworth, and +with that patriotic consolation I leave Vincenza. + +Padua la dotta afforded me much pleasure, from the politeness of the +Countess Ferres, born a German; of the House of Starenberg: she thought +proper to shew me a thousand civilities, in consequence of a kind letter +which we carried her from Count Wiltseck, the Austrian minister at +Milan; called the literati of the town about us, and gave me the +pleasure of conversing with the Abate Cefarotti, who translated Offian; +and the Professor Statico, whose attentions I ought never to forget. I +was surprised at length to hear kind inquiries after English +acquaintance made in my native language by the botanical professor, who +spoke much of Doctor Johnson, and with great regard: he had, it seems, +spent much time in our island about thirty years before. When we were +shewn the physic garden, nicely kept and excellently furnished, the +Countess took occasion to observe, that transplanted trees never throve, +and strongly expressed her unfaded attachment to her native soil: though +she had more good sense than to neglect every opportunity of +cultivating that in which fortune had placed her. + +The tomb of Antenor, supposed to be preserved in this town, has, I find, +but slight evidence to boast with regard to its authenticity: whosever +tomb it is, the antiquity of the monument, and dignity of the remains, +are scarcely questionable; and I see not but it _may_ be Antenor's. + +There is no place assigned for it but the open street, because it could +not (say they) have contained a baptized body, as there are proofs +innumerable of its being fabricated many and many years before the birth +of Jesus Christ: yet I never pass by without being hurt that it should +have no better situation assigned it, till I recollect that the old +Romans always buried people by the highway, which made the _siste +viator_[Footnote: Stop traveller] proper for their tomb-stones, as Mr. +Addison somewhere remarks; which are foolishly enough engraven upon +ours: and till I consider too that the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the +Patriarch of Antioch, where Christians were first called such, would lie +no nearer a Christian Church than old Antenor does, were they +unfortunate enough to die, and be put under ground at Padua. + +The shrine of St. Antonio is however sufficiently venerated; and the +riches of his church really amazed me: such silver lamps! such votive +offerings! such glorious sculpture! the bas relievos, representing his +life and miracles, are beyond any thing we have yet seen; one +compartment particularly, the workmanship, I think, of Sansovino, where +an old woman is represented to a degree of finished nicety and curiosity +of perfection which I knew not that marble could express. + +The hall of justice, which they oppose to our Westminster-hall, but +between which there is no resemblance, is two hundred and fifty-six feet +long, and eighty-six broad; the form, of it a _rhomboid_: the walls +richly ornamented by Pietro d'Abano, who originally designed, and began +to paint the figures round the sides: they have however been retouched +by Giotto, who added the signs of the Zodiac to Peter's mysterious +performances, which meant to explain the planetary influences, as he was +a man deeply dipped in judicial astrology; and there is his own portrait +among them, dressed like a Zoroastrian priest, with a planet in the +corner. At the bottom of the hall hangs the famous crucifixion, for the +purpose of doing which completely well, it is told that Giotto fastened +up a real man, and justly incurred the Pope's displeasure, who coming +one day unawares to see his painter work, caught the unhappy wretch +struggling in the closet, and threatened immediately to sign the +artist's death; who with Italian promptness ran to the picture, and +daubed it over with his brush and colours;--by this method obliging his +sovereign to delay execution till the work was repaired, which no one +but himself could finish; mean time the man recovers of his wounds, and +the tale ends, whether true or false, according to the hearer's wish. + +The debtor's stone at the opposite end of the hall has likewise many +entertaining stories annexed to it: the bankrupt is obliged to sit there +in presence of his creditors and judges, in a very disgraceful state; +and many accounts are told one, of the various effects such distresses +have had on the mind: but suicide is a crime rarely committed out of +England, and the Italians look with just horror on our people for being +so easily incited to a sin, which takes from him that commits it all +power and possibility of repentance. + +A Frenchman whom I sent for once at Bath to dress my hair, gave me an +excellent trait of his own national character, speaking upon that +subject, when he meant to satirise ours. "You have lived some years in +England, friend, said I, do you like it?"--"Mais non, madame, pas +parfaitement bien[L]"--"You have travelled much in Italy, do you like +that better?"--"Ah, Dieu ne plaise, madame, je n'aime guères messieurs +les Italiens[M]." "What do they do to make you hate them so?"--"Mais +c'est que les Italiens se tuent l'un l'autre (replied the fellow), et +les Anglois se font un plaisir de se tuer eux mesmes: pardi je ne me +sens rien moins qu'un vrai gout pour ces gentillesses la, et j'aimerois +mieux me trouver a _Paris, pour rire un peu_."[N] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote L: Why no truly ma'am, not much.] + +[Footnote M: Oh, God forbid--no, I cannot endure those Italians.] + +[Footnote N: Why, really, the Italians have such a passion for murdering +each other, ma'am, and the English such an odd delight in killing +themselves, that I, who have acquired no taste for such agreeable +amusements, grow somewhat impatient to return to Paris, and get a good +laugh among my old acquaintance.] + +The Lucrezia Padovana, who has a monument erected here in this justice +hall to her memory, is the only instance of self-murder I have been told +yet; and her's was a very glorious one, and necessary to the +preservation of her honour, which was endangered by the magistrate, who +made that the barter for her husband's life, in defence of which she was +pleading; much like the story of Isabella, Angelo, and Claudio, in +Shakespear's Measure for Measure. This lady, whole family name I have +forgotten, stabbed herself in presence of the monster who reduced her to +such necessity, and by that means preserved her husband's life, by +suddenly converting the heart of her hateful lover, who from that +dreadful day devoted himself to penitence and prayer. + +The chastity of the Patavian ladies is celebrated by some old Latin +poet, but I cannot recollect which. Lucrezia, however, was a Christian. +I could not much regard the monument of Livy though, for looking at +her's, which attracted and detained my attention more particularly. + +The University of Padua is a noble institution; and those who have +excelled among the students, are recorded on tablets, for the most part +brass, hung round the walls, made venerable by their arms and +characters. It was pleasing to see so many British names among +them--Scotchmen for the most part; though I enquired in vain for the +admirable Crichton. Sir Richard Blackmore was there, but not one native +of France. We were spiteful enough to fancy, that was the reason that +Abbè Richard says nothing of the establishment. + +Besides the civilities shewn us here by Mr. Bonaldi and his agreeable +lady, Signora Annetta, we were recommended by letters from the Venetian +resident at Milan, to Abate Toaldo, professor of astronomy; who wished +to do all in his power to oblige and entertain us. His observatory is a +good one; but the learned amiable scholar, who resides in the first +floor of it, complained to us that he was sickly, old, and poor; three +bad qualifications, as he observed, for the amusement of travellers, who +commonly arrive hungry for novelty, and thirsty for information. His +quadrant was very fine, the planetarium or orrery quite out of repair; +and his references of course were obliged to be made to a sort of map or +chart of the heavenly bodies (a solar system at least with comets) that +hung up in his room as a substitute. He had little reverence for the +petrefactions of Monte Bolca I perceived, which he considered as mere +_lufus naturæ_. He shewed me poor Petrarch's tomb from his observatory, +bid me look on Sir Isaac's full-length picture in the room, and said, +the world would see no more such men. Of our Maskelyne, however, no man +could speak with more esteem, or expressions of generous friendship. His +sitting chamber was a pleasant one; and I should not have left it so +soon, but in compassion to his health, which our company was more likely +to injure than assist. He asked me, if I did not find _Padua la dotta_ a +very stinking nasty town? but added, that literature and dirt had long +been intimately acquainted, and that this city was commonly called among +the Italians, _"Porcil de Padua," Padua the pig-stye._ + +Fire is supposed to be the greatest purifier, and Padua has gone through +that operation twice completely, being burned the first time by Attila; +after which, Narses the famous eunuch rebuilt and settled it in the year +558, if my information is good: but after her protector's death, the +Longobards burned her again, and she lay in ashes till Charlemagne +restored her to more than original beauty. Under Otho she, like many +other cities of Italy, was governed by her own laws, and remained a +republic till the year 1237, when she received the German yoke, +afterwards broken by the Scaligers; nor was their treacherous +assassination followed by less than the loss both of Verona and this +city, which was found in possession of the Emperor Maximilian some years +after: but when the State of Venice recovered their dominion over it in +1409, they fortified it so strongly that the confederate princes united +in the league of Cambray assaulted it in vain. + +Santa Giustina's church is the most beautiful place of worship I have +ever yet seen; so regularly, so uniformly noble, uncrowded with figures +too: the entrance strikes you with its simple grandeur, while the small +chapels to the right and left hand are kept back behind a colonade of +pillars, and do not distract attention and create confusion of ideas, +as do the numerous cupolas of St. Anthony's more magnificent but less +pleasing structure. The high altar here at Santa Giustina's church +stands at the end, and greatly increases the effect on entering, which +always suffers when the length is broken. Nothing, however, is to be +perfect in this world, and Paul Veronese's fine view of the suffering +martyr has not size enough for the place; and is beside crowded with +small unconsequential figures, which cannot be distinguished at a +distance. Some carvings round the altar, representing, in wooden +bas-reliefs, the history of the Old and New Testament, are admirable in +their kind; and I am told that the organ on which Bertoni, a blind +nephew of Ferdinand, our well-known composer, played to entertain us, is +one of the first in Italy: but an ordinary instrument would have charmed +us had he touched it. + +I must not leave the Terra Firma, as they call it, without mentioning +once more some of the animals it produces; among which the asses are so +justly renowned for their size and beauty, that _come un afino di Padua_ +is proverbial when speaking of strength among the Italians: how should +it be otherwise indeed, where every herb and every shrub breathes +fragrance; and where the quantity as well as quality of their food +naturally so increases their milk, that I should think some of them. +might yield as much as an ordinary cow? + +When I was at Genoa, I remember remarking something like this to Doctor +Batt, an English physician settled there; and expressed my surprise that +our consumptive country-folks, with whom the Italians never cease to +reproach us, do not, when they come here for health, rely much on the +beneficial produce of these asses for a cure; which, if it is hastened +by their assistance in our island, must surely be performed much quicker +in this. The answer would have been better recollected, I fancy, had it +appeared to me more satisfactory; but he knew what he was talking of, +and I did not; so conclude he despised me accordingly. + +The Carinthian bulls too, that do all the heavy work in this rich and +heavy land, how wonderfully handsome they are! Such symmetry and beauty +have I never seen in any cattle, scarcely in those of Derbyshire, where +so much attention has been bestowed upon their breeding. The colour +here is so elegant; they are almost all blue roans, like Lord +Grosvenor's horses in London, or those of the Duke of Cestos at Milan: +the horns longer, and much more finely shaped, than those of our bulls, +and white as polished ivory, tapering off to a point, with a bright +black tip at the end, resembling an ermine's tail. As this creature is +not a native, but only a neighbour of Italy, we will say no more about +him. + +A transplanted Hollander, carried thither originally from China, seems +to thrive particularly well in this part of the world; the little pug +dog, or Dutch mastiff, which our English ladies were once so fond of, +that poor Garrick thought it worth his while to ridicule them for it in +the famous dramatic satire called Lethe, has quitted London for Padua, I +perceive; where he is restored happily to his former honours, and every +carriage I meet here has a _pug_ in it. That breed of dogs is now so +near extirpated among us, that I recoiled: only Lord Penryn who +possesses such an animal; and I doubt not but many of the under-classes +among brutes do in the same manner extinguish and revive by chance, +caprice, or accident perpetually, through many tracts of the inhabited +world, so as to remain out of sight in certain districts for centuries +together. + +This town, as Abbé Toaldo observed, is old, and dirty, and +melancholy-looking, _in itself_; but Terence told us long ago, and +truly, "that it was not the walls, but the company, made every place +delightful:" and these inhabitants, though few in number, are so +exceedingly cheerful, so charming, their language is so mellifluous, +their manners so soothing, I can scarcely bear to leave them without +tears. + +Verona was the first place I felt reluctance to quit; but the Venetian +state certainly possesses uncommon, and to me almost unaccountable, +attractions. Be that as it will, we leave these sweet Paduans to-morrow; +the coach is disposed of, and we are to set out upon our watry journey +to their wonderfully-situated metropolis, or as they call it prettily, +_La Bella Dominante_. + + + +VENICE. + + +We went down the Brenta in a barge that brought us in eight hours to +Venice, the first appearance of which revived all the ideas inspired by +Canaletti, whose views of this town are most scrupulously exact; those +especially which one sees at the Queen of England's house in St. James's +Park; to such a degree indeed, that we knew all the famous towers, +steeples, &c. before we reached them. It was wonderfully entertaining to +find thus realized all the pleasures that excellent painter had given us +so many times reason to expect; and I do believe that Venice, like other +Italian beauties, will be observed to possess features so striking, so +prominent, and so discriminated, that her portrait, like theirs, will +not be found difficult to take, nor the impression she has once made +easy to erase. British charms captivate less powerfully, less certainly, +less suddenly: but being of a softer sort increase upon acquaintance; +and after the connexion has continued for some years, will be +relinquished with pain, perhaps even in exchange for warmer colouring +and stronger expression. + +St. Mark's Place, after all I had read and all I had heard of it, +exceeded expectation: such a cluster of excellence, such a constellation +of artificial beauties, my mind had never ventured to excite the idea of +within herself; though assisted with all the powers of doing so which +painters can bestow, and with all the advantages derived from verbal and +written description. It was half an hour before I could think of looking +for the bronze horses, of which one has heard so much; and from which +when one has once begun to look, there is no possibility of withdrawing +one's attention. The general effect produced by such architecture, such +painting, such pillars; illuminated as I saw them last night by the moon +at full, rising out of the sea, produced an effect like enchantment; and +indeed the more than magical sweetness of Venetian planners, dialect, +and address, confirms one's notion, and realizes the scenes laid by +Fenelon in their once tributary island of Cyprus. The pole set up as +commemorative of their past dominion over it, grieves one the more, when +every hour shews how congenial that place must have been to them, if +every thing one reads of it has any foundation in truth. + +The Ducal palace is so beautiful, it were worth while almost to cross +the Alps to see that, and return home again: and St. Mark's church, +whose Mosaic paintings on the outside are surpassed by no work of art, +delights one no less on entering, with its numberless rarities; the +flooring first, which is all paved with precious stones of the second +rank, in small squares, not bigger than a playing card, and sometimes +less. By the second rank in gems I mean, carnelion, agate, jasper, +serpentine, and verd antique; on which you place your feet without +remorse, but not without a very odd sensation, when you find the ground +undulated beneath them, to represent the waves of the sea, and +perpetuate marine ideas, which prevail in every thing at Venice. We were +not shewn the treasury, and it was impossible to get a sight of the +manuscript in St. Mark's own hand-writing, carefully preserved here, and +justly esteemed even beyond the jewels given as votive offerings to his +shrine, which are of immense value. + +The pictures in the Doge's house are a magnificent collection; and the +Noah's Ark by Bassano would doubtless afford an actual study for natural +historians as well as painters, and is considered as a model of +perfection from which succeeding artists may learn to draw animal life: +scarcely a creature can be recollected which has not its proper place in +the picture; but the pensive cat upon the fore-ground took most of my +attention, and held it away from the meeting of the Pope and Doge by the +other brother Bassano, who here proves that his pencil is not divested +of dignity, as the connoisseurs sometimes tell us that he is. But it is +not one picture, or two, or twenty, that seizes one's mind here; it is +the accumulation of various objects, each worthy to detain it. Wonderful +indeed, and sweetly-satisfying to the intellectual appetite, is the +variety, the plenty of pleasures which serve to enchain the imagination, +and fascinate the traveller's eye, keeping it ever on this _little +spot_; for though I have heard some of the inhabitants talk of its +vastness, it is scarcely bigger than our Portman Square, I think, not +larger at the very most than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. + +It is indeed observable that few people know how to commend a thing so +as to make their praises enhance its value. One hears a pretty woman not +unfrequently admired for her wit, a woman of talents wondered at for her +beauty; while I can think on no reason for such perversion of language, +unless it is that a small share of elegance will content those whose +delight is to hear declamation; and that the most hackeyed sentiments +will seem new, when uttered by a pair of rosy lips, and seconded by the +expression of eyes from which every thing may be expected. + +To return to St. Mark's Place, whence _we have never strayed_: I must +mention those pictures which represent his miracles, and the carrying +his body away from Alexandria: events attested so as to bring them +credit from many wise men, and which have more authenticity of their +truth, than many stories told one up and down here. So great is the +devotion of the common people here to their tutelar saint, that when +they cry out, as we do _Old England for ever_! they do not say, _Viva +Venezia_! but _Viva San Marco_! And I doubt much if that was not once +the way with _us_; in one of Shakespear's plays an expiring prince being +near to give all up for gone, is animated by his son in these words, +"_Courage father_, cry _St. George_!" + +We had an opportunity of seeing _his_ day celebrated with a very grand +procession the other morning, April 23, when a live boy personated the +hero of the show; but fate so still upon his painted courser, that it +was long before I perceived him to breathe. The streets were vastly +crowded with spectators, that in every place make the principal part of +the _spectacle_. + +It is odd that a custom which in contemplation seems so unlikely to +please, should when put in practice appear highly necessary, and +productive of an effect which can be obtained no other way. Were the +houses in Parliament Street to hang damask curtains, worked carpets, +pieces of various coloured silks, with fringe or lace round them, out of +every window when the King of England goes to the House, with numberless +well-dressed ladies leaning out to see him pass, it would give one an +idea of the continental towns upon a gala day. But our people would be +apt to cry out, _Monmouth Street!_ and look ashamed if their neighbours +saw the same deckerwork counterpane or crimson curtain produced at +Easter, which made a figure at Christmas the December before; so that no +end would be put to expence in our country, were such a fancy to take +place. The rainy weather beside would spoil all our finery at once; and +_here_, though it is still cold enough to be sure, and the women wear +sattins, yet still one shivers over a bad fire only because there is no +place to walk and warm one's self; for I have not seen a drop of rain. +The truth is, this town cannot be a wholesome one, for there is scarcely +a possibility of taking exercise; nor have I been once able to circulate +my blood by motion since our arrival, except perhaps by climbing the +beautiful tower which stands (as every thing else does) in St. Mark's +Place. And you may drive a garden-chair up _that_, so easy is the +ascent, so broad and luminous the way. From the top is presented to +one's sight the most striking of all prospects, water bounded by +land--not land by water.--The curious and elegant islets upon which, and +into which, the piles of Venice are driven, exhibiting clusters of +houses, churches, palaces, every thing--started up in the midst of the +sea, so as to excite amazement. + +But the horses have not been spoken of, though one pair drew Apollo's +car at Delphos. The other, which we call modern, and laugh while we call +them so, were made however before the days of Constantine the Great. +They are of bright yellow brass, not black bronze, as I expected to find +them, and grace the glorious church I am never weary of admiring; where +I went one day on purpose to find out the red marble on which Pope +Alexander III. sate, and placed his foot upon the neck of the Emperor: +the stone has this inscription half legible round it, _Super aspidem et +basiliscum ambulabis_[Footnote: Thou shalt tread on the asp and the +basilisk]. How does this lovely Piazza di San Marco render a +newly-arrived spectator breathless with delight! while not a span of it +is unoccupied by actual beauty; though the whole appears uncrowded, as +in the works of nature, not of art. + +It was upon the day appointed for making a new chancellor, however, that +one ought to have looked at this lovely city; when every shop, adorned +with its own peculiar produce, was disposed to hail the passage of its +favourite, in a manner so lively, so luxuriant, and at the same time so +tasteful--there's no telling. Milliners crowned the new dignitary's +picture with flowers, while columns of gauze, twisted round with +ribband, in the most elegant style, supported the figure on each side, +and made the prettiest appearance possible. The furrier formed his skins +into representations of the animal they had once belonged to; so the +lion was seen dandling the kid at one door, while the fox stood courting +a badger out of his hole at the other. The poulterers and fruiterers +were by many thought the most beautiful shops in town, from the variety +of fancies displayed in the disposal of their goods; and I admired at +the truly Italian ingenuity of a gunsmith, who had found the art of +turning his instruments of terror into objects of delight, by his +judicious manner of placing and arranging them. Every shop was +illuminated with a large glass chandelier before it, besides the wax +candles and coloured lamps interspersed among the ornaments within. The +senators have much the appearance of our lawyers going robed to +Westminster Hall, but the _gentiluomini_, as they are called, wear red +dresses, and remind me of the Doctors of the ecclesiastical courts in +Doctors Commons. + +It is observable that all long robes denote peaceful occupations, and +that the short cut coat is the emblem of a military profession, once the +disgrace of humanity, now unfortunately become its false and cruel +pride. + +When the enemies of King David meant to declare war against him, they +cut the skirts of his ambassador's clothes off, to shew him he must +prepare for battle; and the Orientals still consider short dresses as a +disgraceful preparation for hostile proceedings; nor could any thing +have reconciled Europe to the custom, except our horror of Turkish +manners, and desire of being distinguished from the Saracens at the time +of the Holy War. + +I have said nothing yet about the gondolas, which every body knows are +black, and give an air of melancholy at first sight, yet are nothing +less than sorrowful; it is like painting the lively Mrs. Cholmondeley +in the character of Milton's + + Pensive Nun, devout and pure, + Sober, stedfast, and demure-- + +As I once saw her drawn by a famous hand, to shew a Venetian lady in her +gondola and zendaletto, which is black like the gondola, but wholly +calculated like that for the purposes of refined gallantry. So is the +nightly rendezvous, the coffee-house, and casino; for whilst Palladio's +palaces serve to adorn the grand canal, and strike those who enter +Venice with surprise at its magnificence; those snug retreats are +intended for the relaxation of those who inhabit the more splendid +apartments, and are fatigued with exertions of dignity, and necessity of +no small expence. They breathe the true spirit of our luxurious Lady +Mary, who probably learned it here, or of the still more dissolute +Turks, our present neighbours; who would have thought not unworthy a +Testa Veneziana, her famous stanza, beginning, + + But when the long hours of public are past, + And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last; + +Surely she had then present to her warm imagination a favourite Casino +in the Piazza St. Marco. That her learned and highly-accomplished son +imbibed her taste and talents for sensual delights, has been long known +in England; it is not so perhaps that there is a showy monument erected +to his memory at Padua, setting forth his variety and compass of +knowledge in a long Latin inscription. The good old monk who shewed it +me seemed generously and reasonably shocked, that such a man should at +last expire with somewhat more firm persuasions of the truth of the +Mahometan religion than any other; but that he doubted greatly of all, +and had not for many years professed himself a Christian of any sect or +denomination whatever. + + So have I seen some youth set out, + Half Protestant, half Papist; + And wand'ring long the world about, + Some new religion to find out, + Turn Infidel or Atheist. + +We have been told much of the suspicious temper of Venetian laws; and +have heard often that every discourse is suffered, except such as tends +to political conversation, in this city; and that whatever nobleman, +native of Venice, is seen speaking familiarly with a foreign minister, +runs a risque of punishments too terrible to be thought on. + +How far that manner of proceeding may be wise or just, I know not; +certain it is that they have preserved their laws inviolate, their city +unattempted, and their republic respectable, through all the concussions +that have shaken the rest of Europe. Surrounded by envious powers, it +becomes them to be vigilant; conscious of the value of their unconquered +state, it is no wonder that they love her; and surely the true _Amor +Patriæ_ never glowed more warmly in old Roman bosoms than in theirs, who +draw, as many families here do, their pedigree from the consuls of the +Commonwealth. Love without jealousy is seldom to be met with, especially +in these warm climates--let us then permit them to be jealous of a +constitution which all the other states of Italy look on with envy not +unmixed with malice, and propagate strange stories to its disadvantage. + +That suspicion should be concealed under the mask of gaiety is neither +very new nor very strange: the reign of our Charles the Second was +equally famous for plots, perjuries, and cruel chastisements, as for +wanton levity and indecent frolics: but here at Venice there are no +unpermitted frolics; her rulers love to see her gay and cheerful; they +are the fathers of their country, and if they _indulge_, take care not +to _spoil_ her. + +With regard to common chat, I have heard many a liberal and eloquent +disquisition upon the state of Europe in general, and of Venice in +particular, from several agreeable friends at their own Casino, who did +not appear to have more fears upon them than myself, and I know not why +they should. Chevalier Emo is deservedly a favourite with them, and we +used to talk whole evenings of him and of General Elliott; the +bombarding of Tunis, and defence of Gibraltar. The news-papers spoke of +some fireworks exhibited in England in honour of their hero; they were +"vrayment _feux de joye_" said an agreeable Venetian, they were not +_feux d'artifice._ + +The deep secrecy of their councils, however, and unrelenting steadiness +of their resolutions, cannot be better explained than by telling a +little story, which will illustrate the private virtue as well as the +public authority of these extraordinary people; for though the tale is +now in abler hands (intending as I am told, to form a tragedy upon its +basis), the summary may serve to adorn my little work; as a landscape +painter refuses not to throw the story of Phaeton's petition for +Apollo's car into his picture, for the purpose of illuminating the back +ground, though Ovid has written the story and Titian has painted it. + +Some years ago then, perhaps a hundred, one of the many spies who ply +this town by night, ran to the state inquisitor, with information that +such a nobleman (naming him) had connections with the French ambassador, +and went privately to his house every night at a certain hour. The +_messergrando_, as they call him, could not believe, nor would proceed, +without better and stronger proof, against a man for whom he had an +intimate personal friendship, and on whose virtue he counted with very +particular reliance. Another spy was therefore set, and brought back the +same intelligence, adding the description of his disguise; on which the +worthy magistrate put on his mask and bauta, and went out himself; when +his eyes confirming the report of his informants, and the reflection on +his duty stifling all remorse, he sent publicly for _Foscarini_ in the +morning, whom the populace attended all weeping to his door. + +Nothing but resolute denial of the crime alleged could however be forced +from the firm-minded citizen, who, sensible of the discovery, prepared +for that punishment he knew to be inevitable, and submitted to the fate +his friend was obliged to inflict: no less than a dungeon for life, that +dungeon so horrible that I have heard Mr. Howard was not permitted to +see it. + +The people lamented, but their lamentations were vain. The magistrate +who condemned him never recovered the shock: but Foscarini was heard of +no more, till an old lady died forty years after in Paris, whose last +confession declared she was visited with amorous intentions by a +nobleman of Venice whose name she never knew, while she resided there as +companion to the ambassadress. So was Foscarini lost! so died he a +martyr to love, and tenderness for female reputation! Is it not +therefore a story fit to be celebrated by that lady's pen, who has +chosen it as the basis of her future tragedy?--But I will anticipate no +further. + +Well! this is the first place I have seen which has been capable in any +degree of obliterating the idea of Genoa la superba, which has till now +pursued me, nor could the gloomy dignity of the cathedral at Milan, or +the striking view of the arena at Verona, nor the Sala de Giustizia at +lettered Padua, banish her beautiful image from my mind: nor can I now +acknowledge without shame, that I have ceased to regret the mountains, +the chesnut groves, and slanting orange trees, which climbed my chamber +window _there_, and at _this_ time too! when + + Young-ey'd Spring profusely throws + From her green lap the pink and rose. + +But whoever sees St. Mark's Place lighted up of an evening, adorned with +every excellence of human art, and pregnant with pleasure, expressed by +intelligent countenances sparkling with every grace of nature; the sea +washing its walls, the moon-beams dancing on its subjugated waves, sport +and laughter resounding from the coffee-houses, girls with guitars +skipping about the square, masks and merry-makers singing as they pass +you, unless a barge with a band of music is heard at some distance upon +the water, and calls attention to sounds made sweeter by the element +over which they are brought--whoever is led suddenly I say to this scene +of seemingly perennial gaiety, will be apt to cry out of Venice, as Eve +says to Adam in Milton, + + With thee conversing I _forget all time_, + All _seasons_, and their _change_--all please _alike_. + +For it is sure there are in this town many astonishing privations of all +that are used to make other places delightful: and as poor Omai the +savage said, when about to return to Otaheite--_No horse there! no ass! +no cow, no golden pippins, no dish of tea!--Ah, missey! I go without +every thing--I always so content there though_. + +It is really just so one lives at this lovely Venice: one has heard of a +horse being exhibited for a show there, and yesterday I watched the poor +people paying a penny a piece for the sight of a _stuffed one_, and am +more than persuaded of the truth of what I am told here, That +numberless inhabitants live and die in this great capital, nor ever find +out or think of enquiring how the milk brought from Terra Firma is +originally produced. When such fancies cross me I wish to exclaim, Ah, +happy England! whence ignorance is banished by the diffusion of +literature, and narrowness of notions is ridiculed even in the lowest +class of life. Candour must however confess, that while the possessor of +a Northern coal-mine riots in that variety of adulation which talents +deserve and riches contrive to obtain, those who labour in it are often +natives of the dismal region; where many have been known to be born, and +work, and die, without having ever seen the sun, or other light than +such as a candle can bestow. Let such dark recollections give place to +more cheerful imagery. + +We have just now been carried to see the so justly-renowned arsenal, and +unluckily missed the ship-launch we went thither chiefly to see. It is +no great matter though! one comes to Italy to look at buildings, +statues, pictures, people! The ships and guns of England have been such +as supported her greatness, established her dominion, and extended her +commerce in such a manner as to excite the admiration and terror of +Europe, whose kingdoms vainly as perfidiously combined with her own +colonies against that power which _they_ maintained, in spite of the +united efforts of half the globe. I shall hardly see finer ships and +guns till I go home again, though the keeping all together on one island +so--that island walled in too completely with only a single door to come +in and out at--is a construction of peculiar happiness and convenience; +while dock, armoury, rope-walk, all is contained in this space, exactly +two miles round I think. + +What pleased me best, besides the _whole_, which is best worth being +pleased with, was the small arms: there are so many Turkish instruments +of destruction among them quite new to me, and the picture commemorating +the cruel death of their noble gallant leader Bragadin, so inhumanly +treated by the Saracens in 1571. With infinite gratitude to his amiable +descendant, who shewed me unmerited civility, dining with us often, and +inviting us to his house, &c. I leave this repository of the Republic's +stores with one observation, That however suspicious the Venetians are +said to be, I found it much more easy for Englishmen to look over +_their_ docks, than for a foreigner to find his way into ours. + +Another reflection occurs on examination of this spot; it is, that the +renown attached to it in general conversation, is a proof that the world +prefers convenience to splendour; for here are no superfluous ornaments, +and I am apt to think many go away from it praising beauties by which +they have been but little struck, and utilities they have but little +understood. + +From this show you are commonly carried to the glass manufactory at +Murano; once the retreat of piety and freedom, when the Altinati fled +the fury of the Huns: a beautiful spot it is, and delightfully as oddly +situated; but these are _gems which inlay the bosom of the deep_, as +Milton says--and this perhaps, the prettiest among them, is walked over +by travellers with that curiosity which is naturally excited, in one +person by the veneration of religious antiquity; in another, by the +attention justly claimed by human industry and art. Here may be seen a +valuable library of books, and here may be seen glasses of all colours, +all sorts, and all prices, I believe: but whoever has looked much upon +the London work in this way, will not be easily dazzled by the lustre of +Venetian crystal; and whoever has seen the Paris mirrors, will not he +astonished at any breadth into which glass can be spread. + +We will return to Venice, the view of which from the Zueca, a word +contracted from Giudecca, as I am told, would invite one never more to +stray from it--farther at least than to St. George's church, on another +little opposite island, whence the prospect is surely wonderful; and one +sits longing for a pencil to repeat what has been so often exquisitely +painted by Canaletti, just as foolishly as one snatches up a pen to tell +what has been so much better told already by Doctor Moore. It was to +this church I was sent, however, for the purpose of seeing a famous +picture painted by Paul Veronese, of the marriage at Cana in +Galilee--where our Saviour's first miracle was performed; in which +immense work the artist is well known to have commemorated his own +likeness, and that of many of his family, which adds value to the piece, +when we consider it as a collection of portraits, besides the history it +represents. When we arrived, the picture was kept in a refectory +belonging to friars (of what order I have forgotten), and no woman could +be admitted. My disappointment was so great that I was deprived even of +the powers of solicitation by the extreme ill-humour it occasioned; and +my few intreaties for admission were completely disregarded by the good +old monk, who remained outside with me, while the gentlemen visited the +convent without molestation. At my return to Venice I met little +comfort, as every body told me it was my own fault, for I might put on +men's clothes and see it whenever I pleased, as nobody then would stop, +though perhaps all of them would know me. + +If such slight gratifications however as seeing a favourite picture, can +be purchased no cheaper than by violating truth in one's own person, and +encouraging the violation of it in others, it were better surely die +without having ever procured to one's self such frivolous enjoyments; +and I hope always to reject the temptation of deceiving mistaken piety, +or insulting harmless error. + +But it is almost time to talk of the Rialto, said to be the finest +single arch in Europe, and I suppose it is so; very beautiful too when +looked on from the water, but so dirtily kept, and deformed with mean +shops, that passing over it, disgust gets the better of every other +sensation. The truth is, our dear Venetians are nothing less than +cleanly; St. Mark's Place is all covered over in a morning with +chicken-coops, which stink one to death; as nobody I believe thinks of +changing their baskets: and all about the Ducal palace is made so very +offensive by the resort of human creatures for every purpose most +unworthy of so charming a place, that all enjoyment of its beauties is +rendered difficult to a person of any delicacy; and poisoned so +provokingly, that I do never cease to wonder that so little police and +proper regulation are established in a city so particularly lovely, to +render her sweet and wholesome. It was at the Rialto that the first +stone of this fair town was laid, upon the twenty-fifth of March, as I +am told here, with ideal reference to the vernal equinox, the moment +when philosophers have supposed that the sun first shone upon our earth, +and when Christians believe that the redemption of it was first +announced to _her_ within whose womb it was conceived. + +The name of _Venice_ has been variously accounted for; but I believe our +ordinary people in England are nearest to the right, who call it _Venus_ +in their common discourse; as that goddess was, like her best beloved +seat of residence, born of the sea's light froth, according to old +fables, and partook of her native element, the gay and gentle, not rough +and boisterous qualities. It is said too, and I fear with too much +truth, that there are in this town some permitted professors of the +inveigling arts, who still continue to cry _Veni etiam_, as their +ancestors did when flying from the Goths they sought these sands for +refuge, and gave their lion wings. Till once well fixed, they kindly +called their continental neighbours round to share their liberty, and to +accept that happiness they were willing to bestow and to diffuse; and +from this call--this _Veni etiam_ it is, that the learned men among them +derive the word _Venetia_. + +I have asked several friends about the truth of what one has been always +hearing of in England, that the Venetian gondoliers sing Tasso and +Ariosto's verses in the streets at night; sometimes quarrelling with +each other concerning the merit of their favourite poets; but what I +have been told since I came here, of their attachment to their +respective masters, and secrecy when trusted by them in love affairs, +seems far more probable; as they are proud to excess when they serve a +nobleman of high birth, and will tell you with an air of importance, +that the house of Memmo, Monsenigo, or Gratterola, has been served by +their ancestors for these eighty or perhaps a hundred years; +transmitting family pride thus from generation to generation; even when +that pride is but reflected only like the mock rainbow of a summer +sky.--But hark! while I am writing this peevish reflection in my room, I +hear some voices under my window answering each other upon the Grand +Canal. It is, it _is_ the gondolieri sure enough; they are at this +moment singing to an odd sort of tune, but in no unmusical manner, the +flight of Erminia from Tasso's Jerusalem. Oh, how pretty! how pleasing! +This wonderful city realizes the most romantic ideas ever formed of it, +and defies imagination to escape her various powers of enslaving it. + +Apropos to singing;--we were this evening carried to a well-known +conservatory called the Mendicanti; who performed an oratorio in the +church with great, and I dare say deserved applause. It was difficult +for me to persuade myself that all the performers were women, till, +watching carefully, our eyes convinced us, as they were but slightly +grated. The sight of girls, however, handling the double bass, and +blowing into the bassoon, did not much please _me_; and the deep-toned +voice of her who sung the part of Saul, seemed an odd unnatural thing +enough. What I found most curious and pretty, was to hear Latin verses, +of the old Leonine race broken into eight and six, and sung in rhyme by +these women, as if they were airs of Metastasio; all in their dulcified +pronunciation too, for the _patois_ runs equally through every language +when spoken by a Venetian. + +Well! these pretty syrens were delighted to seize upon us, and pressed +our visit to their parlour with a sweetness that I know not who would +have resisted. We had no such intent; and amply did their performance +repay my curiosity, for visiting Venetian beauties, so justly +celebrated for their seducing manners and soft address. They accompanied +their voices with the forte-piano, and sung a thousand buffo songs, with +all that gay voluptuousness for which their country is renowned. + +The school, however is running to ruin apace; and perhaps the conduct of +the married women here may contribute to make such _conservatorios_ +useless and neglected. + +When the Duchess of Montespan asked the famous Louison D'Arquien, by way +of insult, as she pressed too near her, "_Comment alloit le metier_[O]?" +"_Depuis que les dames sen mélent_" (replied the courtesan with no +improper spirit,) "_il ne vaut plus rien_[P]." It may be these syrens +have suffered in the same cause; I thought the ardency of their manners +an additional proof of their hunger for fresh prey. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote O: How goes the profession?] + +[Footnote P: Why since the _quality_ has taken to it ma'am, it brings +_us_ in very little indeed.] + +Will Naples, the original seat of Ulysses's seducers, shew us any thing +stronger than this? I hardly expect or wish it. The state of music in +Italy, if one may believe those who ought to know it best, is not what +it was. The _manner of singing_ is much changed, I am told; and some +affectations have been suffered to encroach upon their natural graces. +Among the persons who exhibited their talents at the Countess of +Rosenberg's last week, our country-woman's performance was most +applauded; but when I name Lady Clarges, no one will wonder. + +It is said that painting is now but little cultivated among them; Rome +will however be the place for such enquiries. Angelica Kauffman being +settled there, seems a proof of their taste for living merit; and if one +thing more than another evinces Italian candour and true good-nature, it +is perhaps their generous willingness to be ever happy in acknowledging +foreign excellence, and their delight in bringing forward the eminent +qualities of every other nation; never insolently vaunting or bragging +of their own. Unlike to this is the national spirit and confined ideas +of perfection inherent in a Gallic mind, whose sole politeness is an +_appliquè_ stuck _upon_ the coat, but never _embroidered into it_. + +The observation made here last night by a Parisian lady, gave me a +proof of this I little wanted. We met at the Casino of the Senator +Angelo Quirini, where a sort of literary coterïe assemble every evening, +and form a society so instructive and amusing, so sure to be filled with +the first company in Venice, and so hospitably open to all travellers of +character, that nothing can _now_ be to me a higher intellectual +gratification than my admittance among them; as _in future_ no place +will ever be recollected with more pleasure, no hours with more +gratitude, than those passed most delightfully by me in that most +agreeable apartment. + +I expressed to the French lady my admiration of St. Mark's Place. +"_C'est que vous n'avez jamais vue la foire St. Ovide_," said she; "_je +vous assure que cela surpasse beaucoup ces trifles palais qu'on +vantetant_[Q]." And _this could_ only have been arrogance, for she was a +very sensible and a very accomplished woman; and when talked to about +the literary merits of her own countrymen, spoke with great acuteness +and judgment. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote Q: You admire it, says she, only because you never saw the +fair at St. Ovid's in Paris; I assure you there is no comparison between +those gay illuminations and these dismal palaces the Venetians are so +fond of.] + +General knowledge, however, it must be confessed (meaning that general +stock that every one recurs to for the common intercourse of +conversation), will be found more frequently in France, than even in +England; where, though all cultivate the arts of table eloquence and +assembly-room rhetoric, few, from mere shyness, venture to gather in the +profits of their plentiful harvest; but rather cloud their countenances +with mock importance, while their hearts feel no hope beat higher in +them, than the humble one of escaping without being ridiculed; or than +in Italy, where nobody dreams of cultivating conversation at all--_as an +art_; or studies for any other than the natural reason, of informing or +diverting themselves, without the most distant idea of gaining +admiration, or shining in company, by the quantity of science they have +accumulated in solitude. _Here_ no man lies awake in the night for +vexation that he missed recollecting the last line of a Latin epigram +till the moment of application was lost; nor any lady changes colour +with trepidation at the severity visible in her husband's countenance +when the chickens are over-roasted, or the ice-creams melt with the +room's excessive heat. + +Among the noble Senators of Venice, meantime, many good scholars, many +Belles Lettres conversers, and what is more valuable, many thinking men, +may be found, and found hourly, who employ their powers wholly in care +for the state; and make their pleasure, like true patriots, out of _her +felicity_. The ladies indeed appear to study but _one_ science; + + And where the lesson taught + Is but to please, can pleasure seem a fault? + +Like all sensualists, however, they fail of the end proposed, from hurry +to obtain it; and consume those charms which alone can procure them +continuance or change of admirers; they injure their health too +irreparably, and _that_ in their earliest youth; for few remain +unmarried till fifteen, and at thirty have a wan and faded look. _On ne +goute pas ses plaisirs icy, on les avale_[Footnote: They do not taste +their pleasures here, they swallow them whole.], said Madame la +Presidente yesterday, very judiciously; yet it is only speaking +popularly that one can be supposed to mean, what however no one much +refuses to assert, that the Venetian ladies are amorously inclined: the +truth is, no check being put upon inclination, each acts according to +immediate impulse; and there are more devotees, perhaps, and more +doating mothers at Venice than any where else, for the same reason as +there are more females who practise gallantry, only because there are +more women there who _do their own way_, and follow unrestrained where +passion, appetite, or imagination lead them. + +To try Venetian dames by English rules, would be worse than all the +tyranny complained of when some East Indian was condemned upon the +Coventry act for slitting his wife's nose; a common practice in _his_ +country, and perfectly agreeable to custom and the _usage du pays_. Here +is no struggle for female education as with us, no resources in study, +no duties of family-management; no bill of fare to be looked over in the +morning, no account-book to be settled at noon; no necessity of reading, +to supply without disgrace the evening's chat; no laughing at the +card-table, or tittering in the corner if a _lapsus linguæ_ has +produced a mistake, which malice never fails to record. A lady in Italy +is _sure_ of applause, so she takes little pains to obtain it. A +Venetian lady has in particular so sweet a manner naturally, that she +really charms without any settled intent to do so, merely from that +irresistible good-humour and mellifluous tone of voice which seize the +soul, and detain it in despite of Juno-like majesty, or Minerva-like +wit. Nor ever was there prince or shepherd, Paris I think was both, who +would not have bestowed his apple _here_. + +Mean while my countryman Howel laments that the women at Venice are so +little. But why so? the diminutive progeny of _Vulcan_, the _Cabirs_, +mysteriously adored of old, were of a size below that of the least +living woman, if we believe Herodotus; and they were worshipped with +more constant as well as more fervent devotion, than the symmetrical +goddess of Beauty herself. + +A custom which prevails here, of wearing little or no rouge, and +increasing the native paleness of their skins, by scarce lightly wiping +the very white powder from their faces, is a method no Frenchwoman of +quality would like to adopt; yet surely the Venetians are not +behind-hand in the art of gaining admirers; and they do not, like their +painters, depend upon _colouring_ to ensure it. + +Nothing can be a greater proof of the little consequence which dress +gives to a woman, than the reflection one must make on a Venetian lady's +mode of appearance in her zendalet, without which nobody stirs out of +their house in a morning. It consists of a full black silk petticoat, +sloped just to train, a very little on the ground, and flounced with +gauze of the same colour. A skeleton wire upon the head, such as we use +to make up hats, throwing loosely over it a large piece of black mode or +persian, so as to shade the face like a curtain, the front being trimmed +with a very deep black lace, or souflet gauze infinitely becoming. The +thin silk that remains to be disposed of, they roll back so as to +discover the bosom; fasten it with a puff before at the top of their +stomacher, and once more rolling it back from the shape, tie it +gracefully behind, and let it hang in two long ends. + +The evening ornament is a silk hat, shaped like a man's, and of the +same colour, with a white or worked lining at most, and sometimes _one +feather_; a great black silk cloak, lined with white, and perhaps a +narrow border down before, with a vast heavy round handkerchief of black +lace, which lies over neck and shoulders, and conceals shape and all +completely. Here is surely little appearance of art, no craping or +frizzing the hair, which is flat at the top, and all of one length, +hanging in long curls about the back or sides as it happens. No brown +powder, and no rouge at all. Thus without variety does a Venetian lady +contrive to delight the eye, and without much instruction too to charm, +the ear. A source of thought fairly cut off beside, in giving her no +room to shew taste in dress, or invent new fancies and disposition of +ornaments for to-morrow. The government takes all that trouble off her +hands, knows every pin she wears, and where to find her at any moment of +the day or night. + +Mean time nothing conveys to a British observer a stronger notion of +loose living and licentious dissoluteness, than the sight of one's +servants, gondoliers, and other attendants, on the scenes and circles +of pleasure, where you find them, though never drunk, dead with sleep +upon the stairs, or in their boats, or in the open street, for that +matter, like over-swilled voters at an election in England. One may +trample on them if one will, they hardly _can_ be awakened; and their +companions, who have more life left, set the others literally on their +feet, to make them capable of obeying their master or lady's call. With +all this appearance of levity, however, there is an unremitted attention +to the affairs of state; nor is any senator seen to come late or +negligently to council next day, however he may have amused himself all +night. + +The sight of the Bucentoro prepared for Gala, and the glories of Venice +upon Ascention-day, must now put an end to other observations. We had +the honour and comfort of seeing all from a galley belonging to a noble +Venetian Bragadin, whose civilities to us were singularly kind as well +as extremely polite. His attentions did not cease with the morning show, +which we shared in common with numbers of fashionable people that filled +his ship, and partook of his profuse elegant refreshments; but he +followed us after dinner to the house of our English friends, and took +six of us together in a gay bark, adorned with his arms, and rowed by +eight gondoliers in superb liveries, made up for the occasion to match +the boat, which was like them white, blue and silver, a flag of the same +colours flying from the stern, till we arrived at the Corso; so they +call the place of contention where the rowers exert their skill and +ingenuity; and numberless oars dashing the waves at once, make the only +agitation of which the sea seems capable; while ladies, now no longer +dressed in black, but ornamented with all their jewels, flowers, &c. +display their beauties unveiled upon the water; and covering the lagoons +with gaiety and splendour, bring to one's mind the games in Virgil, and +the galley of Cleopatra, by turns. + +Never was locality so subservient to the purposes of pleasure as in this +city; where pleasure has set up her airy standard, and which on this +occasion looked like what one reads in poetry of Amphitrite's court; and +I ventured to tell a nobleman who was kindly attentive in shewing us +every possible politeness, that had Venus risen from the Adriatic sea, +she would scarcely have been tempted to quit it for Olympus. I was upon +the whole more struck with the evening's gaiety, than with the +magnificence in which the morning began to shine. The truth is, we had +been long prepared for seeing the Bucentoro; had heard and read every +thing I fancy that could have been thought or said upon the subject, +from the sullen Englishmen who rank it with a company's barge floating +up the Thames upon my Lord Mayor's day, to the old writers who compare +it with Theseus's ship; in imitation of which, it is said, this calls +itself the very identical vessel wherein Pope Alexander performed the +original ceremony in the year 1171; and though, perhaps, not a whole +plank of that old galley can be now remaining in this, so often +careened, repaired, and adorned since that time, I see nothing +ridiculous in declaring that it is the same ship; any more than in +saying the oak I planted an acorn thirty years ago, is the same tree I +saw spring up then a little twig, which not even a moderate sceptic will +deny; though he takes so much pains to persuade plain folks out of their +own existence, by laughing us out of the dull notion that he who dies a +withered old fellow at fourscore, should ever be considered as the same +person whom his mother brought forth a pretty little plump baby eighty +years before--when, says he cunningly, you are forced yourself to +confess, that his mother, who died four months afterwards, would not +know him again now; though while she lived, he was never out of her +arms. + + Vain wisdom all! and false Philosophy, + Which finds no end, in wandering mazes lost. + +And better is it to travel, as Dr. Johnson says Browne did, from one +place where he saw little, to another where he saw no more--than write +books to confound common sense, and make men raise up doubts of a Being +to whom they must one day give an account. + +We will return to the Bucentoro, which, as its name imports, holds two +hundred people, and is heavy besides with statues, columns, &c. The top +covered with crimson velvet, and the sides enlivened by twenty-one oars +on each hand. Musical performers attend in another barge, while +foreigners in gilded pajots increase the general show. Mean time, the +vessel that contains the doge, &c. carries him slowly out to sea, where +in presence of his senators he drops a plain gold ring into the water, +with these words, _Desponfamus te mare, in fignum veri perpetuique +dominii_.[Footnote: We espouse thee, O sea! in sign of true and +perpetual dominion.] + +Our weather was favourable, and the people all seemed happy: when the +ceremony is put off from day to day, it naturally damps their spirits, +and produces superstitious presages of an unlucky year: nor is that +strange, for the season of storms ought surely to be past in a climate +so celebrated for mildness and equanimity. The praises of Italian +weather, though wearisomely frequent among us, seem however much +confined to this island for aught I see; who am often tired with hearing +their complaints of their own sky, now that they are under it: always +too cold or too hot, or a seiroc wind, or a rainy day, or a hard frost, +_che gela fin ai pensieri_[Footnote: Which freezes even one's fancy.]; +or something to murmur about, while their only great nuisances pass +unnoticed, the heaps of dirt, and crowds of beggars, who infest the +streets, and poison the pleasures of society. While ladies are eating +ice at a coffee-house door, while decent people are hearing mass at the +altar, while strangers are surveying the beauties of the place--no +peace, no enjoyment can one obtain for the beggars; numerous beyond +credibility, fancy and airy, and odd in their manners; and exhibiting +such various lamenesses and horrible deformities in their figure, that I +can sometimes hardly believe my eyes--but am willing to be told, what is +not very improbable, that many of them come from a great distance to +pass the season of ascension here at Venice. I never indeed saw any +thing so gently endured, which it appeared so little difficult to +remedy; but though I hope it would be hard to find a place where more +alms are asked, or less are given, than in Venice; yet I never saw +refusals so pleasingly softened, as by the manners of the high Italians +towards the low. Ladies in particular are so soft-mouthed, so tender in +replying to those who have their lot cast far below them, that one feels +one's own harsher disposition corrected by their sweetness; and when +they called my maid _sister_, in good time--pressing her hand with +affectionate kindness, it melted me; though I feared from time to time +there must be hypocrisy at bottom of such sugared words, till I caught a +lady of condition yesterday turning to the window, and praying fervently +for the girl's conversion to christianity, all from a tender and pious +emotion of her gentle heart: as notwithstanding their caresses, no man +is more firmly persuaded of a mathematical truth than they are of mine, +and my maid's living in a state of certain and eternal reprobation--_ma +fanno veramente vergogna a noi altri_[Footnote: But they really shame +_even us_.], say they, quite in the spirit of the old Romans, who +thought all nations _barbarous_ except their own. + +A woman of quality, near whom I sate at the fine ball Bragadin made two +nights ago in honour of this gay season, enquired how I had passed the +morning. I named several churches I had looked into, particularly that +which they esteem beyond the rest as a favourite work of Palladio, and +called the Redentore. "You do very right," says she, "to look at our +churches, as you have none in England, I know--but then you have so +many other fine things--such charming _steel buttons_ for example;" +pressing my hand to shew that she meant no offence; for, added she, _chi +pensa d'una maniera, chi pensa d'un altra_[Footnote: One person is of +one mind you know, another of another.]. + +Here are many theatres, the worst infinitely superior to ours; the best, +as far below those of Milan and Turin: but then here are other +diversions, and every one's dependance for pleasure is not placed upon +the opera. They have now thrown up a sort of temporary wall of painted +canvass, in an oval form, within St. Mark's Place, profusely illuminated +round the new-formed walk, which is covered in at top, and adorned with +shops round the right hand side, with pillars to support the canopy; the +lamps, &c. on the left hand. This open Ranelagh, so suited to the +climate, is exceedingly pleasing:--here is room to sit, to chat, to +saunter up and down, from two o'clock in the morning, when the opera +ends, till a hot sun sends us all home to rest--for late hours must be +complied with at Venice, or you can have no diversion at all, as the +earliest Casino belonging to your soberest friends has not a candle +lighted in it till past midnight. + +But I am called from my book to see the public library; not a large one +I find, but ornamented with pieces of sculpture, whose eminence has not, +I am sure, waited for my description: the Jupiter and Leda particularly, +said to be the work of Phidias, whose Ganymede in the same collection +they tell us is equally excellent. Having heard that Guarini's +manuscript of the Pastor Fido, written in his own hand, was safely kept +at this place, I asked for it, and was entertained to see his numberless +corrections and variations from the original thought, like those of +Pope's Homer preserved in the British Museum; some of which I copied +over for Doctor Johnson to print, at the time he published his Lives of +the English Poets. My curiosity led me to look in the Pastor Fido for +the famous passage of _Legge humana_, _inhumana_, _&c._ and it was +observable enough that he had written it three different ways before he +pitched on that peculiar expression which caused his book to be +prohibited. Seeing the manuscript I took notice, however, of the +beautiful penmanship with which it was written: our English hand-writing +cotemporary to his was coarse, if I recollect, and very angular;--but +_Italian hand_ was the first to become elegant, and still retains some +privileges amongst us. Once more, every thing small, and every thing +great, revived after the dark ages--in Italy. + +Looking at the Mint was an hour's time spent with less amusement. The +depuration of gold may be performed many ways, and the proofs of its +purity given by various methods: I was gratified well enough upon the +whole however, in watching the neatness of their process, in weighing +the gold, &c. and keeping it more free from alloy than any other coin of +any other state:--a zecchine will bend between your fingers from the +malleability of the metal--we may try in vain at a guinea, or louis +d'or. The operation of separating silver ore from gold by the powers of +aqua fortis, precipitating the first-named metal by suspension of a +copper plate in the liquid, and called _quartation_; was I believe +wholly unknown to the ancients, who got much earlier at the art of +weighing gold in water, testified by the old story of _King Hiero's +crown_. + +Talking of kings, and crowns, and gold, reminds me of my regret for not +seeing the treasure kept in St. Mark's church here, with the motto +engraven on the chest which contains it: + + Quando questo scrinio s'aprirà, + Tutto il mondo tremerà[R]. + +[Footnote R: + When this scrutoire shall open'd be, + The world shall all with wonder flee. +] + +Of this it was said in our Charles the First's time, that there was +enough in it to pay six kings' ransoms: when Pacheco, the Spanish +ambassador, hearing so much of it, asked in derision, If the chest had +any _bottom_? and being answered in the affirmative, made reply, That +_there_ was the difference between his master's treasures and those of +the Venetian Republic, for the mines of Mexico and Potosi had _no_ +bottom.--Strange! if all these precious stones, metals, &c. have been +all spent since then, and nothing left except a few relics of no +intrinsic value. + +It is well enough known, that in the year 1450, one of the natives of +the island of Candia, who have never been men of much character, made a +sort of mine, or airshaft, or rather perhaps a burrow, like those +constructed by rabbits, down which he went and got quite under the +church, stealing out gems, money, &c. to a vast amount; but being +discovered by the treachery of his companion, was caught and hanged +between the two columns that face the sea on the Piazzetta. + +It strikes a person who has lived some months in other parts of Italy, +to see so very few clergymen at Venice, and none hardly who have much +the look or air of a man of fashion. Milan, though such heavy complaints +are daily made there of encroachments on church power and depredations +on church opulence, still swarms with ecclesiastics; and in an assembly +of thirty people, there are never fewer than ten or twelve at the very +least. But here it should seem as if the political cry of _fuori i +preti_[Footnote: Out with the clergy.], which is said loudly in the +council-chamber before any vote is suffered to pass into a law, were +carried in the conversation rooms too, for a priest is here less +frequent than a clergyman at London; and those one sees about, are +almost all ordinary men, decent and humble in their appearance, of a +bashful distant carriage, like the parson of the parish in North Wales, +or _le curé du village_ in the South of France; and seems no way related +to an _Abate of Milan or Turin_ still less to _Monsieur l' Abbé at +Paris_. + +Though this Republic has long maintained a sort of independency from the +court of Rome, having shewn themselves weary of the Jesuits two hundred +years before any other potentate dismissed them; while many of the +Venetian populace followed them about, crying _Andate, andate, niente +pigliate, emai ritornate_[Footnote: Begone, begone; nothing take, nor +turn anon.]; and although there is a patriarch here who takes care of +church matters, and is attentive to keep his clergy from ever meddling +with or even mentioning affairs of state, as in such a case the Republic +would not scruple punishing them as laymen; yet has Venice kept, as they +call it, St. Peter's boat from sinking more than once, when she saw the +Pope's territories endangered, or his sovereignty insulted: nor is there +any city more eminent for the decency with which divine service is +administered, or for the devout and decorous behaviour of individuals +at the time any sacred office is performing. She has ever behaved like +a true Christian potentate, keeping her faith firm, and her honour +scrupulously clear, in all treaties and conventions with other +states--fewer instances being given of Venetian falsehood or treachery +towards neighbouring nations, than of any other European power, +excepting only Britain, her truly-beloved ally; with whom she never had +a difference, and whose cause was so warmly espoused last war by the +inhabitants of this friendly state, that numbers of young nobility were +willing to run a-volunteering in her defence, but that the laws of +Venice forbid her nobles ranging from home without leave given from the +state. It was therefore not an ill saying, though an old one perhaps, +that the government of Venice was rich and consolatory like its treacle, +being compounded nicely of all the other forms: a grain of monarchy, a +scruple of democracy, a dram of oligarchy, and an ounce of aristocracy; +as the _teriaca_ so much esteemed, is said to be a composition of the +four principal drugs--but can never be got genuine except _here_, at the +original _Dispensary_. + +Indeed the longevity of this incomparable commonwealth is a certain +proof of its temperance, exercise, and cheerfulness, the great +preservatives in every body, _politic_ as well _natural_. Nor should the +love of peace be left out of her eulogium, who has so often reconciled +contending princes, that Thuanus gave her, some centuries ago, due +praise for her pacific disposition, so necessary to the health of a +commercial state, and called her city _civilis prudentiæ officina_. + +Another reason may be found for the long-continued prosperity of Venice, +in her constant adherence to a precept, the neglect of which must at +length shake, or rather loosen the foundations of every state; for it is +a maxim here, handed down from generation to generation, that change +breeds more mischief from its novelty, than advantage from its +utility:--quoting the axiom in Latin, it runs thus: _Ipsa mutatio +consuetudinis magis perturbat novitate, quam adjuvat utilitate_. And +when Henry the Fourth of France solicited the abrogation of one of the +Senate's decrees, her ambassador replied, That _li decreti di Venezia +rassomigli avano poca i Gridi di Parigi_[Footnote: The decrees of Venice +little resemble the _edicts_ of Paris.], meaning the declaratory +publications of the Grand Monarque,--proclaimed to-day perhaps, repealed +to-morrow--"for Sire," added he, "our senate deliberates long before it +decrees, but what is once decreed there is seldom or ever recalled." + +The patriotism inherent in the breads of individuals makes another +strong cause of this state's exemption from decay: they say themselves, +that the soul of old Rome has transmigrated to Venice, and that every +galley which goes into action considers itself as charged with the fate +of the commonwealth. _Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori_, seems a +sentence grown obsolete in other Italian states, but is still in full +force here; and I doubt not but the high-born and high-fouled ladies of +this day, would willingly, as did their generous ancestors in 1600, part +with their rings, bracelets, every ornament, to make ropes for those +ships which defend their dearer country. + +The perpetual state of warfare maintained by this nation against the +Turks, has never lessened nor cooled: yet have their Mahometan +neighbours and natural enemies no perfidy to charge them with in the +time of peace or of hostility: nor can Venice be charged with the mean +vice of sheltering a desire of depredation, under the hypocritical cant +of protecting that religion which teaches universal benevolence and +charity to all mankind. Their vicinity to Turkey has, however, made them +contract some similarity of manners; for what, except being imbued with +Turkish notions, can account for the people's rage here, young and old, +rich and poor, to pour down such quantities of coffee? I have already +had seven cups to-day, and feel frighted lest we should some of us be +killed with so strange an abuse of it. On the opposite shore, across the +Adriatic, opium is taken to counteract its effects; but these dear +Venetians have no notion of sleep being necessary to their existence I +believe, as some or other of them seem constantly in motion; and there +is really no hour of the four and twenty in which the town seems +perfectly still and quiet; no moment in which it can be said, that + + Night! fable goddess! from her ebon throne, + In rayless majesty here stretches forth + Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumb'ring world. + +Accordingly I never did meet with any description of Night in the +Venetian poets, so common with other authors; and I am persuaded if one +were to live here (which could not be _long_ I think) he should forget +the use of sleep; for what with the market folks bringing up the boats +from Terra Firma loaded with every produce of nature, neatly arranged in +these flat-bottomed conveyances, the coming up of which begins about +three o'clock in a morning and ends about six;--the Gondoliers rowing +home their masters and ladies about that hour, and so on till +eight;--the common business of the town, which it is then time to +begin;--the state affairs and _pregai_, which often like our House of +Commons sit late, and detain many gentlemen from the circles of morning +amusements--that I find very entertaining;--particularly the street +orators and mountebanks in Piazza St. Marco;--the shops and stalls where +chickens, ducks, &c. are sold by auction, comically enough, to the +highest bidder;--a flourishing fellow, with a hammer in his hand, +shining away in character of auctioneer;--the crowds which fill the +courts of judicature, when any cause of consequence is to be tried;--the +clamorous voices, keen observations, poignant sarcasms, and acute +contentions carried on by the advocates, who seem more awake, or in +their own phrase _svelti_ than all the rest:--all these things take up +so much time, that twenty-four hours do not suffice for the business and +diversions of Venice; where dinner must be eaten as in other places, +though I can scarcely find a minute to spare for it, while such fish +wait one's knife and fork as I most certainly did never see before, and +as I suppose are not to be seen in any sea but this, in such perfection. +Fresh sturgeon, _ton_ as they call it, and fresh anchovies, large as +herrings, and dressed like sprats in London, incomparable; turbots, like +those of Torbay exactly, and plentiful as there, with enormous pipers, +are what one principally eats here. The fried liver, without which an +Italian can hardly go on from day to day, is so charmingly dressed at +Milan, that I grew to like it as well as they; but at Venice it is sad +stuff, and they call it _fegao_. + +Well! the ladies, who never hardly dine at all, rise about seven in the +evening, when the gentlemen are just got ready to attend them; and sit +sipping their chocolate on a chair at the coffee-house door with great +tranquillity, chatting over the common topics of the times: nor do they +appear half so shy of each other as the Milanese ladies, who seldom +seem to have any pleasure in the soft converse of a female friend. But +though certainly no women can be more charming than these Venetian +dames, they have forgotten the old mythological fable, _that the +youngest of the Graces was married to Sleep._ By which it was intended +we should consider that state as necessary to the reparation not only of +beauty but of youth, and every power of pleasing. + +There are men here however who, because they are not quite in the gay +world, keep themselves awake whole nights at study; and much has been +told me, of a collection of books belonging to a private scholar, +Pinelli, who goes very little out, as worthy attentive examination. + +All literary topics are pleasingly discussed at Quirini's Casino, where +every thing may be learned by the conversation of the company, as Doctor +Johnson said of his literary Club; but more agreeably, because women are +always half the number of persons admitted here. + +One evening our society was amused by the entrance of a foreign +nobleman, exactly what we should in London emphatically call a +_Character_,--learned, loud, and overbearing; though of a carriage that +impressed great esteem. I have not often listened to so well-furnished a +talker; nor one more capable of giving great information. He had seen +the Pyramids of Egypt, he told us; had climbed Mount Horeb, and visited +Damascus; but possessed the art of detaining our attention more on +himself, than on the things or places he harangued about; for +conversation that can scarcely be called, where one man holds the +company suspended on his account of matters pompously though +instructively related. He staid here a very little while among us; is a +native of France, a grandee of Spain, a man of uncommon talents, and a +traveller. I should be sorry never to meet him more. + +The Abate Arteaga, a Spanish ecclesiastic of the same agreeable coterie, +seemed of a very different and far more pleasing character;--full of +general knowledge, eminent in particular scholarship, elegant in his +sentiments, and sound in his learning. I liked his company exceedingly, +and respected his opinions. + +Zingarelli, the great musical composer, was another occasional member +of this charming society: his wit and repartie are famous, and his bons +mots are repeated wherever one runs to. I cannot translate any of them, +but will write one down, which will make such of my readers laugh as +understand Italian.--The Emperor was at Milan, and asked Zingarelli his +opinion of a favourite singer? "_Io penso maestà che non è cattivo +suddito del principi,_" replied the master, "_quantunque farà gran +nemico di giove._" "How so?" enquired the King.--"_Maestà,_" answered +our lively Neapolitan, "_ella sà naturalmente che Giove_ tuona, _ma +questo_ stuona." This we see at once was _humour_ not _wit_; and sallies +of humour are scarcely ever capable of translation. + +An odd thing to which I was this morning witness, has called my thoughts +away to a curious train of reflections upon the animal race; and how far +they may be made companionable and intelligent. The famous Ferdinand +Bertoni, so well known in London by his long residence among us, and +from the undisputed merit of his compositions, now inhabits this his +native city, and being fond of _dumb creatures_, as we call them, took +to petting a pigeon, one of the few animals which can live at Venice, +where, as I observed, scarcely any quadrupeds can be admitted, or would +exist with any degree of comfort to themselves. This creature has, +however, by keeping his master company, I trust, obtained so perfect an +ear and taste for music, that no one who sees his behaviour, can doubt +for a moment of the pleasure he takes in hearing Mr. Bertoni play and +sing: for as soon as he sits down to the instrument, Columbo begins +shaking his wings, perches on the piano-forte, and expresses the most +indubitable emotions of delight. If however he or any one else strike a +note false, or make any kind of discord upon the keys, the dove never +fails to shew evident tokens of anger and distress; and if teized too +long, grows quite enraged; pecking the offender's legs and fingers in +such a manner, as to leave nothing less doubtful than the sincerity of +his resentment. Signora Cecilia Giuliani, a scholar of Bertoni's, who +has received some overtures from the London theatre lately, will, if she +ever arrives there, bear testimony to the truth of an assertion very +difficult to believe, and to which I should hardly myself give credit, +were I not witness to it every morning that I chuse to call and confirm +my own belief. A friend present protested he should feel afraid to touch +the harpsichord before so nice a critic; and though we all laughed at +the assertion, Bertoni declared he never knew the bird's judgment fail; +and that he often kept him out of the room, for fear of his affronting +of tormenting those who came to take musical instructions. With regard +to other actions of life, I saw nothing particular in the pigeon, but +his tameness, and strong attachment to his master: for though never +winged, and only clipped a very little, he never seeks to range away +from the house or quit his master's service, any more than the dove of +Anacreon: + + While his better lot bestows + Sweet repast and soft repose; + And when feast and frolic tire, + Drops asleep upon his lyre. + +All the difficulty will be indeed for us _other_ two-legged creatures to +leave the sweet societies of charming Venice; but they begin to grow +fatiguing now, as the weather increases in warmth. + +I do think the Turkish sailor gave an admirable account of a carnival, +when he told his Mahometan friends at his return, That those poor +Christians were all disordered in their senses, and nearly in a state of +actual madness, while he remained among them, till one day, on a sudden, +they luckily found out a certain grey powder that cured such symptoms; +and laying it on their heads one Wednesday morning, the wits of all the +inhabitants were happily restored at _a stroke_: the people grew sober, +quiet, and composed; and went about their business just like other +folks. He meant the ashes strewed on the heads of all one meets in the +streets through many a Catholic country; when all masquerading, +money-making, &c. subside for forty days, and give, from the force of +the contrast, a greater appearance of devotion and decorous behaviour in +Venice, than almost any where else during Lent. + +I do not for my own part think well of all that violence, that strong +light and shadow in matters of religion; which requires rather an even +tenour of good works, proceeding from sound faith, than any of these +staring testimonials of repentance, as if it were a work to be done +_once a year only_. But neither do I think any Christian has a right to +condemn another for his opinions or practice; when St. Paul expressly +says, that "_One man esteemeth one day above another, another man +esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own +mind. But who art thou, that judgest another man's servant[Footnote: +Romans, chap. xiv.]?_" + +The Venetians, to confess the truth, are not quite so strenuously bent +on the unattainable felicity of finding every man in the same mind, as +others of the Italians are; and one great reason why they are more gay +and less malignant, have fewer strong prejudices than others of their +countrymen, is merely because they are happier. Most of the second rank, +and I believe _all_ of the first rank among them, have some share in +governing the rest; it is therefore necessary to exclude ignorance, and +natural to encourage social pleasures. Each individual feels his own +importance, and scorns to contribute to the degradation of the whole, by +indulging a gross depravity of manners, or at least of principles. Every +person listed one degree from the lowest, finds it his interest as well +as duty to love his country, and lend his little support to the general +fabric of a state they all know how to respect; while the very vulgar +willingly perform the condition exacted, and punctually pay obedience +for protection. They have an unlimited confidence in their rulers, who +live amongst them; and can desire only their utmost good. _How_ they are +governed, comes seldom into their heads to enquire; "_Che ne pensa +lù_[Footnote: Let _him_ look to that.]," says a low Venetian, if you ask +him, and humourously points at a Clarissimo passing by while you talk. +They have indeed all the reason to be certain, that where the power is +divided among such numbers, one will be sure to counteract another if +mischief towards the whole be intended. + +Of all aristocracies surely this is the most rationally and happily, as +well as most respectably founded; for though one's heart revolts +against the names of Baron and Vassal, while the petty tyrants live +scattered far from each other, as in Poland, Russia, and many parts of +Germany, like lions in the desert, or eagles in the rock, secure in +their distance from equals or superiors; yet _here_ at Venice, where +every nobleman is a baron, and all together inhabit one city, no subject +can suffer from the tyranny of the rest, though all may benefit from the +general protection: as each is separately in awe of his neighbour, and +desires to secure his client's tenderness by indulgence, instead of +wishing to disgust him by oppression: unlike the state so powerfully +delineated by our incomparable poet in his Paulina, + + Where dwelt in haughty wretchedness a lord, + Whose rage was justice, and whose law his word: + Who saw unmov'd the vassal perish near, + The widow's anguish, and the orphan's tear; + Insensible to pity--stern he stood, + Like some rude rock amid the Caspian flood, + Where shipwreck'd sailors unassisted lie, + And as they curse its barren bosom, die. + +And it is, I trust, for no deeper reason that the subjects of this +republic resident in the capital, are less savage and more happy than +those who live upon the Terra Firma; where many outrages are still +committed, disgraceful to the state, from the mere facility offenders +find, either in escaping to the dominion of other princes, or of finding +shelter at home from the madly-bestowed protection these old barons on +the Continent cease not yet to give, to ruffians who profess their +service, and acknowledge dependence upon _them_. In the _town_, however, +little is known of these enormities, and less is talked on; and what +information has come to my ears of the murders done at Brescia and +Bergamo, was given me at _Milan_; where Blainville's accounts of that +country, though written so long ago, did not fail to receive +confirmation from the lips of those who knew perfectly well what they +were talking about. And I am told that _Labbia_, Giovanni Labbia, the +new Podestà sent to Brescia, has worked wonderful reformation among the +inhabitants of that territory; where I am ashamed to relate the +computation of subjects lost to the state, by being killed in cold blood +during the years 1780 and 1781. + +The following sonnet, addressed to the new Magistrate, by the elegant +and learned Abbé Bettolini, will entertain such of my readers as +understand Italian: + + No, Brenne, il popol tuo non è spietato, + Colpa non è di clima, o fuol nemico: + Ma gli inulti delitti, e'l vezzo antico + D'impune andar coi ferro e fuoco a lato, + + Ira noi finor nudriro un branco irato + D'Orsi e di lupi, il malaccorto amico + Ti svenava un fellon sgherro mendico, + E per cauto timor n'era onorato. + + Al primiero spuntar d'un fausto lume + Tutto cangiò: curvansi in falci i teh, + Mille Pluto perdè vittime usate. + + Viva l'Eroe, il comun padre, il nume + Gridan le gentè a si bei dì ferbate. + E sia ché ardisca dir che siam crudelé. + +_Imitation_. + + No, Brennus, no longer thy sons shall retain + Of their founder ferocious, th'original stain; + It cannot be natural cruelty sure, + The reproaches for which from all men we endure; + Nor climate nor soil shall henceforth bear the blame, + 'Tis custom alone, and that custom our shame: + While arm'd at all points men were suffer'd to rove, + And brandish the steel in defence of their love; + What wonder that conduct or caution should fail, + And horrid Lycanthropy's terrors prevail? + Now justice resumes her insignia, we find + New light breaking in on each nebulous mind; + While commission'd from Heaven, a parent, a friend + Sees our swords at his nod into reaping-hooks bend, + And souls snatch'd from death round the hero attend. + +From these verses, written by a native of Brescia, one may see how +matters stood there very, _very_ little while ago: but here at Venice +the people are of a particularly sweet and gentle disposition, +good-humoured with each other, and kind to strangers; little disposed to +public affrays (which would indeed be punished and put a sudden end to +in an instant), nor yet to any secret or hidden treachery. They watch +the hour of a Regatta with impatience, to make some merit with the woman +of their choice, and boast of their families who have won in the manly +contest forty or fifty years ago, perhaps when honoured with the badge +and livery of some noble house; for here almost every thing is +hereditary, as in England almost every thing is elective; nor had I an +idea how much state affairs influence the private life of individuals in +a country, till I left trusting to books, and looked a little about me. +The low Venetian, however, knows that he works for the commonwealth, +and is happy; for things go round, says he, _Il Turco magna St. Marco; +St. Marco magna mi, mi magna ti, e ti tu magna un'altro_[S]. + +[Footnote S: The Turk feeds on St. Mark, St. Mark devours me; I eat +thee, neighbour, and thou subsistest on somebody else.] + +Apropos to this custom of calling Venice (when they speak of it) San +Marco; I heard so comical a story yesterday that I cannot refuse the +pleasure of inserting it; and if my readers do not find it as pleasant +as I did, they may certainly leave it out, without the smallest +prejudice either to the book, the author, or themselves. + +The procurator Tron was at Padua, it seems, and had a fancy to drive +forward to Vicenza that afternoon, but being particularly fond of a +favourite pair of horses which drew his chariot that day, would by no +means venture if it happened to rain; and took the trouble to enquire of +Abate Toaldo, "Whether he thought such a thing likely to happen, from +the appearance of the sky?" The professor, not knowing why the question +was asked, said, "he rather thought it would _not_ rain for four hours +at most." In consequence of this information our senator ordered his +equipage directly, got into it, and bid the driver make haste to +Vicenza: but before he was half-way on his journey, such torrents came +down from a black cloud that burst directly over their heads, that his +horses were drenched in wet, and their mortified master turned +immediately back to Padua, that they might suffer no further +inconvenience. To pass away the evening, which he did not mean to have +spent there, and to quiet his agitated spirits by thinking on something +else, he walked under the Portico to a neighbouring coffee-house, where +fate the Abate Toaldo in company of a few friends; wholly unconscious +that he had been the cause of vexing the Procuratore; who, after a short +pause, cried out, in a true Venetian spirit of anger and humour oddly +blended together, "_Mi dica Signor Professore Toaldo, chi è il più gran +minchion di tutti i fanti in Paradiso?_" Pray tell me Doctor (we should +say), who is the greatest blockhead among all the saints of Heaven? The +Abbé looked astonished, but hearing the question repeated in a more +peevish accent still, replied gravely, "_Eccelenza non fon fatto io per +rispondere a tale dimande_"--My lord, I have no answer ready for such +extraordinary questions. Why then, replies the Procuratore Tron, I will +answer this question myself.--_St. Marco ved'ella--"e'l vero minchion: +mentre mantiene tanti professori per studiare (che so to mi) delle +stelle; roba astronomica che non vale un fico; è loro non sanno dirli +nemmeno s'hà da piovere o nò._"--"Why it is St. Mark, do you see, that +is the true blockhead and dupe, in keeping so many professors to study +the stars and stuff; when with all their astronomy they cannot tell him +whether it will rain or no." + +Well, _pax tibi, Marce!_ I see that I have said more about Venice, where +I have lived five weeks, than about Milan, where I stayed five months; +but + + Si placeat varios hominum cognoscere vultus, + Area longa patet, sancto contermina Marco, + Celsus ubi Adriacas, Venetus Leo despicit undas, + Hic circum gentes cunctis e partibus orbis, + Æthiopes, Turcos, Slavos, Arabésque, Syrósque, + Inveniésque Cypri, Cretæ, Macedumque colonos, + Innumerósque alios varia regione profectos: + Sæpe etiam nec visa prius, nec cognita cernes, + Quæ si cuncta velim tenui describere versu, + Heic omnes citiùs nautas celeresque Phaselos, + Et simul Adriaci pisces numerabo profundi. + +_Imitated loosely_. + + If change of faces please your roving sight, + Or various characters your mind delight, + To gay St. Mark's with eagerness repair; + For curiosity may pasture there. + Venetia's lion bending o'er the waves, + There sees reflected--tyrants, freemen, slaves. + The swarthy Moor, the soft Circassian dame, + The British sailor not unknown to fame; + Innumerous nations crowd the lofty door, + Innumerous footsteps print the sandy shore; + While verse might easier name the scaly tribe, } + That in her seas their nourishment imbibe, } + Than Venice and her various charms describe. } + +It is really pity ever to quit the sweet seducements of a place so +pleasing; which attracts the inclination and flatters the vanity of one, +who, like myself, has received the most polite attentions, and been +diverted with every amusement that could be devised. Kind, friendly, +lovely Venetians! who appear to feel real fondness for the inhabitants +of Great Britain, while Cavalier Pindemonte writes such verses in its +praise. Yet _must_ the journey go forward, no staying to pick every +flower upon the road. + +On Saturday next then am I to forsake--but I hope not for ever--this +gay, this gallant city, so often described, so certainly admired; seen +with rapture, quitted with regret: seat of enchantment! head-quarters of +pleasure, farewell! + + Leave us as we ought to be, + Leave the Britons rough and free. + +It was on the twenty-first of May then that we returned up the Brenta in +a barge to _Padua_, stopping from time to time to give refreshment to +our conductors and their horse, which draws on the side, as one sees +them at Richmond; where the banks are scarcely more beautifully adorned +by art, than here by nature; though the Brenta is a much narrower river +than the Thames at Richmond, and its villas, so justly celebrated, far +less frequent. The sublimity of their architecture however, the +magnificence of their orangeries, the happy construction of the cool +arcades, and general air of festivity which breathes upon the banks of +this truly _wizard stream_, planted with _dancing_, not _weeping_ +willows, to which on a bright evening the lads and lasses run for +shelter from the sun beams, + + Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri[T]; + + +[Footnote T: + While tripping to the wood my wanton hies, + She wishes to be seen before she flies. +] + + +are I suppose peculiar to itself, and best described by Monsieur de +Voltaire, whose Pococurante the Venetian senator in Candide that +possesses all delights in his villa upon the banks of the Brenta, is a +very lively portrait, and would be natural too; but that Voltaire, as a +Frenchman, could not forbear making his character speak in a very +unItalian manner, boasting of his felicity in a style they never use, +for they are really no puffers, no vaunters of that which they possess; +make no disgraceful comparisons between their own rarities and the want +of them in other countries, nor offend you as the French do, with false +pity and hateful consolations. + +If any thing in England seem to excite their wonder and ill-placed +compassion, it is our coal fires, which they persist in thinking +strangely unwholesome--and a melancholy proof that we are grievously +devoid of wood, before we can prevail upon ourselves to dig the bowels +of old earth for fewel, at the hazard of our precious health, if not of +its certain loss; nor could I convince the wisest man I tried at, that +wood burned to chark is a real poison, while it would be difficult by +any process of chemistry to force much evil out of coal. They are +steadily of opinion, that consumptions are occasioned by these fires, +and that all the subjects of Great Britain are consumptively disposed, +merely because those who are so, go into Italy for change of air: though +I never heard that the wood smoke helped their breath, or a brazierfull +of ashes under the table their appetite. Mean time, whoever seeks to +convince instead of persuade an Italian, will find he has been employed +in a Sisyphean labour; the stone may roll to the top, but is sure to +return, and rest at his feet who had courage to try the experiment. +Logic is a science they love not, and I think steadily refuse to +cultivate; nor is argument a style of conversation they naturally +affect--as Lady Macbeth says, "_Question enrageth him_;" and the +dialogues of Socrates would to them be as disgusting as the violence of +Xantippe. + +Well, here we are at Padua again! where I will run, and see once more +the places I was before so pleased with. The beautiful church of Santa +Giustina, the ancient church adorned by Cimabue, Giotto, &c. where you +fancy yourself on a sudden transported to Dante's Paradiso, and with for +Barry the painter, to point your admiration of its sublime and +extraordinary merits; but not the shrine of St. Anthony, or the tomb of +Antenor, one rich with gold, the other venerable with rust, can keep my +attention fixed on _them_, while an Italian _May_ offers to every sense, +the sweets of nature in elegant perfection. One view of a smiling +landschape, lively in verdure, enamelled with flowers, and exhilarating +with the sound of music under every tree, + + Where many a youth and many a maid + Dances in the chequer'd shade; + And young and old come forth to play, + On a sun-shine holiday; + +drives Palladio and Sansovino from one's head; and leaves nothing very +strongly impressed upon one's heart but the recollection of kindness +received and esteem reciprocated. Those pleasures have indeed pursued +me hither; the amiable Countess Ferris has not forgotten us; her +attentions are numerous, tender, and polite. I went to the play with +her, where I was unlucky enough to miss the representation of Romeo and +Juliet, which was acted the night before with great applause, under the +name of _Tragedia Veronese_. Monsieur de Voltaire was then premature in +his declarations, that Shakespear was unknown, or known only to be +censured, except in his native country. Count Kinigl at Milan took +occasion to tell me that they acted Hamlet and Lear when he was last at +Vienna; and I know not how it is, but to an English traveller each place +presents ideas originally suggested by Shakespear, of whom nature and +truth are the perpetual mirrors: other authors remind one of things +which one has seen in life--but the scenes of life itself remind one of +Shakespear. When I first looked on the Rialto, with what immediate +images did it supply me? Oh, the old long-cherished images of the +pensive merchant, the generous friend, the gay companion, and their +final triumph over the practices of a cruel Jew. Anthonio, Gratiano, +met me at every turn; and when I confessed some of these feelings before +the professor of natural history here, who had spent some time in +London; he observed, that no native of our island could sit three hours, +and not speak of Shakespear: he added many kind expressions of partial +liking to our nation, and our poets: and l'Abate Cesarotti +good-humouredly confessed his little skill in the English language when +he translated their so much-admired Ossian; but he had studied it pretty +hard since, he said, and his version of Gray's Elegy is charming. + +Gray and Young are the favourite writers among us, as far as I have yet +heard them talked over upon the continent; the first has secured them by +his residence at Florence, and his Latin verses I believe; the second, +by his piety and brilliant thoughts. Even Romanists are disposed to +think dear Dr. Young very _near_ to Christianity--an idea which must +either make one laugh or cry, while + + Sweet peace, and heavenly hope, and humble joy, + Divinely beam on _his_ exalted soul. + +But I must tell what I have been seeing at the theatre, and should tell +it much better had not the charms of Countess Ferris's conversation +engaged my mind, which would otherwise perhaps have been more seized on +than it _was_, by the sight of an old pantomime, or wretched farce (for +there was speaking in it, I remember), exploded long since from our very +lowest places of diversion, and now exhibited here at Padua before a +very polite and a very literary audience; and in a better theatre by far +than our newly-adorned opera-house in the Hay-market. Its subject was no +other than the birth of Harlequin; but the place and circumstances +combined to make me look on it in a light which shewed it to uncommon +advantage. The storm, for example, the thunder, darkness, &c. which is +so solemnly made to precede an incantation, apparently not meant to be +ridiculous, after which, a huge egg is somehow miraculously produced +upon the stage, put me in mind of the very old mythologists, who thus +desired to represent the chaotic state of things, when Night, Ocean, and +Tartarus disputed in perpetual confusion; till _Love_ and _Music_ +separated the elements, and as Dryden says, + + Then hot and cold, and moist and dry, + In order to their stations leap, + And music's power obey. + +For _Cupid_, advancing to a slow tune, steadies with his wand the +rolling mass upon the stage, that then begins to teem with its _motley +inhabitant_, and just representative of the _created world_, active, +wicked, gay, amusing, which gains your heart, but never your esteem: +tricking, shifting, and worthless as it is--but after all its _frisks_, +all its _escapes_, is condemned at last to burn in _fire, and pass +entirely away_. Such was, I trust, the idea of the person, whoever he +was, that had the honour first to compose this curious exhibition, and +model this mythological device into a pantomime! for the _mundane_, or +as Proclus calls it, the _orphick_ egg, is possibly the earliest of all +methods taken to explain the rise, progress, and final conclusion of our +earth and atmosphere; and was the original _theory_ brought from Egypt +into Greece by Orpheus. Nor has that prodigious genius, Dr. Thomas +Burnet, scorned to adopt it seriously in his _Telluris Theoria sacra_, +written less than a century ago, adapting it with wonderful ingenuity +to the Christian system and Mosaical account of things; to which it +certainly does accommodate itself the better, as the form of an egg well +resembles that of our habitable globe; and the internal divisions, our +four elements, leaving the central fire for the yolk. I therefore +regarded our pantomime here at Padua with a degree of reverence I should +have found difficult to excite in myself at Sadler's Wells; where ideas +of antiquity would have been little likely to cross my fancy. Sure I am, +however, that the original inventor of this old pantomime had his head +very full at the time of some very ancient learning. + +Now then I must leave this lovely state of Venice, where if the paupers +in every town of it did not crowd about one, tormenting passengers with +unextinguishable clamour, and surrounding them with sights of horror +unfit to be surveyed by any eyes except those of the surgeon, who should +alleviate their anguish, or at least conceal their truly unspeakable +distresses--one should break one's heart almost at the thoughts of +quitting people who show such tenderness towards their friends, that +less than ocular conviction would scarce persuade me to believe such +wandering misery could remain disregarded among the most amiable and +pleasing people in the world. His excellency Bragadin half promised me +that some steps should be taken at Venice at least, to remove a nuisance +so disgraceful; and said, that when I came again, I should walk about +the town in white sattin slippers, and never see a beggar from one end +of it to the other. + +On the twenty-sixth of May then, with the senator Quirini's letters to +Corilla, with the Countess of Starenberg's letters to some Tuscan +friends of her's; and with the light of a full moon, if we should want +it, we set out again in quest of new adventures, and mean to sleep this +night under the pope's protection:--may God but grant us his! + + + +FERRERA. + + +We have crossed the Po, which I expected to have found more magnificent, +considering the respectable state I left it in at Cremona; but scarcely +any thing answers that expectation which fancy has long been fermenting +in one's mind. + +I took a young woman once with me to the coast of Sussex, who, at +twenty-seven years old and a native of England, had never seen the sea; +nor any thing else indeed ten miles out of London:--And well, child! +said I, are not you much surprised?--"It is a fine sight, to be sure," +replied she coldly, "but,"--but what? you are not disappointed are +you?--"No, not disappointed, but it is not quite what I expected when I +saw the ocean." Tell me then, pray good girl, and tell me quickly, what +did you expect to see? "_Why I expected_," with a hesitating accent, "_I +expected to see a great deal of water_." This answer set me _then_ into +a fit of laughter, but I have _now_ found out that I am not a whit +wiser than Peggy: for what did I figure to myself that I should find the +Po? only a great deal of water to be sure; and a very great deal of +water it certainly is, and much more, God knows, than I ever saw before, +except between the shores of Calais and Dover; yet I did feel something +like disappointment too; when my imagination wandering over all that the +poets had said about it, and finding earth too little to contain their +fables, recollected that they had thought Eridanus worthy of a place +among the constellations, I wished to see such a river as was worthy all +these praises, and even then, says I, + + O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow. + And trees weep amber on the banks of Po. + +But are we sure after all it was upon the _banks_ these trees, not now +existing, were ever to be found? they grew in the Electrides if I +remember right, and even there Lucian laughingly said, that he spread +his garments in vain to catch the valuable distillation which poetry had +taught him to expect; and Strabo (worse news still!) said that there +were no Electrides neither; so as we knew before--fiction is false: and +had I not discovered it by any other means, I might have recollected a +comical contest enough between a literary lady once, and Doctor Johnson, +to which I was myself a witness;--when she, maintaining the happiness +and purity of a country life and rural manners, with her best eloquence, +and she had a great deal; added as corroborative and almost +incontestable authority, that the _Poets_ said so: "and didst thou not +know then," replied he, my darling dear, that the _Poets lye_? + +When they tell us, however, that great rivers have horns, which twisted +off become cornua copiæ, dispensing pleasure and plenty, they entertain +us it must be confessed; and never was allegory more nearly allied with +truth, than in the lines of Virgil; + + Gemina auratus taurino cornua vultu, + Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta, + In mare purpureuin violentior influit amnis[U]; + +[Footnote U: + Whence bull-fac'd, so adorn'd with gilded horns, + Than whom no river through such level meads, + Down to the sea in swifter torrents speeds. +] + +so accurately translated by Doctor Warton, who would not reject the +epithet _bull-faced_, because he knew it was given in imitation of the +Thessalian river Achelous, that fought for Dejanira; and Servius, who +makes him father to the Syrens, says that many streams, in compliment to +this original one, were represented with horns, because of their winding +course. Whether Monsieur Varillas, or our immortal Addison, mention +their being so perpetuated on medals now existing, I know not; but in +this land of rarities we shall soon hear or see. + +Mean time let us leave looking for these weeping Heliades, and enquire +what became of the Swan, that poor Phaeton's friend and cousin turned +into, for very grief and fear at seeing him tumble in the water. For my +part I believe that not only now he + + Eligit contraria flumina flammis, + +but that the whole country is grown disagreeably hot to him, and the +sight of the sun's chariot so near frightens him still; for he certainly +lives more to his taste, and sings sweeter I believe on the banks of the +Thames, than in Italy, where we have never yet seen but _one_; and that +was kept in a small marble bason of water at the Durazzo palace at +Genoa, and seemed miserably out of condition. I enquired why they gave +him no companion? and received for answer, "That it would be wholly +useless, as they were creatures who never bred _out if their own +country_." But any reply serves any common Italian, who is little +disposed to investigate matters; and if you tease him with too much +ratiocination, is apt to cry out, "_Cosa serve sosistieare cosi? ci farà +andare tutti matti_[V]." They have indeed so many external amusements in +the mere face of the country, that one is better inclined to pardon +_them_, than one would be to forgive inhabitants of less happy climates, +should they suffer _their_ intellectual powers to pine for want of +exercise, not food: for here is enough to think upon, God knows, were +they disposed so to employ their time; where one may justly affirm that, + +[Footnote V: What signifies all this minuteness of inquiry?--it will +drive us mad.] + + On every thorn delightful wisdom grows, + And in each rill, some sweet instruction flows; + But some untaught o'erhear the murmuring rill, + In spite of sacred leisure--blockheads still. + +The road from Padua hither is not a good one; but so adorned, one cares +not much whether it is good or no: so sweetly are the mulberry-trees +planted on each side, with vines richly festooning up and down them, as +if for the decoration of a dance at the opera. One really expects the +flower-girls with baskets, or garlands, and scarcely can persuade one's +self that all is real. + +Never sure was any thing more rejoicing to the heart, than this lovely +season in this lovely country. The city of Ferrara too is a fine one; +Ferrara _la civile_, the Italians call it, but it seems rather to merit +the epithet _solenne_; so stately are its buildings, so wide and uniform +its streets. My pen was just upon the point of praising its cleanliness +too, till I reflected there was nobody to dirty it. I looked half an +hour before I could find one beggar, a bad account of poor Ferrara; but +it brought to my mind how unreasonably my daughter and myself had +laughed seven years ago, at reading in an extract from some of the +foreign gazettes, how the famous Improvisatore Talassi, who was in +England about the year 1770, and entertained with his justly-admired +talents the literati at London; had published an account of his visit to +Mr. Thrale, at a villa eight miles from Westminster-bridge, during that +time, when he had the good fortune, he said, to meet many celebrated +characters at his country-seat; and the mortification which nearly +overbalanced it, to miss seeing the immortal Garrick then confined by +illness. In all this, however, there was nothing ridiculous; but we +fancied his description of Streatham village truly so; when we read that +he called it _Luogo assai popolato ed ameno_[Footnote: A populous and +delightful place.], an expression apparently pompous, and inadequate to +the subject: but the jest disappeared when I got into _his_ town; a +place which perhaps may be said to possess every other excellence but +that of being _popolato ed ameno_; and I sincerely believe that no +Ferrara-man could have missed making the same or a like observation; as +in this finely-constructed city, the grass literally grows in the +street; nor do I hear that the state of the air and water is such as is +likely to tempt new inhabitants. How much then, and how reasonably must +he have wondered, and how easily must he have been led to express his +wonder, at seeing a village no bigger than that of Streatham, contain a +number of people equal, as I doubt not but it does, to all the dwellers +in Ferrara! + +Mr. Talassi is reckoned in his own country a man of great genius; in +ours he was, as I recollect, received with much attention, as a person +able and willing to give us demonstration that improviso verses might be +made, and sung extemporaneously to some well-known tune, generally one +which admits of and requires very long lines; that so alternate rhymes +may not be improper, as they give more time to think forward, and gain a +moment for composition. Of this power, many, till they saw it done, did +not believe the existence; and many, after they had seen it done, +persisted in _saying_, perhaps in _thinking_, that it could be done only +in Italian. I cannot however believe that they possess any exclusive +privileges or supernatural gifts; though it will be hard to find one who +thinks better of them than I do: but Spaniards can sing sequedillas +under their mistresses window well enough; and our Welch people can +make the harper sit down in the church-yard after service is over, and +placing themselves round him, command the instrument to go over some old +song-tune: when having listened a while, one of the company forms a +stanza of verses, which run to it in well-adapted measure; and as he +ends, another begins: continuing the tale, or retorting the satire, +according to the style in which the first began it. All this too in a +language less perhaps than any other melodious to the ear, though Howell +found out a resemblance between their prosody and that of the Italian +writer in early days, when they held agnominations, or the inforcement +of consonant words and syllables one upon the other, to be elegant in a +more eminent degree than they do now. For example, in Welch, _Tewgris, +todykris, ty'r derrin, gwillt_, &c. in Italian, _Donne, O danno che selo +affronto affronta: in selva salvo a me_, with a thousand more. The whole +secret of improvisation, however, seems to consist in this; that +extempore verses are never written down, and one may easily conceive +that much may go off well with a good voice in singing, which no one +would read if they were once registered by the pen. + +I have already asserted that the Italians are not a laughing nation: +were ridicule to step in among them, many innocent pleasures would soon +be lost; and this among the first. For who would risque the making +impromptu poems at Paris? _pour s'attirer persiflage_ in every _Coterie +comme il faut_[Footnote: To draw upon one's self the ridicule of every +polite assembly.]? Or in London, at the hazard of being _taken off, and +held up for a laughing-stock at every print-seller's window_? A man must +have good courage in England, before he ventures at diverting a little +company by such devices: while one would yawn, and one would whisper, a +third would walk gravely out of the room, and say to his friend upon the +stairs, "Why sure we had better read our old poets at home, than be +called together, like fools, to hear what comes uppermost in +such-a-one's head, about his _Daphne_! In good time! Why I have been +tired of _Daphne_ since I was fourteen years old." But the best jest of +all would be, to see an ordinary fellow, a strolling player for example, +set seriously to make or repeat verses in our streets or squares +concerning his sweetheart's _cruelty_; when he would be in more danger +from that of the mob and the magistrates; who, if the first did not +throw dirt at him, and drive him home quickly, would come themselves, +and examine into his sanity, and if they found him not _statutably mad_, +commit him for a vagrant. + +Different amusements, like different sorts of food, suit different +countries; and this is among the efforts of those who have learned to +refine their _pleasures_ without so refining their _ideas_ as to be able +no longer to hit on any pleasure subtle enough to escape their own power +of ridiculing it. + +This city of Ferrara has produced some curious and opposite characters +in times past, however empty it may now be thought: one painter too, and +one singer, both super-eminent in their professions, have dropped their +own names, and are best known to fame by that of _Il_ and _La +Ferrarese_. Nor can I leave it without some reflections on the +extraordinary life of Renée de France, daughter of Louis XII surnamed +the Just, and Anne de Bretagne, his first wife. This lady having married +the famous Hercules D'Este, one of the handsomest men in Europe, lived +with him here in much apparent felicity as Duchess of Ferrara; but took +such an aversion to the church and court of Rome, from the superstitions +she saw practised in Italy, that though she resolved to dissemble her +opinions during the life of her husband, whom she wished not to disgust, +at the instant of his death she quitted all her dignities; and retiring +to France, was protected by her father in the open profession of +Calvinism, living a life of privacy and purity among the Huguenots in +the southern provinces. This _Louis le Juste_ was he who gave the French +what little pretensions they have ever obtained on which to fix the +foundations of future liberty: he first established a parliament at +Rouen, another at Aix; but while thus gentle to his subjects, he was a +scourge to Italy, made his public entry into Genoa as Sovereign, and +tore the Milanese from the Sforza family, somewhat before the year 1550. + +The well-known Franciscus Ferrariensis, whose name was Silvester, is a +character very opposite to that of fair Renée: he wrote the best apology +for the Romanists against Luther, and gained applause from both sides +for his controversial powers; while the strictness of his life gave +weight to his doctrine, and ornamented the sect which he delighted to +defend. + +By a native of Ferrara too were first collected the books that were +earliest placed in the Ambrosian library at Milan, Barnardine Ferrarius, +whose deep erudition and simple manners gained him the favour of +Frederick Borromeo, who sent him to Spain to pick up literary rarities, +which he bestowed with pleasure on the place where he had received his +education. His treatise on the rites of sepulture used by the ancients +is in good estimation; and Sir Thomas Brown, in his _Urn Burial_, owes +him much obligation. + +The custom of wearing swords here seems to proceed from some connection +they have had with the Spaniards; and Dr. Moore has given us an +admirable account of why the Highland broad-sword is still called an +_Andrew Ferrara_. + +The Venetians, not often or easily intimidated by Papal power, having +taken this city in the year 1303, were obliged to restore it, for fear +of the consequences of Pope Boniface the Eighth's excommunications; his +displeasure having before then produced dreadful effects in the +conspiracy of Bajamonti Tiepulo; which was suppressed, and he killed, by +a woman, out of a flaming zeal for the honour and tranquillity of her +country: and so disinterested too was her spirit of patriotism, that the +only reward she required for a service so essential, was that a constant +memorial of it might be preserved in the dress of the Doge; who from +that moment obliged himself to wear a woman's cap under the state +diadem, and so his successors still continue to do. + +But Ferrara has other distinctions.--Bonarelli here, at the academy of +gl'Intrepidi, read his able defence of that pastoral comedy so much +applauded and censured, called _Filli di Sciro_; and here the great +Ariosto lived and died. + +Nothing leads however to a less gloomy train of thought, than the tomb +of a celebrated man; where virtue, wit, or valour triumph over death, +and wait the consummation of all sublunary things, before the +remembrance of such superiority shall be lost. Italy must be shaken from +her deepest foundation, and England made a scene of general ruin, when +Shakespear and Ariosto shall be forgotten, and their names confounded +among deedless nobility, and worthless wasters of treasure, long ago +passed from hand to hand, perhaps from the dwellers in one continent to +the inhabitants of another. It has been equally the fate of these two +heroes of modern literature, that they have pleased their countrymen +more than foreigners; but is that any diminution of their merit? or +should it serve as a reason for making disgraceful comparisons between +Ariosto and Virgil, whom he scorned to imitate? A dead language is like +common ground;--all have a right to pasture, and all a claim to give or +to withhold admiration. Virgil is the old original trough at the corner +of the road, where every passer-by pays, drinks, and goes on his journey +well refreshed. But the clear spring in the meadow sure, though private +property, and lately dug, deserves attention: and confers delight not +only on the actual master of the ground, but on all his visitants who +can climb the style, and lift the silver cup to their lips which hangs +by the fountain-side. + +I am glad, however, to be gone from a place where they are thinking less +of all these worthies just at present, than of a circumstance which +cannot redound to their honour, as it might have happened to any other +town, and could do great good to none: no less than the happy arrival of +Joseph, and Leopold, and Maximilian of Austria, on the thirtieth of May +1775; and this wonderful event have they recorded in a pompous +inscription upon a stone set at the inn door. But princes can make +poets, and scatter felicity with little exertion on their own parts. + +At Tuillemont, an English gentleman once told me he had the misfortune +to sleep one night where all the people's heads were full of the +Emperor, who had dined there the day before; and some _wise_ fellow of +the place wrote these lines under his picture: + + Ingreditur magnus magno de Cæsare Cæsar, + Thenas, sub signo Cervi, sua prandia sumit. + +He immediately set down this distich under them: + + Our poor little town has no little to brag, + The Emperor was here, and he dined at the Stag. + +The people of the inn concluding that this must be a high-strained +compliment, it produced him many thanks from all, and a better breakfast +than he would otherwise have obtained at Tuillemont. + +To-morrow we go forward to Bologna. + + + +BOLOGNA + + +SEEMS at first sight a very sorrowful town, and has a general air of +melancholy that surprises one, as it is very handsomely and regularly +built; and set in a country so particularly beautiful, that it is not +easy to express the nature of its beauty, and to express it so that +those who inhabit other countries can understand me. + +The territory belonging to Bologna la Grassa concenters all its charms +in a happy _embonpoint_, which leaves no wrinkle unfilled up, no bone to +be discerned; like the fat figure of Gunhilda at Fonthill, painted by +Chevalier Cafali, with a face full of woe, but with a sleekness of skin +that denotes nothing less than affliction. From the top of the only +eminence, one looks down here upon a country which to me has a new and +singular appearance; the whole horizon appearing one thick carpet of the +softest and most vivid green, from the vicinity of the broad-leaved +mulberry trees, I trust, drawn still closer and closer together by +their amicable and pacific companions the vines, which keep cluttering +round, and connect them so intimately that no object can be separately +or distinctly viewed, any more than the habitations formed by animals +who live in moss, when a large portion of it is presented to the +philosopher for speculation. One would not therefore, on a flight and +cursory inspection, suspect this of being a painter's country, where no +prominence of features arrests the sight, no expression of latent +meaning employs the mind, and no abruptness of transition tempts fancy +to follow, or imagination to supply, the sudden loss of what it +contemplated before. + +Here however the great Caraccis kept their school; here then was every +idea of dignity and majestic beauty to be met with; and if _I_ meet with +nothing in nature near this place to excite such ideas, it is _my_ +fault, not Bologna's. + + If vain the toil, + We ought to blame the culture,--not the soil. + +Wonderful indeed! yet not at all distracting is the variety of +excellence that one contemplates here; such matters! and such scholars! +The sweetly playful pencil of Albano, I would compare to Waller among +our English poets; Domenichino to Otway, and Guido Rheni to Rowe; if +such liberties might be permitted on the old notion of _ut pictura +poesis_. But there is an idea about the world, that one ought in +delicacy to declare one's utter incapacity of understanding pictures, +unless immediately of the profession.--And why so? No man protests, that +he cannot read poetry, he can make no pleasure out of Milton or +Shakespear, or shudder at the ingratitude of Lear's daughters on the +stage. Why then should people pretend insensibility, when divine +Guercino exerts his unrivalled powers of the pathetic in the fine +picture at Zampieri palace, of Hagar's dismission into the desert with +her son? While none else could have touched with such truth of +expression the countenances of each; leaving him most to be pitied, +perhaps, who issues the command against his will; accompanying it +however with innumerable benedictions, and alleviating its severity with +the softest tenderness. + +He only among our poets could have planned such a picture, who penned +the Eloisa, and knew the agonies of a soul struggling against +unpermitted passions, and conquering from the noblest motives of faith +and of obedience. + +Glorious exertion of excellence! This is the first time my heart has +been made really alive to the powers of this magical art. Candid +Italians! let me again exclaim; they shewed us a Vandyke in the same +palace, surrounded by the works of their own incomparable countrymen; +and _there_ say they, "_Quasi quasi si può circondarla_[Footnote: You +may almost run round her.]." You may almost run round it, was the +expression. The picture was a very fine one; a single figure of the +Madona, highly painted, and happily placed among those who knew, because +they possessed his perfections who drew it. Were Homer alive, and +acquainted with our language, he would admire that Shakespear whom +Voltaire condemns. Twice in this town has Guido shewed those powers +which critics have denied him: the power of grouping his figures with +propriety, and distributing his light and shadow to advantage: as he +has shewn it _but twice_, however, it is certain the connoisseurs are +not very wrong, and even in those very performances one may read their +justification: for Job, though surrounded by a crowd of people, has a +strangely insulated look, and the sweet sufferer on the fore-ground of +his Herodian cruelty seems wholly uninterested in the general distress, +and occupies herself and every spectator completely and solely with her +own particular grief. + +The boasted Raphael here does not in my eyes triumph over the wonders of +this Caracci school. At Rome, I am told, his superiority is more +visible. _Nous verrons_[Footnote: We shall see.]. + +The reserved picture of St. Peter and St. Paul, kept in the last chamber +of the Zampieri palace, and covered with a silk curtain, is valued +beyond any specimen of the painting art which can be moved from Italy to +England. We are taught to hope it will soon come among us; and many say +the sale cannot be now long delayed. Why Guido should never draw another +picture like that, or at all in the same style, who can tell? it +certainly does unite every perfection, and every possible excellence, +except choice of subject, which cannot be happy I think, when the +subject itself is left disputable. + +I will mention only one other picture: it is in an obscure church, not +an unfrequented one by these pious Bolognese, who are the most devout +people I ever lived amongst, but I think not much visited by travellers. +It is painted by Albano, and represents the Redeemer of mankind as a boy +scarce thirteen years old: ingenuous modesty, and meek resignation, +beaming from each intelligent feature of a face divinely beautiful, and +throwing out luminous rays round his sacred head, while the blessed +Virgin and St. Joseph, placed on each side him, adore his goodness with +transport not unmixed with wonder: the instruments of his future passion +cast at his feet, directing us to consider him as in that awful moment +voluntarily devoting himself for the sins of the whole world. + +This picture, from the sublimity of the subject, the lively colouring, +and clear expression, has few equals; the pyramidal group drops in as of +itself, unsought for, from the raised ground on which our Saviour +stands; and among numberless wild conceits and extravagant fancies of +painters, not only permitted but encouraged in this country, to deviate +into what _we_ justly think profane representations of the deity:--this +is the most pleasing and inoffensive device I have seen. + +The august Creator too is likewise more wisely concealed by Albano than +by other artists, who daringly presume to exhibit that of which no +mortal man can give or receive a just idea. But we will have done for a +while with connoisseurship. + +This fat Bologna has a tristful look, from the numberless priests, +friars, and women all dressed in black, who fill the streets, and stop +on a sudden to pray, when I see nothing done to call forth immediate +addresses to Heaven. Extremes do certainly meet however, and my Lord +Peter in this place is so like his fanatical brother Jack, that I know +not what is come to him. To-morrow is the day of _corpus domini_; why it +should be preceded by such dismal ceremonies I know not; there is +nothing melancholy in the idea, but we shall be sure of a magnificent +procession. + +So it was too, and wonderfully well attended: noblemen and ladies, with +tapers in their hands, and their trains borne by well-dressed pages, had +a fine effect. All still in black. + + Black, but such as in esteem + Prince Memnon's sister might beseem; + With sable stole of cypress lawn, + O'er their decent shoulders drawn. + +I never saw a spectacle so stately, so solemn a show in my life before, +and was much less tired of the long continued march, than were my Roman +Catholic companions. + +Our inn is not a good one; the Pellegrino is engaged for the King of +Naples and his train: the place we are housed in, is full of bugs, and +every odious vermin: no wonder, surely, where such oven-like porticoes +catch and retain the heat as if constructed on set purpose so to do. The +Montagnola at night was something of relief, but contrary to every other +resort of company: the less it is frequented the gayer it appears; for +Nature there has been lavish of her bounties, which seem disregarded by +the Bolognese, who unluckily find out that there is a burying-ground +within view, though at no small distance really; and planting +themselves over against that, they stand or kneel for many minutes +together in whole rows, praying, as I understand, for the souls which +once animated the bodies of the people whom they believe to lie interred +there; all this too even at the hours dedicated to amusement. + +Cardinal Buon Compagni, the legate, sent from Rome here, is gone home; +and the vice-legate officiated in his place, much to the consolation of +the inhabitants, who observed with little delight or gratitude his +endeavours to improve their trade, or his care to maintain their +privileges; while his natural disinclination to hypocritical manners, or +what we so emphatically call _cant_, gave them an aversion to his person +and dislike of his government, which he might have prevented by +formality of look, and very trifling compliances. But every thing helps +to prove, that if you would please people, it must be done _their_ way, +not your own. + +Here are some charming manufactures in this town, and I fear it requires +much self-denial in an Englishwoman not to long at least for the fine +crapes, tiffanies, &c. which might here be bought I know not how cheap, +and would make one _so_ happy in London or at Bath. But these +Customhouse officers! these _rats de cave_, as the French comically call +them, will not let a ribbon pass. Such is the restless jealousy of +little states, and such their unremitted attention to keep the goods +made in one place out of the gates of another. Few things upon a journey +contribute to torment and disgust one more than the teasing enquiries at +the door of every city, who one is, what one's name is? what one's rank +in life or employment is; that so all may be written down and carried to +the chief magistrate for his information, who immediately dispatches a +proper person to examine whether you gave in a true report; where you +lodge, why you came, how long you mean to stay; with twenty more +inquisitive speeches, which to a subject of more liberal governments +must necessarily appear impertinent as frivolous, and make all my hopes +of bringing home the most trifling presents for a friend abortive. So +there is an end of that felicity, and we must sit like the girl at the +fair, described by Gay, + + Where the coy nymph knives, combs, and scissars spies, + And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes. + +The Specola, so they call their museum here, of natural and artificial +rarities, is very fine indeed; the inscription too denoting its +universality, is sublimely generous: I thought of our Bath hospital in +England; more usefully, if not more magnificently so; but durst not tell +the professor, who shewed the place. At our going in he was apparently +much out of humour, and unwilling to talk, but grew gradually kinder, +and more communicative; and I had at last a thousand thanks to pay for +an attention that rendered the sight of all more valuable. Nothing can +surpass the neatness and precision with which this elegant repository is +kept, and the curiosities contained in it have specimens very uncommon. +The native gold shewed here is supposed to be the largest and most +perfect lump in Europe; wonderfully beautiful it certainly is, and the +coral here is such as can be seen nowhere else; they shewed me some +which looked like an actual tree. + +It might reasonably lower the spirits of philosophy, and tend to +restraining the genius of remote enquiry, did we reflect that the very +first substance given into our hand as an amusement, or subject of +speculation, as soon as we arrive in this great world of wonders, never +gets fully understood by those who study hardest, or live longest in it. + +Coral is a substance, concerning which the natural historians have had +many disputes, and settled nothing yet; knowing, as it should seem, but +little more of its original, than they did when they sucked it first. Of +gold we have found perhaps but too many uses; but when the professor +told us here at Bologna, that silver in the mine was commonly found +mixed with _arsenick_, a corroding poison, or _lead_, a narcotic one; +who could help being led forward to a train of thought on the nature and +use and abuse of money and minerals in general. _Suivez_ (as Rousseau +says), _la chaine de tout cela_[Footnote: Follow this clue, and see +where it will lead you to.]. + +The astronomical apparatus at this place is a splendid one; but the +models of architecture, fortifications, &c. are only more numerous; not +so exact or elegant I think as those the King of England has for his own +private use at the Queen's house in St. James's Park. The specimens of +a human figure in wax are the work of a woman, whose picture is +accordingly set up in the school: they are reckoned incomparable of +their kind, and bring to one's fancy Milton's fine description of our +first parents: + + Two of far nobler kind--erect and tall. + +This University has been particularly civil to women; many very learned +ladies of France and Germany have been and are still members of it;--and +la Dottoressa Laura Bassi gave lectures not many years ago in this very +spot, upon the mathematics and natural philosophy, till she grew very +old and infirm; but her pupils always handed her very respectfully to +and from the Doctor's chair, _Che brava donnetta ch'era!_[Footnote: Ah, +what a fine woman was that!] says the gentleman who shewed me the +academy, as we came out at the door; over which a marble tablet, with an +inscription more pious than pompous, is placed to her memory; but +turning away his eyes--while they filled with tears--_tutli +muosono_[Footnote: All must die.], added he, and I followed; as nothing +either of energy or pathos could be added to a reflection so just, so +tender, and so true: we parted sadly therefore with our agreeable +companion and instructor just where her cenotaph (for the body lies +buried in a neighbouring church) was erected; and shall probably meet no +more; for as he said and sighed--_tutti muosono_[Footnote: All must +die.]. + +The great Cassini too, who though of an Italian family, was born at Nice +I think, and died at Paris, drew his meridian line through the church of +St. Petronius in this city, across the pavement, where it still remains +a monument to his memory, who discovered the third and fifth satellites +of Jupiter. Such was in his time the reputation of a mineral spring near +Bologna, that Pope Alexander the Seventh set him to analyse the waters +of it; and so satisfactory were his proofs of its very slight importance +to health, that the same pope called him to Rome to examine the waters +round that capital; but dying soon after his arrival, he had no time to +recompence Cassini's labours, though a very elegantly-minded man, and a +great encourager of learning in all its branches. The successor to this +sovereign, Rospigliosi, had different employment found for _him_, in +helping the Venetians to regain Candia from the Turks, his +disappointment in not being able to accomplish which design broke his +heart; and Cassini, returning to Bologna, found it less pleasing than it +was before he left it, so went to Paris, and died there at ninety or +ninety-one years old, as I remember, early in this present century, but +not till after he had enjoyed the pleasure of hearing that Count +Marsigli had founded an academy at the place where he had studied whilst +his faculties were strong. + +Another church, situated on the only hill one can observe for miles, is +dedicated to the Madonna St. Luc, as it is called; and a very beautiful +and curiously covered way is made to it up the hill, for three miles in +length, and at a prodigious expence, to guard the figure from the rain +as it is carried in procession. The ascent is so gentle that one hardly +feels it. Pillars support the roof, which defends you from a sun-stroke, +while the air and prospect are let in between them on the right hand as +you go. The left side is closed up by a wall, adorned from time to time +with fresco paintings, representing the birth and most distinguished +passages in the life of the blessed Virgin. Round these paintings a +little chapel is railed in, open, airy, and elegantly, not very +pompously, adorned; there are either seven or twelve of them, I forget +which, that serve to rest the procession as it passes, on days +particularly dedicated to her service. When you arrive at the top, a +church of a most beautiful construction recompenses your long but not +tedious walk, and there are some admirable pictures in it, particularly +one of St. William laying down his armour, and taking up the habit of a +Carthusian, very fine--but the figure of the Madonna is the prize they +value, and before this I did see some men kneel with a truly idolatrous +devotion. That it was painted by St. Luke is believed by them all. But +if it _was_ painted by St. Luke, said I, what then? do you think _he_, +or the still more excellent person it was done for, would approve of +your worshipping any thing but God? To this no answer was made; and I +thought one man looked as if he had grace enough to be ashamed of +himself. + +The girls, who sit in clusters at the chapel doors as one goes up, +singing hymns in praise of the Virgin Mary, pleased me much, as it was +a mode of veneration inoffensive to religion, and agreeable to the +fancy; but seeing them bow down to that black figure, in open defiance +of the Decalogue, shocked me. Why all the _very very_ early pictures of +the Virgin, and many of our blessed Saviour himself, done in the first +ages of Christianity should be _black_, or at least tawny, is to me +wholly incomprehensible, nor could I ever yet obtain an explanation of +its cause from men of learning or from connoisseurs. + +We have in England a black Madonna, very ancient of course, and of +immense value, in the cathedral of Wells in Somersetshire; it is painted +on glass, and stands in the middle pane of the upper window I think, is +a profile face, and eminently handsome. My mind tells me that I have +seen another somewhere in Great Britain, but cannot recollect the spot, +unless it were Arundel Castle in Sussex, but I am not sure: none was +ever painted so since the days of Pietro Perugino I believe, so their +antiquity is unquestionable: he and his few contemporaries drew her +white, as Sir Joshua Reynolds and Pompeio Battoni. + +Whilst I perambulated the palaces of the Bolognese nobility, gloomy +though spacious, and melancholy though splendid, I could not but admire +at Richardson's judgment when he makes his beautiful Bigot, his +interesting Clementina, an inhabitant of superstitious Bologna. The +unconquerable attachment she shews to original prejudices, and the +horror of what she has been taught to consider as heresy, could scarcely +have been attributed so happily to the dweller in any town but this: +where I hear nothing but the sound of people saying their rosaries, and +see nothing in the street but people telling their beads. The Porretta +palace is hourly presenting itself to my imagination, which delights in +the assurance that genius cannot be confined by place. Dear Richardson +at Salisbury Court Fleet Street, and Parson's Green Fulham, felt all +within him that travelling can tell, or experience confirm: he had seen +little, and Johnson has often told me that he had read little; but what +he did read never forsook a memory that was not contented with +retaining, but fermented all that fell into it, and made a new creation +from the fertility of his own rich mind.--These are the men for whom +monuments need not be erected. + + They in our pleasure and astonishment, + Do build themselves a live long monument; + +as Milton says of a much greater writer still. + +But the King of Naples is arrived, and that attention which wits and +scholars can retain for centuries, may not be unjustly paid to princes +while they last. + +Our Bolognese have hit upon an odd method of entertaining him however: +no other than making a representation of Mount Vesuvius on the +Montagnuola, or place of evening resort, hoping at least to treat him +with something new I trow. Were the King of England to visit these _cari +Bolognese_, surely they would shew him Westminster Bridge, with a view +of the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth on one side the river, and +Somerset-house on the other. + +A pretty throne, or state-box, was soon got in order, _that it was_; and +the motion excited by carrying the fire-works to have them prepared for +the evening's show, gave life to the morning, which hung less heavily +than usual; nor did the people recollect the church-yard at a distance, +while the merry King of Naples was near them. His Majesty appeared +perfectly contented and good-humoured, and happy with whatever was done +for his amusement. I remember his behaviour at Milan though, too well to +be surprised at his pleasantness of disposition, when my maid was +delighted to see him dance among the girls at a Festa di Ballo, from +whence I retired early myself, and sent her back to enjoy it all in my +domino. He played at cards too when at Milan I recollect, in the common +Ridotto Chamber at the Theatre, and played for common sums, so as to +charm every one with his kindness and affability. + +I am glad however that we shall now be soon released from this upon the +whole disagreeable town, where there is the best possible food too for +body and mind; but where the inhabitants seem to think only of the next +world, and do little to amuse those who have not yet quite done with +this. If they are sincere mean time, God will bless them with a long +continuance of the appellation they so justly deserve; and those +travellers who pass through will find some amends in the rich cream and +incomparable dinners every day, for the insects that devour them every +night; and will, if they are wise, seek compensation from the company of +the half animated pictures that crowd the palaces and churches, for the +half dead inhabitants who kneel in the streets of Bologna. + + + +FLORENCE. + + +We slept no-where, except perhaps in the carriage, between our last +residence at Bologna and this delightful city, to which we passed +apparently through a new region of the earth, or even air; clambering up +mountains covered with snow, and viewing with amazement the little +vallies between, where, after quitting the summer season, all glowing +with heat and spread into verdure, we found cherry-trees in blossom, +oaks and walnuts scarcely beginning to bud. These mountains are however +much below those of Savoy for dignity and beauty of appearance, though +high enough to be troublesome, and barren enough to be desolate. These +Appenines have been called by some the Back Bone of Italy, as Varenius +and others style the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, Back Bone of the +World; and these, as they do, run in a long chain down the middle of the +Peninsula they are placed in; but being rounded at top are supposed to +be aquatick, while the Alps, Andes, &c. are of late acknowledged by +philosophers to be volcanic, as the most lofty of _them_ terminate in +points of granite, wholly devoid of horizontal strata, and without +petrifactions contained in them, + + _Here_ the tracts around display + How impetuous ocean's sway + Once with wasteful fury spread + The wild waves o'er each mountain's head. + + PARSONS. + +But the offspring of fire somehow _should_ be more striking than that of +water, however violent might have been the concussion that produced +them; and there is no comparison between the sensations felt in passing +the Roche Melon, and these more neatly-moulded Appenines; upon whose +tops I am told too no lakes have been formed, as on Mount Cenis, or +even on Snowdon in North Wales, where a very beautiful lake adorns the +summit of the rock; which affords trout precisely such as you eat before +you go down to Novalesa, but not so large. + +Sir William Hamilton, however, is the man to be referred to in all these +matters; no man has examined the peculiar properties and general nature +of mountains, those which vomit fire in particular, with half as much +application, inspired by half as much genius, as he has done. + +We arrived late at our inn, an English one they say it is; and many of +the last miles were passed very pleasantly by my maid and myself, in +anticipating the comforts we should receive by finding ourselves among +our own country folks. In good time! and by once more eating, sleeping, +&c. _all in the English way_, as her phrase is. Accordingly, here are +small low beds again, soft and clean, and down pillows; here are currant +tarts, which the Italians scorn to touch, but which we are happy and +delighted to pay not ten but twenty times their value for, because a +currant tart is so much _in the English way_: and here are beans and +bacon in a climate where it is impossible that bacon should be either +wholesome or agreeable; and one eats infinitely worse than one did at +Milan, Venice, or Bologna: and infinitely dearer too; but that makes it +still more completely _in the English way_. + +Mean time here we are however in Arno's Vale; the full moon shining over +Fiesole, which I see from my windows. Milton's verses every moment in +one's mouth, and Galileo's house twenty yards from one's door, + + Whence her bright orb the Tuscan artist view'd, + At evening from the top of Fesole; + Or in Val d'Arno to descry new lands, + Rivers or mountains on her spotty globe. + +Our apartments here are better than we hoped for, situated most sweetly +on the banks of this classical stream; a noble terrace underneath our +window, broad as the south parade at Bath I think, and the fine Ponte +della Santa Trinità within sight. Many people have asserted that this is +the first among all bridges in the world; but architecture triumphs in +the art of building bridges, and, though this is a most exquisitely +beautiful fabric, I can scarcely venture to call it an unrivalled one: +it shall, if the fine statues at the corners can assist its power over +the fancy, and if cleanliness can compensate for stately magnificence, +or for the fire of original and unassisted genius, it shall obliterate +from my mind the Rialto at Venice, and the fine arch thrown over the +Conway at Llanwrst in our North Wales. + +I wrote to a lady at Venice this morning though, to say, however I might +be charmed by the sweets of Arno's side, I could not forbear regretting +the Grand Canal. + +Count Manucci, a nobleman of this city, formerly intimate with Mr. +Thrale in London and Mr. Piozzi at Paris, came early to our apartments, +and politely introduced us to the desirable society of his sisters and +his friends. We have in his company and that of Cavalier d'Elci, a +learned and accomplished man, of high birth, deep erudition, and +polished manners, seen much, and with every possible advantage. + +This morning they shewed us La Capella St. Lorenzo, where I could but +think how surprisingly Mr. Addison's prediction was verified, that these +slow Florentines would not perhaps be able to finish the burial-place +of their favourite family, before the family itself should be extinct. +This reflection felt like one naturally suggested to me by the place; +Doctor Moore however has the original merit of it, as I afterwards found +it in his book: but it is the peculiar property of natural thoughts well +expressed, to sink into one's mind and incorporate themselves with it, +so as to make one forget they were not all one's own. + +_Poets, as well as jesters, do oft prove prophets:_ Prior's happy +prediction for the female wits in one of his epilogues is come true +already, when he says, + + Your time, poor souls! we'll take your very money, + Female _third nights_ shall come so thick upon ye, &c. + +and every hour gives one reason to hope that Mr. Pope's glorious +prophecy in favour of the Negroes will not now remain long +unaccomplished, but that liberty will extend her happy influence over +the world; + + Till the _freed Indians_, in their native groves, + Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves. + +I will not extend myself in describing the heaps of splendid ruin in +which the rich chapel of St. Lorenzo now lies: since the elegant Lord +Corke's letters were written, little can be said about Florence not +better said by him; who has been particularly copious in describing a +city which every body wishes to see copiously described. + +The libraries here are exceedingly magnificent; and we were called just +now to that which goes under Magliabechi's name, to hear an eulogium +finely pronounced upon our circumnavigator Captain Cook; whose character +has attracted the attention, and extorted the esteem of every European +nation: far less was the wonder that it forced my tears; they flowed +from a thousand causes: my distance from England! my pleasure in hearing +an Englishman thus lamented in a language with which he had no +acquaintance! + + By strangers honoured, and by strangers mourn'd! + +Every thing contributed to soften my heart, though not to lower my +spirits. For when a Florentine asked me, how I came to cry so? I +answered, in the words of their divine Mestastasio: + + "Che questo pianto mio + Tutto non è dolor; + E meraviglia, e amore, + E riverenza, e speme, + Son mille affetti assieme + Tutti raccolti al cor." + + 'Tis not grief alone, or fear, + Swells the heart, or prompts the tear; + Reverence, wonder, hope, and joy, + Thousand thoughts my soul employ, + Struggling images, which less + Than falling tears can ne'er express. + +Giannetti, who pronounced the panegyric, is the justly-celebrated +improvisatore so famous for making Latin verses _impromptu_, as others +do Italian ones: the speech has been translated into English by Mr. +Merry, with whom I had the honour here first to make acquaintance, +having met him at Mr. Greatheed's, who is our fellow-lodger, and with +whom and his amiable family the time passes in reciprocations of +confidential friendship and mutual esteem. + +Lord and Lady Cowper too contribute to make the society at this place +more pleasing than can be imagined; while English hospitality softens +down the stateliness of Tuscan manners. + +Sir Horace Mann is sick and old; but there are conversations at his +house of a Saturday evening, and sometimes a dinner, to which we have +been almost always asked. + +The fruits in this place begin to astonish me; such cherries did I never +yet see, or even hear tell of, as when I caught the Laquais de Place +weighing two of them in a scale to see if they came to an ounce. These +are, in the London street phrase, _cherries like plums_, in size at +least, but in flavour they far exceed them, being exactly of the kind +that we call bleeding-hearts, hard to the bite, and parting easily from +the stone, which is proportionately small. Figs too are here in such +perfection, that it is not easy for an English gardener to guess at +their excellence; for it is not by superior size, but taste and colour, +that _they_ are distinguished; small, and green on the outside, a bright +full crimson within, and we eat them with raw ham, and truly delicious +is the dainty. By raw ham, I mean ham cured, not boiled or roasted. It +is no wonder though that fruits should mature in such a sun as this is; +which, to give a just notion of its penetrating fire, I will take leave +to tell my countrywomen is so violent, that I use no other method of +heating the pinching-irons to curl my hair, than that of poking them out +at a south window, with the handles shut in, and the glasses darkened to +keep us from being actually fired in his beams. Before I leave off +speaking about the fruit, I must add, that both fig and cherry are +produced by standards; that the strawberries here are small and +high-flavoured, like our _woods_, and that there are no other. England +affords greater variety in _that_ kind of fruit than any nation; and as +to peaches, nectarines, or green-gage plums, I have seen none yet. Lady +Cowper has made us a present of a small pine-apple, but the Italians +have no taste to it. Here is sun enough to ripen them without hot-houses +I am sure, though they repeatedly told us at Milan and Venice, that +_this_ was the coolest place to pass the summer in, because of the +Appenine mountains shading us from the heat, which they confessed to be +intolerable with _them_. + +_Here_ however, they inform us, that it is madness to retire into the +country as English people do during the hot season; for as there is no +shade from high timber trees, one is bit to death by animals, gnats in +particular, which here are excessively troublesome, even in the town, +notwithstanding we scatter vinegar, and use all the arts in our power; +but the ground-floor is coolest, and every body struggles to get +themselves a _terreno_ as they call it. + +Florence is full just now, and Mr. Jean Figliazzi, an intelligent +gentleman who lives here, and is well acquainted with both nations, +says, that all the genteel people come to take refuge _from_ the country +to Florence in July and August, as the subjects of Great Britain run +_to_ the country from the heats of London or Bath. + +The flowers too! how rich they are in scent here! how brilliant in +colour! how magnificent in size! Wall-flowers perfuming every street, +and even every passage; while pinks and single carnations grow beside +them, with no more soil than they require themselves; and from the tops +of houses, where you least expect it, an aromatic flavour highly +gratifying is diffused. The jessamine is large, broad-leaved, and +beautiful as an orange-flower; but I have seen no roses equal to those +at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect counting eighty-four within +my own reach; it grew against the house of Doctor Darwin. Such a +profusion of sweets made me enquire yesterday morning for some scented +pomatum, and they brought me accordingly one pot impelling strong of +garden mint, the other of rue and tansy. + +Thus do the inhabitants of every place forfeit or fling away those +pleasures, which the inhabitants of another place think _they_ would use +in a much wiser manner, had Providence bestowed the blessing upon +_them_. + +A young Milanese once, whom I met in London, saw me treat a hatter that +lives in Pallmall with the respect due to his merit: when the man was +gone, "Pray, madam," says the Italian, "is this a _gran riccone[Footnote: +Heavy-pursed fellow.]?"_ "He is perhaps," replied I, "worth twenty or +thirty thousand pounds; I do not know what ideas you annex to a _gran +riccone_" "_Oh santissima vergine!_" exclaims the youth, "_s'avessi io mai +settanta mila zecchini! non so pur troppo cosa nesarei; ma questo é +chiaro--non venderei mai cappelli_"--"Oh dear me! had I once seventy +thousand sequins in my pocket, I would--dear--I cannot think myself +_what_ I should do with them all: but this at least is certain, I would +not _sell hats_" + +I have been carried to the Laurentian library, where the librarian Bandi +shewed me all possible, and many unmerited civilities; which, for want +of deeper erudition, I could not make the use I wished of. We asked +however to see some famous manuscripts. The Virgil has had a _fac +simile_ made of it, and a printed copy besides; so that it cannot now +escape being known all over Europe. The Bible in Chaldaic characters, +spoken of by Langius as inestimable, and brought hither, with many other +valuable treasures of the same nature, by Lascaris, after the death of +Lorenzo de Medici, who had sent him for the second time to +Constantinople for the purpose of collecting Greek and Oriental books, +but died before his return, is in admirable preservation. The old +geographical maps, made out in a very early age, afforded me much +amusement; and the Latin letters of Petrarch, with the portrait of his +Laura, were interesting to me perhaps more than many other things rated +much higher by the learned, among those rarities which adorn a library +so comprehensive. + +Every great nation except ours, which was immersed in barbarism, and +engaged in civil broils, seems to have courted the residence of +Lascaris, but the university of Paris fixed his regard: and though Leo +X. treated with favour, and even friendship, the man whom he had +encouraged to intimacy when Cardinal John of Medicis; though he made him +superintendant of a Greek college at Rome; it is said he always wished +to die in France, whither he returned in the reign of Francis the First; +and wrote his Latin epigrams, which I have heard Doctor Johnson prefer +even to the Greek ones preserved in Anthologia; and of which our Queen +Elizabeth, inspired by Roger Ascham, desired to see the author; but he +was then upon a visit to Rome, where he died of the gout at ninety-three +years old. + + * * * * * + +June 24, 1785. + +St. John the Baptist is the tutelary Saint of this city, and upon this +day of course all possible rejoicings are made. After attending divine +service in the morning, we were carried to a house whence we could +conveniently see the procession pass by. It was not solemn and stately +as that I saw at Bologna, neither was it gaudy and jocund like the show +made at Venice upon St. George's day; but consisted chiefly in vast +heavy pageants, or a sort of temporary building set on wheels, and drawn +by oxen some, and some by horses; others carried upon things made not +unlike a chairman's horse in London, and supported by men, while +priests, in various coloured dresses, according to their several +stations in the church, and to distinguish the parishes, &c. to which +they belong, follow singing in praise of the saint. + +Here is much emulation shewed too, I am told, in these countries, where +religion makes the great and almost the sole amusement of men's lives, +who shall make most figure on St. John the Baptist's day, produce most +music, and go to most expence. For all these purposes subscriptions are +set on foot, for ornamenting and venerating such a picture, statue, &c. +which are then added to the procession by the managers, and called a +Confraternity, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angel Raphael, +or who comes in their heads. + +The lady of the house where we went to partake the diversion, was not +wanting in her part; there could not be fewer than a hundred and fifty +people assembled in her rooms, but not crowded as we should have been in +England; for the apartments in Italy are all high and large, and run in +suits like Wanstead house in Essex, or Devonshire house in London +exactly, but larger still: and with immense balconies and windows, not +sashes, which move all away, and give good room and air. The ices, +refreshments, &c. were all excellent in their kinds, and liberally +dispensed. The lady seemed to do the honours of her house with perfect +good-humour; and every body being full-dressed, though so early in a +morning, added much to the general effect of the whole. + +Here I had the honour of being introduced to Cardinal Corsini, who put +me a little out of countenance by saying suddenly, "_Well, madam! you +never saw one of us red-legged partridges before I believe; but you are +going to Rome I hear, where you will find such fellows as me no +rarities_" The truth is, I had seen the amiable Prince d'Orini at Milan, +who was a Cardinal; and who had taken delight in showing me prodigious +civilities: nothing ever struck me more than his abrupt entrance one +night at our house, when we had a little music, and every body stood up +the moment he appeared: the Prince however walked forward to the +harpsichord, and blessed my husband in a manner the most graceful and +affecting: then sate the amusement out, and returned the next morning to +breakfast with us, when he indulged us with two hours conversation at +least; adding the kindest and most pressing invitations to his +country-seat among the mountains of Brianza, when we should return from +our tour of Italy in spring 1786. Florence therefore was not the first +place that shewed me a Cardinal. + +In the afternoon we all looked out of our windows which faced the +street,--not mine, as they happily command a view of the river, the +Caseine woods, &c. and from them enjoyed a complete sight of an Italian +horse-race. For after the coaches have paraded up and down some time to +shew the equipages, liveries, &c. all have on a sudden notice to quit +the scene of action; and all _do_ quit it, in such a manner as is +surprising. The street is now covered with sawdust, and made fast at +both ends: the starting-post is adorned with elegant booths, lined with +red velvet, for the court and first nobility: at the other end a piece +of tapestry is hung, to prevent the creatures from dashing their brains +out when they reach the goal. Thousands and ten thousands of people on +foot fill the course, that it is standing wonder to me still that +numbers are not killed. The prizes are now exhibited to view, quite in +the old classical style; a piece of crimson damask for the winner +perhaps; a small silver bason and ewer for the second; and so on, +leaving no performer unrewarded. At last come out the _concurrenti_ +without riders, but with a narrow leathern strap hung across their +backs, which has a lump of ivory fastened to the end of it, all set full +of sharp spikes like a hedge-hog, and this goads them along while +galloping, worse than any spurs could do; because the faster they run, +the more this odd machine keeps jumping up and down, and pricking their +sides ridiculously enough; and it makes one laugh to see that some of +them are not provoked by it not to run at all, but set about plunging, +in order to rid themselves of the inconvenience, instead of driving +forward to divert the mob; who leap and shout and caper with delight, +and lash the laggers along with great indignation indeed, and with the +most comical gestures. I never saw horses in so droll a state of +degradation before, for they are all striped or spotted, or painted of +some colour to distinguish them each from other; and nine or ten often +start at a time, to the great danger of lookers-on I think, but +exceedingly to my entertainment, who have the comfort of Mrs. +Greatheed's company, and the advantage of seeing all safely from her +well-situated _terreno_, or ground-floor. + +The chariot-race was more splendid, but less diverting: this was +performed in the Piazza, or Square, an unpaved open place not bigger +than Covent Garden I believe, and the ground strangely uneven. The cars +were light and elegant; one driver and two horses to each: the first +very much upon the principle of the antique chariots described by old +poets, and the last trapped showily in various colours, adapted to the +carriages, that people might make their betts accordingly upon the pink, +the blue, the green, &c. I was exceedingly amused with seeing what so +completely revived all classic images, and seemed so little altered from +the classic times. Cavalier D'Elci, in reply to my expressions of +delight, told me that the same spirit still subsisted exactly; but that +in order to prevent accidents arising from the disputants' endeavours to +overturn or circumvent each other, it was now sunk into a mere +appearance of contest; for that all the chariots belonged to one man, +who would doubtless be careful enough that his coachmen should not go to +sparring at the hazard of their horses. The farce was carried on to the +end however, and the winner spread his velvet in triumph, and drove +round the course to enjoy the acclamations and caresses of the crowd. + +That St. John the Baptist's birth-day should be celebrated by a horse or +chariot race, appears to have little claim to the praise of propriety; +but mankind seems agreed that there must be some excuse for merriment; +and surely if any saint is to be venerated, he stands foremost whom +Christ himself declared to be the greatest man ever born of a woman. + +The old Romans had an institution in this month of games to Neptune +Equester, as they called their Sea God, with no great appearance of good +sense neither; but the horse he produced at the naming of Athens was the +cause assigned--these games are perhaps half transmitted ones from those +in the ancient mythology. + +The evening concluded, and the night began with fire-works; the church, +or duomo, as a cathedral is always called in Italy, was illuminated on +the outside, and very beautiful, and very very magnificent was the +appearance. The reflection of the cupola's lights in the river gave us +back a faint image of what we had been admiring; and when I looked at +them from my window, as we were retiring to rest; such, thought I, and +fainter still are the images which can be given of a show in written or +verbal description; yet my English friends shall not want an account of +what I have seen; for Italy, at last, is only a fine well-known academy +figure, from which we all sit down to make drawings according as the +light falls; and our seat affords opportunity. Every man sees that, and +indeed most things, with the eyes of his then present humour, and begins +describing away so as to convey a dignified or despicable idea of the +object in question, just as his disposition led him to interpret its +appearance. + +Readers now are grown wiser, however, than very much to mind us: they +want no further telling that one traveller was in pain, and one in love +when the tour of Italy was made by them; and so they pick out their +intelligence accordingly, from various books, written like two letters +in the Tatler, giving an account of a rejoicing night; one endeavouring +to excite majestic ideas, the other ludicrous ones of the very same +thing. + +Well 'tis true enough, however, and has been often enough laughed at, +that the Italian horses run without riders, and scamper down a long +street with untrimmed heels, hundreds of people hooking them along, as +naughty boys do a poor dog, that has a bone tied to his tail in England. +This diversion was too good to end with the day. + +Dulness, dear Queen, repeats the jest again. + +We had another, and another just such a race for three or four evenings +together, and they got an English _cock-tailed nag_, and set _him_ to +the business, as they said _he was trained to it_; but I don't recollect +his making a more brilliant figure than his painted and chalked +neighbours of the Continent. + +We will not be prejudiced, however; that the Florentines know how to +manage horses is certain, if they would take the trouble. Last night's +theatre exhibited a proof of skill, which might shame Astley and all his +rivals. Count Pazzi having been prevailed on to lend his four beautiful +chesnut favourites from his own carriage to draw a pageant upon the +stage, I saw them yesterday evening harnessed all abreast, their own +master in a dancer's habit I was told, guiding them himself, and +personating the Cid, which was the name of the ballet, if I remember +right, making his horses go clear round the stage, and turning at the +lamps of the orchestra with such dexterity, docility, and grace, that +they seemed rather to enjoy than feel disturbance at the deafening noise +of instruments, the repeated bursts of applause, and hollow sound of +their own hoofs upon the boards of a theatre. I had no notion of such +discipline, and thought the praises, though very loud, not ill bestowed: +as it is surely one of man's earliest privileges to replenish the earth +with animal life, and to subdue it. + +I have, for my own part, generally speaking, little delight in the +obstreperous clamours of these heroic pantomimes;--their battles are so +noisy, and the acclamations of the spectators so distressing to weak +nerves, I dread an Italian theatre--it distracts me.--And always the +same thing so, every and every night! how tedious it is! + +This want of variety in the common pleasures of Italy though, and that +surprising content with which a nation so sprightly looks on the same +stuff, and laughs at the same joke for months and months together, is +perhaps less despicable to a thinking mind, than the affectation of +weariness and disgust, where probably it is not felt at all; and where a +gay heart often lurks under a clouded countenance, put on to deceive +spectators into a notion of his philosophy who wears it; and what is +worse, who wears it chiefly as a mark of distinction cheaply obtained; +for neither science, wit, nor courage are _now_ found necessary to form +a man of fashion, or the _ton_, to which may be said as justly as ever +Mr. Pope affirmed it of silence, + + That routed reason finds her sure retreat in thee. + +Affectation is certainly that faint and sickly weed which is the curse +of cultivated,--not naturally fertile and extensive countries; an insect +that infests our forcing stoves and hot-house plants: and as the +naturalists tell us all animals may be bred _down_ to a state very +different from that in which they were originally placed; that +_carriers_, and _fantails_, and _croppers_, are produced by early +caging, and minutely attending to the common blue pigeon, flights of +which cover the ploughed fields in distant provinces of England, and +shew the rich and changeable plumage of their fine neck to the summer +sun; so from the warm and generous Briton of ancient days may be +produced, and happily bred _down_, the clay-cold coxcomb of St. +James's-street. + +In Italy, so far at least as I have gone, there is no impertinent desire +of appearing what one is _not_: no searching for talk, and torturing +expression to vary its phrases with something new and something fine; or +else sinking into silence from despair of diverting the company, and +taking up the opposite method, contriving to impress them with an idea +of bright intelligence, concealed by modest doubts of our own powers, +and stifled by deep thought upon abstruse and difficult topics. To get +quit of all these deep-laid systems of enjoyment, where + + To take our breakfast we project a scheme, + Nor drink our tea without a stratagem, + +like the lady in Doctor Young; the surest method is to drop into Italy; +where a conversazione at Venice or Florence, after the society of +London, or _les petit soupers de Paris_, where, in their own phrase, _un +tableau n'attend pas l'autre_[Footnote: One picture don't wait for +another.], is like taking a walk in Ham Gardens, or the Leasowes, after +_les parterres de Versailles ed i Terrazzi di Genoa_. We are affected in +the house, but natural in the gardens. Italians are natural in society, +affected and constrained in the disposition of their grounds. No one, +however, is good or bad, or wise or foolish without a reason why. +Restraint is made for man, and where religious and political liberty is +enjoyed to its full extent, as in Great Britain, the people will forge +shackles for themselves, and lay the yoke heavy on society, to which, on +the contrary, Italians give a loose, as compensation for their want of +freedom in affairs of church or state. + +It is, I think, observable of uncontradicted, homebred, and, as we say, +spoiled children, that when a dozen of them get together for the purpose +of passing a day in mutual amusement, they will make to themselves the +strictest laws for their game, and rigidly punish whatever breach of +rule has been made while the time allotted for diversion lasts: but in a +school of girls, strictly kept, at _their_ hours of permitted recreation +no distinct sounds can be heard through the general clamour of joy and +confusion; nor does any thing come less into their heads than the notion +of imposing regulations on themselves, or making sport out of the harsh +sounds of _rule and government_. + +Ridicule too points her arrows only among highly-polished +societies--_Paris_ and _London_, in the first of which all wit is +comprised in the power of ridiculing one's neighbours, and in the other +every artifice is put in practice to escape it. In Italy no such +terrors restrain conversation; no public censure pursues that +fantastical behaviour which leads to no public offence; and as it is +only fear which can beget falsehood, these people seek such behavior as +naturally suits them; and in our theatrical phrase, they let the +character come to them, they do not go to the character. + +Let us not fail to remember after all, that such severity as we use, +quickens the desire of pleasing, and deadens the diffusion of immoral +sentiments, or indelicate language, in England; where, I must add, for +the honour of my country, that if such liberties were taken upon the +stage as are frequent in the first ranks of Italian society, they would +be hissed by those who paid only a shilling for their entrance: so that +affectation and a forced refinement may be considered as the bad leaden +statues still left in our delicately-neat and highly-ornamented gardens; +of which elegance and science are the white and red roses: but to be +possessed of their _sweets_, one must venture a little through the +_thorns_.--_Thorns_, though figurative, remind one of the _cicala_, a +creature which leaves nothing else untouched here. Surely their clamours +and depredations have no equal. I used to walk in the Boboli Gardens, +defying the heat, till they had eaten up the little shade some hedges +there afforded me; and till, by their incessant noise, all thought is +disturbed, and no line presented itself to my memory but + + Sole sob ardenti resonant arbusta Cicadis[W]; + +[Footnote W: + While in the scorching sun I trace in vain + Thy flying footsteps o'er the burning plain, + The creaking locusts with my voice conspire, + They fried with heat, and I with fierce desire. + + DRYDEN. +] + +till Mr. Merry's sweet ode to summer here at Florence made one less +discontented, + + To hear the light cicala's ceaseless din, + That vibrates shrill; or the near-weeping brook + That feebly winds along, + And mourns his channel shrunk. + + MERRY. + +This animal has four wings, four eyes, and two membranes like parchment +under the hard scales he is covered with; and these, it is said, create +the uncommon noise he makes, by blowing them somewhat like bellows, to +sharpen the sound; which, whatever it proceeds from, is louder than can +be guessed at by those who have not heard it in Tuscany. He is of the +locust kind, an inch and a half long, and wonderfully light in +proportion; though no small feeder, I should imagine, by the total +destruction his noisy tribe make amongst the leaves, which are now +wholly stript by them of all their verdure, the fibres only being left; +and I observed yesterday evening, as we returned from airing, another +strange deprivation practised on the mulberry leaves round the city, +which being all forcibly torn away for the use of the silk-worms, make +an odd fort of artificial winter near the town walls; and remind one of +the wretched geese in Lincolnshire, plucked once a year for their +feathers by their truly unfeeling proprietors. I am told indeed, that +both revegetate, though I trust neither tree nor bird can fail to +experience fatal effects one day or other in consequence of so unnatural +an operation. Here is some ivy of uncommon growth, but I have seen +larger both at Beaumaris castle in North Wales, and at the abbey of +Glastonbury in Somersetshire: but the great pines in the Caseine woods +have, I suppose, no rival nearer than the Castagno a Cento Cavalli, +mentioned by Mr. Brydone. They afford little shade or shelter from heat +however, as their umbrella-like covering is strangely small in +proportion to their height and size; some of them being ten, and some +twelve feet in diameter. These venerable, these glorious productions of +nature are all now marked for destruction however; all going to be put +in wicker baskets, and feed the Grand Duke's fires. I saw a fellow +hewing one down to-day, and the rest are all to follow;--the feeble +Florentines had much ado to master it; + + Seemed the harmful hatchet to fear, + And to wound holy Eld would forbear, + +as Spenser says: I did half hope they could not get it down; but the +loyal Tuscans (evermore awed by the name _principe_) told us it was +right to get rid of them, as one of the cones, of which they bore vast +quantities, might chance to drop upon the head of a _Principettino_, or +little Prince, as he passed along. + +I was observing that restraint was necessary to man; I have now learned +a notion that noise is necessary too. The clatter made here in the +Piazza del Duomo, where you sit in your carriage at a coffee-house door, +and chat with your friends according to Italian custom, while _one_ +eats ice, and _another_ calls for lemonade, to while away the time after +dinner, the noise made then and there, I say, is beyond endurance. + +Our Florentines have nothing on earth to do; yet a dozen fellows crying +_ciambelli_, little cakes, about the square, assisted by beggars, who +lie upon the church steps, and pray or rather promise to pray as loud as +their lungs will let them, for the _anime sante di purgatorio_[Footnote: +Holy souls in purgatory.]; ballad-singers meantime endeavouring to drown +these clamours in their own, and gentlemen's servants disputing at the +doors, whose master shall be first served; ripping up the pedigrees of +each to prove superior claims for a biscuit or macaroon; do make such an +intolerable clatter among them, that one cannot, for one's life, hear +one another speak: and I did say just now, that it were as good live at +Brest or Portsmouth when the rival fleets were fitting out, as here; +where real tranquillity subsists under a bustle merely imaginary. Our +Grand Duke lives with little state for aught I can observe here; but +where there is least pomp, there is commonly most power; for a man must +have _something pour se de dommages_[Footnote: To make himself amends.], +as the French express it; and this gentleman possessing the _solide_ has +no care for the _clinquant_, I trow. He tells his subjects when to go to +bed, and who to dance with, till the hour he chuses they should retire +to rest, with exactly that sort of old-fashioned paternal authority that +fathers used to exercise over their families in England before commerce +had run her levelling plough over all ranks, and annihilated even the +name of subordination. If he hear of any person living long in Florence +without being able to give a good account of his business there, the +Duke warns him to go away; and if he loiter after such warning given, +sends him out. Does any nobleman shine in pompous equipage or splendid +table; the Grand Duke enquires soon into his pretensions, and scruples +not to give personal advice, and add grave reproofs with regard to the +management of each individual's private affairs, the establishment of +their sons, marriage of their sisters, &c. When they appeared to +complain of this behaviour to _me_, I know not, replied I, what to +answer: one has always read and heard that the Sovereigns ought to +behave in despotic governments like the _fathers of their family_: and +the Archbishop of Cambray inculcates no other conduct than this, when +advising his pupil, heir to the crown of France. "Yes, Madam," replied +one of my auditors, with an acuteness truly Italian; "but this Prince is +_our father-in-law_." The truth is, much of an English traveller's +pleasure is taken off at Florence by the incessant complaints of a +government he does not understand, and of oppressions he cannot remedy. +Tis so dull to hear people lament the want of liberty, to which I +question whether they have any pretensions; and without ever knowing +whether it is the tyranny or the tyrant they complain of. Tedious +however and most uninteresting are their accounts of grievances, which a +subject of Great Britain has much ado to comprehend, and more to pity; +as they are now all heart-broken, because they must say their prayers in +their own language and not in Latin, which, how it can be construed +into misfortune, a Tuscan alone can tell. + +Lord Corke has given us many pleasing anecdotes of those who were +formerly Princes in this land. Had they a sovereign of the old Medici +family, they would go to bed when _he_ bid them quietly enough I +believe, and say their prayers in what language _he_ would have them: +'tis in our parliamentary phrase, the _men_, not the _measures_ that +offend them; and while they pretend to whine as if despotism displeased +them, they detest every republican state, feel envy towards Venice, and +contempt for Lucca. + +I would rather talk of their gallery than their government: and surely +nothing made by man ever so completely answered a raised expectation, as +the apparent contest between Titian's recumbent beauty, glowing with +colour and animated by the warmest expression, and the Greek statue of +symmetrical perfection and fineness of form inimitable, where sculpture +supplies all that fancy can desire, and all that imagination can +suggest. These two models of excellence seem placed near each other, at +once to mock all human praise, and defy all future imitation. The +listening slave appears disturbed by the blows of the wrestlers in the +same room, and hearkens with an attentive impatience, such as one has +often felt when unable to distinguish the words one wishes to repeat. +You really then do not seem as if you were alone in this tribune, so +animated is every figure, so full of life and soul: yet I commend not +the representing of St Catharine with leering eyes, as she is here +painted by Titian; that it is meant for a portrait, I find no excuse; +some character more suited to the expression should have been chosen; +and if it were only the picture of a saint, that expression was +strangely out of character. An anachronism may be found in the Tobit +over the door too, by acute observers, who will deem it ill-managed to +paint the cross in the clouds, where it is an old testament story, and +that story apocryphal beside; might I add, that Guido's meek Madonna, so +divinely contrasted to the other women in the room, loses something of +dignity by the affected position of the thumbs. I think I might leave +the tribune without a word said of the St. John by Raphael, which no +words are worthy to extol: 'tis all sublimity; and when I look on it I +feel nothing but veneration pushed to astonishment. Unlike the elegant +figure of the Baptist at Padua, covered with glass, and belonging to a +convent of friars, who told me, and truly, That it had no equal; it is +painted by Guido with every perfection of form and every grace of +expression. I agree with them it has no equal; but in the tribune at +Florence maybe found its superior. + +We were next conducted to the Niobe, who has an apartment to herself: +and now, thought I, dear Mrs. Siddons has never seen this figure: but +those who can see it or her, without emotions equally impossible to +contain or to suppress, deserve the fate of Niobe, and have already +half-suffered it. Their hearts and eyes are stone. + +Nothing is worth speaking of after this Niobe! Her beauty! her maternal +anguish! her closely-clasped Chloris! her half-raised head, scarcely +daring to deprecate that vengeance of which she already feels such +dreadful effects! What can one do + + But drop the shady curtain on the scene, + +and run to see the portraits of those artists who have exalted one's +ideas of human nature, and shewn what man can perform. Among these +worthies a British eye soon distinguishes Sir Joshua Reynolds; a citizen +of the world fastens his to Leonardo da Vinci. + +I have been out to dinner in the country near Prato, and what a +charming, what a delightful thing is a nobleman's seat near Florence! +How cheerful the society! how splendid the climate! how wonderful the +prospects in this glorious country! The Arno rolling before his house, +the Appenines rising behind it! a sight of fertility enjoyed by its +inhabitants, and a view of such defences to their property as nature +alone can bestow. + +A peasantry so rich too, that the wives and daughters of the farmer go +dressed in jewels; and those of no small value. A pair of one-drop +ear-rings, a broadish necklace, with a long piece hanging down the +bosom, and terminated with a cross, all of set garnets clear and +perfect, is a common, a _very_ common treasure to the females about this +country; and on every Sunday or holiday, when they dress and mean to +look pretty, their elegantly-disposed ornaments attract attention +strongly; though I do not think them as handsome as the Lombard lasses, +and our Venetian friends protest that the farmers at Crema in _their_ +state are still richer. + +La Contadinella Toscana however, in a very rich white silk petticoat, +exceedingly full and short, to shew her neat pink slipper and pretty +ancle, her pink _corps de robe_ and straps, with white silk lacing down +the stomacher, puffed shirt sleeves, with heavy lace robbins ending at +the elbow, and fastened at the shoulders with at least eight or nine +bows of narrow pink ribbon, a lawn handkerchief trimmed with broad lace, +put on somewhat coquettishly, and finishing in front with a nosegay, +must make a lovely figure at any rate: though the hair is drawn away +from the face in a way rather too tight to be becoming, under a red +velvet cushion edged with gold, which helps to wear it off I think, but +gives the small Leghorn hat, lined with green, a pretty perking air, +which is infinitely nymphish and smart. A tolerably pretty girl so +dressed may surely more than vie with a _fille d' opera_ upon the Paris +stage, even were she not set off as these are with a very rich suit of +pearls or set garnets, that in France or England would not be purchased +for less than forty or fifty pounds: and I am now speaking of the women +perpetually under one's eye; not one or two picked from the crowd, like +Mrs. Vanini, an inn-keeper's wife in Florence, who, when she was dressed +for the masquerade two nights ago, submitted her finery to Mrs. +Greatheed's inspection and my own; who agreed she could not be so +adorned in England for less than a thousand pounds. + +It is true the nobility are proud of letting you see how comfortably +their dependants live in Tuscany; but can any pride be more rational or +generous, or any desire more patriotick? Oh may they never look with +less delight on the happiness of their inferiors! and then they will not +murmur at their prince, whose protection of _this_ rank among his +subjects is eminently tender and attentive. + +Returning home from our splendid dinner and agreeable day passed at +Conte Mannucci's country-seat, while our noble friends amused me with +various chat, I thought some unaccountable sparks of fire seemed to +strike up and down the hedges as if in perpetual motion, but checked +the fancy concluding it a trick of the imagination only; till the +evening, which shuts in strangely quick here in Tuscany, grew dark, and +exhibited an appearance wholly new to me; whose surprise that no flame +followed these wandering fires was not small, when I recollected the +state of desiccation that nature suffered, and had done for some months. +My dislike of interrupting an agreeable conversation kept me long from +enquiring into the cause of this appearance, which however I doubted not +was electrick, till they told me it was the _lucciola_, or fire-fly; of +which a very good account is given in twenty books, but I had forgotten +them all. As the Florence Miscellany has never been published, I will +copy out what is said of it _there_, because the Abate Fontana was +consulted when that description was given. + +"This insect then differs from every other of the luminous tribe, +because its light is by no means continual, but emitted by flashes, +suddenly striking out as it flies; when crushed it leaves a lustre on +the spot for a considerable time, from whence one may conclude its +nature is phosphorick." + + Oh vagrant insect, type of our short life, + 'Tis thus we shine, and vanish from the view; + For the cold season comes, + And all our lustre's o'er. + + MERRY's Ode to Summer. + +It is said I think, that no animal affords an acid except ants, which +are therefore most quickly destroyed by lime, pot-ash, &c. or any strong +alkali of course; yet acid must the lucciola be proved, or she can never +be phosphorick surely; as upon its analysis that strangest of all +compositions appears to be a union of violent acid with inflammable +matter, whence it may be termed an animal sulphur, and is actually found +to burn successfully under a common glass-bell; and to afford flowers +too, which, by attracting the humidity of the air, become a liquor like +_oleum sulphuris per campanam_[Footnote: Oil of sulphur by the bell.]. + +The colour of the sky viewed, when one dares to look at it, through this +pure atmosphere is particularly beautiful; of a much more brilliant and +celestial blue I think, than it appeared from the tower of St. Mark's +Place, Venice. Were I to affirm that the sea is of a more peculiar +transparent brightness upon the coast of North Wales than elsewhere, it +would seem prejudice perhaps, and yet is strictly true: I am not less +persuaded that the sky appears of a finer tint in Tuscany than any other +country I have visited:--Naples is however the vaunted climate, and that +yet remains to be examined. + +I have been shewed, at the horse-race, the theatre, &c. the unfortunate +grandson of King James the Second. He goes much into publick still, +though old and sickly; gives the English arms and livery, and wears the +garter, which he has likewise bestowed upon his natural daughter. The +Princess of Stoldberg, his consort, whom he always called Queen, has +left him to end a life of disappointment and sorrow by _himself_, with +the sad reflection, that even conjugal attachment, and of course +domestic comfort, was denied to _him_, and fled--in defiance of poetry +and fiction--fled with the crown, to its powerful and triumphant +possessors. + +The Duomo, or Cathedral, has engaged my attention all to-day: its +prodigious size, perfect proportions, and exquisite taste, ought to +have detained me longer. Though the outside does not please me as well +as if it had been less rich and less magnificent. Superfluity always +defeats its own purpose, of striking you with awe at its superior +greatness; while simplicity looks on, and laughs at its vain attempts. +This wonderful church, built of striped marbles, white, black, and red +alternately, has scarcely the air of being so composed, but looks like +painted ivory to _me_, who am obliged to think, and think again, before +I can be sure it is of so ponderous and massy, as well as so inestimable +a substance: nor can I, without more than equal difficulty, persuade +myself to give its sudden view the decided preference over St. Paul's in +London, which never, never misses its immediate effect on a spectator, + + But stands sublime in simplest majesty. + +The Battisterio is another structure close to the church, and of +surprising beauty; Michael Angelo said the gates of it deserved to be +those which open Paradise: and that speech was more the speech of a good +workman, than of a man whose mind was exalted by his profession. The +gates are of brass, divided into ninety-six compartments each, and +carved with such variety of invention, such elaboration of art and +ingenuity, that no praise except that which he gave them could have been +too high. The font has not been used since the days when immersion in +baptism was deemed necessary to salvation; a ceremony still considered +by the Greek church as indispensable. Why the disputes concerning _this_ +sacrament were carried on with more decency and less lasting rancour +among Christians, than those which related to the other great pledge of +our pardon, the communicating with our Saviour Christ in his last +Supper, I know not, nor can imagine. Every page of ecclesiastical +history exhibits the tenaciousness with which the smallest attendant +circumstance on this last-mentioned sacrament has been held fast by the +Romanists, who dropped the immersion at baptism of themselves; and in so +warm a climate too! it moves my wonder; when nothing is more obvious to +the meanest understanding, than that if the first sacrament is not +rightly and duly administered, we never shall arrive at receiving the +other at all. I hope it is impossible for any one less than myself to +wish the continuance or revival of contentions so disgraceful to +humanity in general; so peculiarly repugnant to the true spirit of +Christianity, which consists chiefly in charity, and that brotherly love +we know to have been cemented by the blood of our blessed Lord: yet very +strange it is to think, that while other innovations have been resisted +even to death, scarcely any among the many sects we have divided into, +retain the original form in that ceremony so emphatically called +_christening_. + +These observations suggested by the sight of the old font at Florence +shall now be succeeded by lighter subjects of reflection; among which +the first that presents itself is the superior elegance of the language; +for till we arrive _here_, all is dialect; though by this word I would +not have any one mistake me, or understand it as meant in the limited +sense of a provincial jargon, such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire, or +Cornwall, present us with; where every sound is corruption, barbarism, +and vulgarity. + +The States of Italy being all under different rulers, are kept separate +from each other, and speak a different dialect; that of Milan full of +consonants and harsh to the ear, but abounding with classical +expressions that rejoice one's heart, and fill one with the oddest but +most pleasing sensations imaginable. I heard a lady there call a runaway +nobleman _Profugo_ mighty prettily; and added, that his conduct had put +all the town into _orgasmo grande_. All this, however, the Tuscans may +possibly have in common with them. My knowledge of the language must +remain ever too imperfect for me to depend on my own skill in it; all I +can assert is, that the Florentines _appear_, as far as I have been +competent to observe, to depend more on their own copious and beautiful +language for expression, than the Milanese do; who run to Spanish, +Greek, or Latin for assistance, while half their tongue is avowedly +borrowed from the French, whose pronunciation, in the letter _u_, they +even profess to retain. + +At Venice, the sweetness of the patois is irresistible; their lips, +incapable of uttering any but the sweetest sounds, reject all +consonants they can get quit of; and make their mouths drop honey more +completely than it can be said by any eloquence less mellifluous than +their own. + +The Bolognese dialect is detested by the other Italians, as gross and +disagreeable in its sounds: but every nation has the good word of its +own inhabitants; and the language which Abbate Bianconi praises as +nervous and expressive, I would advise no person, less learned than +himself, to censure as disgusting, or condemn as dull. I staid very +little at Bologna; saw nothing but their pictures, and heard nothing but +their prayers: those were superior, I fancy, to all rivals. Language can +be never spoken of by a foreigner to any effect of conviction. I have +heard our countryman. Mr. Greatheed himself, who perhaps possesses more +Italian than almost any Englishman, and studies it more closely, refuse +to decide in critical disputations among his literary friends here, +though the sonnets he writes in the Tuscan language are praised by the +natives, who best understand it, and have been by some of them preferred +to those written by Milton himself. Mean time this is acknowledged to +be the prime city for purity of phrase and delicacy of expression, +which, at last, is so disguised to me by the guttural manner in which +many sounds are pronounced, that I feel half weary of running about from +town to town so, and never arriving at any, where I can understand the +conversation without putting all the attention possible to their +discourse. I am now told that less efforts will be necessary at Rome. + +Nothing can be prettier, however, than the slow and tranquil manners of +a Florentine; nothing more polished than his general address and +behaviour: ever in the third person, though to a blackguard in the +street, if he has not the honour of his particular acquaintance, while +intimacy produces _voi_ in those of the highest rank, who call one +another Carlo and Angelo very sweetly; the ladies taking up the same +notion, and saying Louisa, or Maddalena, without any addition at all. + +The Don and Donna of Milan were offensive to me somehow, as they +conveyed an idea of Spain, not Italy. Here Signora is the term, which +better pleases one's ear, and Signora Contessa, Signora Principessa, if +the person is of higher quality, resembles our manners more when we say +my Lady Dutchess, &c. What strikes me as most observable, is the +uniformity of style in all the great towns. + +At Venice the men of literature and fashion speak with the same accent, +and I believe the same quick turns of expression as their Gondolier; and +the coachman at Milan talks no broader than the Countess; who, if she +does not speak always in French to a foreigner, as she would willingly +do, tries in vain to talk Italian; and having asked you thus, _alla +capi?_ which means _ha ella capita?_ laughs at herself for trying to +_toscaneggiare_, as she calls it, and gives the point up with _no cor +altr._ that comes in at the end of every sentence, and means _non +occorre altro_; there is no more occurs upon the subject. + +The Laquais de Place who attended us at Bologna was one of the few +persons I had met then, who spoke a language perfectly intelligible to +me. "Are you a Florentine, pray friend, said I?" "No, madam, but the +_combinations_ of this world having led me to talk much with strangers, +I contrive to _tuscanize_ it all I can for _their_ advantage, and doubt +not but it will tend to my own at last." + +Such a sentiment, so expressed by a footman, would set a plain man in +London a laughing, and make a fanciful Lady imagine he was a nobleman +disguised. Here nobody laughs, nor nobody stares, nor wonders that their +valet speaks just as good language, or utters as well-turned sentences +as themselves. Their cold answer to my amazement is as comical as the +fellow's fine style--_è battizzato_[Footnote: He has been baptized.], +say they, _come noi altri_[Footnote: As well as we.]. But we are called +away to hear the fair Fantastici, a young woman who makes improviso +verses, and sings them, as they tell me, with infinite learning and +taste. She is successor to the celebrated Corilla, who no longer +exhibits the power she once held without a rival: yet to _her_ +conversations every one still strives for admittance, though she is now +ill, and old, and hoarse with repeated colds. She spares, however, now +by no labour or fatigue to obtain and keep that superiority and +admiration which one day perhaps gave her almost equal trouble to +receive and to repay. But who can bear to lay their laurels by? Corilla +is gay by nature, and witty, if I may say so, by habit; replete with +fancy, and powerful to combine images apparently distant. Mankind is at +last more just to people of talents than is universally allowed, I +think. Corilla, without pretensions either to immaculate character (in +the English sense), deep erudition, or high birth, which an Italian +esteems above all earthly things, has so made her way in the world, that +all the nobility of both sexes crowd to her house; that no Prince passes +through Florence without waiting on Corilla; that the Capitol will long +recollect her being crowned there, and that many sovereigns have not +only sought her company, but have been obliged to put up with slights +from her independent spirit, and from her airy, rather than haughty +behaviour. She is, however, (I cannot guess why) not rich, and keeps no +carriage; but enjoying all the effect of money, convenience, company, +and general attention, is probably very happy; as she does not much +suffer her thoughts of the next world to disturb her felicity in +_this_, I believe, while willing to turn every thing into mirth, and +make all admire _her wit_, even at the expence of _their own virtue_. +The following Epigram, made by her, will explain my meaning, and give a +specimen of her present powers of improvisation, undecayed by ill +health; and I might add, _undismayed_ by it. An old gentleman here, one +Gaetano Testa Grossa had a young wife, whose name was Mary, and who +brought him a son when he was more than seventy years old. Corilla led +him gaily into the circle of company with these words: + + "Miei Signori Io vi presento + Il buon Uomo Gaetano; + Che non sà che cosa sia + Il misterio sovr'umano + Del Figliuolo di Maria." + +Let not the infidels triumph however, or rank among them the +truly-illustrious Corilla! 'Twas but the rage, I hope, of keeping at any +rate the fame she has gained, when the sweet voice is gone, which once +enchanted all who heard it--like the daughters of Pierius in Ovid. + +And though I was exceedingly entertained by the present improvisatrice, +the charming Fantastici, whose youth, beauty, erudition, and fidelity to +her husband, give her every claim upon one's heart, and every just +pretension to applause, I could not, in the midst of that delight, which +classick learning and musical excellence combined to produce, forbear a +grateful recollection of the civilities I had received from Corilla, and +half-regretting that her rival should be so successful; + + For tho' the treacherous tapster, Thomas, + Hangs a new angel ten doors from us, + We hold it both a shame and sin + To quit the true old Angel Inn. + +Well! if some people have too little appearance of respect for religion, +there are others who offend one by having too much, and so the balance +is kept even. + +We were a walking last night in the gardens of Porto St. Gallo, and met +two or three well-looking women of the second rank, with a baby, four or +five years old at most, dressed in the habit of a Dominican Friar, +bestowing the benediction as he walked along like an officiating Priest. +I felt a shock given to all my nerves at once, and asked Cavalier +D'Elci the meaning of so strange a device. His reply to me was, "_E +divozione mal intesa, Signora_[Footnote: 'Tis ill-understood devotion, +madam.];" and turning round to the other gentlemen, "Now this folly," +said he, "a hundred years ago would have been the object of profound +veneration and prodigious applause. Fifty years hence it would be +censured as hypocritical; it is now passed by wholly unnoticed, except +by this foreign Lady, who, I believe, thought it was done for a joke. + +I have had a little fever since I came hither from the intense heat I +trust; but my maid has a worse still. Doctor Bicchierei, with that +liberality which ever is found to attend real learning, prescribed +James's powders to _her_, and bid me attend to Buchan's Domestick +Medicine, and I should do well enough he said. + +Mr. Greatheed, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Biddulph, and Mr. Piozzi, have been +together on a party of pleasure to see the renowned Vallombrosa, and +came home contradicting Milton, who says the devils lay bestrewn + + Thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa: + +Whereas, say they, the trees are all evergreen in those woods. Milton, +it seems, was right notwithstanding: for the botanists tell me, that +nothing makes more litter than the shedding of leaves, which, replace +themselves by others, as on the plants stiled ever-green, which change +like every tree, but only do not change all at once, and remain stript +till spring. They spoke highly of their very kind and hospitable +reception at the convent, where + + Safe from pangs the worldling knows, + Here secure in calm repose, + Far from life's perplexing maze, + The pious fathers pass their days; + While the bell's shrill-tinkling sound + Regulates their constant round. + +And + + Here the traveller elate + Finds an ever-open gate: + All his wants find quick supply, + While welcome beams from every eye. + + PARSONS. + +This pious foundation of retired Benedictines, situated in the +Appenines, about eighteen miles from Florence, owes its original to +Giovanni Gualberto, a Tuscan nobleman, whose brother Hugo having been +killed by a relation in the year 1015, he resolved to avenge his death; +but happening to meet the assassin alone and in a solitary place, +whither he appeared to have been driven by a sense of guilt, and seeing +him suddenly drop down at his feet, and without uttering a word produce +from his bosom a crucifix, holding it up in a supplicating gesture, with +look submissively imploring, he felt the force of this silent rhetoric, +and generously gave his enemy free pardon. + +On further reflection upon the striking scene, Gualberto felt still more +affected; and from seeing the dangers and temptations which surround a +bustling life, resolved to quit the too much mixed society of mankind, +and settle in a state of perpetual retirement. For this purpose he chose +Vallombrosa, and there founded the famous convent so justly admired by +all who visit it. + +Such stories lead one forward to the tombs of Michael Angelo and the +great Galileo, which last I looked on to-day with reverence, pity, and +wonder; to think that a change so surprising should be made in worldly +affairs since his time; that the man who no longer ago than the year +1636, was by the torments and terrors of the Inquisition obliged +formally to renounce, as heretical, accursed, and contrary to religion, +the revived doctrines of Copernicus, should now have a monument erected +to his memory, in the very city where he was born, whence he was cruelly +torn away to answer at Rome for the supposed offence; to which he +returned; and strange to tell, in which he lived on, by his own desire, +with the wife who, by her discovery of his sentiments, and information +given to the priests accordingly, had caused his ruin; and who, after +his death, in a fit of mad mistaken zeal, flung into the fire, in +company with her confessor, all the papers she could find in his study. + +How wonderful are these events! and how sweet must the science of +astronomy have been to that poor man, who suffered all but actual +martyrdom in its cause! How odd too, that ever Galileo's son, by such a +mother as we have just described, should apply himself to the same +studies, and be the inventor of the simple pendulum so necessary to +every kind of clock-work! + +Religious prejudices however, and their effects--and thanks be to God +their almost final conclusion too--may be found nearer home than +Galileo's tomb; while Milton has a monument in the same cathedral with +Dr. South, who perhaps would have given credit to no _human_ +information, which should have told him that event would take place. + +We are now going soon to leave Florence, seat of the arts and residence +of literature! I shall be sincerely sorry to quit a city where not a +step can be taken without a new or a revived idea being added to our +store;--where such statues as would in England have colleges founded, or +palaces built for their reception, stand in the open street; the +Centaur, the Sabine woman, and the Justice: Where the Madonna della +Seggiola reigns triumphant over all pictures for brilliancy of colouring +and vigour of pencil. + +It was the portrait of Raphaelle's favourite mistress, and his own child +by her sate for the Bambino:--is it then wonderful that it should want +that heavenly expression of dignity divine, and grace unutterable, which +breathes through the school of Caracci? Connoisseurs will have all +excellence united in one picture, and quarrel unkindly if merit of any +kind be wanting: Surely the Madonna della Seggiola has nature to +recommend it, and much more need not be desired. If the young and tender +and playful innocence of early infancy is what chiefly delights and +detains one's attention, it may be found to its utmost possible +perfection in a painter far inferior to Raphael, Carlo Marratt. + +If softness in the female character, and meek humility of countenance, +be all that are wanted for the head of a Madonna, we must go to +Elisabetta Sirani and Sassoferrata I think; but it is ever so. The +Cordelia of Mrs. Cibber was beyond all comparison softer and sweeter +than that of her powerful successor Siddons; yet who will say that the +actresses were equal? + +But I must bid adieu to beautiful Florence, where the streets are kept +so clean one is afraid to dirty _them_, and not _one's self_, by walking +in them: where the public walks are all nicely weeded, as in England, +and the gardens have a homeish and Bath-like look, that is excessively +cheering to an English eye:--where, when I dined at Prince Corsini's +table, I heard the Cardinal say grace, and thought of the ceremonies at +Queen's College, Oxford; where I had the honour of entertaining, at my +own dinner on the 25th of July, many of the Tuscan, and many of the +English nobility; and Nardini kindly played a solo in the evening at a +concert we gave in Meghitt's great room:--where we have compiled the +little book amongst us, known by the name of the Florence Miscellany; as +a memorial of that friendship which does me so much honour, and which I +earnestly hope may long subsist among us:--where in short we have lived +exceeding comfortably, but where dear Mrs. Greatheed and myself have +encouraged each other, in saying it would be particularly sad to _die_, +not of the gnats, or more properly musquitoes, for they do not sting one +quite to death, though their venom has swelled my arm so as to oblige me +to carry it for this last week in a sling; but of the _mal di petto_, +which is endemial in this country, and much resembling our pleurisy in +its effects. + +Blindness too seems no uncommon misfortune at Florence, from the strong +reverberation of the sun's rays on houses of the cleanest and most +brilliant whiteness; kept so elegantly nice too, that I should despair +of seeing more delicacy at Amsterdam. + +Apoplexies are likewise frequent enough: I saw a man carried out stone +dead from St. Pancrazio's church one morning about noon-day; but nobody +seemed disturbed at the event I think, except myself. Though this is no +good town to take one's last leave of life in neither; as the body one +has been so long taking care of, would in twenty-four hours be hoisted +up upon a common cart, with those of all the people who died the same +day, and being fairly carried out of Porto San Gallo towards the dusk of +evening, would be shot into a hole dug away from the city, properly +enough, to protect Florence, and keep it clear of putrid disorders and +disagreeable smells. All this with little ceremony to be sure, and less +distinction; for the Grand Duke suffers the pride of birth to last no +longer than life however, and demolishes every hope of the woman of +quality lying in a separate grave from the distressed object who begged +at her carriage door when she was last on an airing. + +Let me add, that his liberality of sentiment extends to virtue on the +one hand, if hardness of heart may be complained of on the other. He +suffers no difference of opinions to operate on his philosophy, and I +believe we heretics here should sleep among the best of his Tuscan +nobles. But there is no comfort in the possibility of being buried alive +by the excessive haste with which people are catched up and hurried +away, before it can be known almost whether all sparks of life are +extinct or no. Such management, and the lamentations one hears made by +the great, that they should thus be forced to keep _bad company_ after +death, remind me for ever of an old French epigram, the sentiment of +which I perfectly recollect, but have forgotten the verses, of which +however these lines are no unfaithful translation; + + I dreamt that in my house of clay, + A beggar buried by me lay; + Rascal! go stink apart, I cry'd, + Nor thus disgrace my noble side. + Heyday! cries he, what's here to do? + I'm on my dunghill sure, as well as you. + +Of elegant Florence then, so ornamented and so lovely, so neat that it +is said she should be seen only on holidays; dedicated of old to Flora, +and still the residence of sweetness, grace, and the fine arts +particularly; of these kind friends too, so amiable, so hospitable, +where I had the choice of four boxes every night at the theatre, and a +certainty of charming society in each, we must at last unwillingly take +leave; and on to-morrow, the twelfth day of September 1785, once more +commit ourselves to our coach, which has hitherto met with no accident +that could affect us, and in which, with God's protection, I fear not my +journey through what is left of Italy; though such tremendous tales are +told in many of our travelling books, of terrible roads and wicked +postillions, and ladies labouring through the mire on foot, to arrive at +bad inns where nothing eatable could be found. All which however is less +despicable than Tournefort, the great French botanist; who, while his +works swell with learning, and sparkle with general knowledge; while he +enlarges _your_ stock of ideas, and displays _his own_; laments +pathetically that he could not get down the partridges caught for him in +one of the Archipelagon islands, because they were not larded--_à la +mode de Paris_. + + + +LUCCA. + + +From the head-quarters of painting, sculpture, and architecture then, +where art is at her acme, and from a people polished into brilliancy, +perhaps a little into weakness, we drove through the celebrated vale of +Arno; thick hedges on each side us, which in spring must have been +covered with blossoms and fragrant with perfume; now loaded with +uncultivated fruits; the wild grape, raspberry, and azaroli, inviting to +every sense, and promising every joy. This beautiful and fertile, this +highly-adorned and truly delicious country carried us forward to Lucca, +where the panther sits at the gate, and liberty is written up on every +wall and door. It is so long since I have seen the word, that even the +letters of it rejoice my heart; but how the panther came to be its +emblem, who can tell? Unless the philosophy we learn from old Lilly in +our childhood were true, _nec vult panthera domari_[Footnote: That the +panther will never be tamed.]. + +That this fairy commonwealth should so long have maintained its +independency is strange; but Howel attributes her freedom to the active +and industrious spirit of the inhabitants, who, he says, resemble a hive +of bees, for order and for diligence. I never did see a place so +populous for the size of it: one is actually thronged running up and +down the streets of Lucca, though it is a little town enough for a +capital city to be sure; larger than Salisbury though, and prettier than +Nottingham, the beauties of both which places it unites with all the +charms peculiar to itself. + +The territory they claim, and of which no power dares attempt to +dispossess them, is much about the size of _Rutlandshire_ I fancy; +surrounded and apparently fenced in on every side, by the Appenines as +by a wall, that wall a hot one, on the southern side, and wholly planted +over with vines, while the soft shadows which fall upon the declivity of +the mountains make it inexpressibly pretty; and form, by the particular +disposition of their light and shadow, a variety which no other prospect +so confined can possibly enjoy. + +This is the Ilam gardens of Europe; and whoever has seen that singular +spot in Derbyshire belonging to Mr. Port, has seen little Lucca in a +convex mirror. Some writer calls it a ring upon the finger of the +Emperor, under whose protection it has been hitherto preserved safe from +the Grand Duke of Tuscany till these days, in which the interests of +those two sovereigns, united by intimacy as by blood and resemblance of +character, are become almost exactly the same. + +A Doge, whom they call the _Principe_, is elected every two months; and +is assisted by ten senators in the administration of justice. + +Their armoury is the prettiest plaything I ever yet saw, neatly kept, +and capable of furnishing twenty-five thousand men with arms. Their +revenues are about equal to the Duke of Bedford's I believe, eighty or +eighty-five thousand pounds sterling a year; every spot of ground +belonging to these people being cultivated to the highest pitch of +perfection that agriculture, or rather gardening (for one cannot call +these enclosures fields), will admit: and though it is holiday time just +now, I see no neglect of necessary duty. They were watering away this +morning at seven o'clock, just as we do in a nursery-ground about +London, a hundred men at once, or more, before they came home to make +themselves smart, and go to hear music in their best church, in honour +of some saint, I have forgotten who; but he is the patron of Lucca, and +cannot be accused of neglecting his charge, that is certain. + +This city seems really under admirable regulations; here are fewer +beggars than even at Florence, where however one for fifty in the states +of Genoa or Venice do not meet your eyes: And either the word liberty +has bewitched me, or I see an air of plenty without insolence, and +business without noise, that greatly delight me. Here is much +cheerfulness too, and gay good-humour; but this is the season of +devotion at Lucca, and in these countries the ideas of devotion and +diversion are so blended, that all religious worship seems connected +with, and to me now regularly implies, _a festive show_. + +Well, as the Italians say, "_Il mondo è bello perche è +variabile_[Footnote: The world is pleasant because it is various.]." We +English dress our clergymen in black, and go ourselves to the theatre +in colours. Here matters are reversed, the church at noon looked like a +flower-garden, so gaily adorned were the priests, confrairies, &c. while +the Opera-house at night had more the air of a funeral, as every body +was dressed in black: a circumstance I had forgotten the meaning of, +till reminded that such was once the emulation of finery among the +persons of fashion in this city, that it was found convenient to +restrain the spirit of expence, by obliging them to wear constant +mourning: a very rational and well-devised rule in a town so small, +where every body is known to every body; and where, when this silly +excitement to envy is wisely removed, I know not what should hinder the +inhabitants from living like those one reads of in the Golden Age; +which, above all others, this climate most resembles, where pleasure +contributes to sooth life, commerce to quicken it, and faith extends its +prospects to eternity. Such is, or such at least appears to me this +lovely territory of Lucca: where cheap living, free government, and +genteel society, may be enjoyed with a tranquillity unknown to larger +states: where there are delicious and salutary baths a few miles out of +town, for the nobility to make _villeggiatura_ at; and where, if those +nobility were at all disposed to cultivate and communicate learning, +every opportunity for study is afforded. + +Some drawbacks will however always be found from human felicity. I once +mentioned this place with warm expectations of delight, to a Milanese +lady of extensive knowledge, and every elegant accomplishment worthy her +high birth, _the Contessa Melzi Resla_. "Why yes," said she, "if you +would find out the place where common sense stagnates, and every topic +of conversation dwindles and perishes away by too frequent or too +unskilful touching and handling, you must go to Lucca. My ill-health +sent me to their beautiful baths one summer; where all the faculties of +my body were restored, thank God, but those of my soul were stupified to +such a degree, that at last I was fit to keep no other company but _Dame +Lucchesi_ I think; and _our_ talk was soon ended, heaven knows, for when +they had once asked me of an evening, what I had for dinner? and told me +how many pair of stockings their neighbours sent to the wash, we had +done." + +This was a young, a charming, a lively lady of quality; full of +curiosity to know the world, and of spirits to bustle through it; but +had she been battered through the various societies of London and Paris +for eighteen or twenty years together, she would have loved Lucca +better, and despised it less. "We must not look for whales in the Euxine +Sea," says an old writer; and we must not look for great men or great +things in little nations to be sure, but let us respect the innocence of +childhood, and regard with tenderness the territory of Lucca: where no +man has been murdered during the life or memory of any of its peaceful +inhabitants; where one robbery alone has been committed for sixteen +years; and the thief hanged by a Florentine executioner borrowed for the +purpose, no Lucchese being able or willing to undertake so horrible an +office, with terrifying circumstances of penitence and public +reprehension: where the governed are so few in proportion to the +governors; all power being circulated among four hundred and fifty +nobles, and the whole country producing scarcely ninety thousand souls. +A great boarding-school in England is really an infinitely more +licentious place; and grosser immoralities are every day connived at in +it, than are known to pollute this delicate and curious commonwealth; +which keeps a council always subsisting, called the _Discoli_, to +examine the lives and conduct, professions, and even _health_ of their +subjects: and once o'year they sweep the town of vagabonds, which till +then are caught up and detained in a house of correction, and made to +work, if hot disabled by lameness, till the hour of their release and +dismission. I wondered there were so few beggars about, but the reason +is now apparent: these we see are neighbours, come hither only for the +three days gala. + +I was wonderfully solicitous to obtain some of their coin, which carries +on it the image of no _earthly_ prince; but his head only who came to +redeem us from general slavery on the one side, _Jesus Christ_; on the +other, the word _Libertas_. + +Our peasant-girls here are in a new dress to me; no more jewels to be +seen, no more pearls; the finery of which so dazzled me in Tuscany: +these wenches are prohibited such ornaments it seems. A muslin +handkerchief, folded in a most becoming manner, and starched exactly +enough to make it wear clean four days, is the head-dress of Lucchese +lasses; it is put on turban-wise, and they button their gowns close, +with long sleeves _à la Savoyarde_; but it is made often of a stiff +brocaded silk, and green lapels, with cuffs of the same colour; nor do +they wear any hats at all, to defend them from a sun which does +undoubtedly mature the fig and ripen the vine, but which, by the same +excess of power, exalts the venom of the viper, and gives the scorpion +means to keep me in perpetual torture for fear of his poison, of which, +though they assure us death is seldom the consequence among _them_, I +know his sting would finish me at once, because the gnats at Florence +were sufficient to lame me for a considerable time. + +The dialect has lost much of the guttural sound that hurt one's ear at +the last place of residence; but here is an odd squeaking accent, that +distinguishes the Tuscan of Lucca. + +The place appropriated for airing, showing fine equipages, &c. is +beautiful beyond all telling; from the peculiar shadows on the +mountains. They make the bastions of the town their Corso, but none +except the nobles can go and drive upon one part of it. I know not how +many yards of ground is thus let apart, sacred to sovereignty; but it +makes one laugh. + +Our inn here is an excellent one, as far as I am concerned; and the +sallad-oil green, like Irish usquebaugh, nothing was ever so excellent. +I asked the French valet who dresses our hair, "_Si ce n'etait pas une +republique mignonne?_[X]"--"_Ma foy, madame, je la trouve plus tôt la +republique des rats et des souris[Y];_" replies the fellow, who had not +slept all night, I afterwards understood, for the noise those +troublesome animals made in his room. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote X: If it were not a dear little pretty commonwealth--this?] + +[Footnote Y: Faith, madam, I call it the republic of the rats and +mice.] + + + +PISA. + + +This town has been so often described that it is as well known in +England as in Italy almost; where I, like others, have seen the +magnificent cathedral; have examined the two pillars which support its +entrance, and which once adorned Diana's temple at Ephesus, one of the +seven wonders of the world. Their carving is indeed beyond all idea of +workmanship; and the possession of them is inestimable. I have seen the +old stones with inscriptions on them, bearing date the reign of +Antoninus Pius, stuck casually, some with the letters reversed, some +sloping, according to accident merely, as it appears to me, in the body +of the great church: and I have seen the leaning tower that Lord +Chesterfield so comically describes our English travellers eagerness to +see. It is a beautiful building though after all, and a strange thing +that it should lean so. The cylindrical form, and marble pillars that +support each story, may rationally enough attract a stranger's notice, +and one is sorry the lower stories have sunk from their foundations, +originally defective ones I trust they were, though, God knows, if the +Italians do not build towers well, it is not for want either of skill or +of experience; for there is a tower to every town I think, and commonly +fabricated with elaborate nicety and well-fixed bases. But as +earthquakes and subterranean fires here are scarcely a wonder, one need +not marvel much at seeing the ground retreat just _here_. It is nearer +our hand, and quite as well worth our while to enquire, why the tower at +_Bridgnorth_ in Shropshire leans exactly in the same direction, and is +full as much out of the perpendicular as this at Pisa. + +The brazen gates here, carved by John of Bologna, at least begun by him, +are a wonderful work; and the marbles in the baptistery beat those of +Florence for value and for variety. A good lapidary might find perpetual +amusement in adjusting the claims of superiority to these precious +columns of jasper, granite, alabaster, &c. The different animals which +support the font being equally admirable for their composition as for +their workmanship. + +The Campo Santo is an extraordinary place, and, for aught I know, +unparalleled for its power over the mind in exciting serious +contemplations upon the body's decay, and suggesting consolatory +thoughts concerning the soul's immortality. Here in three days, owing to +quick-lime mixed among the earth, vanishes every vestige, every trace of +the human being carried thither seventy hours before, and here round the +walls Giotto and Cimabue have exhausted their invention to impress the +passers-by with deep and pensive melancholy. + +The four stages of man's short life, infancy, childhood, maturity, and +decrepit age, not ill represented by one of the ancient artists, shew +the sad but not slow progress we make to this dark abode; while the last +judgment, hell, and paradise inform us what events of the utmost +consequence are to follow our journey. All this a modern traveller finds +out to be _vastly ridiculous!_ though Doctor Smollet _(whose book I +think he has read)_ confesses, that the spacious Corridor round the +Campo Santo di Pisa would make the noblest walk in the world perhaps for +a contemplative philosopher. + +The tomb of Algarotti produces softer ideas when one looks at the +sepulchre of a man who, having deserved and obtained such solid and +extensive praise, modestly contented himself with desiring that his +epitaph might be so worded, as to record, upon a simple but lasting +monument, that he had the honour of being disciple to the immortal +_Newton_. + +The battle of the bridge here at Pisa drew a great many spectators this +year, as it has not been performed for a considerable time before: the +waiters at our inn here give a better account of it than one should have +got perhaps from Cavalier or Dama, who would have felt less interested +in the business, and seen it from a greater distance. The armies of +Sant' Antonio, and I think San Giovanni Battista, but I will not be +positive as to the last, disputed the possession of the bridge, and +fought gallantly I fancy; but the first remained conqueror, as our very +conversible _Camerieres_ took care to inform us, as it was on that side +it seems that they had exerted their valour. + +Calling theatres, and ships, and running horses, and mock fights, and +almost every thing so by the names of Saints, whom we venerate in +silence, and they themselves publicly worship, has a most profane and +offensive sound with it to be sure; and shocks delicate ears very +dreadfully: and I used to reprimand my maids at Milan for bringing up +the blessed Virgin Mary's name on every trivial, almost on every +ludicrous occasion, with a degree of sharpness they were not accustomed +to, because it kept me in a constant shivering. Yet let us reflect a +moment on our own conduct in England, and we shall be forced candidly to +confess that the Puritans alone keep their lips unpolluted by breach of +the third commandment, while the common exclamation of _good God!_ +scrupled by few people on the slightest occurrences, and apparently +without any temptation in the world, is no less than gross irreverence +of his sacred name, whom we acknowledge to be + + Father of all, in _every_ age + In _every_ clime ador'd; + By saint, by savage, and by sage, + Jehovah, Jove, or Lord. + +Nor have the ladies at a London card-table Italian ignorance to plead +in their excuse; as not instruction but docility is wanted among almost +all ranks of people in Great Britain, where, if the Christian religion +were practised as it is understood, little could be wished for its +eternal, as little is left out among the blessings of its temporal +welfare. + +I have been this morning to look at the Grand Duke's camels, which he +keeps in his park as we do deer in England. There were a hundred and +sixteen of them, pretty creatures! and they breed very well here, and +live quite at their ease, only housing them the winter months: they are +perfectly docile and gentle the man told me, apparently less tender of +their young than mares, but more approachable by human creatures than +even such horses as have been long at grass. That dun hue one sees them +of, is, it seems, not totally and invariably the same, though I doubt +not but it is so in their native deserts. Let it once become a fashion +for sovereigns and other great men to keep and to caress them, we shall +see camels as variegated as cats, which in the woods are all of the +uniformly-streaked tabby--the males inclining to the brown shade--the +females to blue among them;--but being bred _down_, become +tortoise-shell, and red, and every variety of colour, which +domestication alone can bestow. + +The misery of Tuscany is, that _all animals_ thrive so happily under +this productive sun; so that if you scorn the Zanzariere, you are +half-devoured before morning, and so disfigured, that I defy one's +nearest friends to recollect one's countenance; while the spiders sting +as much as any of their insects; and one of them bit me this very day +till the blood came. + +With all this not ill-founded complaint of these our active companions, +my constant wonder is, that the grapes hang untouched this 20th of +September, in vast heavy clusters covered with bloom; and unmolested by +insects, which, with a quarter of this heat in England, are encouraged +to destroy all our fruit in spite of the gardener's diligence to blow up +nests, cover the walls with netting, and hang them about with bottles of +syrup, to court the creatures in, who otherwise so damage every fig and +grape and plum of ours, that nothing but the skins are left remaining +_by now. Here_ no such contrivances are either wanted or thought on; +and while our islanders are sedulously bent to guard, and studious to +invent new devices to protect their half dozen peaches from their half +dozen wasps, the standard trees of Italy are loaded with high-flavoured +and delicious fruits. + + Here figs sky-dy'd a purple hue disclose, + Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows; + Here dangling pears exalted scents unfold, + And yellow apples ripen into gold. + +The roadside is indeed hedged with festoons of vines, crawling from +olive to olive, which they plant in the ditches of Tuscany as we do +willows in Britain: mulberry trees too by the thousand, and some +pollarded poplars serve for support to the glorious grapes that will now +soon be gathered. What least contributes to the beauty of the country +however, is perhaps most subservient to its profits. I am ashamed to +write down the returns of money gained by the oil alone in this +territory and that of Lucca, where I was much struck with the colour as +well as the excellence of this useful commodity. Nor can I tell why none +of that green cast comes over to England, unless it is, that, like +essential oil of chamomile, it loses the tint by exposure to the air. + +An olive tree, however, is no elegantly-growing or happily-coloured +plant: straggling and dusky, one is forced to think of its produce, +before one can be pleased with its merits, as in a deformed and ugly +friend or companion. + +The fogs now begin to fall pretty heavily in a morning, and rising about +the middle of the day, leave the sun at liberty to exert his violence +very powerfully. At night come forth the inhabitants, like dor-beetles +at sunset on the coast of Sussex; then is their season to walk and chat, +and sing and make love, and run about the street with a girl and a +guittar; to eat ice and drink lemonade; but never to be seen drunk or +quarrelsome, or riotous. Though night is the true season of Italian +felicity, they place not their happiness in brutal frolics, any more +than in malicious titterings; they are idle and they are merry: it is, I +think, the worst we can say of them; they are idle because there is +little for them to do, and merry because they have little given them to +think about. To the busy Englishman they might well apply these verses +of his own Milton in the Masque of Comus: + + What have we with day to do? + Sons of Care! 'twas made for you. + + + +LEGHORN. + + +Here we are by the sea-side once more, in a trading town too; and I +should think myself in England almost, but for the difference of dresses +that pass under my balcony: for here we were immediately addressed by a +young English gentleman, who politely put us in possession of his +apartments, the best situated in the town; and with him we talked of the +dear coast of Devonshire, agreed upon the resemblance between that and +these environs, but gave the preference to home, on account of its +undulated shore, finely fringed with woodlands, which here are wanting: +nor is this verdure equal to ours in vivid colouring, or variegated with +so much taste as those lovely hills which are adorned by the antiquities +of Powderham Castle, and the fine disposition of Lord Lisburne's park. + +But here is an English consul at Leghorn. Yes indeed! an English chapel +too; our own King's arms over the door, and in the desk and pulpit an +English clergyman; high in character, eminent for learning, genteel in +his address, and charitable in every sense of the word: as such, truly +loved and honoured by those of his own persuasion, exceedingly respected +by those of every other, which fill this extraordinary city: a place so +populous, that Cheapside alone can surpass it. + +It is not a large place however; one very long straight street, and one +very large wide square, not less than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, but I think +bigger, form the whole of Leghorn; which I can compare to nothing but a +_camera obscura,_ or magic lanthron, exhibiting prodigious variety of +different, and not uninteresting figures, that pass and re-pass to my +incessant delight, and give that sort of empty amusement which is _à la +portée de chacun_[Footnote: Within every one's reach.] so completely, +that for the present it really serves to drive every thing else from my +head, and makes me little desirous to quit for any other diversion the +windows or balcony, whence I look down now upon a Levantine Jew, +dressed in long robes, a sort of odd turban, and immense beard: now upon +a Tuscan contadinella, with the little straw hat, nosegay and jewels, I +have been so often struck with. Here an Armenian Christian, with long +hair, long gown, long beard, all black as a raven; who calls upon an old +grey Franciscan friar for a walk; while a Greek woman, obliged to cross +the street on some occasion, throws a vast white veil all over her +person, lest she should undergo the disgrace of being seen at all. + +Sometimes a group goes by, composed of a broad Dutch sailor, a +dry-starched puritan, and an old French officer; whose knowledge of the +world and habitual politeness contrive to conceal the contempt he has of +his companions. + +The geometricians tell us that the figure which has most angles bears +the nearest resemblance to that which has no angles at all; so here at +Leghorn, where you can hardly find forty men of a mind, dispute and +contention grow vain, a comfortable though temporary union takes place, +while nature and opinion bend to interest and necessity. + +The _Contorni_ of Leghorn are really very pretty; the Appenine +mountains degenerate into hills as they run round the bay, but gain in +beauty what in sublimity they lose. + +To enjoy an open sea view, one must drive further; and it really affords +a noble prospect from that rising ground where I understand that the +rich Jews hold their summer habitations. They have a synagogue in the +town, where I went one evening, and heard the Hebrew service, and +thought of what Dr. Burney says of their singing. + +It is however no credit to the Tuscans to tell, that of all the people +gathered together here, they are the worst-looking--I speak of the +_men_--but it is so. When compared with the German soldiery, the English +sailors, the Venetian traders, the Neapolitan peasants, for I have seen +some of _them_ here, how feeble a fellow is a genuine Florentine! And +when one recollects the cottagers of Lombardy, that handsome hardy race; +bright in their expression, and muscular in their strength; it is still +stranger, what can have weakened these too delicate Tuscans so. As they +are very rich, and might be very happy under the protection of a prince +who lets slip no opportunity of preferring his plebeian to his patrician +subjects; yet here at Leghorn they have a tender frame and an unhealthy +look, occasioned possibly by the stagnant waters, which tender the +environs unwholesome enough I believe; and the millions of live +creatures they produce are enough to distract a person not accustomed to +such buzzing company. + +We went out for air yesterday morning three or four miles beyond the +town-walls, where I looked steadily at the sea, till I half thought +myself at home. The ocean being peculiarly British property favoured the +idea, and for a moment I felt as if on our southern coast; we walked +forward towards the shore, and I stepped upon some rocks that broke the +waves as they rolled in, and was wishing for a good bathing house that +one might enjoy the benefit of salt-water so long withheld; till I saw +our _laquais de place_ crossing himself at the carriage door, and +wondering, as I afterwards found out, at my matchless intrepidity. The +mind however took another train of thought, and we returned to the +coach, which when we arrived at I refused to enter; not without +screaming I fear, as a vast hornet had taken possession in our absence, +and the very notion of such a companion threw me into an agony. Our +attendant's speech to the coachman however, made me more than amends: +"_Ora si vede amico_" (says he), "_cos'è la Donna; del mare istesso non +hà paura è pur và in convulsioni per via d'una mosca_[Z]." This truly +Tuscan and highly contemptuous harangue, uttered with the utmost +deliberation, and added to the absence of the hornet, sent me laughing +into the carriage, with great esteem of our philosophical _Rosso_, for +so the fellow was called, because he had red hair. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote Z: Now, my friend, do but observe what a thing is a woman! she +is not afraid even of the roaring ocean, and yet goes into fits almost +at the sight of a fly.] + +In a very clear day, it is said, one may see Corsica from hence, though +not less than forty or fifty miles off: the pretty island Gorgona +however, whence our best anchovies are brought to England, lies +constantly in view, + + Assurgit ponti medio circumflua Gorgon. + + RUTELIUS's Itinerary. + +How she came by that extraordinary name though, is not I believe well +known; perhaps her likeness to one of the Cape Verd islands, the +original Hesperides, might be the cause; for it was _there_ the +daughters of Phorcus fixed their habitation: or may be, as Medusa was +called _Gorgon par eminence_, because she applied herself to the +enriching of ground, this fertile islet owes its appellation from being +particularly manured and fructified. + +Here is an extraordinary good opera-house; admirable dancers, who +performed a mighty pretty pantomime Comedie _larmoyante_ without words; +I liked it vastly. The famous Soprano singer Bedini was at Lucca; but +here is our old London favourite Signora Giorgi, improved into a degree +of perfection seldom found, and from her little expected. + +Mr. Udney the British Consul is alone now; his lady has been obliged to +leave him, and take her children home for health's sake; but we saw his +fine collection of pictures, among which is a Danae that once belonged +to Queen Christina of Sweden, and fell from her possession into that of +some nobleman, who being tormented by scruples of morality upon his +death-bed, resolved to part with all his undraped figures, but not +liking to lose the face of this Danae, put the picture into a painter's +hands to cut and clothe her: the man, instead of obeying orders he +considered as barbarous, copied the whole, and dressed the copy +decently, sending it to his sick friend, who never discerned the trick; +and kept the original to dispose of, where fewer scruples impeded an +advantageous sale. The gentleman who bought it then, died; when Mr. +Udney purchased Danae, and highly values her; though some connoisseurs +say she is too young and ungrown a female for the character. There is a +Titian too in the same collection, of Cupid riding on a lion's back, to +which some very remarkable story is annexed; but one's belief is so +assailed by such various tales, told of all the striking pictures in +Italy, that one grows more tenacious of it every day I think; so that at +last the danger will be of believing too little, instead of too much +perhaps. Happy for travellers would it be, were that disposition of mind +confined to _painting_ only: but if it should prove extended to more +serious subjects, we can only hope that the violent excess of the +temptation may prove some excuse, or at least in a slight degree +extenuate the offence: A wise man cannot believe half he hears in Italy +to be sure, but a pious man will be cautious not to discredit it all. + +Our evening's walk was directed towards the burying-ground appointed +here to receive the bodies of our countrymen, and consecrated according +to the rites of the Anglican church: for _here_, under protection of a +factory, we enjoy that which is vainly sought for under the auspices of +a king's ambassador.--_Here_ we have a churchyard of our own, and are +not condemned as at other towns in Italy, to be stuffed into a hole like +dogs, after having spent our money among them like princes. Prejudice +however is not banished from Leghorn, though convenience keeps all in +good-humour with each other. The Italians fail not to class the subjects +of Great Britain among the Pagan inhabitants of the town, and to +distinguish themselves, say, "_Noi altri Christiani_[Footnote: We that +are Christians.]:" their aversion to a Protestant, conceal it as they +may, is ever implacable; and the last day only will convince them that +it is criminal. + +_Coelum non animum mutant_[Footnote: One changes one's sky but not +one's soul.], is an old observation; I passed this afternoon in +confirming the truth of it among the English traders settled here: whose +conversation, manners, ideas, and language, were so truly _Londonish_, +so little changed by transmigration, that I thought some enchantment had +suddenly operated, and carried me to drink tea in the regions of +_Bucklersbury_. + +Well! it is a great delight to see such a society subsisting in Italy +after all; established where distress may run for refuge, and sickness +retire to prepare for lasting repose; whence narrowness of mind is +banished by principles of universal benevolence, and prejudice precluded +by Christian charity: where the purse of the British merchant, ever open +to the poor, is certain to succour and to soothe affliction; and where +it is agreed that more alms are given by the natives of our island +alone, than by all the rest of Leghorn, and the palaces of Pisa put +together. + +I have here finished that work which chiefly brought me hither; the +Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson's Life. It is from this port they take their +flight for England, while we retire for refreshment to the + + + +BAGNI DI PISA. + + +But not only the waters here are admirable, every look from every window +gives images unentertained before; sublimity happily wedded with +elegance, and majestick greatness enlivened, yet softened by taste. + +The haughty mountain St. Juliano lifting its brown head over our house +on one side, the extensive plain stretched out before us on the other; a +gravel walk neatly planted by the side of a peaceful river, which winds +through a valley richly cultivated with olive yards and vines; and +sprinkled, though rarely, with dwellings, either magnificent or +pleasing: this lovely prospect, bounded only by the sea, makes a variety +incessant as the changes of the sky; exhibiting early tranquillity, and +evening splendour by turns. + +It was perhaps particularly delightful to me, to obtain once more a +cottage in the country, after running so from one great city to another; +and for the first week I did nothing but rejoice in a solitude so new, +so salutiferous, so total. I therefore begged my husband not to hurry us +to Rome, but take the house we lived in for a longer term, as I would +now play the English housewife in Italy I said; and accordingly began +calling the chickens and ducks under my window, tasted the new wine as +it ran purple from the cask, caressed the meek oxen that drew it to our +door; and felt sensations so unaffectedly pastoral, that nothing in +romance ever exceeded my felicity. + +The cold bath here is the most delicate imaginable; of a moderate degree +of coldness though, not three degrees below Matlock surely; but +omitting, simply enough, to carry a thermometer, one can measure the +heat of nothing. Our hot water here seems about the temperature of the +Queen's bath in Somersetshire; it is purgative, not corroborant, they +tell me; and its taste resembles Cheltenham water exactly. + +These springs are much frequented by the court I find, and here are +very tolerable accommodations; but it is not the season now, and our +solitude is perfect in a place which beggars all description, where the +mountains are mountains of marble, and the bushes on them bushes of +myrtle; large as our hawthorns, and white with blossoms, as _they_ are +at the same time of year in Devonshire; where the waters are salubrious, +the herbage odoriferous, every trodden step breathing immediate +fragrance from the crushed sweets of thyme, and marjoram, and winter +savoury: while the birds and the butterflies frolick around, and flutter +among the loaded lemon, and orange, and olive trees, till imagination is +fatigued with following the charms that surround one. + +I am come home this moment from a long but not tedious walk, among the +crags of this glorious mountain; the base of which nearly reaches, +within half a mile perhaps, to the territories of Lucca. Some country +girls passed me with baskets of fruit, chickens, &c. on their heads. I +addressed them as natives of the last-named place, saying I knew them to +be such by their dress and air; one of them instantly replied, "_Oh si, +siamo Lucchesi, noi altri; già si può vedere subito una Reppubblicana, e +credo bene ch'ella fe n' é accorta benissimo che siamo del paese della +libertà_[AA]." + +[Footnote AA: Oh yes, we are Lucca people sure enough, and I am +persuaded that you soon saw in our faces that we come from a land of +liberty.] + +I will add that these females wear no ornaments at all; are always proud +and gay, and sometimes a little fancy too. The Tuscan damsels, loaded +with gold and pearls, have a less assured look, and appear disconcerted +when in company with their freer neighbours--Let them tell why. + +Mean time my fairy dream of fantastic delight seems fading away apace. +Mr. Piozzi has been ill, and of a putrid complaint in his throat, which +above all things I should dread in this hot climate. This accident, +assisted by other concurring circumstances, has convinced me that we are +not shut up in measureless content as Shakespeare calls it, even under +St. Julian's Hill: for here was no help to be got in the first place, +except the useless conversation of a medical gentleman whose accent and +language might have pleased a disengaged mind, but had little chance to +tranquilize an affrighted one. What is worse, here was no rest to be +had, for the multitudes of vermin up stairs and below. When we first +hired the house, I remember my maid jumping up on one of the kitchen +chairs while a ragged lad cleared _that_ apartment for her of scorpions +to the number of seventeen. But now the biters and stingers drive me +_quite wild_, because one must keep the windows open for air, and a sick +man can enjoy none of that, being closed up in the Zanzariere, and +obliged to respire the same breath over and over again; which, with a +sore throat and fever, is most melancholy: but I keep it wet with +vinegar, and defy the hornets how I can. + +What is more surprising than all, however, is to hear that no lemons can +be procured for less than two pence English a-piece; and now I am almost +ready to join myself in the general cry against Italian imposition, and +recollect the proverb which teaches us + + Chi hà da far con Tosco, + Non bisogna esser losco[AB]; + +[Footnote AB: + Who has to do with Tuscan wight, + Of both his eyes will need the light. +] + +as I am confident they cannot be worth even two pence a hundred here, +where they hang like apples in our cyder countries; but the rogues know +that my husband is sick, and upon poor me they have no mercy. + +I have sent our folks out to gather fruit at a venture: and now this +misery will soon be ended with his illness; driven away by deluges of +lemonade, I think, made in defiance of wasps, flies, and a kind of +volant beetle, wonderfully beautiful and very pertinacious in his +attacks; and who makes dreadful depredations on my sugar and +currant-jelly, so necessary on this occasion of illness, and so +attractive to all these detestable inhabitants of a place so lovely. + +My patient, however, complaining that although I kept these harpies at a +distance, no sleep could yet be obtained;--I resolved when he was risen, +and had changed his room, to examine into the true cause: and with my +maid's assistance, unript the mattress, which was without exaggeration +or hyperbole _all alive_ with creatures wholly unknown to me. +Non-descripts in nastiness I believe they are, like maggots with horns +and tails; such a race as I never saw or heard of, and as would have +disgusted Mr. Leeuenhoeck himself. My willingness to quit this place and +its hundred-footed inhabitants was quickened three nights after by a +thunder storm, such as no dweller in more northern latitudes can form an +idea of; which, afflicted by some few slight shocks of an earthquake, +frighted us all from our beds, sick and well, and gave me an opportunity +of viewing such flashes of lightning as I had never contemplated till +now, and such as it appeared impossible to escape from with life. The +tremendous claps of thunder re-echoing among these Appenines, which +double every sound, were truly dreadful. I really and sincerely thought +St. Julian's mountain was rent by one violent stroke, accompanied with a +rough concussion, and that the rock would fall upon our heads by +morning; while the agonies of my English maid and the French valet, +became equally insupportable to themselves and me; who could only repeat +the same unheeded consolations, and protest our resolution of releasing +them from this theatre of distraction the moment our departure should +become practicable. Mean time the rain fell, and such a torrent came +tumbling down the sides of St. Juliano, as I am persuaded no female +courage could have calmly looked on. I therefore waited its abatement in +a darkened room, packed up our coach without waiting to copy over the +verses my admiration of the place had prompted, and drove forward to +Sienna, through Pisa again, where our friends told us of the damages +done by the tempest; and shewed us a pretty little church just out of +town, where the officiating priest at the altar was saved almost by +miracle, as the lightning melted one of the chalices completely, and +twisted the brazen-gilt crucifix quite round in a very astonishing +manner. + +Here, however, is the proper place, if any, to introduce the poem of +seventy-three short lines, calling itself an Ode to Society written in a +state of perfect solitude, secluded from all mortal tread, as was our +habitation at the Bagni di Pisa. + + ODE TO SOCIETY. + + I. + + SOCIETY! gregarious dame! + Who knows thy favour'd haunts to name? + Whether at Paris you prepare + The supper and the chat to share, + While fix'd in artificial row, + Laughter displays its teeth of snow: + Grimace with raillery rejoices, + And song of many mingled voices, + Till young coquetry's artful wile + Some foreign novice shall beguile, + Who home return'd, still prates of thee, + Light, flippant, French SOCIETY. + + II. + + Or whether, with your zone unbound, + You ramble gaudy Venice round, + Resolv'd the inviting sweets to prove, + Of friendship warm, and willing love; + Where softly roll th' obedient seas, + Sacred to luxury and ease, + In coffee-house or casino gay + Till the too quick return of day, + Th' enchanted votary who sighs + For sentiments without disguise, + Clear, unaffected, fond, and free, + In Venice finds SOCIETY. + + III. + + Or if to wiser Britain led, + Your vagrant feet desire to tread + With measur'd step and anxious care, + The precincts pure of Portman square; + While wit with elegance combin'd, + And polish'd manners there you'll find; + The taste correct--and fertile mind: + Remember vigilance lurks near, + And silence with unnotic'd sneer, + Who watches but to tell again + Your foibles with to-morrow's pen; + Till titt'ring malice smiles to see + Your wonder--grave SOCIETY. + + IV. + + Far from your busy crowded court, + Tranquillity makes her report; + Where 'mid cold Staffa's columns rude, + Resides majestic solitude; + Or where in some sad Brachman's cell, + Meek innocence delights to dwell, + Weeping with unexperienc'd eye, + The death of a departed fly: + Or in _Hetruria_'s heights sublime, + Where science self might fear to climb, + But that she seeks a smile from thee, + And wooes thy praise, SOCIETY. + + V. + + Thence let me view the plains below, + From rough St. Julian's rugged brow; + Hear the loud torrents swift descending, + Or mark the beauteous rainbow bending, + Till Heaven regains its favourite hue, + Æther divine! celestial blue! + Then bosom'd high in myrtle bower, + View letter'd Pisa's pendent tower; + The sea's wide scene, the port's loud throng, + Of rude and gentle, right and wrong; + A motley groupe which yet agree + To call themselves SOCIETY. + + VI. + + Oh! thou still sought by wealth and fame, + Dispenser of applause and blame: + While flatt'ry ever at thy side, + With slander can thy smiles divide; + Far from thy haunts, oh! let me stray, + But grant one friend to cheer my way, + Whose converse bland, whose music's art, + May cheer my soul, and heal my heart; + Let soft content our steps pursue, + And bliss eternal bound our view: + Pow'r I'll resign, and pomp, and glee, + Thy best-lov'd sweets--SOCIETY. + + + +SIENNA. + + +20th October 1786. + +We arrived here last night, having driven through the sweetest country +in the world; and here are a few timber trees at last, such as I have +not seen for a long time, the Tuscan spirit of mutilation being so +great, that every thing till now has been pollarded that would have +passed twenty feet in height: this is done to support the vines, and not +suffer their rambling produce to run out of the way, and escape the +gripe of the gatherers. I have eaten too many of these delicious grapes +however, and it is now my turn to be sick--No wonder, I know few who +would resist a like temptation, especially as the inn afforded but a +sorry dinner, whilst every hedge provided so noble a dessert. _Paffera +pur la malattia_[Footnote: The disorder will die away though.], as these +soft-mouthed people tell me; the sooner perhaps, as we are not here +annoyed by insects, which poison the pleasure of other places in Italy; +here are only _lizards_, lovely creatures! who being of a beautiful +light green colour upon the back and legs, reside in whole families at +the foot of every tree, and turn their scarlet bosoms to the sun, as if +to display the glories of colouring which his beams alone can bestow. + +The pleasing tales told of this pretty animal's amical disposition +towards man are strictly true, I hear; and it is no longer ago than +yesterday I was told an odd anecdote of a young farmer, who, carrying a +basket of figs to his mistress, lay down in the field as he crossed it, +quite overcome with the weather, and fell fast asleep. A serpent, +attracted by the scent, twined round the basket, and would have bit the +fellow as well as robbed him, had not a friendly lizard waked, and given +him warning of the danger. + +Swift says, that in the course of life he meets many asses, but they +have not _lucky names_. I have met many _vipers, and so few lizards_, it +is surprising! but they will not live in London. + +All the stories one has ever heard of sweetness in language and delicacy +in pronunciation, fall short of Siennese converse. The girls who wait +on us at the inn here, would be treasures in England, could one get them +thither; and they need move nothing but their tongues to make their +fortunes. I told Rosetta so, and said I would steal from them a poor +girl of eight years old, whom they kept out of charity, and called +Olympia, to be my language mistress, "_Battezata com' è, la lascieremo +Christiana_[AC]," was the answer. It is impossible, without their +manners, to express their elegance, their superior delicacy, graceful +without diffusion, and terse without laconicism. You ask the way to the +town of a peasant girl, and she replies, "_Passato'l Ponte, o pur +barcato'l Fiume, eccola a Sienna_[AD]." And as we drove towards the city +in the evening, our postillion sung improviso verses on his sweetheart, +a widow who lived down at Pistoja, they told me. I was ashamed to think +that no desk or study was likely to have produced better on so trite a +subject. Candour must confess, however, that no thought was new, though +the language made them for a moment seem so. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote AC: Being baptized as she is, we will leave her a Christian.] + +[Footnote AD: The bridge once passed, or the river crossed, Sienna lies +before you.] + +This town is neat and cleanly, and comfortable and airy. The prospect +from the public walks wants no beauty but water; and here is a +suppressed convent on the neighbouring hill, where we half-longed to +build a pretty cottage, as the ground is now to be disposed of vastly +cheap; and half one's work is already done in the apartments once +occupied by friars. With half a word's persuasion I should fix for life +here. The air is so pure, the language so pleasing, the place so +inviting;--_but we drive on_. + +There is, mean time, resident in the neighbourhood an English gentleman, +his name Greenfield, who has formed to himself a mighty sweet habitation +in the English taste, but not extensive, as his property don't reach +far: he is however a sort of little oracle in the country I am told; +gives money, and dispenses James's powders to the poor, is happy in the +esteem of numberless people of fashion, and the comfort of his country +people's lives beside; who, travelling to Sienna, as many do for the +advantage of studying Italian to perfection, find a friend and +companion where perhaps it is least expected. + +The cathedral here at Sienna deserves a volume, and I shall scarcely +give it a page. The pavement of it is the just pride of Italy, and may +challenge the world to produce its equal. St. Mark's at Venice floored +with precious stones dies away upon the comparison; this being all +inlaid with dove-coloured and white marbles representing historical +subjects not ill told. Were this operation performed in mosaic work, +others of rival excellence might be found. The pavement of Sienna's dome +is so disposed by an effort of art one never saw but here, that it +produces an effect most resembling that of a very fine and beautiful +damask table-cloth, where the large patterns are correctly drawn. + +_Rome_ however is to be our next stage, and many of our English +gentlemen now here, are with ourselves impatiently waiting for the +numberless pleasures it is expected to afford us. I will here close this +chapter upon our various desires; one wishing to see St. Peters; one +setting his heart upon entering the Capitol: to-morrow's sun will light +us all upon our search. + + + +ROME. + + +The first sleeping place between Sienna and this capital shall not +escape mentioning; its name is Radicosani, its title an inn, and its +situation the summit of an exhausted volcano. Such a place did I never +see. The violence of the mountain, when living, has split it in a +variety of places, and driven it to a breadth of base beyond +credibility, its height being no longer formidable. Whichever way you +turn your eyes, nothing but portions of this black rock appear +therefore; so here is extent without sublimity, and here is terror +mingled with disgust. The inside of the house is worthy of the prospect +seen from its windows; wild, spacious, and scantily provided. Never had +place so much the appearance of a haunted hall, where Sir Rowland or Sir +Bertrand might feel proud of their courage when + + The knight advancing strikes the fatal door, + And hollow chambers send a sullen roar. + + MERRY + +To this truly dismal reposing place is however kindly added a little +chapel; and few persons can imagine what a comfortable feel it gave me +on entering it in the morning after hearing the winds howl all night in +the black mountain. Here too we first made acquaintance with Signor +Giovanni Ricci, a mighty agreeable gentleman, who was kindly assistant +to us in a hundred little difficulties, afterwards occasioned by horses, +postillions, &c. which at last brought us through a bad country enough +to Viterbo, where we slept. + +The melancholy appearance of the Campagna has been remarked and +described by every traveller with displeasure, by all with truth. The +ill look of the very few and very unhealthy inhabitants confirms their +descriptions; and beside the pale and swelled faces which shock one's +sight, here is a brassy scent in the air as of verdigris, which offends +one's smell; the running water is of an odd colour too, like that in +which copper has been steeped. These are sad desolated scenes indeed, +though this is not the season for _mal' aria_ neither, which, it is +said, begins in May, and ends with September. The present sovereign is +mending matters as fast as he can, we hear; and the road now cutting, +will greatly facilitate access to his capital, but cannot be done +without a prodigious expence. The first view of Rome is wonderfully +striking. + + Ye awful wrecks of ancient times! + Proud monuments of ages past + Now mould'ring in decay. + + MERRY. + +But mingled with every crowding, every classical idea, comes to one's +recollection an old picture painted by R. Wilson about thirty years ago, +which I am now sure must have been a very excellent representation. + +Well, then! here we are, admirably lodged at Strofani's in the Piazza di +Spagna, and have only to chuse what we will see and talk on first among +this galaxy of rarities which dazzles, diverts, confounds, and nearly +fatigues one. I will speak of the oldest things first, as I was earnest +to see something of Rome in its very early days, if possible; for +example the Sublician Bridge, defended by Cocles when the infant +republic, like their favourite Hercules in his cradle, strangled the +serpent despotism: and of this bridge some portion may yet be seen when +the water is very low. + +The prison is more ancient still however; it was built by the kings; and +by the solidity of its walls, and depth of its dungeon, seems built for +eternity. Was it not this place to which Juvenal alludes, when he says, + + Felicia dicas + Tempora quæ quondam sub regibus atque tribunis + Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam. + +And it is in this horrible spot they shew you the miraculous mark of St. +Peter's head struck against the wall in going down, with the fountain +which burst out of the ground for his refreshment. Antiquaries, however, +assure us, that he could not have ever been confined there, as it was a +place for state prisoners only, and those of the highest rank: they +likewise tell us that Jugurtha passed seven months there, which is as +difficult to believe as any miracle ever wrought; for the world was at +least somewhat civilized in those days, and how it should be contented +with looking quietly on whilst a Prince of Jugurtha's consequence +should be so kept, appears incredible at the distance of 1900 years. +That Christians should be treated still worse, if worse could be found +for them, is less strange, when every step one treads is upon the bones +of martyrs; and who dares say that the surrounding campagna, so often +drenched in innocent blood, may not have been cursed with pestilence and +sterility to all succeeding ages? I have examined the place where Sylla +massacred 8000 fellow-citizens at once, and find that it produces no +herb but thistles, a weed almost unknown in any other part of Italy; and +one of the first punishments bestowed on sinful man. + +Marcellus's Theatre, an old fountain erected by Camillus when Dictator, +and the Tarpeian rock, attract attention powerfully: the last +particularly, + + Where brave Manlius stood, + And hurl'd indignant decads down, + And redden'd Tyber's flood. + + GREATHEED. + +People have never done contradicting Burnet, who says, in his travels, +that a man might jump down it now and not do himself much harm: the +truth is, its present appearance is not formidable; but I believe it is +not less than forty feet high at this moment, though the ground is +greatly raised. + +Of all things at Rome the Cloaca is acknowledged most ancient; a very +great and a very useful work it is, of Ancus Martius, fourth king of +Rome. The just and zealous detestation of Christians towards Pontius +Pilate, is here comically expressed by their placing his palace just at +its exit into the Tyber; and one who pretended to doubt of its being his +residence, would be thought the worse of among them. + +I recollect nothing else built before the days of the Emperors, who, for +the most part, were such disgracers of human nature and human reason, +that one would almost wish their names expunged, and all their deeds +obliterated from the face of the globe, which could ever tamely submit +to such truly wretched rulers. + +The Capitol, built by Tarquin, stood till the days of Marius and Sylla +it seems; that last-named Dictator erected a new one, which was +overthrown in the contests about Vitellius; Vespasian set it up again, +but his performance was burned soon after its author's death; and this +we contemplate now, is one of the works of Domitian, and celebrated by +Martial of course. Adrian however added one room to it, dedicated to +Egyptian deities alone: as a matter of mere taste I fancy, like our +introducing Chinese temples into the garden; but many hold that it was +very serious and superstitious regard, inspired by the victory Canopus +won over the Persian divinity of fire, by the subtlety of the Egyptian +priests, who, to defend their idol from that all-subduing element, +wisely set upon his head a vessel filled with water, and having +previously made the figure of Terra Cotta hollow, and full of water, +with holes bored at the bottom stopped only by wax to keep it in, a +seeming miracle extinguished the flames, as soon as approached by +Canopus; whose triumph was of course proclaimed, and he respected +accordingly. The figure was a monkey, whose sitting attitude favoured +the imposture: our antiquaries tell us the story after _Suidas_. + +As cruelty is more detestable than fraud, one feels greater disgust at +the sight of captive monarchs without hands and arms, than even these +idolatrous brutalities inspire; and no greater proof can be obtained of +Roman barbarity, than the statues one is shewn here of kings and +generals over whom they triumphed; being made on purpose for them +without hands and arms, of which they were deprived immediately on their +arrival at Rome. + +Enormous heads and feet, to which the other parts are wanting, let one +see, or at least guess; what colossal figures were once belonging to +them; yet somehow these celebrated artists seem to me to have a little +confounded the ideas of _big_ and _great_ like my countryman Fluellyn in +Shakespear's play: while the two famous demi-gods Castor and Pollux, +each his horse in his hand, stand one on each side the stairs which lead +to the Capitol, and are of a prodigious size--fifteen feet, as I +remember. The knowing people tell us they are portraits, and bid us +observe that one has pupils to his eyes, the other _not_; but our +_laquais de place_, who was a very sensible fellow too, as he saw me +stand looking at them, cried out, "Why now to be sure here are a vast +many miracles in this holy city--that there are:" and I heard one of our +own folks telling an Englishman the other day, how these two monstrous +statues, horses and all I believe, _came out of an egg_: a very +extraordinary thing certainly; but it is our business to believe, not to +enquire. He saw my countenance express something he did not like, and +continued, "_Eh basta! sarà stato un uovo strepitoso, è cosi sinisce +l'istoria_[AE]." + +[Footnote AE: Well, well! it was a famous egg we'll say, and there's an +end.] + +In this repository of wonders, this glorious _campidoglio_, one is first +shewn as the most valuable curiosity, the two pigeons mentioned by Pliny +in old mosaic; and of prodigious nicety is the workmanship, though done +at such a distant period: and here is the very wolf which bears the very +mark of the lightning mentioned by Cicero:--and here is the beautiful +Antinous again; _he_ meets one at every turn, I think, and always hangs +his head as if ashamed: here too is the dying gladiator; wonderfully +fine! savage valour! mean extraction! horrible anguish! all marking, all +strongly characteristical expressions--_all there_; yet all swallowed +up, in that which does inevitably and certainly swallow up all +things--approaching death. + +The collection of pictures here would put any thing but these statues +out of one's head: Guido's Fortune flying over the globe, scattering her +gifts; of which she gave him _one_, the most precious, the most +desirable. How elegantly gay and airy is this picture! But St. Sebastian +stands opposite, to shew that he could likewise excel in the pathetic. +Titian's famous Magdalen, of which the King of France boasts one copy, a +noble family at Venice another, is protested by the Roman connoisseurs +to reside here only; but why should not the artist be fond of repeating +so fine an idea? Guercino's Sybil however, intelligently pensive, and +sweetly sensible, is the single figure I should prefer to them all. + +Before we quit the Capitol, it is pity not to name Marforio; broken, +old, and now almost forgotten: though once companion, or rather +respondent to Pasquin, and once, a thousand years before those days, a +statue of the river _Nar_, as his recumbent posture testifies; not _Mars +in the forum_, as has been by some supposed. The late Pope moved him +from the street, and shut him up with his betters in the Capitol. + +Of Trajan and Antonine's Pillars what can one say? That St. Peter and +St. Paul stand on the tops of each, setting forth that uncertainty of +human affairs which they preached in their life-time, and shewing that +_they_, who were once the objects of contempt and abhorrence, are now +become literally _the head stones of the corner_; being but too +profoundly venerated in that very city, which once cruelly persecuted, +and unjustly put them to death. Let us then who look on them recollect +their advice, and set our affections on a place of greater stability. +The columns are of very unequal excellence, that of Trajan's confessedly +the best; one grieves to think he never saw it himself, as few princes +were less puffed up by well-deserved praise than he; but dying at +Seleucia of a dysenteric fever, his ashes were brought home, and kept on +the top of his own pillar in a gilt vase; which Sextus Quintus with more +zeal than taste took down, I fear destroyed, and placed St. Peter there. +Apollodorus was the architect of the elegant structure, on which, says +Ammianus Marcellinus, the Gods themselves gazed with wonder, seeing +that nothing but heaven itself was finer. "_Singularem sub omni cælo +structuram etiam numinum ascensione mirabilem_." + +I know not whether this is the proper place to mention that the good +Pope Gregory, who added to the possession of every cardinal virtue the +exertion of every Christian one, having looked one day with peculiar +stedfastness at this column, and being naturally led to reflect on his +character to whose honour it was erected, felt just admiration of a mind +so noble; and retiring to his devotions in a church not far off, began +praying earnestly for Trajan's soul: till a preternatural voice, +accompanied with rays of light round the altar he knelt at, commanded +his forbearance of further solicitation; assuring him that Trajan's soul +was secure in the care of his Creator. Strange! that those who record, +and give credit to such a story, can yet continue as a duty their +intercessions for the dead! + +But I have seen the Coliseo, which would swallow that of pretty Verona; +it is four times as large I am told, and would hold fourscore thousand +spectators. After all the depredations of all the Goths, and afterwards +of the Farnese family, the ruin is gloriously beautiful; possibly more +beautiful than when it was quite whole; there is enough left now for +Truth to repose upon, and a perch for Fancy beside, to fly out from, and +fetch in more. + +The orders of its architecture are easily discerned, though the height +of the upper story is truly tremendous; I climbed it once, not to the +top indeed, but till I was afraid to look down from the place I was in, +and penetrated many of its recesses. The modern Italians have not lost +their taste of a prodigious theatre; were they once more a single +nation, they would rebuild _this_ I fancy; for here are all the +conveniencies in _grande_, as they call it, that amaze one even in +_piccolo_ at Milan and Turin: Here were supper-rooms, and taverns, and +shops, and I believe baths; certainly long galleries big enough to drive +a coach round, and places where slaves waited to receive the commands of +masters and ladies, who perhaps if they did not wait to please them, +would scarcely scruple to detain them in the cage of offenders, and +keep them to make sport upon a future day. + +The cruelties then exercised on servants at Rome were truly dreadful; +and we all remember reading that in Augustus's time, when he did a +private friend the honour to dine with him, one of the waiters broke a +glass he was about to present full of liquor to the King; at which +offence the master being enraged, suddenly caused him to be seized by +the rest, and thrown instantly out of the window to feed his lampreys, +which lived in a pond on which the apartment looked. Augustus said +nothing at the moment; to punish the nobleman's inhumanity however, he +sent his officers next morning to break every glass in the house: A +curious chastisement enough, and worthy of a nation who, being powerful +to erect, populous to fill, and elegantly-skilful to adorn such a fabric +as this Coliseum which I have just been contemplating, were yet +contented and even happy to view from its well-arranged seats, +exhibitions capable of giving nothing but disgust and horror;--lions +rending unarmed wretches in pieces; or, to the still deeper disgrace of +poor Humanity, those wretches armed unwillingly against each other, and +dying to divert a brutal populace. + +These reflections upon Pagan days and classical cruelties do not disturb +however the peace of an old hermit, who has chosen one of these +close-concealed recesses for his habitation, and accordingly dwells, +dismally enough, in a hole seldom visited by travellers, and certainly +never enquired about by the natives. I stumbled on his strange apartment +by mere chance, and asked him why he had chosen it? He had been led in +early youth, he said, to reflect upon the miseries suffered by the +original professors of Christianity; the tortures inflicted on them in +this horrible amphitheatre, and the various vicissitudes of Rome since: +that he had dedicated himself to these meditations: that he had left the +world seventeen years, never stirring from his cell but to buy food, +which he eat alone and sparingly, and to pay his devotions in the _Via +Crucis_, for so the old Arena is now called; a simple plain wooden cross +occupying the middle of it, and round the Circus twelve neat, not +splendid chapels; a picture to each, representing the various stages of +our Saviour's passion. Such are the meek triumphs of our meek religion! +And that such substitutes should have replaced the African savages, +tigers, hyænas, &c. and Roman gladiators, not less ferocious than their +four-legged antagonists, I am quite as willing to rejoice at as the +hermit: They must be better antiquarians too than I am, who regret that +a nunnery now covers the spot where ambitious Tullia drove over the +bleeding body of her murdered parent, + + Pressit et inductis membra paterna rotis: + +That nunnery, supported by the arch of Nerva, which is all that is now +left standing of that Emperor's Forum. + +I must not however quit the Coliseum, without repeating what passed +between the King of Sweden and his Roman _laquais de place_ when he was +here; and the fellow, in the true cant of his Ciceroneship, exclaimed as +they looked up, "_Ah Maesta!_ what cursed Goths those were that tore +away so many fine things here, and pulled down such magnificent pillars, +&c." "Hold, hold friend," replies the King of Sweden; "I am one of those +cursed Goths myself you know: but what were your Roman nobles a-doing, +I would ask, when they laboured to destroy an edifice like this, and +build their palaces with its materials?" + +The baths of Livia are still elegantly designed round her small +apartments; and one has copies sold of them upon fans; the curiosity of +the original is to see how well the gilding stands; in many places it +appears just finished. These baths are difficult of access somehow; I +never could quite understand how we got in or out of them, but they did +belong to the Imperial palace, which covered this whole Palatine hill, +and here was Nero's golden house, by what I could gather, but of that I +thank Heaven there is no trace left, except some little portion of the +wall, which was 120 feet high, and some marbles in shades, like women's +worsted work upon canvass, very curious, and very wonderful; as all are +natural marbles, and no dye used: the expence must have surpassed +credibility. + +The Temple of Vesta, supposed to be the _very_ temple to which Horace +alludes in his second Ode, is a pretty rotunda, and has twenty pillars +fluted of Parian marble: it is now a church, as are most of the heathen +temples. + +Such adaptations do not please one, but then it must be allowed and +recollected that one is very hard to please: finding fault is so easy, +and doing right so difficult! + +The good Pope Gregory, who feared (by sacred inspiration one would +think) all which should come to pass, broke many beautiful antique +statues, "lest," said he, "induced by change of dress or name perhaps +our Christians may be tempted to adore them:" and we say he was a +blockhead, and burned Livy's decads, and so he did; but he refused all +titles of earthly dignity; he censured the Oriental Patriarchs for +substituting temporal splendours in the place of primitive simplicity; +which he said ought _alone_ to distinguish the followers of Jesus +Christ. He required a strict attention to morality from all his inferior +clergy; observed that those who strove to be first, would end in being +last; and took himself the title of servant to the servants of God. + +Well! Sabinian, his successor, once his favourite Nuncio, flung his +books in the fire as soon as he was dead; so his injunctions were obeyed +but while he lived to enforce them; and every day now shews us how +necessary they were: when, even in these enlightened times, there +stands an old figure that every Abate in the town knows to have been +originally made for the fabulous God of Physic, Esculapius, is prayed to +by many old women and devotees of all ages indeed, just at the Via +Sacra's entrance, and called St. Bartolomeo. + +A beautiful Diana too, with her trussed-up robes, the crescent alone +wanting, stands on the high altar to receive homage in the character of +St. Agnes, in a pretty church dedicated to her _fuor delle Porte_, where +it is supposed she suffered martyrdom; and why? Why for not venerating +that _very Goddess Diana_, and for refusing to walk in her procession at +the _New Moon_, like a good Christian girl. "_Such contradictions put +one from one's self_" as Shakespear says. + +We are this moment returned home from Tivoli; have walked round Adrian's +Villa, and viewed his Hippodrome, which would yet make an admirable open +Manège. I have seen the Cascatelle, so sweetly elegant, so rural, so +romantic; and I have looked with due respect on the places once +inhabited, and ever justly celebrated by genius, wit, and learning; have +shuddered at revisiting the spot I hastened down to examine, while +curiosity was yet keen enough to make me venture a very dangerous and +scarcely-trodden path to Neptune's Grotto; where, as you descend, the +Cicerone shews you a wheel of some coarse carriage visibly stuck fast in +the rock till it is become a part of it; distinguished from every other +stone only by its shape, its projecting forward, and its shewing the +hollow places in its fellies, where nails were originally driven. This +truly-curious, though little venerable piece of antiquity, serves to +assist the wise men in puzzling out the world's age, by computing how +many centuries go to the petrifying a cart wheel. A violent roar of +dashing waters at the bottom, and a fall of the river at this place from +the height of 150 feet, were however by no means favourable to my +arithmetical studies; and I returned perfectly disposed to think the +world's age a less profitable, a less diverting contemplation, than its +folly. + +We looked at the temple of the old goddess that cured coughs, now a +Christian church, dedicated to _la Madonna della Tosse_; it is exactly +all it ever was, I believe; and we dined in the temple of Sibylla +Tiburtina, a beautiful edifice, of which Mr. Jenkins has sent the model +to London in cork, which gives a more exact representation after all +than the best-chosen words in the world. I would rather make use of +_them_ to praise Mr. Jenkins's general kindness and hospitality to all +his country-folks, who find a certain friend in him; and if they please, +a very competent instructor. + +In order however to understand the meaning of some spherical _pots_ +observed in the Circus of Caracalla, I chose above all men to consult +Mr. Greatheed, whose correct taste, deep research, and knowledge of +architecture, led me to prefer his account to every other, of their use +and necessity: it shall be given in his own words, which I am proud of +his permission to copy. + +"Of those _pots_ you mention, there are not any remaining in the Circus +Maxiouis, as the walls, seats and apodium of that have entirely +disappeared. They are to be seen in the Circus of Caracalla, on the +Appian way; of this, and of this alone, enough still exists to ascertain +the form, structure, and parts of a Roman course. It was surrounded by +two parallel walls which supported the seats of the spectators. The +exterior wall rose to the summit of the gallery; the interior one +was much lower, terminated with the lowest rows, and formed +the apodium. This rough section may serve to elucidate my +description. From wall to wall an arch was turned which formed a +quadrant, and on this the seats immediately rested: but as the upper +rows were considerably distant from the crown of the arch, it was +necessary to fill the intermediate space with materials sufficiently +strong to support the upper stone benches and the multitude. Had these +been of solid substance, they would have pressed prodigious and +disproportionate weight on the summit of the arch, a place least able to +endure it from its horizontal position. To remedy this defect, the +architect caused _spherical pots_ to be baked; of these each formed of +itself an arch sufficiently powerful to sustain its share of the +incumbent weight, and the whole was rendered much less ponderous by the +innumerable vacuities. + +[Illustration] + +"A similiar expedient was likewise used to diminish the pressure of +their domes, by employing the scoriæ of lava brought for that purpose +from the Lipari Islands. The numberless bubbles of this volcanic +substance give it the appearance of a honeycomb, and answer the same +purpose as the pots in Caracalla's Circus, so much so, that though very +hard, it is of less specific gravity than wood, and consequently floats +in water." + +Before I quit the Circus of Caracalla, I must not forbear mentioning his +bust, which so perfectly resembles Hogarth's idle 'Prentice; but why +should they not be alike? + + For black-guards are black-guards in every degree, + +I suppose, and the people here who shew one things, always take delight +to souce an Englishman's hat upon his head, as if they thought so too. + +This morning's ramble let us to see the old grotto, sacred to Numa's +famous nymph, Ægeria, not far from Rome even now. I wonder that it +should escape being built round when Rome was so extensive as to contain +the crowds which we are told were lodged in it. That the city spread +chiefly the other way, is scarce an answer. London spreads chiefly the +Marybone way perhaps, yet is much nearer to Rumford than it was fifty or +sixty years ago. + +The same remark may be made of the Temple of Mars without the walls, +near the Porta Capena: a rotunda it was on the road side _then_: it is +on the road side _now_, and a very little way from the gate. + +Caius Cestius's sepulchre however, without the walls, on the other side, +is one of the most perfect remains of antiquity we have here. Aurelian +made use of that as a boundary we know: it stands at present half +without and half within the limit that Emperor set to the city; and is a +very beautiful pyramid a hundred and ten feet high, admirably +represented in Piranesi's prints, with an inscription on the white +marble of which it is composed, importing the name and office and +condition of its wealthy proprietor: _C. Cestius, septem vir epulonum_. +He must have lived therefore since Julius Caesar's time it is plain, as +he first increased the number of epulones to seven, from three their +original institution. It was probably a very lucrative office for a man +to be Jupiter's caterer; who, as he never troubled himself with looking +over the bills, they were such commonly, I doubt not, as made ample +profits result to him who went to market; and Caius Cestius was one of +the rich contractors of those days, who neglected no opportunity of +acquiring wealth for himself, while he consulted the honour of Jupiter +in providing for his master's table very plentiful and elegant banquets. + +That such officers were in use too among the Persians during the time +their monarchy lasted, is plain from the apocryphal story of Bel and the +Dragon in our Bibles, where, to the joy of every child that reads it, +Daniel detects the fraud of the priests by scattering ashes or saw-dust +in the temple. + +But I fear the critics will reprove me for saying that Julius Caesar +only increased the number to seven, while many are of opinion he added +three more, and made them a decemvirate: mean time Livy tells us the +institution began in the year of Rome 553, during the consulate of +Fulvius Purpurio and Marcellus, upon a motion of Romuleius if I +remember. They had the privilege granted afterwards of edging the gown +with purple like the pontiffs, when increased to seven in number; and +they were always known by the name _Septemviratus,_ or _Septemviri +Epulonum_, to the latest hours of Paganism. + +The tomb of Caius Cestius is supposed to have cost twelve thousand +pounds sterling of our money in those days; and little did he dream that +it should be made in the course of time a repository for the bones of +_divisos orbe Britannos_: for such it is now appointed to be by +government. All of us who die at Rome, sleep with this purveyor of the +gods; and from his monument shall at the last day rise the re-animated +body of our learned and incomparable Sir James Macdonald: whose numerous +and splendid acquirements, though by the time he had reached twenty-four +years old astonished all who knew him, never overwhelmed one little +domestic virtue. His filial piety however; his hereditary courage, his +extensive knowledge, his complicated excellencies, have now, I fear, no +other register to record their worth, than a low stone near the stately +pyramid of Jupiter's caterer. + +The tomb of Cæcilia Metella, wife of the rich and famous Crassus, claims +our next attention; it is a beautiful structure, and still called _Capo +di Bove_ by the Italians, on account of its being ornamented with the +_oxhead and flowers_ which now flourish over every door in the new-built +streets of London; but the original of which, as Livy tells us, and I +believe Plutarch too, was this. That Coratius, a Sabine farmer, who +possessed a particularly fine cow, was advised by a soothsayer to +sacrifice her to Diana upon the Aventine Hill; telling him, that the +city where _she_ now presided--_Diana_--should become mistress of the +world, and he who presented her with that cow should become master over +that city. The poor Sabine went away to wash in the Tyber, and purify +himself for these approaching honours[AF]; but in the mean time, a boy +having heard the discourse, and reported it to _Servius Tullius_, he +hastened to the spot, killed Coratius's cow for him, sacrificed her to +Diana, and hung her head with the horns on, and the garland just as she +died, upon the temple door as an ornament. From that time, it seems, the +ornament called _Caput Bovis_ was in a manner consecrated to Diana, and +her particular votaries used it on their tombs. Nor could one easily +account for the decorations of many Roman sarcophagi, till one +recollects that they were probably adapted to that divinity in whose +temple they were to be placed, rather than to the particular person +occupying the tomb, or than to our general ideas of death, time, and +eternity. It is probably for this reason that the immense sarcophagus +lately dug up from under the temple of Bacchus without the walls, cut +out of one solid piece of red porphyry, has such gay ornaments round it, +relative to the sacrifices of Bacchus, &c.; and I fancy these stone +coffins, if we may call them so, were often made ready and sold to any +person who wished to bury their friend, and who chose some story +representing the triumph of whatever deity they devoted themselves to. +Were the modern inhabitants of Rome who venerate St. Lorenzo, St. +Sebastiano, &c. to place, not uncharacteristically at all--a gridiron, +or an arrow on their tombstone, it might puzzle succeeding antiquarians, +and yet be nothing out of the way in the least. + +[Footnote AF: A circumstance alluded to and parodied by Ben Johnson in +his Alchemist. See the conduct of Dapper, &c.] + +Of the Egyptian obelisks at Rome I will not strive to give any account, +or even any idea. They are too numerous, too wonderful, too learned for +me to talk about; but I must not forbear to mention the broken thing +which lies down somewhere in a heap of rubbish, and is said to be the +greatest rarity in Rome, column, or _obelisk_ and the greatest antiquity +surely, if 1630 years before the birth of Christ be its date; as that +was but two centuries after the invention of letters by _Memnon_, and +just about the time that Joseph the favourite of Pharaoh died. There is +a sphinx upon it, however, mighty clearly expressed; and some one said, +how strange it was, if the world was no older than we think it, that +they should, in so early a stage of existence, represent, or even +imagine to themselves a compound animal[AG]: though the chimæra came in +play when the world was pretty young too, and the Prophet Isaiah speaks +of centaurs; but that was long after even Hesiod's time. + +[Footnote AG: The ornaments of the ark and tabernacle exhibit much +improvement in the arts of engraving, carving, &c. Nor did it seem to +cost Aaron any trouble to make a cast of Apis in the Wilderness for the +Israelites' amusement, 1491 years before Christ; while the dog Anubis +was probably another figure with which Moses was not unacquainted, and +that was certainly composite: a cynopephalus I believe.] + +A modern traveller has however, with much ingenuity of conjecture, given +us an excellent reason why the Sphinx was peculiar to Egypt, as the +Nile was observed to overflow when the sun was in those signs of the +Zodiack: + + The lion virgin Sphinx, which shows + What time the rich Nile overflows. + +And sure I think, as people lived longer then than they do now; as Moses +was contemporary with Cecrops, so that monarchy and a settled form of +government had begun to obtain footing in Greece, and apparently +migrated a little westward even then; that this column might have +employed the artists of those days, without any such exceeding stretch +of probability as our modern Aristotelians study to make out, from their +zeal to establish his doctrine of the world's eternity. While, if +conjecture were once as liberally permitted to believers as it is +generously afforded to scepticks, I know not whether a hint concerning +Sphinx's original might not be deduced from old Israel's last blessing +to his sons; _The lion of Judah_, with the _head of a virgin_, in whose +offspring that lion was one day to sink and be lost, except his hinder +parts; might naturally enough grow into a favourite emblem among the +inhabitants of a nation who owed their existence to one of the family; +and who would be still more inclined to commemorate the mystical +blessing, if they observed the fructifying inundation to happen +regularly, as Mr. Savary says, when the Sun left Leo for Virgo. + +The broken pillar has however carried me too far perhaps, though every +day passed in the Pope's Musæum confirms my belief, nay certainty, that +they did mingle the veneration of Joseph with that of their own gods: +The bushel or measure of corn on the Egyptian Jupiter's head is a proof +of it, and the name _Serapis_, a further corroboration: the dream which +he explained for Pharaoh relative to the event that fixed his favour in +that country, was expressed by _cattle_; and _for apis_, the _ox's +head_, was perfectly applicable to him for every reason. + +But we will quit mythology for the Corso. This is the first town in +Italy I have arrived at yet, where the ladies fairly drive up and down a +long street by way of shewing their dress, equipages, &c. without even a +pretence of taking fresh air. At Turin the view from the place destined +to this amusement, would tempt one out merely for its own sake; and at +Milan they drive along a planted walk, at least a stone's throw beyond +the gates. Bologna calls its serious inhabitants to a little rising +ground, whence the prospect is luxuriantly verdant and smiling. The +Lucca bastions are beyond all in a peculiar style of miniature beauty; +and even the Florentines, though lazy enough, creep out to Porto St. +Gallo. But here at Roma la Santa, the street is all our Corso; a fine +one doubtless, and called the _Strada del Popolo_, with infinite +propriety, for except in that strada there is little populousness enough +God knows. Twelve men to a woman even there, and as many ecclesiastics +to a lay-man: all this however is fair, when celibacy is once enjoined +as a duty in one profession, encouraged as a virtue in all. Where +females are superfluous, and half prohibited, it were as foolish to +complain of the decay of population, as it was comical in Omai the South +American savage, when he lamented that no cattle bred upon their island; +and one of our people replying, That they left some beasts on purpose to +furnish them; he answered, "Yes, but the idol worshipped at Bola-bola, +another of the islands, insisted on the males and females living +separate: so they had sent _him_ the cows, and kept only the bulls at +home." + +_Au reste_, as the French say, we must not be too sure that all who +dress like Abates are such. Many gentlemen wear black as the court garb; +many because it is not costly, and many for reasons of mere convenience +and dislike of change. + +I see not here the attractive beauty which caught my eye at Venice; but +the women at Rome have a most Juno-like carriage, and fill up one's idea +of Livia and Agrippina well enough. The men have rounder faces than one +sees in other towns I think; bright, black, and somewhat prominent eyes, +with the finest teeth in Europe. A story told me this morning struck my +fancy much; of an herb-woman, who kept a stall here in the market, and +who, when the people ran out flocking to see the Queen of Naples as she +passed, began exclaiming to her neighbours--"_Ah, povera Roma! tempo fù +quando passò qui prigioniera la regina Zenobia; altra cosa amica, robba +tutta diversa di questa_ reginuccia[AH]!" + +[Footnote AH: "Ah, poor degraded Rome! time was, my dear, when the great +Zenobia passed through these streets in chains; anotherguess figure from +this little Queeney, in good time!"] + +A characteristic speech enough; but in this town, unlike to every other, +the _things_ take my attention all away from the _people_; while, in +every other, the people have had much more of my mind employed upon +them, than the things. + +The arch of Constantine, however, must be spoken of; the sooner, because +there is a contrivance at the top of it to conceal musicians, which +added, as it passed, to the noise and gaiety of the triumph. Lord +Scarsdale's back front at Keddlestone exhibits an imitation of this +structure; a motto, expressive of hospitality, filling up the part +which, in the original, is adorned with the siege of Verona, that to me +seems well done; but Michael Angelo carried off Trajan's head they tell +us, which had before been carried thither from the arch of Trajan +himself. The arch of Titus Vespasian struck me more than all the others +we have named though; less for its being the first building in which the +Composite order of architecture is made use of, among the numberless +fabrics that surround one, than for the evident completion of the +prophecies which it exhibits. Nothing can appear less injured by time +than the bas-reliefs, on one side representing the ark, and golden +candlesticks; on the other, Titus himself, delight of human kind, drawn +by four horses, his look at once serene and sublime. The Jews cannot +endure, I am told, to pass under this arch, so lively is the +_annihilation_ of their government, and utter _extinction_ of their +religion, carved upon it. When reflecting on the continued captivity +they have suffered ever since this arch was erected here at Rome, and +which they still suffer, being strictly confined to their own miserable +Ghetto, which they dare not leave without a mark upon their hat to +distinguish them, and are never permitted to stir without the walls, +except in custody of some one whose business it is to bring them back; +when reflecting, I say, on their sorrows and punishments, one's heart +half inclines to pity their wretchedness; the dreadful recollection +immediately crosses one, that these are the direct and lineal progeny of +those very Jews who cried out aloud--"_Let his blood be upon us, and +upon our children!_"--Unhappy race! how sweetly does St. Austin say of +them--"_Librarii nostri facti sunt, quemadmodum solent libros post +dominos ferre_." + +The _arca degli orefici_ is a curious thing too, and worth observing: +the goldsmiths set it up in honour of Caracalla and Geta; but one +plainly discerns where poor Geta's head has been carried off in one +place, his figure broken in another, apparently by Caracalla's order. +The building is of itself of little consequence, but as a confirmation +of historical truth. + +The fountains of Rome should have been spoken of long ago; the number of +them is known to all though, and of their magnificence words can give no +idea. One print of the Trevi is worth all the words of all the +describers together. Moses striking the rock, at another fountain, where +water in torrents tumble forth at the touch of the rod, has a glorious +effect, from the happiness of the thought, and an expression so suitable +to the subject. When I was told the story of Queen Christina admiring +the two prodigious fountains before St. Peter's church, and begging that +they might leave off playing, because she thought them occasional, and +in honour of her arrival, not constant and perpetual; who could help +recollecting a similar tale told about the Prince of Monaco, who was +said to have expressed his concern, when he saw the roads lighted up +round London, that our king should put himself to so great an expence on +his account--in good time!--thinking it a temporary illumination made to +receive him with distinguished splendour. These anecdotes are very +pretty now, if they are strictly true; because they shew the mind's +petty but natural disposition, of reducing and attributing all _to +self_: but if they are only inventions, to raise the reputation of +London lamps, or Roman cascades, one scorns them;--I really do hope, and +half believe, that they are true. + +But I have been to see the two Auroras of Guido and Guercino. Villa +Ludovisi contains the last, of which I will speak first for forty +reasons--the true one because I like it best. It is so sensible, so +poetical, so beautiful. The light increases, and the figure advances to +the fancy: one expects Night to be waked before one looks at her again, +if ever one can be prevailed upon to take one's eyes away. The bat and +owl are going soon to rest, and the lamp burns more faintly as when day +begins to approach. The personification of Night is wonderfully hit off. +But Guercino is _such_ a painter! We were driving last night to look at +the Colisseo by moon-light--there were a few clouds just to break the +expanse of azure and shew the gilding. I thought how like a sky of +Guercino's it was; other painters remind one of nature, but nature when +most lovely makes one think of Guercino and his works. The Ruspigliosi +palace boasts the Aurora of Guido--both are ceilings, but this is not +rightly named sure. We should call it the Phoebus, for Aurora holds only +the second place at best: the fun is driving over her almost; it is a +more luminous, a more graceful, a more showy picture than the other, +more universal too, exciting louder and oftener repeated praises; yet +the other is so discriminated, so tasteful, so classical! We must go see +what Domenichino has done with the same subject. + +I forget the name of the palace where it is to be admired: but had we +not seen the others, one should have said this was divine. It is a +Phoebus again, _this_ is; not a bit of an Aurora: and Truth is springing +up from the arms of Time to rejoice in the sun's broad light. Her +expression of transport at being set free from obscurity, is happy in +an eminent degree; but there are faults in her form, and the Apollo has +scarcely dignity enough in _his_. The horses are best in Guide's +picture: Aurora at the Villa Ludovisi has but two; they are very +spirited, but it is the spirit of three, not six o'clock in a summer +morning. Surely Thomson had been living under these two roofs when he +wrote such descriptions as seem to have been made on purpose for them; +could any one give a more perfect account of Guercino's performance than +these words afford? + + The meek-ey'd morn appears, mother of dews, + At first faint-gleaming in the dappled East + Till far o'er æther spreads the widening glow, + And from before the lustre of her face + White break the clouds away: with quicken'd step + Brown Night retires, young Day pours in apace + And opens all the lawny prospect wide. + +As for the Ruspigliosi palace I left these lines in the room, written by +the same author, and think them more capable than any description I +could make, of giving some idea of Guido's Phoebus. + + While yonder comes the powerful King of Day + Rejoicing in the East; the lessening cloud, + The kindling azure, and the mountains brow + Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach + Betoken glad; lo, now apparent all + He looks in boundless majesty abroad, + And sheds the shining day. + +So charming Thomson wrote from his lodgings at a milliner's in +Bond-street, whence he seldom rose early enough to see the sun do more +than glisten on the opposing windows of the street: but genius, like +truth, cannot be kept down. So he wrote, and so they painted! _Ut +pictura poesis_. + +The music is not in a state so capital as we left it in the north of +Italy; we regret Nardini of Florence, Alessandri of Venice, and Ronzi of +Milan; and who that has heard Signior Marchesi sing, could ever hear a +successor (for rival he has none), without feeling total indifference to +all their best endeavours? + +The conversations of Cardinal de Bernis and Madame de Boccapaduli are +what my countrywomen talk most of; but the Roman ladies cannot endure +perfumes, and faint away even at an artificial rose. I went but once +among them, when Memmo the Venetian ambassador did me the honour to +introduce me _somewhere_, but the conversation was soon over, not so my +shame; when I perceived all the company shrink from me very oddly, and +stop their noses with rue, which a servant brought to their assistance +on open salvers. I was by this time more like to faint away than +they--from confusion and distress; my kind protector informed me of the +cause; said I had some grains of marechale powder in my hair perhaps, +and led me out of the assembly; to which no intreaties could prevail on +me ever to return, or make further attempts to associate with a delicacy +so very susceptible of offence. + +Mean time the weather is exceedingly bad, heavy, thick, and foggy as our +own, for aught I see; but so it was at Milan too I well remember: one's +eye would not reach many mornings across the Naviglio that ran directly +under our windows. For fine bright Novembers we must go to +Constantinople I fancy; certain it is that Rome will not supply them. + +What however can make these Roman ladies fly from _odori_ so, that a +drop of lavenderwater in one's handkerchief, or a carnation in one's +stomacher, is to throw them all into, convulsions thus? Sure this is the +only instance in which they forbear to _fabbricare fu +l'antico_[Footnote: Build upon the old foundations.], in their own +phrase: the dames, of whom Juvenal delights to tell, liked perfumes well +enough if I remember; and Horace and Martial cry "_Carpe rosas_" +perpetually. Are the modern inhabitants still more refined than _they_ +in their researches after pleasure? and are the present race of ladies +capable of increasing, beyond that of their ancestors, the keenness of +any corporeal sense? I should think not. Here are however amusements +enough at Rome without trying for their conversations. + +The Barberini palace, whither I carried a distracting tooth-ach, amused +even that torture by the variety of its wonders. The sleeping faun, +praised on from century to century, and never yet praised enough; so +drunk, so fast asleep, so like a human body! Modesty reproving Vanity, +by Leonardo da Vinci, so totally beyond my expectation or comprehension, +great! wise! and fine! Raphael's Mistress, painted by himself, and +copied by Julio Romano; this picture gives little satisfaction though +except from curiosity gratified, the woman is too coarse. Guido's +Magdalen up stairs, the famous Magdalen, effacing every beauty, of +softness mingled with distress. A St. John too, by dear Guercino, +transcendent! but such was my anguish the very rooms turned round: I +must come again when less ill I believe. + +Nothing can equal the nastiness at one's entrance to this magazine of +perfection: but the Roman nobles are not disgusted with _all sorts_ of +scents it is plain; these are not what we should call perfumes indeed, +but certainly _odori_: of the same nature as those one is obliged to +wade through before Trajan's Pillar can be climbed. + +That the general appearance of a city which contains such treasures +should be mean and disgusting, while one literally often walks upon +granite, and tramples red porphyry under one's feet, is one of the +greatest wonders to me, in a town of which the wonders seem innumerable: +that it should be nasty beyond all telling, all endurance, with such +perennial streams of the purest water liberally dispersed, and +triumphantly scattered all over it, is another unfathomable wonder: that +so many poor should be suffered to beg in the streets, when not a hand +can be got to work in the fields, and that those poor should be +permitted to exhibit sights of deformity and degradations of our species +to me unseen till now, at the most solemn moments, and in churches where +silver and gold, and richly-arrayed priests, scarcely suffice to call +off attention from their squallid miseries, I do not try to comprehend. +That the palaces which taste and expence combine to decorate should look +quietly on, while common passengers use their noble vestibules, nay +flairs, for every nauseous purpose; that princes whose incomes equal +those of our Dukes of Bedford and Marlborough, should suffer their +servants to dress other men's dinners for hire, or lend out their +equipages for a day's pleasuring, and hang wet rags out of their palace +windows to dry, as at the mean habitation of a pauper; while looking in +at those very windows, nothing is to be seen but proofs of opulence, and +scenes of splendour, I will not undertake to explain; sure I am, that +whoever knows Rome, will not condemn this _ebauche_ of it. + +When I spoke of their beggars, many not unlike Salvator Rosa's Job at +the Santa Croce palace, I ought not to have omitted their eloquence, and +various talents. We talked to a lame man one day at our own door, whose +account of his illness would not have disgraced a medical professor; so +judicious were his sentiments, so scientific was his discourse. The +accent here too is perfectly pleasing, intelligible, and expressive; and +I like their _cantilena_ vastly. + +The excessive lenity of all Italian states makes it dangerous to live +among them; a seeming paradox, yet certainly most true; and whatever is +evil in this way at any other town, is worst at Rome; where those who +deserve hanging, enjoy almost a moral certainty of never being hanged; +so unwilling is everybody to detect the offender, and so numerous the +churches to afford him protection if found out. + +A man asked importunately in our antichamber this morning for the +_padrone,_ naming no names, and our servants turned him out. He went +however only five doors, further, found a sick old gentleman sitting in +his lodging attended by a feeble servant, whom he bound, stuck a knife +in the master, rifled the apartments, and walked coolly out again at +noon-day: nor should we have ever heard of _such a trifle_, but that it +happened just by so; for here are no newspapers to tell who is murdered, +and nobody's pity is excited, unless for the malefactor when they hear +he is caught. + +But the Palazzo Farnese is a more pleasing speculation; the Hercules +faces us entering; Guglielmo della Porta made his legs I hear, and when +the real ones were found, _his were better:_ and Michael Angelo said, it +was not worth risquing the statue to try at restoring the old ones. +There is another Hercules stands near, as a foil to Glycon's, I suppose; +and the Italians tell you of our Mr. Sharp's acuteness in finding some +fault till then undiscovered, a very slight one though, with some of the +neck muscles: they tell it approvingly however, and make one admire +their candour, even beyond their Flora, who carries that in her +countenance which they possess in their hearts. Under a shed on the +right hand you find the famous groupe called Toro Farnese. It has been +touched and repaired, they tell you, till much of the spirit is lost; +but I did not miss it. The Bull and the Brothers are greatness itself; +but Dirce draws no compassion by her looks somehow, and the lady who +comes to her relief, seems too cold a spectatress of the scene. + +There were several broken statues in the place, and while my companions +were examining the groupe after I had done, the wench's conversation who +shewed it made my amusement: as we looked together at an Egyptian +_Isis_, or, as many call her, _the Ephesian Diana_, with a hundred +breasts, very hideous, and swathed about the legs like a mummy at Cairo, +or a baby at Rome, I said to the girl, "_They worshipped these filthy +things formerly before Jesus Christ came; but he taught us better_," +added I, "_and we are wiser now: how foolish was not it to pray to this +ugly stone_?"--"The people were _wickeder_ then, very likely;" replied +my friend the wench, "but I do not see that it _was foolish at all."_ + +Who says the modern Romans are degenerated? I swear I think them so like +their ancestors, that it is my delight to contemplate the resemblance. +A statue of a peasant carrying game at this very palace, is habited +precisely in the modern dress, and shews how very little change has yet +been made. The shoes of the low fellows too particularly attract my +notice: they exactly resemble the ancient ones, and when Persius +mentions his ploughman _peronatus arator_, one sees he would say so +to-day. + +The Dorian palace calls however, and people must give way to things +where the miraculous powers of Benvenuto Garofani are concerned; where +Lodovico Caracci exhibits a _testa del redentore_ beyond all praise, +uniting every excellence, and expressing every perfection; where, in the +deluge represented by Bonati, one sees the eagle drooping from a weight +of rain, majestic in his distress, and looking up to the luminous part +of the picture as if hoping to discover some ray of that sun he never +shall see again. How characteristic! how tasteful is the expression! The +famous Virgin and Child too, so often engraved and copied. + +I will run away from this Doria; it is too full of beauty--it dazzles: +and I will let them shew the pale green Gaspar Pouffins, so valuable, +so curious, to whom they please, while Nature and Claude content my +fancy and fill up every idea. + +At the Colonna palace what have I remarked? That it possesses the gayest +gallery belonging to any subject upon earth: one hundred and thirty-nine +feet long, thirty-four broad, and seventy high: profusely ornamented +with pillars, pictures, statues, to a degree of magnificence difficult +to express. The Herodias here by Guido, is the perfection of dancing +grace. No Frenchman enters the room that does not bear testimony to its +peculiar excellence. But here's Guercino's sweet returning Prodigal, and +here is a _Madonna disperata_ bursting as from a cavern to embrace the +body of her dead son and saviour.--Such a sky too! But it is treating +too theatrically a subject which impresses one more at last in the +simple _Pietà_[AI] d'Annibale Caracci at Palazzo Doria. + +[Footnote AI: The Christ in his mother's lap, after crucifixion, is +always called in Italy a _Pietà_.] + +One wonderfully-imagined picture by Andrea Sacchi, of Cain flying from +the sight of his murdered brother, shall alone detain me from mentioning +here at Rome what certainly would never have been thought on by +Englishmen had it remained at Windsor; no other than our old King +Charles's cabinet, sold to the Colonna family by Cromwell, and set about +in the old-fashioned way with gems, cameos, &c. one of which has been +stolen. + +And now to the Borghese, which I am told is for a time to finish my +fatigues, as after three days more we go to Naples. News perfectly +agreeable to me, who never have been well here for two hours together. + +All the great churches remain yet unvisited: they are to be taken at our +return in spring; mean while I will go see Mons Sacer in spite of +connoisseurship, though the place it seems is nothing, and the prospect +from it dull; but it produces thoughts, or what is next to +thought,--recollection of books read, and events related in one's early +youth, when names and stories make impression on a mind not yet hardened +by age, or contracted by necessary duty, so as no longer to receive with +equal relish the _tales of other times._ The lake too, with the floating +islands, should be mentioned; the colour of which is even blue with +venom, and left a brassy taste in my mouth for a whole day, after only +observing how it boiled with rage on dropping in a stone, and incrusted +a stick with its tartar in two minutes. One of our companions indeed +leaped upon the little spots of ground which float in it, and deserved +to feel some effect of his rashness; but it is sufficient to stand near, +I think; one scarcely can escape contagion. The sudden and violent +powers observable in this lake should at least check the computists from +thinking they can gather the world's age from its petrefactions. + +But we are called to the Vatican, where the Apollo, Laocoon, Antinous, +and Meleager, with others of less distinguished merit, suffer one to +think on nothing but themselves, and of the artists who framed such +models of perfection. Laocoon's agonies torment one. I was forced to +recollect the observation Dr. Moore says was first made by Mr. Locke, in +order to harden my heart against him who appears to feel only for +himself, when two such youths are expiring close beside him. But though +painting can do much, and sculpture perhaps more, at least one learns to +think so here at Rome, the comfort is, that poetry beats them both. +Virgil knew, and Shakespeare would have known, how to heighten even +this distress, by adding paternal anguish:--here is distress enough +however. + +Let us once more acknowledge the modesty and candour of Italians, when +we repeat what has been so often recorded, that Michael Angelo refused +adding the arm that was wanting to this chef d'oeuvre; and when +Bernini undertook the task, he begged it might remain always a different +colour, that he might not be suspected of hoping that his work could +ever lie confounded with that of the Greek artist. + +Such is not the spirit of the French: they have been always adding to +Don Quixote! a personage whose adventures were little likely to cross +one's fancy in the Vatican; but perfection is perfection. + +Here stands the Apollo though, in whom alone no fault has yet been +found. They tell you, he has just killed the serpent Python. "Let us beg +of him," says one of the company, "just to turn round and demolish those +cursed snakes which are devouring the poor old man and his boys yonder." +This was like the speech of _Marchez donc_ to the fine bronze horse +under the heavenly statue of Marcus Aurelius at the Capitol, and made me +hope that story might be true. It is the fashion for every body to go +see Apollo by torch light: he looks like _Phoebus_ then, the Sun's +bright deity, and seems to say to his admirers, as that Divinity does to +the presumptuous hero in Homer, + + Oh son of Tydeus, cease! be wise, and see + How vast the difference 'twixt the gods and thee. + +Indeed every body finds the remark obvious, that this statue is of +beauty and dignity beyond what human nature now can boast; and the +Meleager just at hand, with the Antinous, confirm it; for all elegance +and all expression, unpossessed by the Apollo, _they have_, while none +can miss the inferiority of their general appearance to his. + +The Musæum Clementinum is altogether such though, that these singularly +excellent productions of art are only proper and well-adapted ornaments +of a gallery, so stately as, on the other hand, that noble edifice seems +but the due repository of such inhabitants. Never were place and +decorations so adapted: never perhaps was so refined a taste engaged on +subjects so worthy its exertion. The statues are disposed with a +propriety that charms one; the situation of the pillars so contrived, +the colours of them so chosen to carry the eye forward--not fatigue it; +the rooms so illuminated: Hagley park is not laid out with more +judicious attention to diversify, and relieve with various objects a +mind delighting in the contemplation of ornamented nature; than is the +Pope's Musæum calculated to enchain admiration, and fix it in those +apartments where sublimity and beauty have established their residence; +and those would be worse than Goths, who could think of moving even an +old torso from the place where Pius Sextus has commanded it to remain. + +The other parts of this prodigious structure would take up one's life +almost to see completely, to remember distinctly, and to describe +accurately. When the reader recollects that St. Peter's, with all its +appurtenances, palace, library, musæum, every thing that we include in +the word _Vatican_, is said by the Romans to occupy an equal quantity of +space, to that covered by the city of Turin: the assertion need not any +longer be thought hyperbolical. + +I will say no more about it till at our return from Naples we visit all +the churches. + +Vopiscus said, that the statues in his time at Rome out-numbered the +people; and I trust the remark is now almost doubly true, as every day +and hour digs up dead worthies, and the unwholesome weather must surely +send many of the living ones to their ancestors: upon the whole, the men +and women of Porphyry, &c. please me best, as they do not handle long +knives to so good an effect as the others do, "_qui aime bien a +s'ègorger encore[Footnote: Who have still a taste to be cut-throats.],"_ +says a French gentleman of them the other day. There is however an air +of cheerfulness in the streets at a night among the poor, who fry fish, +and eat roots, sausages, &c. as they walk about gaily enough, and though +they quarrel too often, never get drunk at least. + +The two houses belonging to the Borghese family shall conclude my first +journey to Rome, and with that the first volume of my observations and +reflexions. + +Their town palace is a suite of rooms constructed like those at Wanstead +exactly; and where you turn at the end to come back by another suite, +you find two alabaster fountains of superior beauty, and two glass +lustres made in London, but never wiped since they left Fleet-street +certainly. They do not however _want_ cleaning as the fountains do; +which, by the extraordinary use made of them, give the whole palace an +offensive smell. + +Among the pictures here, the entombing our blessed Saviour by Rafaelle +is most praised: It is supposed indeed wholly inestimable, and I believe +is so, while Venus, binding Cupid's eyes, by Titian, engraved by +Strange, is possibly one of the pleasantest pictures in Rome. The Christ +disputing with the Doctors is inimitable, one of the wonderful works of +Leonardo da Vinci: but here is Domenichino's Diana among her nymphs, +very laboured, and very learned. Why did it put me in mind of Hogarth's +strolling actresses dressing in a barn? + +Villa Borghese presents more to one's mind at once than it will bear, +from the bas relief of Curtius over the door that faces you going in, to +the last gate of the garden you drive out at;--large as the saloon is +however, the figure of Curtius seems too near you; and the horse's hind +quarters are heavy, and ill-suited to the forehand; but here are men +and women enough, and odd things that are neither, at this house; so we +may let the horse of Curtius alone. + +Nothing can be gayer or more happily expressed in its way than the +Centaur, which Dr. Moore, like Dr. Young, finds _not_ fabulous; while +the brute runs away with the man, and Cupid keeps urging him forward. +The fawn nursing Bacchus when a baby, is another semi-human figure of +just and high estimation; and that very famous composition for which +Cavalier Bernini has executed a mattress infinitely softer to the eye +than any real one I ever found in _his_ country, has here an apartment +appropriated to itself. + +From monsters the eye turns of its own accord towards Nero, and here is +an incomparable one of about ten years old, in whose face I vainly +looked for the seeds of parricide, and murderous tyranny; but saw only a +sturdy boy, who might have been made an honest man perhaps, had not the +rod been spared by his old tutor, whose lenity is repaid by death here +in the next room. It is a relief to look upon the smiling Zingara; her +lively character is exquisitely touched, her face the only one perhaps +where Bernini could not go beyond the proper idea of arch waggery and +roguish cunning, adorned with beauty that must have rendered its +possessor, while living, irresistible. His David is scarcely young +enough for a ruddy shepherd swain; he seems too muscular, and confident +of his own strength; _this_ fellow could have worn Saul's armour well +enough. Æneas carrying his father, I understand, is by the other +Bernini; but the famous groupe of Apollo and Daphne is the work of our +Chevalier himself. + +There is a Miss Hillisberg, a dancer on the stage, who reminds every +body of this graceful statue, when theatrical distress drives her to +force expression: I mean the stage in Germany, not Rome, whence females +are excluded. But the vases in this Borghese villa! the tables! the +walls! the cameos stuck in the walls! the frames of the doors, all +agate, porphyry, onyx, or verd antique! the enormous riches contained in +every chamber, actually takes away my breath and leaves me stunned. Nor +are the gardens unbecoming or inadequate to the house, where on the +outside appear such bas-reliefs as would be treasured up by the +sovereigns of France or England, and shewn as valuable rarities. The +rape of Europa first; it is a beautiful antique. Up stairs you see the +rooms constantly inhabited; in the princess's apartment, her +chimney-piece is one elegant but solid amethyst: over the prince's bed, +which changes with the seasons, hangs a Ganymede painted by Titian, to +which the connoisseurs tell you no rival has yet been found. The +furniture is suitably magnificent in every part of the house, and our +English friends assured me, that they met the lady of it last night, +when one gentleman observing how pretty she was, another replied he +could not see her face for the dazzling lustre of her innumerable +diamonds, that actually by their sparkling confounded his sight, and +surrounded her countenance so that he could not find it. + +Among all the curiosities however belonging to this wealthy and +illustrious family, the single one most prized is a well-known statue, +called in Catalogues by the name of the Fighting Gladiator, but +considered here at Rome as deserving of a higher appellation. They now +dispute only what hero it can be, as every limb and feature is +expressive of a loftier character than the ancients ever bestowed in +sculpture upon those degraded mortals whom Pliny contemptuously calls +_Hordiarij_, and says they were kept on barley bread, with ashes given +in their drink to strengthen them. Indeed the statue of the expiring +Gladiator at the Capitol, his rope about his neck, and his unpitied +fate, marked strongly in his vulgar features, exhibits quite a separate +class in the variety of human beings; and though Faustina's favourite +found in the same collection was probably the showiest fellow then among +them, we see no marks of intelligent beauty or heroic courage in his +form or face, where an undaunted steadiness and rustic strength make up +the little merit of the figure. + +This charming statue of the prince Borghese is on the other hand the +first in Rome perhaps, for the distinguished excellencies of animated +grace and active manliness: his head raised, the body's attitude, not +studied surely, but the apparent and seemingly sudden effect of +patriotic daring. Such one's fancy forms young Isadas the Spartan; who, +hearing the enemy's approach while at the baths, starts off unmindful of +his own defenceless state, snatches a spear and shield from one he +meets, flies at the foe, performs prodigies of valour, is looked on by +both armies as a descended God, and returns home at last unhurt, to be +fined by the Ephori for breach of discipline, at the same time that a +statue was ordered to commemorate his exploits, and erected at the +state's expence. Monsignor Ennio Visconti, who saw that the figure +reminded me of this story, half persuaded himself for a moment that this +was the very Isadas; and that Jason, for whom he had long thought it +intended, was not young enough, and less likely to fight undefended by +armour against bulls, of whose fury he had been well apprised. Mr. +Jenkins recollected an antique ring which confirmed our new hypothesis, +and I remained flattered, whether they were convinced or no. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Observations and Reflections Made in +the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I, by Hester Lynch Piozzi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 16445-8.txt or 16445-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/4/16445/ + +Produced by Robert Connal, Mark Stewart and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +Produced from images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliothèque nationale de France) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/old/16445-8.zip b/old/16445-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..39fa195 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/16445-8.zip diff --git a/old/16445.txt b/old/16445.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b26305f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/16445.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8813 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Observations and Reflections Made in the +Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I, by Hester Lynch Piozzi + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I + +Author: Hester Lynch Piozzi + +Release Date: August 5, 2005 [EBook #16445] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Connal, Mark Stewart and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +Produced from images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliotheque nationale de France) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + + + + + + + + +OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS + +MADE IN THE COURSE OF A + +JOURNEY + +THROUGH + +_FRANCE, ITALY, AND GERMANY_. + + +By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI. + + +IN TWO VOLUMES + +Vol. I. + + +LONDON: + +Printed for A. STRAHAN; and T. CADELL in the Strand, + +MDCCLXXXIX. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +I was made to observe at Rome some vestiges of an ancient custom very +proper in those days--it was the parading of the streets by a set of +people called _Preciae_, who went some minutes before the _Flamen Dialis_ +to bid the inhabitants leave work or play, and attend wholly to the +procession; but if ill omens prevented the pageants from passing, or if +the occasion of the show was deemed scarcely worthy its celebration, +these _Preciae_ stood a chance of being ill-treated by the spectators. A +Prefatory introduction to a work like this, can hope little better usage +from the Public than they had; it proclaims the approach of what has +often passed by before, adorned most certainly with greater splendour, +perhaps conducted too with greater regularity and skill: Yet will I not +despair of giving at least a momentary amusement to my countrymen in +general, while their entertainment shall serve as a vehicle for +conveying expressions of particular kindness to those foreign +individuals, whose tenderness softened the sorrows of absence, and who +eagerly endeavoured by unmerited attentions to supply the loss of their +company on whom nature and habit had given me stronger claims. + +That I should make some reflections, or write down some observations, in +the course of a long journey, is not strange; that I should present them +before the Public is I hope not too daring: the presumption grew up out +of their acknowledged favour, and if too kind culture has encouraged a +coarse plant till it runs to seed, a little coldness from the same +quarter will soon prove sufficient to kill it. The flattering partiality +of private partisans sometimes induces authors to venture forth, and +stand a public decision; but it is often found to betray them too; not +to be tossed by waves of perpetual contention, but rather to sink in the +silence of total neglect. What wonder! He who swims in oil must be +buoyant indeed, if he escapes falling certainly, though gently, to the +bottom; while he who commits his safety to the bosom of the +wide-embracing ocean, is sure to be strongly supported, or at worst +thrown upon the shore. + +On this principle it has been still my study to obtain from a humane and +generous Public that shelter their protection best affords from the +poisoned arrows of private malignity; for though it is not difficult to +despise the attempts of petty malice, I will not say with the +Philosopher, that I mean to build a monument to my fame with the stones +thrown at me to break my bones; nor yet pretend to the art of Swift's +German Wonder-doer, who promised to make them fall about his head like +so many pillows. Ink, as it resembles Styx in its colour, should +resemble it a little in its operation too; whoever has been once _dipt_ +should become _invulnerable_: But it is not so; the irritability of +authors has long been enrolled among the comforts of ill-nature, and the +triumphs of stupidity; such let it long remain! Let me at least take +care in the worst storms that may arise in public or in private life, to +say with Lear, + + --I'm one + More sinn'd against, than sinning. + +For the book--I have not thrown my thoughts into the form of private +letters; because a work of which truth is the best recommendation, +should not above all others begin with a lie. My old acquaintance rather +chose to amuse themselves with conjectures, than to flatter me with +tender inquiries during my absence; our correspondence then would not +have been any amusement to the Public, whose treatment of me deserves +every possible acknowledgment; and more than those acknowledgments will +I not add--to a work, which, such as it is, I submit to their candour, +resolving to think as little of the event as I can help; for the labours +of the press resemble those of the toilette, both should be attended to, +and finished with care; but once complete, should take up no more of our +attention; unless we are disposed at evening to destroy all effect of +our morning's study. + + + + +OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS + +MADE IN A JOURNEY THROUGH + +France, Italy, and Germany. + + * * * * * + + + +FRANCE. + + + +CALAIS. + + +September 7, 1784. + +Of all pleasure, I see much may be destroyed by eagerness of +anticipation: I had told my female companion, to whom travelling was +new, how she would be surprized and astonished, at the difference found +in crossing the narrow sea from England to France, and now she is not +astonished at all; why should she? We have lingered and loitered six and +twenty hours from port to port, while sickness and fatigue made her feel +as if much more time still had elapsed since she quitted the opposite +shore. The truth is, we wanted wind exceedingly; and the flights of +shaggs, and shoals of maycril, both beautiful enough, and both uncommon +too at this season, made us very little amends for the tediousness of a +night passed on ship-board. + +Seeing the sun rise and set, however, upon an unobstructed horizon, was +a new idea gained to me, who never till now had the opportunity. It +confirmed the truth of that maxim which tells us, that the human mind +must have something left to supply for itself on the sight of all +sublunary objects. When my eyes have watched the rising or setting sun +through a thick crowd of intervening trees, or seen it sink gradually +behind a hill which obstructed my closer observation, fancy has always +painted the full view finer than at last I found it; and if the sun +itself cannot satisfy the cravings of a thirsty imagination, let it at +least convince us that nothing on this side Heaven can satisfy them, and +_set our affections_ accordingly. + +Pious reflections remind one of monks and nuns; I enquired of the +Franciscan friar who attended us at the inn, what was become of Father +Felix, who did the duties of the quete; as it is called, about a dozen +years ago, when I recollect minding that his manners and story struck +Dr. Johnson exceedingly, who said that so complete a character could +scarcely be found in romance. He had been a soldier, it seems, and was +no incompetent or mean scholar: the books we found open in his cell, +shewed he had not neglected modern or colloquial knowledge; there was a +translation of Addison's Spectators, and Rapin's Dissertation on the +contending Parties of England called Whig and Tory. He had likewise a +violin, and some printed music, for his entertainment. I was glad to +hear he was well, and travelling to Barcelona on foot by orders of the +superior. + +After dinner we set out to see Miss Grey, at her convent of Dominican +Nuns; who, I hoped, would have remembered me, as many of the ladies +there had seized much of my attention when last abroad; they had however +all forgotten me, nor could call to mind how much they had once admired +the beauty of my eldest daughter, then a child, which I thought +impossible to forget: one is always more important in one's own eyes +than in those of others; but no one is of importance to a Nun, who is +and ought to be employed in other speculations. + +When the Great Mogul showed his splendour to a travelling dervise, who +expressed his little admiration of it--"Shall you not often be thinking +of me in future?" said the monarch. "Perhaps I might," replied the +religieux, "if I were not always thinking upon God." + +The women spinning at their doors here, or making lace, or employing +themselves in some manner, is particularly consolatory to a British eye; +yet I do not recollect it struck me last time I was over: industry +without bustle, and some appearance of gain without fraud, comfort one's +heart; while all the profits of commerce scarcely can be said to make +immediate compensation to a delicate mind, for the noise and brutality +observed in an English port. I looked again for the chapel, where the +model of a ship, elegantly constructed, hung from the top, and found it +in good preservation: some scrupulous man had made the ship, it seems, +and thought, perhaps justly too, that he had spent a greater portion of +time and care on the workmanship than he ought to have done; so +resolving no longer to indulge his vanity or fondness, fairly hung it up +in the convent chapel, and made a solemn vow to look on it no more. I +remember a much stronger instance of self-denial practised by a pretty +young lady of Paris once, who was enjoined by her confessor to wring off +the neck of her favourite bullfinch, as a penance for having passed too +much time in teaching him to pipe tunes, peck from her hand, &c.--She +obeyed; but never could be prevailed on to see the priest again. + +We are going now to leave Calais, where the women in long white camblet +clokes, soldiers with whiskers, girls in neat slippers, and short +petticoats contrived to show them, who wait upon you at the +inn;--postillions with greasy night-caps, and vast jack-boots, driving +your carriage harnessed with ropes, and adorned with sheep-skins, can +never fail to strike an Englishman at his first going abroad:--But what +is our difference of manners, compared to that prodigious effect +produced by the much shorter passage from Spain to Africa; where an +hour's time, and sixteen miles space only, carries you from Europe, from +civilization, from Christianity. A gentleman's description of his +feelings on that occasion rushes now on my mind, and makes me half +ashamed to sit here, in Dessein's parlour, writing remarks, in good +time!--upon places as well known as Westminster-bridge to almost all +those who cross it at this moment; while the custom-house officers +intrusion puts me the less out of humour, from the consciousness that, +if I am disturbed, I am disturbed from doing _nothing_. + + + +CHANTILLY. + + +Our way to this place lay through Boulogne; the situation of which is +pleasing, and the fish there excellent. I was glad to see Boulogne, +though I can scarcely tell why; but one is always glad to see something +new, and talk of something old: for example, the story I once heard of +Miss Ashe, speaking of poor Dr. James, who loved profligate conversation +dearly,--"That man should set up his quarters across the water," said +she; "why Boulogne would be a seraglio to him." + +The country, as far as Montreuil, is a coarse one; _thin herbage in the +plains and fruitless fields_. The cattle too are miserably poor and +lean; but where there is no grass, we can scarcely expect them to be +fat: they must not feed on wheat, I suppose, and cannot digest tobacco. +Herds of swine, not flocks of sheep, meet one's eye upon the hills; and +the very few gentlemen's feats that we have passed by, seem out of +repair, and deserted. The French do not reside much in private houses, +as the English do; but while those of narrower fortunes flock to the +country towns within their reach, those of ampler purses repair to +Paris, where the rent of their estate supplies them with pleasures at no +very enormous expence. The road is magnificent, like our old-fashioned +avenue in a nobleman's park, but wider, and paved in the middle: this +convenience continued on for many hundred miles, and all at the king's +expence. Every man you meet, politely pulls off his hat _en passant_; +and the gentlemen have commonly a good horse under them, but certainly a +dressed one. + +Sporting season is not come in yet, but, I believe the idea of sporting +seldom enters any head except an English one: here is prodigious plenty +of game, but the familiarity with which they walk about and sit by our +road-side, shews they feel no apprehensions. + +Harvest, even in France, is extremely backward this year, I see; no +crops are yet got in, nor will reaping be likely to pay its own charges. +But though summer is come too late for profit, the pleasure it brings is +perhaps enhanced by delay: like a life, the early part of which has been +wasted in sickness, the possessor finds too little time remaining for +work, when health _does_ come; and spends all that he has left, +naturally enough, in enjoyment. + +The pert vivacity of _La Fille_ at Montreuil was all we could find there +worth remarking: it filled up my notions of French flippancy agreeably +enough; as no English wench would so have answered one to be sure. She +had complained of our avant-coureur's behaviour. "_Il parle sur le bant +ton, mademoiselle_" (said I), "_mais il a le coeur bon_[A]:" "_Ouyda_" +(replied she, smartly), "_mais c'est le ton qui fait le chanson_[B]." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: He sets his talk to a sounding tune, my dear, but he is an +honest fellow.] + +[Footnote B: But I always thought it was the tune which made the +musick.] + +The cathedral at Amiens made ample amends for the country we passed +through to see it; the _Nef d'Amiens_ deserves the fame of a first-rate +structure: and the ornaments of its high altar seem particularly well +chosen, of an excellent taste, and very capital execution. The vineyards +from thence hither shew, that either the climate, or season, or both, +improve upon one: the grapes climbing up some not very tall +golden-pippin trees, and mingling their fruits at the top, have a mighty +pleasing effect; and I observe the rage for Lombardy poplars is in equal +force here as about London: no tolerable house have I passed without +seeing long rows of them; all young plantations, as one may perceive by +their size. Refined countries always are panting for speedy enjoyment: +the maxim of _carpe diem_[Footnote: Seize the present moment.] came into +Rome when luxury triumphed there; and poets and philosophers lent their +assistance to decorate and dignify her gaudy car. Till then we read of +no such haste to be happy; and on the same principle, while Americans +contentedly wait the slow growth of their columnal chesnut, our hot-bed +inhabitants measure the slender poplar with canes, anxiously admiring +its quick growth and early elegance; yet are often cut down themselves, +before their youthful favourite can afford them either pleasure or +advantage. + +This charming palace and gardens were new to neither of us, yet lovely +to both: the tame fish, I remember so well to have fed from my hand +eleven or twelve years ago, are turned almost all white; can it be with +age I wonder? the naturalists must tell. I once saw a carp which weighed +six pounds and an half taken out of a pond in Hertfordshire, where the +owners knew it had resided forty years at least; and it was not white, +but of the common colour: Quere, how long will they live? and when will +they begin to change? The stables struck me as more magnificent this +time than the last I saw them; the hounds were always dirtily and ill +kept; but hunting is not the taste of any nation now but ours; none but +a young English heir says to his estate as Goliah did to David, _Come to +me, and I will give thee to the beasts of the field, and to the fowls of +the air_; as some of our old books of piety reproach us. Every trick +that money can play with the most lavish abundance of water is here +exhibited; nor is the sight of a _jet d'eau_, or the murmur of an +artificial cascade, undelightful in a hot day, let the Nature-mongers +say what they please. The prince's cabinet, for a private collection, is +not a mean one; but I was sorry to see his quadrant rusted to the globe +almost, and the poor planetarium out of all repair. The great stuffed +dog is a curiosity however; I never saw any of the canine species so +large, and withal so beautiful, living or dead. + +The theatre belonging to the house is a lovely one; and the truly +princely possessor, when he heard once that an English gentleman, +travelling for amusement, had called at Chantilly too late to enjoy the +diversion, instantly, though past twelve o'clock at night, ordered a new +representation, that his curiosity might be gratified. This is the same +Prince of Conde, who going from Paris to his country-seat here for a +month or two, when his eldest son was nine years old, left him fifty +louis d'ors as an allowance during his absence. At his return to town, +the boy produced his purse, crying "_Papa! here's all the money safe, I +have never touched it once_"--The Prince, in reply, took him gravely to +the window, and opening it, very quietly poured all the louis d'ors into +the street; saying, "Now, if you have neither virtue enough to give away +your money, nor spirit enough to spend it, always _do this_ for the +future, do you hear; that the poor may at least have a _chance for it_." + + + +PARIS. + + +The fine paved road to this town has many inconveniencies, and jars the +nerves terribly with its perpetual rattle; the approach however always +strikes one as very fine, I think, and the boulevards and guingettes +look always pretty too: as wine, beer, and spirits are not permitted to +be sold there, one sees what England does not even pretend to exhibit, +which is gaiety without noise, and a crowd without a riot. I was pleased +to go over the churches again too, and re-experience that particular +sensation which the disposition of St. Rocque's altars and ornaments +alone can give. In the evening we looked at the new square called the +Palais Royal, whence the Due de Chartres has removed a vast number of +noble trees, which it was a sin and shame to profane with an axe, after +they had adorned that spot for so many centuries.--The people were +accordingly as angry, I believe, as Frenchmen can be, when the folly was +first committed: the court, however, had wit enough to convert the place +into a sort of Vauxhall, with tents, fountains, shops, full of frippery, +brilliant at once and worthless, to attract them; with coffeehouses +surrounding it on every side; and now they are all again _merry_ and +_happy_, synonymous terms at Paris, though often disunited in London; +and _Vive le Duc de Chartres_! + +The French are really a contented race of mortals;--precluded almost +from possibility of adventure, the low Parisian leads a gentle humble +life, nor envies that greatness he never can obtain; but either wonders +delightedly, or diverts himself philosophically with the sight of +splendours which seldom fail to excite serious envy in an Englishman, +and sometimes occasion even suicide, from disappointed hopes, which +never could take root in the heart of these unaspiring people. +Reflections of this cast are suggested to one here in every shop, where +the behaviour of the matter at first sight contradicts all that our +satirists tell us of the _supple Gaul_, &c. A mercer in this town shews +you a few silks, and those he scarcely opens; _vous devez +choisir_[Footnote: Chuse what you like.], is all he thinks of saying, to +invite your custom; then takes out his snuff-box, and yawns in your +face, fatigued by your inquiries. For my own part, I find my natural +disgust of such behaviour greatly repelled, by the recollection that the +man I am speaking to is no inhabitant of + + A happy land, where circulating pow'r + Flows thro' each member of th'embodied state-- + + S. JOHNSON. + + +and I feel well-inclined to respect the peaceful tenor of a life, which +likes not to be broken in upon, for the sake of obtaining riches, which +when gotten must end only in the pleasure of counting them. A Frenchman +who should make his fortune by trade tomorrow, would be no nearer +advancement in society or situation: why then should he solicit, by arts +he is too lazy to delight in the practice of, that opulence which would +afford so slight an improvement to his comforts? He lives as well as he +wishes already; he goes to the Boulevards every night, treats his wife +with a glass of lemonade or ice, and holds up his babies by turns, to +hear the jokes of _Jean Pottage_. Were he to recommend his goods, like +the Londoner, with studied eloquence and attentive flattery, he could +not hope like him that the eloquence he now bestows on the decorations +of a hat, or the varnish of an equipage, may one day serve to torment a +minister, and obtain a post of honour for his son; he could not hope +that on some future day his flattery might be listened to by some lady +of more birth than beauty, or riches perhaps, when happily employed upon +a very different subject, and be the means of lifting himself into a +state of distinction, his children too into public notoriety. + +Emulation, ambition, avarice, however, must in all arbitrary governments +be confined to the great; the _other_ set of mortals, for there are none +there of _middling_ rank, live, as it should seem, like eunuchs in a +seraglio; feel themselves irrevocably doomed to promote the pleasure of +their superiors, nor ever dream of sighing for enjoyments from which an +irremeable boundary divides them. They see at the beginning of their +lives how that life must necessarily end, and trot with a quiet, +contented, and unaltered pace down their long, straight, and shaded +avenue; while we, with anxious solicitude, and restless hurry, watch the +quick turnings of our serpentine walk; which still presents, either to +sight or expectation, some changes of variety in the ever-shifting +prospect, till the unthought-of, unexpected end comes suddenly upon us, +and finishes at once the fluctuating scene. Reflections must now give +way to facts for a moment, though few English people want to be told +that every hotel here, belonging to people of condition, is shut out +from the street like our Burlington-house, which gives a general gloom +to the look of this city so famed for its gaiety: the streets are narrow +too, and ill-paved; and very noisy, from the echo made by stone +buildings drawn up to a prodigious height, many of the houses having +seven, and some of them even eight stories from the bottom. The +contradictions one meets with every moment likewise strike even a +cursory observer--a countess in a morning, her hair dressed, with +diamonds too perhaps, a dirty black handkerchief about her neck, and a +flat silver ring on her finger, like our ale-wives; a _femme publique_, +dressed avowedly for the purposes of alluring the men, with not a very +small crucifix hanging at her bosom;--and the Virgin Mary's sign at an +alehouse door, with these words, + + Je suis la mere de mon Dieu, + Et la gardienne de ce lieu[C]. + +[Footnote C: + The mother of my God am I, + And keep this house right carefully. +] + +I have, however, borrowed Bocage's Remarks upon the English nation, +which serve to damp my spirit of criticism exceedingly: She had more +opportunities than I for observation, not less quickness of discernment +surely; and her stay in London was longer than mine in Paris.--Yet, how +was she deceived in many points! + +I will tell nothing that I did not _see_; and among the objects one +would certainly avoid seeing if it were possible, is the deformity of +the poor.--Such various modes of warping the human figure could hardly +be observed in England by a surgeon in high practice, as meet me about +this country incessantly.--I have seen them in the galleries and +outer-courts even of the palace itself, and am glad to turn my eyes for +relief on the Duke of Orleans's pictures; a glorious collection! The +Italian noblemen, in whose company we saw it, acknowledged with candour +the good taste of the selection; and I was glad to see again what had +delighted me so many years before: particularly, the three Marys, by +Annibale Caracci; and Rubens's odd conceit of making Juno's Peacock peck +Paris's leg, for having refused the apple to his mistress. + +The manufacture at the Gobelins seems exceedingly improved; the +colouring less inharmonious, the drawing more correct; but our Parisians +are not just now thinking about such matters; they are all wild for love +of a new comedy, written by Mons. de Beaumarchais, and called, "Le +Mariage de Figaro," full of such wit as we were fond of in the reign of +Charles the Second, indecent merriment, and gross immorality; mixed, +however, with much acrimonious satire, as if Sir George Etherege and +Johnny Gay had clubbed their powers of ingenuity at once to divert and +to corrupt their auditors; who now carry the verses of this favourite +piece upon their fans, pocket-handkerchiefs, &c. as our women once did +those of the Beggar's Opera. + +We have enjoyed some very agreeable society here in the company of Comte +Turconi, a Milanese Nobleman who, desirous to escape all the frivolous, +and petty distinction which birth alone bestows, has long fixed his +residence in Paris, where talents find their influence, and where a +great city affords that unobserved freedom of thought and action which +can scarcely be expected by a man of high rank in a smaller circle; but +which, when once tasted, will not seldom be preferred to the attentive +watchfulness of more confined society. + +The famous Venetian too, who has written so many successful comedies, +and is now employed upon his own Memoirs, at the age of eighty-four, +was a delightful addition to our Coterie, _Goldoni_. He is garrulous, +good-humoured, and gay; resembling the late James Harris of Salisbury in +person not manner, and seems justly esteemed, and highly, by his +countrymen. + +The conversation of the Marquis Trotti and the Abate Bucchetti is +likewise particularly pleasing; especially to me, who am naturally +desirous to live as much as possible among Italians of general +knowledge, good taste, and polished manners, before I enter their +country, where the language will be so very indispensable. Mean time I +have stolen a day to visit my old acquaintance the English Austin Nuns +at the Fossee, and found the whole community alive and cheerful; they +are many of them agreeable women, and having seen Dr. Johnson with me +when I was last abroad, enquired much for him: Mrs. Fermor, the +Prioress, niece to Belinda in the Rape of the Lock, taking occasion to +tell me, comically enough, "That she believed there was but little +comfort to be found in a house that harboured _poets_; for that she +remembered Mr. Pope's praise made her aunt very troublesome and +conceited, while his numberless caprices would have employed ten +servants to wait on him; and he gave one" (said she) "no amends by his +talk neither, for he only sate dozing all day, when the sweet wine was +out, and made his verses chiefly in the night; during which season he +kept himself awake by drinking coffee, which it was one of the maids +business to make for him, and they took it by turns." + +These ladies really live here as comfortably for aught I see as peace, +quietness, and the certainty of a good dinner every day can make them. +Just so much happier than as many old maids who inhabit Milman Street +and Chapel Row, as they are sure not to be robbed by a treacherous, or +insulted by a favoured, servant in the decline of life, when protection +is grown hopeless and resistance vain; and as they enjoy at least a +moral certainty of never living worse than they do to-day: while the +little knot of unmarried females turned fifty round Red Lion Square +_may_ always be ruined by a runaway agent, a bankrupted banker, or a +roguish steward; and even the petty pleasures of six-penny quadrille may +become by that misfortune too costly for their income.--_Aureste_, as +the French say, the difference is small: both coteries sit separate in +the morning, go to prayers at noon, and read the chapters for the day: +change their neat dress, eat their little dinner, and play at small +games for small sums in the evening; when recollection tires, and chat +runs low. + +But more adventurous characters claim my present attention. All Paris I +think, myself among the rest, assembled to see the valiant brothers, +Robert and Charles, mount yesterday into the air, in company with a +certain Pilatre de Rosier, who conducted them in the new-invented flying +chariot fastened to an air-balloon. It was from the middle of the +Tuilleries that they set out, a place very favourable and well-contrived +for such public purposes. But all was so nicely managed, so cleverly +carried on somehow, that the order and decorum of us who remained on +firm ground, struck me more than even the very strange sight of human +creatures floating in the wind: but I have really been witness to ten +times as much bustle and confusion at a crowded theatre in London, than +what these peaceable Parisians made when the whole city was gathered +together. Nobody was hurt, nobody was frighted, nobody could even +pretend to feel themselves incommoded. Such are among the few comforts +that result from a despotic government. + +My republican spirit, however, boiled up a little last Monday, when I +had to petition Mons. de Calonne for the restoration of some trifles +detained in the custom-house at Calais. His politeness, indeed, and the +sight of others performing like acts of humiliation, reconciled me in +some measure to the drudgery of running from subaltern to subaltern, +intreating, in pathetic terms, the remission of a law which is at last +either just or unjust; if just, no felicitation should, methinks, be +permitted to change it; if unjust, what can be so grating as the +obligation to solicit? + +We mean to quit Paris to-morrow; I therefore enquired this evening, what +was become of our aerial travellers. A very grave man replied, "_Je +crois, Madame, qu'ils sont deja arrives ces Messieurs la, au lieu ou +les vents se forment_[D]." + +[Footnote D: I fancy, Ma'am, the gentlemen are gone to see the place +where all the winds blow from.] + + + +LYONS. + + +Sept. 25, 1784. + +We left the capital at our intended time, and put into the carriage, for +amusement, a book seriously recommended by Mr. Goldoni; but which +diverted me only by the fanfaronades that it contained. The author has, +however, got the premium by this performance, which the Academy of +Berlin promised to whoever wrote best this year on any Belles Lettres +subject. This gentleman judiciously chose to give reasons for the +universality of the French language, and has been so gaily insolent to +every other European nation in his flimsy pamphlet, that some will +probably praise, many reply to, all read, and all forget it. I will +confess myself so seized on by his sprightly impertinence, that I wished +for leisure to translate, and wit to answer him at first, but the want +of one solid thought by which to recollect his existence has cured me; +and I now find that he was deliciously cool and sharp, like the ordinary +wine of the country we are passing through, which having _no body_, can +neither keep its little power long, nor even use it while fresh to any +sensible effect. + +The country is really beautiful; but descriptions are _so_ fallacious, +one half despairs of communicating one's ideas as they are: for either +well-chosen words do not present themselves, or being well-chosen they +detain the reader, and fix his mind on _them_, instead of the things +described. Certain it is that I had formed no adequate notion of the +fine river called the Yonne, with cattle grazing on its fertile banks: +those banks not clothed indeed with our soft verdure, but with royal +purple, proceeding from an autumnal daisy of that colour that enamels +every meadow at this season. Here small enclosures seem unknown to the +inhabitants, who are strewed up and down expansive views of a most +productive country; where vineyards swell upon the rising grounds, and +young wheat ornaments the valleys below: while clusters of aspiring +poplars, or a single walnut-tree of greater size and dignity unite in +attracting attention, and inspiring poetical ideas. Here is no tedious +uniformity to fatigue the eye, nor rugged asperities to disgust it; but +ceaseless variety of colouring among the plants, while the caerulean +willow, the yellow walnut, the gloomy beech, and silver theophrastus, +seem scattered by the open hand of lavish Nature over a landscape of +respectable extent, uniting that sublimity which a wide expanse always +conveys to the mind, with that distinctness so desired by the eye; which +cultivation alone can offer and fertility bestow. Every town that should +adorn these lovely plains, however, exhibits, upon a nearer approach, +misery; the more mortifying, as it is less expected by a spectator, who +requires at least some days experience to convince him that the squallid +scenes of wretchedness and dirt in which he is obliged to pass the +night, will prove more than equivalent to the pleasures he has enjoyed +in the day-time, derived from an appearance of elegance and +wealth--elegance, the work of Nature, not of man; and opulence, the +immediate gift of God, and not the result of commerce. He who should fix +his residence in France, lives like Sir Gawaine in our old romance, +whose wife was bound by an enchantment, that obliged her at evening to +lay down the various beauties which had charmed admiring multitudes all +day, and become an object of odium and disgust. + +The French do seem indeed an idle race; and poverty, perhaps for that +reason, forces her way among them, through a climate that might tempt +other mortals to improve its blessings; but, as the motto to the arms +they are so proud of expresses it--"they _toil not, neither do they +spin_." Content, the bane of industry, as Mandeville calls it, renders +them happy with what Heaven has unsolicited shaken into their lap; and +who knows but the spirit of blaming such behaviour may be less pleasing +to God that gives, than is the behaviour itself? + +Let us not, mean time, be forward to suppose, that whatever one sees +done, is done upon principle, as such fancies will for ever mislead one: +much must be left to chance, when we are judging the conduct either of +nations or individuals. And surely I never knew till now, that so little +religion could exist in any Christian country as in this, where they +drive their carts, and keep their little shops open on a Sunday, +forbearing neither pleasure nor business, as I see, on account of +observing that day upon which their Redeemer rose again. They have a +tradition among the meaner people, that when Christ was crucified, he +turned his head towards France, over which he pronounced his last +blessing; but we must accuse them, if so, of being very ungrateful +favourites. + +This stately city, Lyons, is very happily and finely situated; the +Rhone, which flows by its side, inviting mills, manufactures, &c. seems +resolved to contradict and wash away all I have been saying; but we must +remember, it is five days journey from Paris hither, and I have been +speaking only of the little places we passed through in coming along. + +The avenue here, which leads to one of the greatest objects in the +nation, is most worthy of that object's dignity indeed: the marriage of +two rivers, which having their sources at a prodigious distance from +each other, meet here, and together roll their beneficial tribute to the +sea. Howell's remark, "That the Saone resembles a Spaniard in the +slowness of its current, and that the Rhone is emblematic of French +rapidity," cannot be kept a moment out of one's head: it is equally +observable, that the junction adds little in appearance to their +strength and grandeur, and that each makes a better figure _separate_ +than _united_. + +La Montagne d'Or is a lovely hill above the town, and I am told that +many English families reside upon it, but we have no time to make minute +enquiries. L'Hotel de la Croix de Malthe affords excellent +accommodations within, and a delightful prospect without. The Baths too +have attracted my notice much, and will, I hope, repair my strength, so +as to make me no troublesome fellow-traveller. How little do those +ladies consult their own interest, who make impatience of petty +inconveniences their best supplement for conversation!--fancy themselves +more important as less contented; and imagine all delicacy to consist in +the difficulty of being pleased! Surely a dip in this delightful river +will restore my health, and enable me to pass the mountains, of which +our present companions give me a very formidable account. + +The manufacturers here, at Lyons, deserve a volume, and I shall +scarcely give them a page; though nothing I ever saw at London or Paris +can compare with the beauty of these velvets, or with the art necessary +to produce such an effect, while the wrong side is smooth, not struck +through. The hangings for the Empress of Russia's bed-chamber are +wonderfully executed; the design elegant, the colouring brilliant: A +screen too for the Grand Signor is finely finished here; he would, I +trust, have been contented with magnificence in the choice of his +furniture, but Mr. Pernon has added taste to it, and contrived in +appearance to sink an urn or vase of crimson velvet in a back ground of +gold tissue with surprising ingenuity. + +It is observable, that the further people advance in elegance, the less +they value splendour; distinction being at last the positive thing which +mortals elevated above competency naturally pant after. Necessity must +first be supplied we know, convenience then requires to be contented; +but as soon as men can find means after that period to make themselves +eminent for taste, they learn to despise those paltry distinctions +which riches alone can bestow. + +Talking of Taste leads one to speak of gardening; and having passed +yesterday between two villas belonging to some of the most opulent +merchants of Lyons, I gained an opportunity of observing the disposal of +those grounds that are appropriated to pleasure; where the shade of +straight long-drawn alleys, formed by a close junction of ancient elm +trees, kept a dazzling sun from incommoding our sight, and rendering the +turf so mossy and comfortable to one's tread, that my heart never felt +one longing wish for the beauties of a lawn and shrubbery--though I +should certainly think such a manner of laying out a Lancashire +gentleman's seat in the north of England a mad one, where the heat of +the sun ought to be invited in, not shut out; and where a large lake of +water is wanted for his beams to sparkle upon, instead of a fountain to +trickle and to murmur, and to refresh one with the idea of coolness +which it excites. Here, however, where the Rhone is navigable up to the +very house, I see not but it is rational enough to form jet d'eaux of +the superfluous water, and to content one's self with a Bird Cage Walk, +when we are sure at the end of it to find ourselves surrounded by an +horizon, of extent enough to give the eye full employment, and of a +bright colouring which affords it but little relief. That among the gems +of Europe our island holds the rank of an _emerald_, was once suggested +to me, and I could never part with the idea; surely France must in the +same scale be rated as the _ruby_; for here is no grass, no verdure to +repose the sight upon, except that of high forest trees, the vineyards +being short cut, and supported by white sticks, the size of those which +in our flower gardens support a favourite carnation; and these placed +close together by thousands on a hill rather perplex than please a +spectator of the country, who must wait till he recollects the +superiority of their produce, before he prefers them to a Herefordshire +orchard or a Kentish hop-ground. + +Well! well! it is better to waste no more words on places however, where +the people have done so much to engage and to deserve our attention. + +Such was the hospitality I have here been witness to, and such the +luxuries of the Lyonnois at table, that I counted six and thirty dishes +where we dined, and twenty-four where we supped. Every thing was served +up in silver at both places, and all was uniformly magnificent, except +the linen, which might have been finer. We were not a very numerous +company--from eighteen to twenty-two, as I remember, morning and +evening; but the ladies played upon the pedal harp, the gentlemen sung +gaily, if not sweetly after supper: I never received more kindness for +my own part in any fortnight of my life, nor ever heard that kindness +more pleasingly or less coarsely expressed. These are merchants, I am +told, with whom I have been living; and perhaps my heart more readily +receives and repays their caresses for having heard so. Let princes +dispute, and soldiers reciprocally support their quarrels; but let the +wealthy traders of every nation unite to pour the oil of commerce over +the too agitated ocean of human life, and smooth down those asperities +which obstruct fraternal concord. + +The Duke and Duchess of Cumberland lodge here at our hotel; I saw them +treated with distinguished respect to-night at the theatre, where _a +force de danser_[Footnote: By dint of dancing alone], I actually was +moved to shed many tears over the distresses of _Sophie de Brabant_. +Surely these pantomimes will very soon supplant all poetry, when, as +Gratiano says, "Our words will suddenly become superfluous, and +discourse grow commendable in none but parrots." + +Some conversation here, however, struck me as curious; the more so as I +had heard the subject slightly touched upon at Paris; but faintly there, +as the last sounds of an echo, while here they are all loud, all in +earnest, and all their heads seemed turned, I think, about something, or +nothing, which they call _animal magnetism_. I cannot imagine how it has +seized them so: a man who undertakes to cure disorders by the touch, is +no new thing; our Philosophical Transactions make mention of Gretrex the +stroaker, in Charles the Second's reign. The present mountebank, it is +true, seems more hardy in his experiments, and boasts of being able to +cause disorders in the human frame, as well as to remove them. A +gentleman at yesterday's dinner-party mentioned, that he took pupils; +and, before I had expressed the astonishment I felt, professed himself a +disciple; and was happy to assure us, he said, that though he had not +yet attained the desirable power of putting a person into a catalepsy at +pleasure, he could throw a woman into a deep swoon, from which no arts +but his own could recover her. How difficult is it to restrain one's +contempt and indignation from a buffoonery so mean, or a practice so +diabolical!--This folly may possibly find its way into England--I should +be very sorry. + +To-morrow we leave Lyons. I should have liked to pass through +Switzerland, the Derbyshire of Europe; but I am told the season is too +far advanced, as we mean to spend Christmas at Milan. + + + + +ITALY + + + +TURIN. + + +October 17, 1784. + +We have at length passed the Alps, and are safely arrived at this lovely +little city, whence I look back on the majestic boundaries of Italy, +with amazement at his courage who first profaned them: surely the +immediate sensation conveyed to the mind by the sight of such tremendous +appearances must be in every traveller the same, a sensation of fulness +never experienced before, a satisfaction that there is something great +to be seen on earth--some object capable of contenting even fancy. Who +he was who first of all people pervaded these fortifications, raised by +nature for the defence of her European Paradise, is not ascertained; but +the great Duke of Savoy has wisely left his name engraved on a monument +upon the first considerable ascent from Pont Bonvoisin, as being author +of a beautiful road cut through the solid stone for a great length of +way, and having by this means encouraged others to assist in +facilitating a passage so truly desirable, till one of the great wonders +now to be observed among the Alps, is the ease with which even a +delicate traveller may cross them. In these prospects, colouring is +carried to its utmost point of perfection, particularly at the time I +found it, variegated with golden touches of autumnal tints; immense +cascades mean time bursting from naked mountains on the one side; +cultivated fields, rich with vineyards, on the other, and tufted with +elegant shrubs that invite one to pluck and carry them away to where +they would be treated with much more respect. Little towns flicking in +the clefts, where one would imagine it was impossible to clamber; light +clouds often sailing under the feet of the high-perched inhabitants, +while the sound of a deep and rapid though narrow river, dashing with +violence among the insolently impeding rocks at the bottom, and bells in +thickly-scattered spires calling the quiet Savoyards to church upon the +steep sides of every hill--fill one's mind with such mutable, such +various ideas, as no other place can ever possibly afford. + +I had the satisfaction of seeing a chamois at a distance, and spoke with +a fellow who had killed five hungry bears that made depredation on his +pastures: we looked on him with reverence as a monster-tamer of +antiquity, Hercules or Cadmus; he had the skin of a beast wrapt round +his middle, which confirmed the fancy--but our servants, who borrowed +from no fictitious records the few ideas that adorned their talk, told +us he reminded _them_ of _John the Baptist_. I had scarce recovered the +shock of this too sublime comparison, when we approached his cottage, +and found the felons nailed against the wall, like foxes heads or spread +kites in England. Here are many goats, but neither white nor large, like +those which browze upon the steeps of Snowdon, or clamber among the +cliffs of Plinlimmon. + +I chatted with a peasant in the Haute Morienne, concerning the endemial +swelling of the throat, which is found in seven out of every ten persons +here: he told me what I had always heard, but do not yet believe, that +it was produced by drinking the snow water. Certain it is, these places +are not wholesome to live in; most of the inhabitants are troubled with +weak and sore eyes: and I recollect Sir Richard Jebb telling me, more +than seven years ago, that when he passed through Savoy, the various +applications made to him, either for the cure or prevention of blindness +by numberless unfortunate wretches that crowded round him, hastened his +quitting a province where such horrible complaints prevailed. One has +heard it related that the goistre or gozzo of the throat is reckoned a +beauty by those who possess it; but I spoke with many, and all agreed to +lament it as a misfortune. That it does really proceed merely from +living in a snowy country, would be well confirmed by accounts of a +similar sickness being endemial in Canada; but of an American goistre I +have never yet heard--and Wales, methinks, is snowy enough, and +mountainous enough, God knows; yet were such an excrescence to be seen +_there_, the people would never have done wondering, and blessing +themselves. + +The mines of Derbyshire, however, do not very unfrequently exhibit +something of the same appearance among those who work in _them_; and as +Savoy is impregnated with many minerals, I should be apter to attribute +this extension of the gland to their influence over the constitution, +than to that of snow water, which can scarcely be efficacious in a +degree of power equal to the producing so very violent an effect. + +The wolves do certainly come down from these mountains in large troops, +just as Thomson describes them: + + Burning for blood; boney, and gaunt, and grim.-- + +But it is now the fashionable philosophy every where to consider this +creature as the original of our domestic friend, the dog. It was a long +time before my heart assented to its truth, yet surely their hunting +thus in packs confirms it; and the Jackall's willingness to connect with +either race, shews one that the species cannot be far removed, and that +he makes the shade between the wolf and rough haired shepherd's cur. + +Of the longevity of man this district affords us no pleasing examples. +The peasants here are apparently unhealthy, and they say--short-lived. +We are told by travellers of former days, that there is a region of the +air so subtle as to extinguish the two powers of taste and smell; and +those who have crossed the Cordilleras of the Andes say, that situations +have been explored among their points in South America, where those +senses have been found to suffer a temporary suspension. Our _voyageurs +aeriens_[Footnote: Our aerostatic travellers] may now be useful to +settle that question among others, and Pambamarca's heights may remain +untrodden. + +As for Mount Cenis, I never felt myself more hungry, or better enjoyed a +good dinner, than I did upon it's top: but the trout in the lake there +have been over praised; their pale colour allured me but little in the +first place, nor is their flavour equal to that of trout found in +running water. Going down the Italian side of the Alps is, after all, an +astonishing journey; and affords the most magnificent scenery in nature, +which varying at every step, gives new impression to the mind each +moment of one's passage; while the portion of terror excited either by +real or fancied dangers on the way, is just sufficient to mingle with +the pleasure, and make one feel the full effect of sublimity. To the +chairmen who carry one though, nothing can be new; it is observable that +the glories of these objects have never faded--I heard them speak to +each other of their beauties, and the change of light since they had +passed by last time, while a fellow who spoke English as well as a +native told us, that having lived in a gentleman's service twenty years +between London and Dublin, he at length begged his discharge, chusing to +retire and finish his days a peasant upon these mountains, where he +first opened his eyes upon scenes that made all other views of nature +insipid to his taste. + +If impressions of beauty remain, however, those of danger die away by +frequent reiteration; the men who carried me seemed amazed that I should +feel any emotions of fear. _Qu'est ce donc, madame_?[Footnote: What's +the matter, my lady?] was the coldly-asked question to my repeated +injunction of _prenez garde_[Footnote: Take care.]: not very apparently +unnecessary neither, where the least slip must have been fatal both to +them and me. + +Novalesa is the town we stopped at, upon entering Piedmont; where the +hollow sound of a heavy dashing torrent that has accompanied us +hitherto, first grows faint, and the ideas of common life catch hold of +one again; as the noise of it is heard from a greater distance, its +stream grows wider, and its course more tranquil. For compensation of +danger, ease should be administered; but one's quiet is here so +disturbed by insects, and polluted by dirt, that one recollects the +conduct of the Lapland rein-deer, who seeks the summit of the hill at +the hazard of his life, to avoid those gnats which sting him to madness +in the valley. + +Suza shewed nothing that I took much interest in, except its name; and +nobody tells me why it is honoured with that old Asiatick appellation. +At the next town, called St. Andre, or St. Ambroise, I forget which, we +got an admirable dinner; and saw our room decorated with a large map of +London, which I looked on with sensations different from those ever +before excited by the same object, Amsterdam and Constantinople covered +the other sides of the wall; and over the door of the chamber itself was +written, as our people write the Lamb or the Lion, "_Les trois Villes +Heretiques_[Footnote: The three Heretical Cities]." + +The avenue to Turin, most magnificently planted, and drawn in a wide +straight line, shaded like the Bird-cage walk in St. James's Park, for +twelve miles in length, is a dull work, but very useful and convenient +in so hot a country; it has been completed by the taste, and at the sole +expence, of his Sardinian majesty, that he may enjoy a cool shady drive +from one of his palaces to the other. The town to which this long +approach conveys one does not disgrace its entrance. It is built in form +of a star, with a large stone in its centre, on which you are desired to +stand, and see the streets all branch regularly from it, each street +terminating with a beautiful view of the surrounding country, like spots +of ground seen in many of the old-fashioned parks in England, when the +etoile and vista were the mode. I think there is[5] still one +subsisting even now, if I remember right, in Kensington Gardens. Such +symmetry is really a soft repose for the eye, wearied with following a +soaring falcon through the half-sightless regions of the air, or darting +down immeasurable precipices, to examine if the human figure could be +discerned at such a depth below one. Model of elegance, exact Turin! +where Italian hospitality first consoled, and Italian arts first repaid, +the fatigues of my journey: how shall I bear to leave my new-obtained +acquaintance? how shall I consent to quit this lovely city? where, from +the box put into my possession by the Prince de la Cisterna, I first saw +an Italian opera acted in an Italian theatre; where the wonders of +Porporati's hand shewed me that our Bartolozzi was not without a +competitor; and where every pleasure which politeness can invent, and +kindness can bestow, was held out for my acceptance. Should we be +seduced, however, to waste time here, we should have reason in a future +day to repent our choice; like one who, enamoured of Lord Pembroke's +great hall at Wilton, should fail to afford himself leisure for looking +over the better-furnished apartments. + +This charming town is the _salon_ of Italy; but it is a +finely-proportioned and well-ornamented _salon_ happily constructed to +call in the fresh air at the end of every street, through which a rapid +stream is directed, that _ought_ to carry off all nuisances, which here +have no apology from want of any convenience purchasable by money; and +which must for that reason be the choice of inhabitants, who would +perhaps be too happy, had they a natural taste for that neatness which +might here be enjoyed in its purity. The arches formed to defend +passengers from the rain and sun, which here might have even serious +effects from their violence, deserve much praise; while their +architecture, uniting our ideas of comfort and beauty together, form a +traveller's taste, and teach him to admire that perfection, of which a +miniature may certainly be found at Turin, when once a police shall be +established there to prevent such places being used for the very +grossest purposes, and polluted with smells that poison all one's +pleasure. + +It is said, that few European palaces exceed in splendour that of +Sardinia's king; I found it very fine indeed, and the pictures +dazzling. The death of a dropsical woman well known among all our +connoisseurs detained my attention longest: the value set on it here is +ten thousand pounds. The horse cut out of a block of marble at the +stairs-foot attracted me not a little; but we are told that the +impression it makes will soon be effaced by the sight of greater +wonders. Mean time I go about like Stephano and his ignorant companions, +who longed for all the glittering furniture of Prospero's cell in the +Tempest, while those who know the place better are vindicated in crying, +"_Let it alone, thou fool, it is but trash_." + +Some letters from home directed me to enquire in this town for Doctor +Charles Allioni, who kindly received, and permitted me to examine the +rarities, of which he has a very capital collection. His fossil fish in +slate--blue slate, are surprisingly well preserved; but there is in the +world, it seems, a chrystalized trout, not flat, nor the flesh eaten +away, as I understand, but round; and, as it were, cased in chrystal +like our _aspiques_, or _fruit in jelly_: the colour still so perfect +that you may plainly perceive the spots upon it, he says. To my +enquiries after this wonderful petrefaction, he replied, "That it might +be bought for a thousand pounds;" and added, "that if he were a _Ricco +Inglese_[Footnote: Rich Englishman], he would not hesitate for the +price:" "Where may I see it, Sir?" said I; but to that question no +intreaties could produce an answer, after he once found I had no mind to +buy. + +That fresh-water fish have been known to remain locked in the flinty +bosom of Monte Uda in Carnia, the Academical Discourse of Cyrillo de +Cremona, pronounced there in the year 1749, might have informed us; and +we are all familiar, I suppose, with the anchor named in the fifteenth +book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Strabo mentions pieces of a galley found +three thousand stadii from any sea; and Dr. Allioni tells me, that Monte +Bolca has been long acknowledged to contain the fossils, now diligently +digging out under the patronage of some learned naturalists at +Verona.--The trout, however, is of value much beyond these productions +certainly, as it is closed round as if in a transparent case we find, +hermetically sealed by the soft hand of Nature, who spoiled none of her +own ornaments in preserving them for the inspection of her favourite +students. + +The amiable old professor from whom these particulars were obtained, and +who endured my teizing him in bad Italian for intelligence he cared not +to communicate, with infinite sweetness and patience grew kinder to me +as I became more troublesome to him: and shewing me the book upon botany +to which he had just then put the last line; turned his dim eyes from +me, and said, as they filled with tears, "You, Madam, are the last +visitor I shall ever more admit to talk upon earthly subjects; my work +is done; I finished it as you were entering:--my business now is but to +wait the will of God, and die; do you, who I hope will live long and +happily, seek out your own salvation, and pray for mine." Poor dear +Doctor Allioni! My enquiries concerning this truly venerable mortal +ended in being told that his relations and heirs teized him cruelly to +sell his manuscripts, insects, &c. and divide the money amongst _them_ +before he died. An English scholar of the same abilities would be apt +enough to despise such admonitions, and dispose at his own liking and +leisure of what his industry alone had gained, his learning only +collected; but there seems to be much more family fondness on the +Continent than in our island; more attention to parents, more care for +uncles, and nephews, and sisters, and aunts, than in a commercial +country like ours, where, for the most part, each one makes his own way +separate; and having received little assistance at the beginning of +life, considers himself as little indebted at the close of it. + +Whoever takes a long journey, however he may at his first commencement +be tempted to accumulate schemes of convenience and combinations of +travelling niceties, will cast them off in the course of his travels as +incumbrances; and whoever sets out in life, I believe, with a crowd of +relations round him, will, on the same principle, feel disposed to drop +one or two of them at every turn, as they hang about and impede his +progress, and make his own game single-handed. I speak of _Englishmen_, +whose religion and government inspire rather a spirit of public +benevolence, than contract the social affections to a point; and +co-operate, besides, to prompt that genius for adventure, and taste of +general knowledge, which has small chance to spring up in the +inhabitants of a feudal state; where each considers his family as +himself, and having derived all the comfort he has ever enjoyed from his +relations, resolves to return their favours at the end of a life, which +they make happy, in proportion as it _is_ so: and this accounts for the +equality required in continental marriages, which are avowedly made here +without regard to inclination, as the keeping up a family, not the +choice of a companion, is considered as important; while the lady bred +up in the same notions, complies with her _first_ duties, and considers +the _second_ as infinitely more dispensable. + + + +GENOA. + + +Nov. 1, 1784. + +It was on the twenty-first of last month that we passed from Turin to +Monte Casale; and I wondered, as I do still, to see the face of Nature +yet without a wrinkle, though the season is so far advanced. Like a +Parisian female of forty years old, dressed for court, and stored with +such variety of well-arranged allurements, that the men say to each +other as she passes.--"Des qu'elle a cessee d'estre jolie, elle n'en +devient que plus belle, ce me semble[E]." + +[Footnote E: She's grown handsomer, I think, since she has left off +being pretty.] + +The prospect from St. Salvadore's hill derives new beauties from the +yellow autumn; and exhibits such glowing proofs of opulence and +fertility, as words can with difficulty communicate. The animals, +however, do not seem benefited in proportion to the apparent riches of +the country: asses, indeed, grow to a considerable size, but the oxen +are very small, among pastures that might suffice for Bakewell's bulls; +and these are all little, and almost all _white_; a colour which gives +unfavourable ideas either of strength or duration. + +The blanche rose among vegetables scatters a less powerful perfume than +the red one; whilst in the mineral kingdom silver holds but the second +place to gold, which imbibing the bright hues of its parent-sun, becomes +the first and greatest of all metallic productions. One may observe too, +that yellow is the earliest colour to salute the rising year, the last +to leave it: crocuses, primroses, and cowslips give the first earnest of +resuscitating summer; while the lemon-coloured butterfly, whose name I +have forgotten, ventures out, before any others of her kind can brave +the parting breath of winter's last storms; stoutest to resist cold, and +steadiest in her manner of flying. The present season is yellow indeed, +and nothing is to be seen now but sun-flowers and African marygolds +around us; _one_ bough besides, on every tree we pass--_one_ bough at +least is tinged with the golden hue; and if it does put one in mind of +that presented to Proserpine, we may add the original line too, and say, + + Uno avulfo, non deficit alter[F]. + +[Footnote F: + Pluck one away, another still remains. +] + +The sure-footed and docile mule, with which in England I was but little +acquainted, here claims no small attention, from his superior size and +beauty: the disagreeable noise they make so frequently, however, hinders +one from wishing to ride them--it is not braying somehow, but worse; it +is neighing out of tune. + +I have put nothing down about eating since we arrived in Italy, where no +wretched hut have I yet entered that does not afford soup, better than +one often tastes in England even at magnificent tables. Game of all +sorts--woodcocks in particular. Porporati, the so justly-famed engraver, +produced upon his hospitable board, one of the pleasant days we passed +with him, a couple so exceedingly large, that I hesitated, and looked +again, to see whether they were really woodcocks, till the long bill +convinced me. + +One reads of the luxurious emperors that made fine dishes of the little +birds brains, phenicopter's tongues, &c. and of the actor who regaled +his guests with nightingale-pie, with just detestation of such curiosity +and expence: but thrushes, larks, and blackbirds, are so _very_ frequent +between Turin and Novi, I think they might serve to feed all the +fantastical appetites to which Vitellius himself could give +encouragement and example. + +The Italians retain their tastes for small birds in full force; and +consider beccafichi, ortolani, &c. as the most agreeable dainties: it +must be confessed that they dress them incomparably. The sheep here are +all lean and dirty-looking, few in number too; but the better the soil +the worse the mutton we know, and here is no land to throw away, where +every inch turns to profit in the olive-yards, vines, or something of +much higher value than letting out to feed sheep. + +Population seems much as in France, I think: but the families are not, +in either nation, disposed according to British notions of propriety; +all stuffed together into little towns and large houses, _entessees_, as +the French call it; one upon another, in such a strange way, that were +it not for the quantity of grapes on which the poor people live, with +other acescent food enjoined by the church, and doubtless suggested by +the climate, I think putrid fevers must necessarily carry off crowds of +them at once. + +The head-dress of the women in this drive through some of the northern +states of Italy varied at every post; from the velvet cap, commonly a +crimson one, worn by the girls in Savoia, to the Piedmontese plait round +the bodkin at Turin, and the odd kind of white wrapper used in the +exterior provinces of the Genoese dominions. Uniformity of almost any +sort gives a certain pleasure to the eye, and it seems an invariable +rule in these countries that all the women of every district should +dress just alike. It is the best way of making the men's task easy in +judging which is handsomest; for taste so varies the human figure in +France and England, that it is impossible to have an idea how many +pretty faces and agreeable forms would lose and how many gain admirers +in those nations, were a sudden edict to be published that all should +dress exactly alike for a year. Mean time, since we left Deffeins, no +such delightful place by way of inn have we yet seen as here at Novi. My +chief amusement at Alexandria was to look out upon the _huddled_ +marketplace, as a great dramatic writer of our day has called it; and +who could help longing there for Zoffani's pencil to paint the lively +scene? + +Passing the Po by moon-light near Casale exhibited an entertainment of a +very different nature, not unmixed with ill-concealed fear indeed; +though the contrivance of crossing it is not worse managed than a ferry +at Kew or Richmond used to be before our bridges were built. Bridges +over the rapid Po would, however, be truly ridiculous; when swelled by +the mountain snows it tears down all before it in its fury, and +inundates the country round. + +The drive from Novi on to Genoa is so beautiful, so grand, so replete +with imagery, that fancy itself can add little to its charms: yet, after +every elegance and every ornament have been justly admired, from the +cloud which veils the hill, to the wild shrubs which perfume the valley; +from the precipices which alarm the imagination, to the tufts of wood +which flatter and sooth it; the sea suddenly appearing at the end of +the Bocchetta terminates our view, and takes from one even the hope of +expressing our delight in words adequate to the things described. + +Genoa la Superba stands proudly on the margin of a gulph crowded with +ships, and resounding with voices, which never fail to animate a British +hearer--the Tailor's shout, the mariner's call, swelled by successful +commerce, or strengthened by newly-acquired fame. + +After a long journey by land, such scenes are peculiarly delightful; but +description tangles, not communicates, the sensations imbibed upon the +spot. Here are so many things to describe! such churches! such palaces! +such pictures! one would imagine the Genoese possessed the empire of the +ocean, were it not well known that they call but fix galleys their own, +and seventy years ago suffered all the horrors of a bombardment. + +The Dorian palace is exceedingly fine; the Durazzo palace, for ought I +know, is finer; and marble here seems like what one reads of silver in +King Solomon's time, which, says the Scripture, "_was nothing counted +on in the days of Solomon_" Casa Brignoli too is splendid and +commodious; the terraces and gardens on the house-tops, and the fresco +paintings outside, give one new ideas of human life; and exhibits a +degree of luxury unthought-on in colder climates. But here we live on +green pease and figs the first day of November, while orange and lemon +trees flaunt over the walls more common than pears in England. + +The Balbi mansion, filled with pictures, detained us from the churches +filled with more. I have heard some of the Italians confess that Genoa +even pretends to vie with Rome herself in ecclesiastical splendour. In +devotion I should think she would be with difficulty outdone: the people +drop down on their knees in the street, and crowd to the church doors +while the benediction is pronouncing, with a zeal which one might hope +would draw down stores of grace upon their heads. Yet I hear from the +inhabitants of other provinces, that they have a bad character among +their neighbours, who love not the _base Ligurian_ and accuse them of +many immoralities. They tell one too of a disreputable saying here, how +there are at Genoa men without honesty, women without modesty, a sea +with no fish, and a wood with no birds. Birds, however, here certainly +are by the million, and we have eaten fish since we came every day; but +I am informed they are neither cheap nor plentiful, nor considered as +excellent in their kinds. Here is macaroni enough however!--the people +bring in such a vast dish of it at a time, it disgusts one. + +The streets of the town are much too narrow for beauty or +convenience--impracticable to coaches, and so beset with beggars that it +is dreadful. A chair is therefore, above all things, necessary to be +carried in, even a dozen steps, if you are likely to feel shocked at +having your knees suddenly clasped by a figure hardly human; who perhaps +holding you forcibly for a minute, conjures you loudly, by the sacred +wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, to have compassion upon _his_; shewing +you at the same time such undeniable and horrid proofs of the anguish he +is suffering, that one must be a monster to quit him unrelieved. Such +pathetic misery, such disgusting distress, did I never see before, as I +have been witness to in this gaudy city--and that not occasionally or +by accident, but all day long, and in such numbers that humanity shrinks +from the description. Sure, charity is not the virtue that they pray +for, when begging a blessing at the church-door. + +One should not however speak unkindly of a people whose affectionate +regard for our country shewed itself so clearly during the late war: a +few days residence with the English consul here at his country seat gave +me an opportunity of hearing many instances of the Republic's generous +attachment to Great Britain, whose triumphs at Gibraltar over the united +forces of France and Spain were honestly enjoyed by the friendly +Genoese, who gave many proofs of their sincerity, more solid than those +clamorous ones of huzzaing our minister about wherever he went, and +crying _Viva il General_ ELIOTT; while many young gentlemen of +high station offered themselves to go volunteers aboard our fleet, and +were with difficulty restrained. + +We have been shewed some beautiful villas belonging to the noblemen of +this city, among which Lomellino's pleased me best; as the water there +was so particularly beautiful, that he had generously left it at full +liberty to roll unconducted, and murmur through his tasteful pleasure +grounds, much in the manner of our lovely Leasowes; happily uniting with +English simplicity, the glowing charms that result from an Italian sky. +My eyes were so wearied with square edged basons of marble, and jets +d'eaux, surrounded by water nymphs and dolphins, that I felt vast relief +from Lomellino's garden, who, like me, + + Tir'd with the joys parterres and fountains yield, + Finds out at last he better likes a field. + +Such felicity of situation I never saw till now, when one looks upon the +painted front of this gay mansion, commanding from its fine balcony a +rich and extensive view at once of the sea, the city, and the snow-topt +mountains; while from the windows on the other side the house, one's eye +sinks into groves of cedar, ilex, and orange trees, not apparently +cultivated with incessant care, or placed in pots, artfully sunk under +ground to conceal them from one's sight, but rising into height truly +respectable. + +The sea air, except in particular places where the land lies in some +direction that counteracts its influence, is naturally inimical to +timber; though the green coasts of Devonshire are finely fringed with +wood; and here, at Lomellino's villa, in the Genoese state, I found two +plane trees, of a size and serious dignity, that recalled to my mind the +solemn oak before our duke of Dorset's seat at Knowle--and chesnuts, +which would not disgrace the forests of America. A rural theatre, cut in +turf, with a concealed orchestra and sod seats for the audience, with a +mossy stage, not incommodious neither, and an admirable contrivance for +shifting the scenes, and savouring the exits, entrances, &c. of the +performers, gave me a perfect idea of that refined luxury which hot +countries alone inspire--while another elegantly constructed spot, meant +and often used for the entertainment of tenants and dependants who come +to rejoice on the birth or wedding day of a kind landlord, make one +suppress one's sighs after a free country--at least suspend them; and +fill one's heart with tenderness towards men, who have skill to soften +authority with indulgence, and virtue to reward obedience with +protection. + +A family coming last night to visit at a house where I had the honour +of being admitted as an intimate, gave me another proof of my present +state of remoteness from English manners. The party consisted of an old +nobleman, who could trace his genealogy unblemished up to one of the old +Roman emperors, but whose fortune is now in a hopeless state of +decay:--his lady, not inferior to himself in birth or haughtiness of air +and carriage, but much impaired by age, ill health, and pecuniary +distress; these had however no way lessened her ideas of her own +dignity, or the respect of her cavalier servente and her son, who waited +on her with an unremitted attention; presenting her their little dirty +tin snuff-boxes upon one knee by turns; which ceremony the less +surprised me, as having seen her train made of a dyed and watered +lutestring, borne gravely after her up stairs by a footman, the express +image of Edgar in the storm-scene of king Lear--who, as the fool says, +"_wisely reserv'd a blanket, else had we all been 'shamed_." + +Our conversation was meagre, but serious. There was music; and the door +being left at jar, as we call it, I watched the wretched servant who +staid in the antichamber, and found that he was listening in spight of +sorrow and starving. + +With this slight sketch of national manners I finish my chapter, and +proceed to the description of, or rather observations and reflections +made during a winter's residence at + + + +MILAN. + + +For we did not stay at Pavia to see any thing: it rained so, that no +pleasure could have been obtained by the sight of a botanical garden; +and as to the university, I have the promise of seeing it upon a future +day, in company of some literary friends. Truth to tell, our weather is +suddenly become so wet, the roads so heavy with incessant rain, that +king William's departure from his own foggy country, or his welcome to +our gloomy one, where this month is melancholy even, to a proverb, could +not have been clouded with a thicker atmosphere surely, than was mine to +Milan upon the fourth day of dismal November, 1784. + +Italians, by what I can observe, suffer their minds to be much under the +dominion of the sky; and attribute every change in their health, or even +humour, as seriously to its influence, as if there were no nearer causes +of alteration than the state of the air, and as if no doubt remained of +its immediate power, though they are willing enough here to poison it +with the scent of wood-ashes within doors, while fires in the grate seem +to run rather low, and a brazier full of that pernicious stuff is +substituted in its place, and driven under the table during dinner. It +is surprising how very elegant, not to say magnificent, those dinners +are in gentlemen's or noblemen's houses; such numbers of dishes at once; +not large joints, but infinite variety: and I think their cooking +excellent. Fashion keeps most of the fine people out of town yet; we +have therefore had leisure to establish our own household for the +winter, and have done so as commodiously as if our habitation was fixed +here for life. This I am delighted with, as one may chance to gain that +insight into every day behaviour, and common occurrences, which can +alone be called knowing something of a country: counting churches, +pictures, palaces, may be done by those who run from town to town, with +no impression made but on their bones. I ought to learn that which +before us lies in daily life, if proper use were made of my +demi-naturalization; yet impediments to knowledge spring up round the +very tree itself--for surely if there was much wrong, I would not tell +it of those who seem inclined to find all right in me; nor can I think +that a fame for minute observation, and skill to discern folly with a +microscopic eye, is in any wise able to compensate for the corrosions of +conscience, where such discoveries have been attained by breach of +confidence, and treachery towards unguarded, because unsuspecting +innocence of conduct. We are always laughing at one another for running +over none but the visible objects in every city, and for avoiding the +conversation of the natives, except on general subjects of +literature--returning home only to tell again what has already been +told. By the candid inhabitants of Italian states, however, much honour +is given to our British travellers, who, as they say, _viaggiono con +profitto_[Footnote: Travel for improvement], and scarce ever fail to +carry home with them from other nations, every thing which can benefit +or adorn their own. Candour, and a good humoured willingness to receive +and reciprocate pleasure, seems indeed one of the standing virtues of +Italy; I have as yet seen no fastidious contempt, or affected rejection +of any thing for being what we call _low_; and I have a notion there is +much less of those distinctions at Milan than at London, where birth +does so little for a man, that if he depends on _that_, and forbears +other methods of distinguishing himself from his footman, he will stand +a chance of being treated no better than him by the world. _Here_ a +person's rank is ascertained, and his society settled, at his immediate +entrance into life; a gentleman and lady will always be regarded as +such, let what will be their behaviour.--It is therefore highly +commendable when they seek to adorn their minds by culture, or pluck out +those weeds, which in hot countries will spring up among the riches of +the harvest, and afford a sure, but no immediately pleasing proof of the +soil's natural fertility. But my country-women would rather hear a +little of our _interieur_, or, as we call it, family management; which +appears arranged in a manner totally new to me; who find the lady of +every house as unacquainted with her own, and her husband's affairs, as +I who apply to her for information.--No house account, no weekly bills +perplex _her_ peace; if eight servants are kept, we will say, six of +these are men, and two of those men out of livery. The pay of these +principal figures in the family, when at the highest rate, is fifteen +pence English a day, out of which they find clothes and eating--for +fifteen pence includes board-wages; and most of these fellows are +married too, and have four or five children each. The dinners drest at +home are, for this reason, more exactly contrived than in England to +suit the number of guests, and there are always half a dozen; for dining +_alone_ or the master and mistress _tete-a-tete_ as _we_ do, is unknown +to them, who make society very easy, and resolve to live much together. +No odd sensation then, something like shame, such as _we_ feel when too +many dishes are taken empty from table, touches them at all; the common +courses are eleven, and eleven small plates, and it is their sport and +pleasure, if possible, to clear all away. A footman's wages is a +shilling a day, like our common labourers, and paid him, as they are +paid, every Saturday night. His livery, mean time, changed at least +_twice a year_, makes him as rich a man as the butler and valet--but +when evening comes, it is the comicallest sight in the world to see them +all go gravely home, and you may die in the night for want of help, +though surrounded by showy attendants all day. Till the hour of +departure, however, it is expected that two or three of them at least +sit in the antichamber, as it is called, to answer the bell, which, if +we confess the truth, is no light service or hardship; for the stairs, +high and wide as those of Windsor palace, all stone too, run up from the +door immediately to that apartment, which is very large, and very cold, +with bricks to set their feet on only, and a brazier filled with warm +wood ashes, to keep their fingers from freezing, which in summer they +employ with cards, and seem but little inclined to lay them down when +ladies pass through to the receiving room. The strange familiarity this +class of people think proper to assume, half joining in the +conversation, and crying _oibo_[Footnote: Oh dear!], when the master +affirms something they do not quite assent to, is apt to shock one at +beginning, the more when one reflects upon the equally offensive +humility they show on being first accepted into the family; when it is +exposed that they receive the new master, or lady's hand, in a half +kneeling posture, and kiss it, as women under the rank of Countess do +the Queen of England's when presented at our court.--This +obsequiousness, however, vanishes completely upon acquaintance, and the +footman, if not very seriously admonished indeed, yawns, spits, and +displays what one of our travel-writers emphatically terms his flag of +abomination behind the chair of a woman of quality, without the +slightest sensation of its impropriety. There is, however, a sort of odd +farcical drollery mingled with this grossness, which tends greatly to +disarm one's wrath; and I felt more inclined to laugh than be angry one +day, when, from the head of my own table, I saw the servant of a +nobleman who dined with us cramming some chicken pattes down his throat +behind the door; our own folks humorously trying to choak him, by +pretending that his lord called him, while his mouth was full. Of a +thousand comical things in the same way, I will relate one:--Mr. +Piozzi's valet was dressing my hair at Paris one morning, while some man +sate at an opposite window of the same inn, singing and playing upon the +violoncello: I had not observed the circumstance, but my perrucchiere's +distress was evident; he writhed and twisted about like a man pinched +with the cholic, and pulled a hundred queer faces: at last--What is the +matter, Ercolani, said I, are you not well? Mistress, replies the +fellow, if that beast don't leave off soon, I shall run mad with rage, +or else die; and so you'll see an honest Venetian lad killed by a French +dog's howling. + +The phrase of _mistress_ is here not confined to servants at all; +gentlemen, when they address one, cry, _mia padrona_[Footnote: My +mistress], mighty sweetly, and in a peculiarly pleasing tone. Nothing, +to speak truth, can exceed the agreeableness of a well-bred Italian's +address when speaking to a lady, whom they alone know how to flatter, +so as to retain her dignity, and not lose their own; respectful, yet +tender; attentive, not officious; the politeness of a man of fashion +_here_ is _true_ politeness, free from all affectation, and honestly +expressive of what he really feels, a true value for the person spoken +to, without the smallest desire of shining himself; equally removed from +foppery on one side, or indifference on the other. The manners of the +men here are certainly pleasing to a very eminent degree, and in their +conversation there is a mixture, not unfrequent too, of classical +allusions, which strike one with a sort of literary pleasure I cannot +easily describe. Yet is there no pedantry in their use of expressions, +which with us would be laughable or liable to censure: but Roman notions +here are not quite extinct; and even the house-maid, or _donna di gros_, +as they call her, swears by _Diana_ so comically, there is no telling. +They christen their boys _Fabius_, their daughters _Claudia_, very +commonly. When they mention a thing known, as we say, to _Tom o'Styles +and John o'Nokes_, they use the words, _Tizio and Sempronio_. A lady +tells me, she was at a loss about the dance yesterday evening, because +she had not been instructed in the _programma_; and a gentleman, +talking of the pleasures he enjoyed supping last night at a friend's +house, exclaims, _Eramo pur jeri sera in Appolline[G]!_ alluding to +Lucullus's entertainment given to Pompey and Cicero, as I remember, in +the chamber of Apollo. But here is enough of this--more of it, in their +own pretty phrase, _seccarebbe pur Nettunno_[H]. It was long ago that +Ausonius said of them more than I can say, and Mr. Addison has +translated the lines in their praise better than I could have done. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote G: We passed yester evening as if we had been in the Apollo.] + +[Footnote H: Would dry up old Neptune himself.] + + "Et Mediolani mira omnia copia rerum: + Innumerae cultaeque domus facunda virorum + Ingenia et mores laeti." + + Milan with plenty and with wealth overflows, + And numerous streets and cleanly dwellings shows; + The people, bless'd by Nature's happy force, + Are eloquent and cheerful in discourse. + +What I have said this moment will, however, account in some measure for +a thing which he treats with infinite contempt, not unjustly perhaps; +yet does it not deserve the ridicule handed down from his time by all +who have touched the subject. It is about the author, who before his +theatrical representation prefixes an odd declaration, that though he +names Pluto, and Neptune, and I know not who, upon the stage, yet he +believes none of those fables, but considers himself as a Christian, a +Catholick, &c. All this _does_ appear very absurdly superfluous to _us_; +but as I observed, _they_ live nearer the original feats of paganism; +many old customs are yet retained, and the names not lost among them, or +laid up merely for literary purposes as in England. They swear _per +Bacco_ perpetually in common discourse; and once I saw a gentleman in +the heat of conversation blush at the recollection that he had said +_barba Fove_, where he meant God Almighty. + +It is likewise unkind enough in Mr. Addison, perhaps unjust too, to +speak with scorn of the libraries, or state of literature, at Milan. The +collection of books at Brera is prodigious, and has been lately much +increased by the Pertusanian and Firmian libraries falling into it: a +more magnificent repository for learning, a more comfortable situation +for students, so complete and perfect a disposition of the books, will +scarcely be found in any other city not professedly a university, I +believe; and here are professors worthy of the highest literary +stations, that do honour to learning herself. I will not indulge myself +by naming any one, where all deserve the highest praise; and it is so +difficult to restrain one's pen upon so favourite a subject, that I +shall only name some rarities which particularly struck me, and avoid +further temptations, where the sense of obligation, and the recollection +of partial kindness, inspire an inclination to praises which appear +tedious to those readers who could not enter into my feelings, and of +course would scarcely excuse them. + +Thirteen volumes of MS. Psalms, written with wonderful elegance and +manual nicety, struck me as very curious: they were done by the +Certosini monks lately eradicated, and with beautiful illuminations to +almost every page. A Livy, printed here in 1418, fresh and perfect; and +a Pliny, of the Parma press, dated 1472; are extremely valuable. But the +pleasure I received from observing that the learned librarian had not +denied a place to Tillotson's works, was counteracted by finding +Bolingbroke's philosophy upon the same shelf, and enjoying exactly the +same reputation as to the truth of the doctrine contained in either; for +both were English, and of course _heretical_. + +But I must not live longer at Milan without mentioning the Duomo, first +in all Europe of the Gothic race; whose solemn sadness and gloomy +dignity make it a most magnificent cathedral; while the rich treasures +it conceals below exceeded my belief or expectation. + +We came here just before the season of commemorating the virtues of the +immortal Carlo Borromeo, to whose excellence all Italy bears testimony, +and Milan _most_; while the Lazaretto erected by him remains a standing +monument of his piety, charity, and peculiar regard to this city, which +he made his residence during the dreadful plague that so devasted it; +tenderly giving to its helpless inhabitants the consolation of seeing +their priest, provider, and protector, all united under one incomparable +character, who fearless of death remained among them, and comforted +their sorrows with his constant presence. It would be endless to +enumerate the schools, hospitals, infirmaries, erected by this +surprising man. The peculiar excellence of his lazaretto, however, +depends on each habitation being nicely separated from every other, so +as to keep infection aloof; while uniformity of architecture is still +preserved, being built in a regular quadrangle, with a chapel in the +middle, and a fresh stream flowing round, so as to benefit every +particular house, and keep out all necessity of connection between the +sick. I am become better acquainted with these matters, as this is the +precise time when the immortal Carlo Borromeo's actions are rehearsed, +and his praises celebrated, by people appointed in every church to +preach his example and record his excellence. + +A statue of solid silver, large as life, and resembling, as they hope, +his person, decorated with rings, &c. of immense value, is now exposed +in church for people to venerate; and the subterranean chapel, where his +body lies, is all wainscoted, as I may say, with silver; every separate +compartment chased, like our old-fashioned watch-cases, with some story +out of his life, which lasted but forty-seven years, after having done +more good than any other person in ninety-four; as a capuchin friar said +this morning, who mounted the pulpit to praise him, and seemed to be +well thought on by his auditors. The chanting tone in which he spoke +displeased me, however, who can be at last no competent judge of +eloquence in any language but my own. + +There is a national rhetoric in every country, dependant on national +manners; and those gesticulations of body, or depressions of voice, +which produce pity and commiseration in one place, may, without censure +of the orator or of his hearers, excite contempt and oscitancy in +another. The sentiments of the preacher I heard were just and vigorous; +and if that suffices not to content a foreign ear, woe be to me, who now +live among those to whom I am myself a foreigner; and who at best can +but be expected to forgive, for the sake of the things said, that accent +and manner with which I am obliged to express them. + +By the indulgence of private friendship, I have now enjoyed the uncommon +amusement of seeing a theatrical exhibition performed by friars in a +convent for their own diversion, and that of some select friends. The +monks of St. Victor had, it seems, obtained permission, this carnival, +to represent a little odd sort of play, written by one of their +community chiefly in the Milanese dialect, though the upper characters +spoke Tuscan. The subject of this drama was taken, naturally enough, +from some events, real or fictitious, which were supposed to have +happened in, the environs of Milan, about a hundred years ago, when the +Torriani and Visconti families disputed for superiority. Its +construction was compounded of comic and distressful scenes, of which +the last gave me most delight; and much was I amazed, indeed, to feel my +cheeks wet with tears at a friar's play, founded on ideas of parental +tenderness. The comic part, however, was intolerably gross; the jokes +coarse, and incapable of diverting any but babies, or men who, by a kind +of intellectual privation, contrive to perpetuate babyhood, in the vain +hope of preferring innocence: nor could I shelter myself by saying how +little I understood of the dialect it was written in, as the action was +nothing less than equivocal; and in the burletta which was tacked to it +by way of farce, I saw the soprano fingers who played the women's parts, +and who see more of the world than these friars, blush for shame, two or +three times, while the company, most of them grave ecclesiastics, +applauded with rapturous delight. + +The wearisome length of the whole would, however, have surfeited me, had +the amusement been more eligible; but these dear monks do not get a +holiday often, I trust; so in the manner of school-boys, or rather +school-girls in England (for our boys are soon above such stuff), they +were never tired of this dull buffoonery, and kept us listening to it +till one o'clock in the morning. + +Pleasure, when it does come, always bursts up in an unexpected place; I +derived much from observing in the faces of these cheerful friars, that +intelligent shrewdness and arch penetration so visible in the +countenances of our Welch farmers, and curates of country villages in +Flintshire, Caernarvonshire, &c. which Howel (best judge in such a case) +observes in his Letters, and learnedly accounts for; but which I had +wholly forgotten till the monks of St. Victor brought it back to my +remembrance. + +The brothers who remained unemployed, and clear from stage occupations, +formed the orchestra; those that were left _then_ without any immediate +business upon their hands, chatted gaily with the company, producing +plenty of refreshments; and I was really very angry with myself for +feeling so cynically disposed, when every thing possible was done to +please me. Can one help however sighing, to think that the monastic +life, so capable of being used for the noblest purposes, and originally +suggested by the purest motives, should, from the vast diversity of +orders, the increase of wealth and general corruption of mankind, +degenerate into a state either of mental apathy, as among the +sequestered monks, or of vicious luxury, as among the more free and open +societies? + +Yet must one still behold both with regret and indignation, that rage +for innovation which delights to throw down places once the retreats of +Piety and Learning--Piety, who fought in vain to wall and fortify +herself against those seductions which since have sapped the venerable +fabric that they feared to batter; and Learning, who first opened the +eyes of men, that now ungratefully begin to turn them only on the +defeats of their benefactress. + +The Christmas functions here were showy, and I thought well-contrived; +the public ones are what I speak of: but I was present lately at a +private merrymaking, where all distinctions seemed pleasingly thrown +down by a spirit of innocent gaiety. The Marquis's daughter mingled in +country-dances with the apothecary's prentice, while her truly noble +parents looked on with generous pleasure, and encouraged the mirth of +the moment. Priests, ladies, gentlemen of the very first quality, romped +with the girls of the house in high good-humour, and tripped it away +without the incumbrance of petty pride, or the mean vanity of giving +what they expressively call _foggezzione_, to those who were proud of +their company and protection. A new-married wench, whose little fortune +of a hundred crowns had been given her by the subscription of many in +the room, seemed as free with them all, as the most equal distribution +of birth or riches could have made her: she laughed aloud, and rattled +in the ears of the gentlemen; replied with sarcastic coarseness when +they joked her, and apparently delighted to promote such conversation as +they would not otherwise have tried at. The ladies shouted for joy, +encouraged the girl with less delicacy than desire of merriment, and +promoted a general banishment of decorum; though I do believe with full +as much or more purity of intention, than may be often met with in a +polished circle at Paris itself. + +Such society, however, can please a stranger only as it is odd and as it +is new; when ceremony ceases, hilarity is left in a state too natural +not to offend people accustomed to scenes of high civilization; and I +suppose few of us could return, after twenty-five years old, to the +coarse comforts of _a roll and treacle._ + +Another style of amusement, very different from this last, called us +out, two or three days ago, to hear the famous Passione de Metastasio +sung in St. Celso's church. The building is spacious, the architecture +elegant, and the ornaments rich. A custom too was on this occasion +omitted, which I dislike exceedingly; that of deforming the beautiful +edifices dedicated to God's service with damask hangings and gold lace +on the capitals of all the pillars upon days of gala, so very +perversely, that the effect of proportion is lost to the eye, while the +church conveys no idea to the mind but of a tattered theatre; and when +the frippery decorations fade, nothing can exclude the recollection of +an old clothes shop. St. Celso was however left clear from these +disgraceful ornaments: there assembled together a numerous and +brilliant, if not an attentive audience; and St. Peter's part in the +oratorio was sung by a soprano voice, with no appearance of peculiar +propriety to be sure; but a satirical nobleman near me said, that +"Nothing could possibly be more happily imagined, as the mutilation of +poor St. Peter was continuing daily, and in full force;" alluding to the +Emperor's rough reformations: and he does not certainly spare the coat +any more than Jack in our Tale of a Tub, when he is rending away the +embroidery. Here, however, the parallel must end; for Jack, though +zealous, was never accused of burning the lace, if I remember right, +and putting the gold in his pocket. It happened oddly, that chatting +freely one day before dinner with some literary friends on the subject +of coat armour, we had talked about the Visconti serpent, which is the +arms of Milan; and the spread eagle of Austria, which we laughingly +agreed ought to _eat double _ because it had _two necks_: when the +conversation insensibly turned on the oppressions of the present hour; +and I, to put all away with a joke, proposed the _fortes Homericae_ to +decide on their future destiny. Somebody in company insisted that _I_ +should open the book--I did so, at the omen in the twelfth book of the +Iliad, and read these words: + + Jove's bird on sounding pinions beat the skies; + A bleeding serpent of enormous size + His talons trussed; alive and curling round + She stung the bird, whose throat receiv'd the wound. + Mad with the smart he drops the fatal prey, + In airy circles wings his painful way, + Floats on the winds, and rends the heavens with cries: + Amid the hosts the fallen serpent lies; + They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll'd, + And Jove's portent with beating hearts behold. + +It is now time to talk a little of the theatre; and surely a receptacle +so capacious to contain four thousand people, a place of entrance so +commodious to receive them, a show so princely, so very magnificent to +entertain them, must be sought in vain out of Italy. The centre front +box, richly adorned with gilding, arms, and trophies, is appropriated to +the court, whose canopy is carried up to what we call the first gallery +in England; the crescent of boxes ending with the stage, consist of +nineteen on a side, _small boudoirs_, for such they seem; and are as +such fitted up with silk hangings, girandoles, &c. and placed so +judiciously as to catch every sound of the fingers, if they do but +whisper: I will not say it is equally advantageous to the figure, as to +the voice; no performers looking adequate to the place they recite upon, +so very stately is the building itself, being all of stone, with an +immense portico, and stairs which for width you might without hyperbole +drive your chariot up. An immense sideboard at the first lobby, lighted +and furnished with luxurious and elegant plenty, as many people send for +suppers to their box, and entertain a knot of friends there with +infinite convenience and splendour. A silk curtain, the colour of your +hangings, defends the closet from intrusive eyes, if you think proper to +drop it; and when drawn up, gives gaiety and show to the general +appearance of the whole: while across the corridor leading to these +boxes, another small chamber, numbered like _that_ it belongs to, is +appropriated to the use of your servants, and furnished with every +conveniency to make chocolate, serve lemonade, &c. + +Can one wonder at the contempt shewn by foreigners when they see English +women of fashion squeezed into holes lined with dirty torn red paper, +and the walls of it covered with a wretched crimson fluff? Well! but +this theatre is built in place of a church founded by the famous +Beatrice de Scala, in consequence of a vow she made to erect one if God +would be pleased to send her a son. The church was pulled down and the +playhouse erected. The Arch-duke lost a son that year; and the pious +folks cried, "A judgment!" but nobody minded them, I believe; many, +however, that are scrupulous will not go. Meantime it is a beautiful +theatre to be sure; the finest fabric raised in modern days, I do +believe, for the purposes of entertainment; but we must not be partial. +While London has twelve capital rooms for the professed amusement of the +Public, Milan has but one; there is in it, however, a ridotto chamber +for cards, of a noble size, where some little gaming goes on in carnival +time; but though the inhabitants complain of the enormities committed +there, I suppose more money is lost and won at one club in St. James's +street during a week, than here at Milan in the whole winter. + +Every nation complains of the wickedness of its own inhabitants, and +considers them as the worst people in the world, till they have seen +others no better; and then, like individuals with their private sorrows, +they find change produces no alleviation. The Mount of Miseries, in the +Spectator, where all the people change with their neighbours, lay down +an undutiful son, and carry away with them a hump-back, or whatever had +been the source of disquiet to another, whom he had blamed for bearing +so ill a misfortune thought trifling till he took it on himself, is an +admirably well constructed fable, and is applicable to public as well +as private complaints. + +A gentleman who had long practised as a solicitor, and was retired from +business, stored with a perfect knowledge of mankind so far as his +experience could inform him, told me once, that whoever died before +sixty years old, if he had made his own fortune, was likely to leave it +according as friendship, gratitude, and public spirit dictated: either +to those who had served, or those who had pleased him; or, not +unfrequently, to benefit some charity, set up some school, or the like: +"but let a man once turn sixty," said he, "and his natural heirs _are +sure of him_:" for having seen many people, he has likewise been +disgusted by many; and though he does not love his relations better than +he did, the discovery that others are but little superior to them in +those excellencies he has sought about the world in vain for, he begins +to enquire for his nephew's little boy, whom as he never saw, never +could have offended him; and if he does not break the chain of a +favourite watch, or any other such boyish trick, the estate is his for +ever, upon no principle but this in the testator. + +So it is by those who travel a good deal; by what I have seen, every +country has so much in it to be justly complained of, that most men +finish by preferring their own. + +That neither complaints nor rejoicings here at Milan, however, proceed +from affectation, is a choice comfort: the Lombards possess the skill to +please you without feigning; and so artless are their manners, you +cannot even suspect them of insincerity. They have, perhaps for that +very reason, few comedies, and fewer novels among them: for the worst of +every man's character is already well known to the rest; but be his +conduct what it will, the heart is commonly right enough--_il luon cuor +Lombardo_ is famed throughout all Italy, and nothing can become +proverbial without an excellent reason. Little opportunity is therefore +given to writers who carry the dark lanthorn of life into its deepest +recesses--unwind the hidden wickedness of a Maskwell or a Monkton, +develope the folds of vice, and spy out the internal worthlessness of +apparent virtue; which from these discerning eyes cannot be cloked even +by that early-taught affectation which renders it a real ingenuity to +discover, if in a highly polished capital a man or woman has or has not +good parts or principles--so completely are the first overlaid with +literature, and the last perverted by refinement. + + * * * * * + +April 2, 1785. + +The cold weather continues still, and we have heavy snows; but so +admirable is the police of this well-regulated town, that when +over-night it has fallen to the height of four feet, no very uncommon +occurrence, no one can see in the morning that even a flake has been +there, so completely do the poor and the prisoners rid us of it all, by +throwing immense loads of it into a navigable canal that runs quite +round the city, and carries every nuisance with it clearly away--so that +no inconveniencies can arise. + +Italians seem to me to have no feeling of cold; they open the +casements--for windows we have none (now in winter), and cry, _che bel +freschetto_![Footnote: What a fresh breeze!] while I am starving +outright. If there is a flash of a few faggots in the chimney that just +scorches one a little, no lady goes near it, but sits at the other end +of a high-roofed room, the wind whistling round her ears, and her feet +upon a perforated brass box, filled with wood embers, which the +_cavalier fervente_ pulls out from time to time, and replenishes with +hotter ashes raked out from between the andirons. How sitting with these +fumes under their petticoats improves their beauty of complexion I know +not; certain it is, they pity _us_ exceedingly for our manner of +managing ourselves, and enquire of their countrymen who have lived here +a-while, how their health endured the burning _fossils_ in the chambers +at London. I have heard two or three Italians say, _vorrei anch' io +veder quell' Inghilterra, ma questo carbone fossile_![Footnote: I would +go see this same England myself I think, but that fuel made of minerals +frights me!] To church, however, and to the theatre, ladies have a great +green velvet bag carried for them, adorned with gold tassels, and lined +with fur, to keep their feet from freezing, as carpets are not in use +here. Poor women run about the streets with a little earthen pipkin +hanging on their arm, filled with fire, even if they are sent on an +errand; while men of all ranks walk wrapped up in an odd sort of white +riding coat, not buttoned together, but folded round their body after +the fashion of the old Roman dress that one has seen in statues, and +this they call _Gaban_, retaining many Spanish words since the time that +they were under Spanish government. _Buscar_, to seek, is quite familiar +here as at Madrid, and instead of Ragazzo, I have heard the Milanese say +_Mozzo_ di Stalla, which is originally a Castilian word I believe, and +spelt by them with the _c con cedilla_, Moco. They have likewise Latin +phrases oddly mingled among their own: a gentleman said yesterday, that +he was going to Casa _Sororis_, to his sister's; and the strange word +_Minga_, which meets one at every turn, is corrupted, I believe, from +_Mica_, a crumb. _Piaz minga_, I have not a crumb of pleasure in it, &c. + +The uniformity of dress here pleases the eye, and their custom of going +veiled to church, and always without a hat, which they consider as +profanation of the _temple_ as they call it, delights me much; it has an +air of decency in the individuals, of general respect for the place, and +of a resolution not to let external images intrude on devout thoughts. +The hanging churches, and even public pillars, set up in the streets or +squares for purposes of adoration, with black, when any person of +consequence dies, displeases me more; it is so very dismal, so paltry a +piece of pride and expiring vanity, and so dirty a custom, calling bugs +and spiders, and all manner of vermin about one so in those black +trappings, it is terrible; but if they remind us of our end, and set us +about preparing for it, the benefit is greater than the evil. + +The equipages on the Corso here are very numerous, in proportion to the +size of the city, and excessively showy: the horses are long-tailed, +heavy, and for the most part black, with high rising forehands, while +the sinking of the back is artfully concealed by the harness of red +Morocco leather richly ornamented, and white reins. To this magnificence +much is added by large leopard, panther, or tyger skins, beautifully +striped or spotted by Nature's hand, and held fast on the horses by +heavy shining tassels of gold, coloured lace, &c. wonderfully handsome; +while the driver, clothed in a bright scarlet dress, adorned and trimmed +with bear's skin, makes a noble figure on the box at this season upon +days of gala. The carnival, however, exhibits a variety unspeakable; +boats and barges painted of a thousand colours, drawn upon wheels, and +filled with masks and merry-makers, who throw sugar-plums at each other, +to the infinite delight of the town, whose populousness that show +evinces to perfection, for every window and balcony is crowded to +excess; the streets are fuller than one can express of gazers, and +general mirth and gaiety prevail. When the flashing season is over, and +you are no longer to be dazzled with finery or stunned with noise, the +nobility of Milan--for gentry there are none--fairly slip a check case +over the hammock, as we do to our best chairs in England, clap a coarse +leather cover on the carriage top, the coachman wearing a vast brown +great coat, which he spreads on each side him over the corners of his +coach-box, and looks as somebody was saying--like a sitting hen. + +The paving of our streets here at Milan is worth mentioning, only +because it is directly contrary to the London method of performing the +same operation. They lay the large flag stones at this place in two +rows, for the coach wheels to roll smoothly over, leaving walkers to +accommodate themselves, and bear the sharp pebbles to their tread as +they may. In every thing great, and every thing little, the diversity of +government must perpetually occur; where that is despotic, small care +will be taken of the common people; where that is popular, little +attention will be paid to the great ones. I never in my whole life heard +so much of birth and family as since I came to this town; where blood +enjoys a thousand exclusive privileges, where Cavalier and Dama are +words of the first, nay of the only importance; where wit and beauty are +considered as useless without a long pedigree; and virtue, talents, +wealth, and wisdom, are thought on only as medals to hang upon the +branch of a genealogical tree, as we tie trinkets to a watch in England. + +I went to church, twenty yards from our own door, with a servant to wait +on me, three or four mornings ago; there was a lady particularly well +dressed, very handsome, two footmen attending on her at a distance, took +my attention. Peter, said I, to my own man, as we came out, _chi e +quella dama? who is that lady? Non e dama_, replies the fellow, +contemptuously smiling at my simplicity--_she is no lady_. I thought +she might be somebody's kept mistress, and asked him whose? _Dio ne +liberi_, returns Peter, in a kinder accent--for there _heart_ came in, +and he would not injure her character--God forbid: _e moglie d'un ricco +banchiere_--she is a rich banker's wife. You may see, added he, that she +is no lady if you look--the servants carry no velvet stool for her to +kneel upon, and they have no coat armour in the lace to their liveries: +_she_ a lady! repeated he again with infinite contempt. + +I am told that the Arch-duke is very desirous to close this breach of +distinction, and to draw merchants and traders with their wives up into +higher notice than they were wont to remain in. I do not _think_ he will +by that means conciliate the affection of any rank. The prejudices in +favour of nobility are too strong to be shaken here, much less rooted +out so: the very servants would rather starve in the house of a man of +family, than eat after a person of inferior quality, whom they consider +as their equal, and almost treat him as such to his face. Shall we then +be able to refuse our particular veneration to those characters of high +rank here, who add the charm of a cultivated mind to that situation +which, united even with ignorance, would ensure them respect? When +scholarship is found among the great in Italy, it has the additional +merit of having grown up in their own bosoms, without encouragement from +emulation, or the least interested motive. His companions do not think +much the more of him--for _that_ kind of superiority. I suppose, says a +friend of his, he must be fond of study; for _chi pensa di una maniera, +chi pensa d' un altra, per me sono stato sempre ignorantissimo_[I]. + +[Footnote I: One man is of one mind, another of another: I was always a +sheer dunce for my own part.] + +These voluntary confessions of many a quality, which, whether possessed +or not by English people, would certainly never be avowed, spring from +that native sincerity I have been praising--for though family +connections are prized so highly here, no man seems ashamed that he has +no family to boast: all feigning would indeed be useless and +impracticable; yet it struck me with astonishment too, to hear a +well-bred clergyman who visits at many genteel houses, say gravely to +his friend, no longer ago than yesterday--that friend a man too eminent +both for talents and fortune--"Yes, there is a grand invitation at such +a place to-night, but I don't go, because _I am not a gentleman--perche +non sono cavaliere_; and the master desired I would let you know that +_it was for no other reason_ that you had not a card too, my good +friend; for it is an invitation of none but _people of fashion you +see_." At all this nobody stares, nobody laughs, and nobody's throat is +cut in consequence of their sincere declarations. + +The women are not behind-hand in openness of confidence and comical +sincerity. We have all heard much of Italian cicisbeism; I had a mind to +know how matters really stood; and took the nearest way to information +by asking a mighty beautiful and apparently artless young creature, _not +noble_, how that affair was managed, for there is no harm done _I am +sure_, said I: "Why no," replied she, "no great _harm_ to be sure: +except wearisome attentions from a man one cares little about: for my +own part," continued she, "I detest the custom, as I happen to love my +husband excessively, and desire nobody's company in the world but his. +We are not _people of fashion_ though you know, nor at all rich; so how +should we set fashions for our betters? They would only say, see how +jealous he is! if _Mr. Such-a-one_ sat much with me at home, or went +with me to the Corso; and I _must_ go with some gentleman you know: and +the men are such ungenerous creatures, and have such ways with them: I +want money often, and this _cavaliere servente_ pays the bills, and so +the connection draws closer--_that's all_." And your husband! said +I--"Oh, why he likes to see me well dressed; he is very good natured, +and very charming; I love him to my heart." And your confessor! cried +I.--"Oh, why he is _used to it_"--in the Milanese dialect--_e assuefaa_. + +Well! we will not send people to Milan to study delicacy or very refined +morality to be sure; but were the crust of British affectation lifted +off many a character at home, I know not whether better, that is +_honester_, hearts would be found under it than that of this pretty +girl, God forbid that I should prove an advocate for vice; but let us +remember, that the banishment of all hypocrisy and deceit is a vast +compensation for the want of _one great virtue_.--The certainty that +the worst, whatever that worst may be, meets your immediate inspection, +gives great repose to the mind: you know there is no latent poison +lurking out of sight; no colours to come out stronger by throwing water +suddenly against them, as you do to old fresco paintings: and talking +freely with women in this country, though you may have a chance to light +on ignorance, you are never teized by folly. + +The mind of an Italian, whether man or woman, seldom fails, for ought I +see, to make up in _extent_ what is wanted in _cultivation_; and that +they possess the art of pleasing in an eminent degree, the constancy +with which they are mutually beloved by each other is the best proof. + +Ladies of distinction bring with them when they marry, besides fortune, +as many clothes as will last them seven years; for fashions do not +change here as often as at London or Paris; yet is pin-money allowed, +and an attention paid to the wife that no Englishwoman can form an idea +of: in every family her duties are few; for, as I have observed, +household management falls to the master's share of course, when all +the servants are men almost, and those all paid by the week or day. +Children are very seldom seen by those who visit great houses: if they +_do_ come down for five minutes after dinner, the parents are talked of +as _doting_ on them, and nothing can equal the pious and tender return +made to fathers and mothers in this country, for even an apparently +moderate share of fondness shewn to them in a state of infancy. I saw an +old Marchioness the other day, who had I believe been exquisitely +beautiful, lying in bed in a spacious apartment, just like ours in the +old palaces, with the tester touching the top almost: she had her three +grown-up sons standing round her, with an affectionate desire of +pleasing, and shewing her whatever could sooth or amuse her--so that it +charmed me; and I was told, and observed indeed, that when they quitted +her presence a half kneeling bow, and a kind kiss of her still white +hand, was the ceremony used. I knew myself brought thither only that she +might be entertained with the sight of the foreigner--and was equally +struck at her appearance--more so I should imagine than she could be at +mine; when these dear men assisted in moving her pillows with emulative +attention, and rejoiced with each other apart, that their mother looked +so well to-day. Two or three servants out of livery brought us +refreshments I remember; but her maid attended in the antichamber, and +answered the bell at her bed's head, which was exceedingly magnificent +in the old style of grandeur--crimson damask, if I recollect right, with +family arms at the back; and she lay on nine or eleven pillows, laced +with ribbon, and two large bows to each, very elegant and expensive in +any country:--with all this, to prove that the Italians have little +sensation of cold, here was no fire, but a suffocating brazier, which +stood near the door that opened, and was kept open, into the maid's +apartment. + +A woman here in every stage of life has really a degree of attention +shewn her that is surprising:--if conjugal disputes arise in a family, +so as to make them become what we call town-talk, the public voice is +sure to run against the husband; if separation ensues, all possible +countenance is given to the wife, while the gentleman is somewhat less +willingly received; and all the stories of past disgusts are related to +_his_ prejudice: nor will the lady whom he wishes to serve look very +kindly on a man who treats his own wife with unpoliteness. _Che cuore +deve avere!_ says she: What a heart he must have! _Io non mene fido +sicuro_: I shall take care not to trust him sure. + +National character is a great matter: I did not know there had been such +a difference in the ways of thinking, merely from custom and climate, as +I see there is; though one has always read of it: it was however +entertaining enough to hear a travelled gentleman haranguing away three +nights ago at our house in praise of English cleanliness, and telling +his auditors how all the men in London, _that were noble_, put on a +clean shirt every day, and the women washed the street before his +house-door every morning. "_Che schiavitu mai!_" exclaimed a lady of +quality, who was listening: "_ma natural mente fara per commando del +principe_."--"_What a land of slavery!_" says Donna Louisa, I heard her; +"_but it is all done by command of the sovereign, I suppose_." + +Their ideas of justice are no less singular than of delicacy: but those +are more easily accounted for; so is their amiable carriage towards +inferiors, calling their own and their friends servants by tender names, +and speaking to all below themselves with a graciousness not often used +by English men or women even to their equals. The pleasure too which the +high people here express when the low ones are diverted, is +charming.--We think it vulgar to be merry when the mob is so; but if +rolling down a hill, like Greenwich, was the custom here, as with us, +all Milan would run to see the sport, and rejoice in the felicity of +their fellow-creatures. When I express my admiration of such +condescending sweetness, they reply--_e un uomo come un altro;--e +battezzato come noi_; and the like--Why he is a man of the same nature +as we: he has been christened as well as ourselves, they reply. Yet do I +not for this reason condemn the English as naturally haughty above their +continental neighbours. Our government has left so narrow a space +between the upper and under ranks of people in Great Britain--while our +charitable and truly Christian religion is still so constantly employed +in raising the depressed, by giving them means of changing their +situation, that if our persons of condition fail even for a moment to +watch their post, maintaining by dignity what they or their fathers have +acquired by merit, they are instantly and suddenly broken in upon by the +well-employed talents, or swiftly-acquired riches, of men born on the +other side the thin partition; whilst in Italy the gulph is totally +impassable, and birth alone can entitle man or woman to the society of +gentlemen and ladies. This firmly-fixed idea of subordination (which I +once heard a Venetian say, he believed must exist in heaven from one +angel to another) accounts immediately for a little conversation which I +am now going to relate. + +Here were two men taken up last week, one for murdering his +fellow-servant in cold blood, while the undefended creature had the +lemonade tray in his hand going in to serve company; the other for +breaking the new lamps lately set up with intention to light this town +in the manner of the streets at Paris. "I hope," said I, "that they will +hang the murderer." "I rather hope," replied a very sensible lady who +sate near me, "that they will hang the person who broke the lamps: for," +added she, "the first committed his crime only out of revenge, poor +fellow! because the other had got his mistress from him by treachery; +but this creature has had the impudence to break our fine new lamps, all +for the sake of spiting _the Arch-duke_." The Arch-duke meantime hangs +nobody at all; but sets his prisoners to work upon the roads, public +buildings, &c. where they labour in their chains; and where, strange to +tell! they often insult passengers who refuse them alms when asked as +they go by; and, stranger still! they are not punished for it when they +do. + +Here is certainly much despotic power in Italy, but, I fancy, very +little oppression; perhaps authority, once acknowledged, does not +delight itself always by the fatigue of exertion. _Sat est prostrasse +leoni_ is an old adage, with which perhaps I may be the better +acquainted, as it is the motto to my own coat of arms; and unless +sovereignty is hungry, for ought I see, he does not certainly _devour_. + +The certainty of their irrevocable doom, softened by kind usage from +their superiors, makes, in the mean time, an odd sort of humorous +drollery spring up among the common people, who are much happier here at +Milan than I expected to find them: every great house giving meat, +broth, &c. to poor dependents with liberal good-nature enough, so that +mighty little wandering misery is seen in the streets; unlike those of +Genoa, who seem mocked with the word _liberty_, while sorrow, sickness, +and the most pinching want, pine at the doors of marble palaces, whose +owners are unfeeling as their walls. + +Our ordinary people here in Lombardy are well clothed, fat, stout, and +merry; and desirous to divert themselves, and their protectors, whom +they love at their hearts. There is however a degree of effrontery among +the women that amazes me, and of which I had no idea, till a friend +shewed me one evening from my own box at the opera, fifty or a hundred +low shop-keepers wives, dispersed about the pit at the theatre, dressed +in men's clothes, _per disimpegno_ as they call it; that they might be +more _at liberty_ forsooth to clap and hiss, and quarrel and jostle, +&c. I felt shocked. "_One who comes from a free government need not +wonder so_," said he: "On the contrary, Sir," replied I, "where every +body has hopes, at least possibility, of bettering his station, and +advancing nearer to the limits of upper life, none except the most +abandoned of their species will wholly lose sight of such decorous +conduct as alone can grace them when they have reached their wish: +whereas your people know their destiny, future as well as present, and +think no more of deserving a higher post, than they think of obtaining +it." Let me add, however, that if these women _were_ a little riotous +during the Easter holidays, they are _dilletantes_ only. In this city no +female _professors_ of immorality and open libertinage, disgraceful at +once, and pernicious to society, are permitted to range the streets in +quest of prey; to the horror of all thinking people, and the ruin of all +heedless ones. + +With which observation, to continue the tour of Italy, we this day +leave, for a twelvemonth at least, Milano il grande, after having spent, +though not quite finished the winter in it; as there fell a very heavy +snow last Saturday, which hindered our setting out a week ago, though +this is the sixth of April; and exactly five months have now since last +November been passed among those who have I hope approved our conduct +and esteemed our manners. That they should trouble themselves to examine +our income, report our phrases, and listen, perhaps with some little +mixture of envy, after every instance of unshakable attachment shewn to +each other, would be less pleasing; but that I verily believe they have +at last dismissed us with general good wishes, proceeding from innate +goodness of heart, and the hope of seeing again, in a year's time or so, +two people who have supplied so many tables here with materials for +conversation, when the fountain of talk was stopt by deficiencies, and +the little stream of prattle ceased to murmur for want of a few pebbles +to break its course. + +We are going to Venice by the way of Cremona, and hope for amusement +from external objects: let us at least not deserve or invite +disappointment by seeking for pleasure beyond the limits of innocence. + + + +FROM MILAN TO PADUA. + + +The first evening's drive carried us no farther than Lodi, a place +renowned through all Europe for its excellent cheese, as out well-known +ballad bears testimony: + + Let Lodi or Parmesan bring up the rear. + +Those verses were imitated, I fancy, from a French song written by +Monsieur des Yveteaux, of whose extraordinary life and death much has +been said by his cotemporary wits, particularly how some of them found +him playing at shepherd and shepherdess in his own garden with a pretty +Savoyard wench, at seventy-eight years old, _en habit de berger, avec un +chapeau couleur de rose_[Footnote: In a pastoral habit, and a hat turned +up with pink], &c. when he shewed them the famous lines, _Avoir peu de +parens, moins de train que de rente_, &c. which do certainly bear a very +near affinity to our Old Man's Wish, published in Dryden's +Miscellanies; who, among other luxuries, resolves to eat Lodi cheese, I +remember. + +The town, however, bringing no other ideas either new or old to our +minds, we went to the opera, and heard Morichelli sing: after which they +gave us a new dramatic dance, made upon the story of Don John, or the +Libertine; a tale which, whether true or false, fact or fable, has +furnished every Christian country in the world, I believe, with some +subject of representation. It makes me no sport, however; the idea of an +impenitent sinner going to hell is too seriously terrifying to make +amusement out of. Let mythology, which is now grown good for little +else, be danced upon the stage; where Mr. Vestris may bounce and +struggle in the character of Alcides on his funeral pile, with no very +glaring impropriety; and such baubles serve beside to keep old classical +stories in the heads of our young people; who, if they _must_ have +torches to blaze in their eyes, may divert themselves with Pluto +catching up Ceres's daughter, and driving her away to Tartarus; but let +Don John alone. I have at least _half a notion_ that the horrible +history is _half true_; if so, it is surely very gross to represent it +by dancing. Should such false foolish taste prevail in England (but I +hope it will not), we might perhaps go happily through the whole book of +God's Revenge against Murder, or the Annals of Newgate, on the stage, as +a variety of pretty stories may be found there of the same cast; while +statues of Hercules and Minerva, with their insignia as heathen deities, +might be placed, with equal attention to religion, costume, and general +fitness, as decorations for the monuments of _Westminster Abbey_. + +The country we came through to Cremona is rich and fertile, the roads +deep and miry of course; very few of the Lombardy poplars, of which I +expected to see so many: but Phaeton's sisters seem to have danced all +away from the odoriferous banks of the Po, to the green sides of the +Thames, I think; meantime here is no other timber in the country but a +few straggling ash, and willows without end. The old Eridanus, however, +makes a majestic figure at Cremona, and frights the inhabitants when it +overflows. There are not many to be frighted though, for the town is +thinly peopled; but exquisitely clean, perhaps for that very reason; +and the cathedral, of a mixed Grecian and Gothic architecture, has a +respectable appearance; while two enormous lions, of red marble, frown +at its door, and the crucifixion, painted by Pordenone, with a rough but +powerful pencil, strikes one at the entrance: I have seen nothing finer +than the figure of the Centurion upon the fore-ground, who seems to cry +out, with soldier-like courage and apostolic fervour, Truly this is the +Son of God. + +The great clock here too is very curious: having, besides the +twenty-four hours, a minute and second finger, like a stop watch, and +shews the phases of the moon, with her triple rotation clearly to all +who walk across the piazza. Yet I trust the dwellers at Cremona are no +better astronomers than those who live in other places; to what purpose +then all these representations with which Italy is crowded; processions, +paintings, &c. besides the moral dances, as they call them now? One word +of solid instruction to the ear, conveys more knowledge to the mind at +last, than all these marionettes presented to the eye. + +The tower of Cremona is of a surprising height and elegant form; we +climbed, not without some difficulty, to its top, and saw the flat +plains of Lombardy stretched out all round us. Prospects, however, and +high towers have I seen; that in Mr. Hoare's grounds, dedicated to King +Alfred, is a much finer structure than this, and the view from it much +more variegated certainly; I think of greater extent; though there is +more dignity in these objects, while the Po twists through them, and +distant mountains mingle with the sky at the end of a lengthened +horizon. + +What I have never seen till now, we were made to observe in the octagon +gallery which crowns this pretty structure, where in every compartment +there are channels cut in the stone to guide the eye or rest the +telescope, that so a spectator need not be fruitlessly teized, as one +almost always is, by those who shew one a prospect, with _Look there! +See there!_ &c. At this place nothing needs be done but lay the glass or +put the eye even with the lines which point to Bergamo, Mantua, or where +you please; and _look there_ becomes superfluous as offensive. + +The bells in the tower amused us in another way: an old man who has the +care of them, delighted much in telling us how he rung tunes upon them +before the Duke of Parma, who presented him with money, and bid him ring +again: and not a little was the good man amazed, when one of our company +sate down and played on them himself: a thing he had never before been +witness to, he said, except once, when a surprising musician arrived +from England, and performed the like seat: by his description of the +person, and the time of his passing through Cremona, we conjectured he +meant Dr. Burney. + +The most dreadful of all roads carried us next morning to Mantua, where +we had letters for an agreeable friend, who neglected nothing that could +entertain or instruct us. He shewed me the field where it is supposed +the house stood in which Virgil was born, and told me what he knew of +the evidence that he was born there: certain it is that much care is +taken to keep the place fenced, from an idea of its being the identical +spot, and I hope it is so. + +The theatres here are beautiful beyond all telling: it is a shame not to +take the model of the small one, and build a place of entertainment on +the plan. There cannot surely be any plan more elegant. + +We had a concert of admirable music at the house of our new +acquaintance, in the evening, and were introduced by his means to many +people of fashion; the ladies were pretty, and dressed with much taste; +no caps at all, but flowers in their heads, and earrings of silver +fillagree finely worked; long, light, and thin: I never saw such before, +but it would be an exceeding pretty fashion. They hung down quite low +upon the neck and shoulders, and had a pleasing effect. + +Mantua stands in the middle of a deep swampy marsh, that sends up a +thick foggy vapour all winter, a stench intolerable during the summer +months. Its inhabitants lament the want of population; and indeed I +counted but five carriages in the streets while we remained in the town. +Seven thousand Jews occupy a third part of the city, founded by old +Tiresias's daughter, where they have a synagogue, and live after their +own fashion. The dialect here is closer to that Italian which foreigners +learn, and the ladies speak more Tuscan, I think, than at Milan, but it +is a _lady's_ town as I told them. + + "Ille etiam patriis agmen ciet Ocnus ab oris + Fatidicae _Mantus_ et Tusci filius amnis, + Qui muros matrisque dedit tibi. _Mantua_ nomen." + + Ocnus was next, who led his native train + Of hardy warriors thro' the wat'ry plain, + The son of Manto by the Tuscan stream, + From whence the _Mantuan_ town derives its name. + + DRYDEN. + +The annual fair is what contributes most to keeping their folks alive +though, for such are the roads it is scarce possible any strangers +should come near them, and our people complain that the inns are very +extortionate: here is one building, however, that promises wonders from +its prodigious size and magnificence; I only wonder such accommodation +should be thought necessary. + +The gentleman who shewed us the Ducal palace, seemed himself much struck +with its convenience and splendour; but I had seen Versailles, Turin, +and Genoa. What can be seen here, and here alone, are the numerous and +incomparable works of Giulio Romano; of which no words that I can use +would give my readers any adequate idea.--For such excellence language +has no praise, and of such performances taste will admit no criticism. +The giants could scarcely have been more amazed at Jupiter's thunder, +than I was at their painted fall. If Rome is to exhibit any thing beyond +this, I shall really be more dazzled than delighted; for imagination +will stretch no further, and admiration will endure no more. + + * * * * * + +Sunday, April 10. + +Here is no appearance of spring yet, though so late in the year; what +must it be in England? One almond and one plum tree have I seen in +blossom; but no green leaf out of the bud: so cheerless has been the +road between Mantua and Verona, which, however, makes amends for all on +our arrival. How beautiful the entrance is of this charming city, how +grand the gate, how handsome the drive forward, may all be read here in +a printed book called _Verona illustrata_: but my felicity in finding +the amphitheatre so well preserved, can only be found in my own heart, +which began sensibly to dilate at the seeing an old Roman colisseum kept +so nicely, and repaired so well. It is said that the arena here is +absolutely perfect; and if the galleries are a little deficient, there +can be no dispute concerning the _podium_, or lower seats, which remain +exactly as they were in old times: while I have heard that the building +of the same kind now existing at Nismes, shews the manner of entering +exceeding well; and the great one built by Vespasian has every thing +else: so that an exact idea of the old Circus may be obtained among them +all. That something should always be left to conjecture, is however not +unpleasing; various opinions animate the arguments on both sides, and +bring out fire by collision with the understanding of others engaged in +the same researches. + +A bull-feast given here to divert the Emperor as he passed through, must +have excited many pleasing sensations, while the inhabitants sate on +seats once occupied by the masters of the world; and what is more worth +wonder, fate at the feet of a Transalpine _Caesar_, for so the sovereign +of Germany is even now called by his Milanese subjects in common +discourse; and when one looks upon the arms of Austria, a spread eagle, +and recollects that when the Roman empire was divided, the old eagle was +split, one face looking toward the East, the other toward the West, in +token of shared possession, it affects one; and calls up classic imagery +to the mind. + +The collection of antiquities belonging to the Philharmonic society is +very respectable; they reminded me of the Arundel marbles at Oxford, and +I said so. "_Oh!_" replied the man who shewed these, "_that collection +was very valuable to be sure, but the bad air, and the smoke of coal +fires in England, have ruined them long ago_." I suspected that my +gentleman talked by rote, and examining the book called _Verona +illustrata_, found the remark there; but that is _malasede_, and a very +ridiculous prejudice. I will confess however, if they please, that our +original treaty between Mardonius and the Persian army, at the end of +which the Greek general Aristides, although himself a Sabian, attested +the fun as witness, in compliance with their religion who worshipped +that luminary, at least held it in the highest veneration, as the +residence of Oromasdes the good Principle, who was considered by the +Magians as for ever clothed with light: I will consider _that_, I say, +if they insist upon it, as a marble of less consequence than the last +will and testament of an old inhabitant of Sparta which is shewn at +Verona, and which _they say_ disposes of the iron money used during the +first of many years that the laws of Lycurgus lasted. + +Here is a very fine palace belonging to the Bevi-l'acqua family, besides +the Casa Verzi, as famous for its elegant Doric architecture, as the +charming mistress of it for her Attic wit. + +St. Zeno is the church which struck me most: the eternal and all-seeing +eye placed over the door; Fortune's wheel too, composed of six figures +curiously disposed, and not unlike our man alphabet, two mounting, two +sitting, and two tumbling, over against it: on the outside of the wheel +this distich, + + En ego Fortuna moderor mortalibus usum, + Elevo, depono, bona cunctis vel mala dono[J]-- + +this other on the inside of the wheel, less plainly to be read: + + Induo nudatos, denudo veste paratos, + In me confidit, si quis derisus abibit[K]. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote J: + Here I Madam Fortune my favours bestow, + Some good and some ill to the high and the low. +] + +[Footnote K: + The naked I clothe, and the pompous I strip; + If in me you confide, I may give you the slip. +] + +This is a town full of beauties, wits, and rarities: numberless persons +of the first eminence have always adorned it, and the present +inhabitants have no mind to degenerate; while the Nobleman that is +immediately descended from that house which Giambattista della Torre +made famous for his skill in astronomy, employs himself in a much more +useful, if not a nobler study; and is completing for the press a new +system of education. It was very petulantly, and very spitefully said by +Voltaire, that Italy was now no more than _la boutique_[Footnote: The +old clothes shop.], and the Italians, _les merchands fripiers de +l'Europe_[Footnote: The slop-sellers of Europe]. The Greek remains here +have still an air of youthful elegance about them, which strikes one +very forcibly where so good opportunity offers of comparing them with +the fabrics formed by their destructive successors, the Goths; who have +left some fine old black-looking monuments (which look as if they had +stood in our _coal smoke_ for centuries) to the memory of the Scaligers; +and surely the great critic of that name could not have taken a more +certain method of proving his descent from these his barbarous +ancestors, than that which his relationship to them naturally, I +suppose, inspired him with--the avowed preference of birth to talents, +of long-drawn genealogy to hardly-acquired literature. We will however +grow less prejudiced ourselves; and since there are still whole nations +of people existing, who consider the counting up many generations back +as a felicity not to be exchanged for any other without manifest loss, +we may possibly reconcile the opinion to common sense, by reflecting +that one preconception of the sovereign good is, that it should +certainly be _indeprivable_ and except birth, what is there earthly +after all that may not drop, or else be torn from its possessor by +accident, folly, force, or malice? + +James Harris says, that virtue answers to the character of +indeprivability, but one is left only to wish that his position were +true; the continuance of virtue depends on the continuance of reason, +from which a blow on the head, a sudden fit of terror, or twenty other +accidents may separate us in a moment. Nothing can make us not one's +father's child however, and the advantages of _blood_, such as they are, +may surely be deemed _indeprivable_. + +Gothic and Grecian architecture resembles Gothic and Grecian manners, +which naturally do give their colour to such arts as are naturally the +result of them. Tyranny and gloomy suspicion are the characteristics of +the one, openness and sociability strongly mark the other--when to the +gay portico succeeded the sullen drawbridge, and to the lively corridor, +a secret passage and a winding staircase. + +It is difficult, if not impossible however, to withhold one's respect +from those barbarians who could thus change the face of art, almost of +nature; who could overwhelm courage and counteract learning; who not +only devoured the works of wisdom and the labours of strength, but left +behind them too a settled system of feudatorial life and aristocratic +power, still undestroyed in Europe, though hourly attacked, battered by +commerce, and sapped by civilization. + +When Smeathman told us about twelve years ago, how an immense body of +African ants, which appeared, as they moved forwards, like the whole +earth in agitation--covered and suddenly arrested a solemn elephant, as +he grazed unsuspiciously on the plain; he told us too that in eight +hours time no trace was left either of the devasters or devasted, +excepting the skeleton of the noble creature neatly picked; a standing +proof of the power of numbers against single force. + +These northern emigrants the Goths, however, have done more; they have +fixed a mode of carrying on human affairs, that I think will never be so +far exterminated as to leave no vestiges behind: and even while one +contemplates the mischief they have made--even while one's pen engraves +one's indignation at their success; the old baron in his castle, +preceded and surrounded by loyal dependants, who desired only to live +under his protection and die in his defence, inspires a notion of +dignity unattainable by those who, seeking the beautiful, are by so far +removed from the sublime of life, and affords to the mind momentary +images of surly magnificence, ill exchanged perhaps by _fancy_, though +_truth_ has happily substituted a succession of soft ideas and social +comforts: knowledge, virtue, riches, happiness. Let it be remembered +however, that if the theme is superior to the song, we always find those +poets who live in the second class, celebrating the days past by those +who had their existence in the first. These reflections are forced upon +me by the view of Lombard manners, and the accounts I daily pick up +concerning the Brescian and Bergamase nobility; who still exert the +Gothic power of protecting murderers who profess themselves their +vassals; and who still exercise those virtues and vices natural to man +in his semi-barbarous state: fervent devotion, constant love, heroic +friendship, on the one part; gross superstition, indulgence of brutal +appetite, and diabolical revenge, on the other. + +In all hot countries, however, flowers and weeds shoot up to enormous +growth: in colder climes, where poison can scarce be feared, perfumes +can seldom be boasted. + +Verona is the gayest looking town I ever lived in; beautifully +situated, the hills around it elegant, the mountains at a distance +venerable: the silver Adige rolling through the Valley, while such a +glow of blossoms now ornament the rising grounds, and such cheerfulness +smiles in the sweet countenances of its inhabitants, that one is tempted +to think it the birth-place of Euphrosyne, where + + Zephyr with Aurora playing, + As he met her once a maying, &c. + Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair, + So buxom, blythe, and debonair-- + +as Milton says. Here are vines, mulberries, olives; of course, wine, +silk, and oil: every thing that can seduce, every thing that ought to +satisfy desiring man. Here then in consequence do actually delight to +reside mirth and good-humour in their holiday dress. _A verona mezzi +matti_[Footnote: The people at Verona are half out of their wits], say +the Italians themselves of them, and I see nothing seemingly go forward +here but Improvisatori, reciting stories or verses to entertain the +populace; boys flying kites, cut square like a diamond on the cards, and +called Stelle; men amusing themselves at a game called Pallamajo, +something like our cricket, only that they throw the ball with a hollow +stick, not with the hand, but it requires no small corporal strength; +and I know not why our English people have such a notion of Italian +effeminacy: games of very strong exertion are in use among them; and I +have not yet felt one hot day since I left France. + +They shewed us an agreeable garden here belonging to some man of +fashion, whose name I know not; it was cut in a rock, yet the grotto +disappointed me: they had not taken such advantages of the situation as +Lomellino would have done, and I recollected the tasteful creations in +my own country, _Pains Hill_ and _Stour Head_. + +The Veronese nobleman shewed however the spirit of _his_ country, if we +let loose the genius of _ours_. The emperor had visited his improvements +it seems, and on the spot where he kissed the children of the house, +their father set up a stone to record the honour. + +Our attendant related a tender story to _me_ more interesting, which +happened in this garden, of an English gentleman, who having hired the +house, &c. one season, found his favourite servant ill there, and like +to die: the poor creature expressed his concern at the intolerant +cruelty of that fact which denies Christians of any other denomination +but their own a place in consecrated ground, and lamented his distance +from home with an anxious earnestness that hastened his end: when the +humanity of his master sent him to the landlord, who kindly gave +permission that he might lie undisturbed under his turf, as one places +one's lap-dog in England; and _there_, as our Laquais de place observed, +_he did no harm_, though _he was a heretic_; and the English gentleman +wept over his grave. + +I never saw cypress trees of such a growth as in this spot--but then +there are no other trees; _inter viburna cypressi_ came of course into +one's head: and this noble plant, rich in foliage, and bright, not dusky +in colour, looked from its manner of growing like a vast evergreen +poplar. + +Our equipages here are strangely inferior to those we left behind at +Milan. Oil is burned in the conversation rooms too, and smells very +offensively--but they _lament our suffocation in England, and black +smoke_, while what proceeds from these lamps would ruin the finest +furniture in the world before five weeks were expired; I saw no such +used at Turin, Genoa, or Milan. + +The horses here are not equal to those I have admired on the Corso at +other great towns; but it is pleasing to observe the contrast between +the high bred, airy, elegant English hunter, and the majestic, docile, +and well-broken war horse of Lombardy. Shall we fancy there is Gothic +and Grecian to be found even among the animals? or is not that _too_ +fanciful? + +That every thing useful, and every thing ornamental, first revived in +Italy, is well known; but I was never aware till now, though we talk of +Italian book-keeping, that the little cant words employed in +compting-houses, took their original from the Lombard language, unless +perhaps that of Ditto, which every moment recurs, meaning Detto or +Sudetto, as that which was already said before: but this place has +afforded me an opportunity of discovering what the people meant, who +called a large portion of ground in Southwark some years ago a _plant_, +above all things. The ground was destined to the purposes of extensive +commerce, but the appellation of a _plant_ gave me much disturbance, +from my inability to fathom the meaning of it. I have here found out, +that the Lombards call many things a _plant_; and say of their cities, +palaces, &c. in familiar discourse--_che la pianta e buona, la pianta e +cattiva_[Footnote: The _plant_ is a good or a bad one], &c. + +Thus do words which carry a forcible expression in one language, appear +ridiculous enough in another, till the true derivation is known. Another +reflection too occurs as curious; that after the overthrow of all +business, all knowledge, and all pleasure resulting from either, by the +Goths, Italy should be the first to cherish and revive those +money-getting occupations, which now thrive better in more Northern +climates: but the chymists say justly, that fermentation acts with a +sort of creative power, and that while the mass of matter is fermenting, +no certain judgment can be made what spirit it will at last throw up: so +perhaps we ought not to wonder at all, that the first idea of banking +came originally from this now uncommercial country; that the very name +of _bankrupt_ was brought over from their money-changers, who sat in +the market-place with a bench or _banca_ before them, receiving and +paying; till, unable sometimes to make the due returns, the enraged +creditors broke their little board, which was called making +_bancarotta_, a phrase but too well known in the purlieus, which because +they first settled there in London was called _Lombard Street_, where +the word is still in full force I believe. + + --oh word of fear! + Unpleasing to commercial ear. + +A visit to the collection of Signor Vincenzo Bozza best assisted me in +changing, or at least turning the course of my ideas. Nothing in natural +history appears more worthy the consideration of the learned world, than +does this repository of petrefactions, so uncommon that scarcely any +thing except the testimony of one's own eyes could convince one that +flying fish, natives, and intending to remain inhabitants, of the +Pacific Ocean, are daily dug out of the bowels of Monte Bolca near +Verona, where they must doubtless have been driven by the deluge, as no +less than omnipotent power and general concussion could have sufficed to +seize and fix them for centuries in the hollow cavities of a rock at +least seventy-two miles from the nearest sea. Their learned proprietor, +however, who was obligingly desirous to shew me every attention, +answering a hundred troublesome questions with much civility, told us, +that few of his numerous visitants gave that plain account of the +phenomenon, shewing greater disposition to conjure up more difficult +causes, and attribute the whole to the world's eternity: a notion not +less contrary to found philosophy and common sense, than it is repugnant +to faith, and the doctrines of Revelation; which prophesied long ago, +that in the last days should come _scoffers, walking after their own +lusts_, and saying, _Where is now the promise of his coming? for since +the time that our fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were +from the beginning of the creation._ + +Well! these are unpleasant reflections: I would rather, before leaving +the plains of Lombardy, give my country-women one reason for detaining +them so long there: it cannot be an uninteresting reason to us, when we +ref left that our first head-dresses were made by _Milaners_; that a +court gown was early known in England by the name of a _mantua_, from +_Manto,_ the daughter of Teresias, who founded the city so called; and +that some of the best materials for making these mantuas is still named +from the town it is manufactured in--a _Padua_ soy. + +We are going thither immediately through Vicenza; where the works of +Palladio's immortal hand appear in full perfection; and nothing sure can +add to the elegancies of architecture displayed in its environs. I +fatigued myself to death almost by walking three miles out of town, to +see the famous villa from whence Merriworth Castle in Kent was modelled; +and drew incessant censures on his taste who built at the bottom of a +deep valley the imitation of a house calculated for a hill. Here I +pleased my eyes by glancing them over an extensive prospect, bounded by +mountains on the one side, on another by the sea, at so prodigious a +distance however as to be wholly undiscoverable by the naked eye; nor +could I, or any other unaccustomed spectator, have seen, as my Italian +companions did, the effect produced by marine vapours upon the +intermediate atmosphere, which they made me remark from the windows of +the palace, inferior in every thing _but_ situation to Merriworth, and +with that patriotic consolation I leave Vincenza. + +Padua la dotta afforded me much pleasure, from the politeness of the +Countess Ferres, born a German; of the House of Starenberg: she thought +proper to shew me a thousand civilities, in consequence of a kind letter +which we carried her from Count Wiltseck, the Austrian minister at +Milan; called the literati of the town about us, and gave me the +pleasure of conversing with the Abate Cefarotti, who translated Offian; +and the Professor Statico, whose attentions I ought never to forget. I +was surprised at length to hear kind inquiries after English +acquaintance made in my native language by the botanical professor, who +spoke much of Doctor Johnson, and with great regard: he had, it seems, +spent much time in our island about thirty years before. When we were +shewn the physic garden, nicely kept and excellently furnished, the +Countess took occasion to observe, that transplanted trees never throve, +and strongly expressed her unfaded attachment to her native soil: though +she had more good sense than to neglect every opportunity of +cultivating that in which fortune had placed her. + +The tomb of Antenor, supposed to be preserved in this town, has, I find, +but slight evidence to boast with regard to its authenticity: whosever +tomb it is, the antiquity of the monument, and dignity of the remains, +are scarcely questionable; and I see not but it _may_ be Antenor's. + +There is no place assigned for it but the open street, because it could +not (say they) have contained a baptized body, as there are proofs +innumerable of its being fabricated many and many years before the birth +of Jesus Christ: yet I never pass by without being hurt that it should +have no better situation assigned it, till I recollect that the old +Romans always buried people by the highway, which made the _siste +viator_[Footnote: Stop traveller] proper for their tomb-stones, as Mr. +Addison somewhere remarks; which are foolishly enough engraven upon +ours: and till I consider too that the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the +Patriarch of Antioch, where Christians were first called such, would lie +no nearer a Christian Church than old Antenor does, were they +unfortunate enough to die, and be put under ground at Padua. + +The shrine of St. Antonio is however sufficiently venerated; and the +riches of his church really amazed me: such silver lamps! such votive +offerings! such glorious sculpture! the bas relievos, representing his +life and miracles, are beyond any thing we have yet seen; one +compartment particularly, the workmanship, I think, of Sansovino, where +an old woman is represented to a degree of finished nicety and curiosity +of perfection which I knew not that marble could express. + +The hall of justice, which they oppose to our Westminster-hall, but +between which there is no resemblance, is two hundred and fifty-six feet +long, and eighty-six broad; the form, of it a _rhomboid_: the walls +richly ornamented by Pietro d'Abano, who originally designed, and began +to paint the figures round the sides: they have however been retouched +by Giotto, who added the signs of the Zodiac to Peter's mysterious +performances, which meant to explain the planetary influences, as he was +a man deeply dipped in judicial astrology; and there is his own portrait +among them, dressed like a Zoroastrian priest, with a planet in the +corner. At the bottom of the hall hangs the famous crucifixion, for the +purpose of doing which completely well, it is told that Giotto fastened +up a real man, and justly incurred the Pope's displeasure, who coming +one day unawares to see his painter work, caught the unhappy wretch +struggling in the closet, and threatened immediately to sign the +artist's death; who with Italian promptness ran to the picture, and +daubed it over with his brush and colours;--by this method obliging his +sovereign to delay execution till the work was repaired, which no one +but himself could finish; mean time the man recovers of his wounds, and +the tale ends, whether true or false, according to the hearer's wish. + +The debtor's stone at the opposite end of the hall has likewise many +entertaining stories annexed to it: the bankrupt is obliged to sit there +in presence of his creditors and judges, in a very disgraceful state; +and many accounts are told one, of the various effects such distresses +have had on the mind: but suicide is a crime rarely committed out of +England, and the Italians look with just horror on our people for being +so easily incited to a sin, which takes from him that commits it all +power and possibility of repentance. + +A Frenchman whom I sent for once at Bath to dress my hair, gave me an +excellent trait of his own national character, speaking upon that +subject, when he meant to satirise ours. "You have lived some years in +England, friend, said I, do you like it?"--"Mais non, madame, pas +parfaitement bien[L]"--"You have travelled much in Italy, do you like +that better?"--"Ah, Dieu ne plaise, madame, je n'aime gueres messieurs +les Italiens[M]." "What do they do to make you hate them so?"--"Mais +c'est que les Italiens se tuent l'un l'autre (replied the fellow), et +les Anglois se font un plaisir de se tuer eux mesmes: pardi je ne me +sens rien moins qu'un vrai gout pour ces gentillesses la, et j'aimerois +mieux me trouver a _Paris, pour rire un peu_."[N] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote L: Why no truly ma'am, not much.] + +[Footnote M: Oh, God forbid--no, I cannot endure those Italians.] + +[Footnote N: Why, really, the Italians have such a passion for murdering +each other, ma'am, and the English such an odd delight in killing +themselves, that I, who have acquired no taste for such agreeable +amusements, grow somewhat impatient to return to Paris, and get a good +laugh among my old acquaintance.] + +The Lucrezia Padovana, who has a monument erected here in this justice +hall to her memory, is the only instance of self-murder I have been told +yet; and her's was a very glorious one, and necessary to the +preservation of her honour, which was endangered by the magistrate, who +made that the barter for her husband's life, in defence of which she was +pleading; much like the story of Isabella, Angelo, and Claudio, in +Shakespear's Measure for Measure. This lady, whole family name I have +forgotten, stabbed herself in presence of the monster who reduced her to +such necessity, and by that means preserved her husband's life, by +suddenly converting the heart of her hateful lover, who from that +dreadful day devoted himself to penitence and prayer. + +The chastity of the Patavian ladies is celebrated by some old Latin +poet, but I cannot recollect which. Lucrezia, however, was a Christian. +I could not much regard the monument of Livy though, for looking at +her's, which attracted and detained my attention more particularly. + +The University of Padua is a noble institution; and those who have +excelled among the students, are recorded on tablets, for the most part +brass, hung round the walls, made venerable by their arms and +characters. It was pleasing to see so many British names among +them--Scotchmen for the most part; though I enquired in vain for the +admirable Crichton. Sir Richard Blackmore was there, but not one native +of France. We were spiteful enough to fancy, that was the reason that +Abbe Richard says nothing of the establishment. + +Besides the civilities shewn us here by Mr. Bonaldi and his agreeable +lady, Signora Annetta, we were recommended by letters from the Venetian +resident at Milan, to Abate Toaldo, professor of astronomy; who wished +to do all in his power to oblige and entertain us. His observatory is a +good one; but the learned amiable scholar, who resides in the first +floor of it, complained to us that he was sickly, old, and poor; three +bad qualifications, as he observed, for the amusement of travellers, who +commonly arrive hungry for novelty, and thirsty for information. His +quadrant was very fine, the planetarium or orrery quite out of repair; +and his references of course were obliged to be made to a sort of map or +chart of the heavenly bodies (a solar system at least with comets) that +hung up in his room as a substitute. He had little reverence for the +petrefactions of Monte Bolca I perceived, which he considered as mere +_lufus naturae_. He shewed me poor Petrarch's tomb from his observatory, +bid me look on Sir Isaac's full-length picture in the room, and said, +the world would see no more such men. Of our Maskelyne, however, no man +could speak with more esteem, or expressions of generous friendship. His +sitting chamber was a pleasant one; and I should not have left it so +soon, but in compassion to his health, which our company was more likely +to injure than assist. He asked me, if I did not find _Padua la dotta_ a +very stinking nasty town? but added, that literature and dirt had long +been intimately acquainted, and that this city was commonly called among +the Italians, _"Porcil de Padua," Padua the pig-stye._ + +Fire is supposed to be the greatest purifier, and Padua has gone through +that operation twice completely, being burned the first time by Attila; +after which, Narses the famous eunuch rebuilt and settled it in the year +558, if my information is good: but after her protector's death, the +Longobards burned her again, and she lay in ashes till Charlemagne +restored her to more than original beauty. Under Otho she, like many +other cities of Italy, was governed by her own laws, and remained a +republic till the year 1237, when she received the German yoke, +afterwards broken by the Scaligers; nor was their treacherous +assassination followed by less than the loss both of Verona and this +city, which was found in possession of the Emperor Maximilian some years +after: but when the State of Venice recovered their dominion over it in +1409, they fortified it so strongly that the confederate princes united +in the league of Cambray assaulted it in vain. + +Santa Giustina's church is the most beautiful place of worship I have +ever yet seen; so regularly, so uniformly noble, uncrowded with figures +too: the entrance strikes you with its simple grandeur, while the small +chapels to the right and left hand are kept back behind a colonade of +pillars, and do not distract attention and create confusion of ideas, +as do the numerous cupolas of St. Anthony's more magnificent but less +pleasing structure. The high altar here at Santa Giustina's church +stands at the end, and greatly increases the effect on entering, which +always suffers when the length is broken. Nothing, however, is to be +perfect in this world, and Paul Veronese's fine view of the suffering +martyr has not size enough for the place; and is beside crowded with +small unconsequential figures, which cannot be distinguished at a +distance. Some carvings round the altar, representing, in wooden +bas-reliefs, the history of the Old and New Testament, are admirable in +their kind; and I am told that the organ on which Bertoni, a blind +nephew of Ferdinand, our well-known composer, played to entertain us, is +one of the first in Italy: but an ordinary instrument would have charmed +us had he touched it. + +I must not leave the Terra Firma, as they call it, without mentioning +once more some of the animals it produces; among which the asses are so +justly renowned for their size and beauty, that _come un afino di Padua_ +is proverbial when speaking of strength among the Italians: how should +it be otherwise indeed, where every herb and every shrub breathes +fragrance; and where the quantity as well as quality of their food +naturally so increases their milk, that I should think some of them. +might yield as much as an ordinary cow? + +When I was at Genoa, I remember remarking something like this to Doctor +Batt, an English physician settled there; and expressed my surprise that +our consumptive country-folks, with whom the Italians never cease to +reproach us, do not, when they come here for health, rely much on the +beneficial produce of these asses for a cure; which, if it is hastened +by their assistance in our island, must surely be performed much quicker +in this. The answer would have been better recollected, I fancy, had it +appeared to me more satisfactory; but he knew what he was talking of, +and I did not; so conclude he despised me accordingly. + +The Carinthian bulls too, that do all the heavy work in this rich and +heavy land, how wonderfully handsome they are! Such symmetry and beauty +have I never seen in any cattle, scarcely in those of Derbyshire, where +so much attention has been bestowed upon their breeding. The colour +here is so elegant; they are almost all blue roans, like Lord +Grosvenor's horses in London, or those of the Duke of Cestos at Milan: +the horns longer, and much more finely shaped, than those of our bulls, +and white as polished ivory, tapering off to a point, with a bright +black tip at the end, resembling an ermine's tail. As this creature is +not a native, but only a neighbour of Italy, we will say no more about +him. + +A transplanted Hollander, carried thither originally from China, seems +to thrive particularly well in this part of the world; the little pug +dog, or Dutch mastiff, which our English ladies were once so fond of, +that poor Garrick thought it worth his while to ridicule them for it in +the famous dramatic satire called Lethe, has quitted London for Padua, I +perceive; where he is restored happily to his former honours, and every +carriage I meet here has a _pug_ in it. That breed of dogs is now so +near extirpated among us, that I recoiled: only Lord Penryn who +possesses such an animal; and I doubt not but many of the under-classes +among brutes do in the same manner extinguish and revive by chance, +caprice, or accident perpetually, through many tracts of the inhabited +world, so as to remain out of sight in certain districts for centuries +together. + +This town, as Abbe Toaldo observed, is old, and dirty, and +melancholy-looking, _in itself_; but Terence told us long ago, and +truly, "that it was not the walls, but the company, made every place +delightful:" and these inhabitants, though few in number, are so +exceedingly cheerful, so charming, their language is so mellifluous, +their manners so soothing, I can scarcely bear to leave them without +tears. + +Verona was the first place I felt reluctance to quit; but the Venetian +state certainly possesses uncommon, and to me almost unaccountable, +attractions. Be that as it will, we leave these sweet Paduans to-morrow; +the coach is disposed of, and we are to set out upon our watry journey +to their wonderfully-situated metropolis, or as they call it prettily, +_La Bella Dominante_. + + + +VENICE. + + +We went down the Brenta in a barge that brought us in eight hours to +Venice, the first appearance of which revived all the ideas inspired by +Canaletti, whose views of this town are most scrupulously exact; those +especially which one sees at the Queen of England's house in St. James's +Park; to such a degree indeed, that we knew all the famous towers, +steeples, &c. before we reached them. It was wonderfully entertaining to +find thus realized all the pleasures that excellent painter had given us +so many times reason to expect; and I do believe that Venice, like other +Italian beauties, will be observed to possess features so striking, so +prominent, and so discriminated, that her portrait, like theirs, will +not be found difficult to take, nor the impression she has once made +easy to erase. British charms captivate less powerfully, less certainly, +less suddenly: but being of a softer sort increase upon acquaintance; +and after the connexion has continued for some years, will be +relinquished with pain, perhaps even in exchange for warmer colouring +and stronger expression. + +St. Mark's Place, after all I had read and all I had heard of it, +exceeded expectation: such a cluster of excellence, such a constellation +of artificial beauties, my mind had never ventured to excite the idea of +within herself; though assisted with all the powers of doing so which +painters can bestow, and with all the advantages derived from verbal and +written description. It was half an hour before I could think of looking +for the bronze horses, of which one has heard so much; and from which +when one has once begun to look, there is no possibility of withdrawing +one's attention. The general effect produced by such architecture, such +painting, such pillars; illuminated as I saw them last night by the moon +at full, rising out of the sea, produced an effect like enchantment; and +indeed the more than magical sweetness of Venetian planners, dialect, +and address, confirms one's notion, and realizes the scenes laid by +Fenelon in their once tributary island of Cyprus. The pole set up as +commemorative of their past dominion over it, grieves one the more, when +every hour shews how congenial that place must have been to them, if +every thing one reads of it has any foundation in truth. + +The Ducal palace is so beautiful, it were worth while almost to cross +the Alps to see that, and return home again: and St. Mark's church, +whose Mosaic paintings on the outside are surpassed by no work of art, +delights one no less on entering, with its numberless rarities; the +flooring first, which is all paved with precious stones of the second +rank, in small squares, not bigger than a playing card, and sometimes +less. By the second rank in gems I mean, carnelion, agate, jasper, +serpentine, and verd antique; on which you place your feet without +remorse, but not without a very odd sensation, when you find the ground +undulated beneath them, to represent the waves of the sea, and +perpetuate marine ideas, which prevail in every thing at Venice. We were +not shewn the treasury, and it was impossible to get a sight of the +manuscript in St. Mark's own hand-writing, carefully preserved here, and +justly esteemed even beyond the jewels given as votive offerings to his +shrine, which are of immense value. + +The pictures in the Doge's house are a magnificent collection; and the +Noah's Ark by Bassano would doubtless afford an actual study for natural +historians as well as painters, and is considered as a model of +perfection from which succeeding artists may learn to draw animal life: +scarcely a creature can be recollected which has not its proper place in +the picture; but the pensive cat upon the fore-ground took most of my +attention, and held it away from the meeting of the Pope and Doge by the +other brother Bassano, who here proves that his pencil is not divested +of dignity, as the connoisseurs sometimes tell us that he is. But it is +not one picture, or two, or twenty, that seizes one's mind here; it is +the accumulation of various objects, each worthy to detain it. Wonderful +indeed, and sweetly-satisfying to the intellectual appetite, is the +variety, the plenty of pleasures which serve to enchain the imagination, +and fascinate the traveller's eye, keeping it ever on this _little +spot_; for though I have heard some of the inhabitants talk of its +vastness, it is scarcely bigger than our Portman Square, I think, not +larger at the very most than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. + +It is indeed observable that few people know how to commend a thing so +as to make their praises enhance its value. One hears a pretty woman not +unfrequently admired for her wit, a woman of talents wondered at for her +beauty; while I can think on no reason for such perversion of language, +unless it is that a small share of elegance will content those whose +delight is to hear declamation; and that the most hackeyed sentiments +will seem new, when uttered by a pair of rosy lips, and seconded by the +expression of eyes from which every thing may be expected. + +To return to St. Mark's Place, whence _we have never strayed_: I must +mention those pictures which represent his miracles, and the carrying +his body away from Alexandria: events attested so as to bring them +credit from many wise men, and which have more authenticity of their +truth, than many stories told one up and down here. So great is the +devotion of the common people here to their tutelar saint, that when +they cry out, as we do _Old England for ever_! they do not say, _Viva +Venezia_! but _Viva San Marco_! And I doubt much if that was not once +the way with _us_; in one of Shakespear's plays an expiring prince being +near to give all up for gone, is animated by his son in these words, +"_Courage father_, cry _St. George_!" + +We had an opportunity of seeing _his_ day celebrated with a very grand +procession the other morning, April 23, when a live boy personated the +hero of the show; but fate so still upon his painted courser, that it +was long before I perceived him to breathe. The streets were vastly +crowded with spectators, that in every place make the principal part of +the _spectacle_. + +It is odd that a custom which in contemplation seems so unlikely to +please, should when put in practice appear highly necessary, and +productive of an effect which can be obtained no other way. Were the +houses in Parliament Street to hang damask curtains, worked carpets, +pieces of various coloured silks, with fringe or lace round them, out of +every window when the King of England goes to the House, with numberless +well-dressed ladies leaning out to see him pass, it would give one an +idea of the continental towns upon a gala day. But our people would be +apt to cry out, _Monmouth Street!_ and look ashamed if their neighbours +saw the same deckerwork counterpane or crimson curtain produced at +Easter, which made a figure at Christmas the December before; so that no +end would be put to expence in our country, were such a fancy to take +place. The rainy weather beside would spoil all our finery at once; and +_here_, though it is still cold enough to be sure, and the women wear +sattins, yet still one shivers over a bad fire only because there is no +place to walk and warm one's self; for I have not seen a drop of rain. +The truth is, this town cannot be a wholesome one, for there is scarcely +a possibility of taking exercise; nor have I been once able to circulate +my blood by motion since our arrival, except perhaps by climbing the +beautiful tower which stands (as every thing else does) in St. Mark's +Place. And you may drive a garden-chair up _that_, so easy is the +ascent, so broad and luminous the way. From the top is presented to +one's sight the most striking of all prospects, water bounded by +land--not land by water.--The curious and elegant islets upon which, and +into which, the piles of Venice are driven, exhibiting clusters of +houses, churches, palaces, every thing--started up in the midst of the +sea, so as to excite amazement. + +But the horses have not been spoken of, though one pair drew Apollo's +car at Delphos. The other, which we call modern, and laugh while we call +them so, were made however before the days of Constantine the Great. +They are of bright yellow brass, not black bronze, as I expected to find +them, and grace the glorious church I am never weary of admiring; where +I went one day on purpose to find out the red marble on which Pope +Alexander III. sate, and placed his foot upon the neck of the Emperor: +the stone has this inscription half legible round it, _Super aspidem et +basiliscum ambulabis_[Footnote: Thou shalt tread on the asp and the +basilisk]. How does this lovely Piazza di San Marco render a +newly-arrived spectator breathless with delight! while not a span of it +is unoccupied by actual beauty; though the whole appears uncrowded, as +in the works of nature, not of art. + +It was upon the day appointed for making a new chancellor, however, that +one ought to have looked at this lovely city; when every shop, adorned +with its own peculiar produce, was disposed to hail the passage of its +favourite, in a manner so lively, so luxuriant, and at the same time so +tasteful--there's no telling. Milliners crowned the new dignitary's +picture with flowers, while columns of gauze, twisted round with +ribband, in the most elegant style, supported the figure on each side, +and made the prettiest appearance possible. The furrier formed his skins +into representations of the animal they had once belonged to; so the +lion was seen dandling the kid at one door, while the fox stood courting +a badger out of his hole at the other. The poulterers and fruiterers +were by many thought the most beautiful shops in town, from the variety +of fancies displayed in the disposal of their goods; and I admired at +the truly Italian ingenuity of a gunsmith, who had found the art of +turning his instruments of terror into objects of delight, by his +judicious manner of placing and arranging them. Every shop was +illuminated with a large glass chandelier before it, besides the wax +candles and coloured lamps interspersed among the ornaments within. The +senators have much the appearance of our lawyers going robed to +Westminster Hall, but the _gentiluomini_, as they are called, wear red +dresses, and remind me of the Doctors of the ecclesiastical courts in +Doctors Commons. + +It is observable that all long robes denote peaceful occupations, and +that the short cut coat is the emblem of a military profession, once the +disgrace of humanity, now unfortunately become its false and cruel +pride. + +When the enemies of King David meant to declare war against him, they +cut the skirts of his ambassador's clothes off, to shew him he must +prepare for battle; and the Orientals still consider short dresses as a +disgraceful preparation for hostile proceedings; nor could any thing +have reconciled Europe to the custom, except our horror of Turkish +manners, and desire of being distinguished from the Saracens at the time +of the Holy War. + +I have said nothing yet about the gondolas, which every body knows are +black, and give an air of melancholy at first sight, yet are nothing +less than sorrowful; it is like painting the lively Mrs. Cholmondeley +in the character of Milton's + + Pensive Nun, devout and pure, + Sober, stedfast, and demure-- + +As I once saw her drawn by a famous hand, to shew a Venetian lady in her +gondola and zendaletto, which is black like the gondola, but wholly +calculated like that for the purposes of refined gallantry. So is the +nightly rendezvous, the coffee-house, and casino; for whilst Palladio's +palaces serve to adorn the grand canal, and strike those who enter +Venice with surprise at its magnificence; those snug retreats are +intended for the relaxation of those who inhabit the more splendid +apartments, and are fatigued with exertions of dignity, and necessity of +no small expence. They breathe the true spirit of our luxurious Lady +Mary, who probably learned it here, or of the still more dissolute +Turks, our present neighbours; who would have thought not unworthy a +Testa Veneziana, her famous stanza, beginning, + + But when the long hours of public are past, + And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last; + +Surely she had then present to her warm imagination a favourite Casino +in the Piazza St. Marco. That her learned and highly-accomplished son +imbibed her taste and talents for sensual delights, has been long known +in England; it is not so perhaps that there is a showy monument erected +to his memory at Padua, setting forth his variety and compass of +knowledge in a long Latin inscription. The good old monk who shewed it +me seemed generously and reasonably shocked, that such a man should at +last expire with somewhat more firm persuasions of the truth of the +Mahometan religion than any other; but that he doubted greatly of all, +and had not for many years professed himself a Christian of any sect or +denomination whatever. + + So have I seen some youth set out, + Half Protestant, half Papist; + And wand'ring long the world about, + Some new religion to find out, + Turn Infidel or Atheist. + +We have been told much of the suspicious temper of Venetian laws; and +have heard often that every discourse is suffered, except such as tends +to political conversation, in this city; and that whatever nobleman, +native of Venice, is seen speaking familiarly with a foreign minister, +runs a risque of punishments too terrible to be thought on. + +How far that manner of proceeding may be wise or just, I know not; +certain it is that they have preserved their laws inviolate, their city +unattempted, and their republic respectable, through all the concussions +that have shaken the rest of Europe. Surrounded by envious powers, it +becomes them to be vigilant; conscious of the value of their unconquered +state, it is no wonder that they love her; and surely the true _Amor +Patriae_ never glowed more warmly in old Roman bosoms than in theirs, who +draw, as many families here do, their pedigree from the consuls of the +Commonwealth. Love without jealousy is seldom to be met with, especially +in these warm climates--let us then permit them to be jealous of a +constitution which all the other states of Italy look on with envy not +unmixed with malice, and propagate strange stories to its disadvantage. + +That suspicion should be concealed under the mask of gaiety is neither +very new nor very strange: the reign of our Charles the Second was +equally famous for plots, perjuries, and cruel chastisements, as for +wanton levity and indecent frolics: but here at Venice there are no +unpermitted frolics; her rulers love to see her gay and cheerful; they +are the fathers of their country, and if they _indulge_, take care not +to _spoil_ her. + +With regard to common chat, I have heard many a liberal and eloquent +disquisition upon the state of Europe in general, and of Venice in +particular, from several agreeable friends at their own Casino, who did +not appear to have more fears upon them than myself, and I know not why +they should. Chevalier Emo is deservedly a favourite with them, and we +used to talk whole evenings of him and of General Elliott; the +bombarding of Tunis, and defence of Gibraltar. The news-papers spoke of +some fireworks exhibited in England in honour of their hero; they were +"vrayment _feux de joye_" said an agreeable Venetian, they were not +_feux d'artifice._ + +The deep secrecy of their councils, however, and unrelenting steadiness +of their resolutions, cannot be better explained than by telling a +little story, which will illustrate the private virtue as well as the +public authority of these extraordinary people; for though the tale is +now in abler hands (intending as I am told, to form a tragedy upon its +basis), the summary may serve to adorn my little work; as a landscape +painter refuses not to throw the story of Phaeton's petition for +Apollo's car into his picture, for the purpose of illuminating the back +ground, though Ovid has written the story and Titian has painted it. + +Some years ago then, perhaps a hundred, one of the many spies who ply +this town by night, ran to the state inquisitor, with information that +such a nobleman (naming him) had connections with the French ambassador, +and went privately to his house every night at a certain hour. The +_messergrando_, as they call him, could not believe, nor would proceed, +without better and stronger proof, against a man for whom he had an +intimate personal friendship, and on whose virtue he counted with very +particular reliance. Another spy was therefore set, and brought back the +same intelligence, adding the description of his disguise; on which the +worthy magistrate put on his mask and bauta, and went out himself; when +his eyes confirming the report of his informants, and the reflection on +his duty stifling all remorse, he sent publicly for _Foscarini_ in the +morning, whom the populace attended all weeping to his door. + +Nothing but resolute denial of the crime alleged could however be forced +from the firm-minded citizen, who, sensible of the discovery, prepared +for that punishment he knew to be inevitable, and submitted to the fate +his friend was obliged to inflict: no less than a dungeon for life, that +dungeon so horrible that I have heard Mr. Howard was not permitted to +see it. + +The people lamented, but their lamentations were vain. The magistrate +who condemned him never recovered the shock: but Foscarini was heard of +no more, till an old lady died forty years after in Paris, whose last +confession declared she was visited with amorous intentions by a +nobleman of Venice whose name she never knew, while she resided there as +companion to the ambassadress. So was Foscarini lost! so died he a +martyr to love, and tenderness for female reputation! Is it not +therefore a story fit to be celebrated by that lady's pen, who has +chosen it as the basis of her future tragedy?--But I will anticipate no +further. + +Well! this is the first place I have seen which has been capable in any +degree of obliterating the idea of Genoa la superba, which has till now +pursued me, nor could the gloomy dignity of the cathedral at Milan, or +the striking view of the arena at Verona, nor the Sala de Giustizia at +lettered Padua, banish her beautiful image from my mind: nor can I now +acknowledge without shame, that I have ceased to regret the mountains, +the chesnut groves, and slanting orange trees, which climbed my chamber +window _there_, and at _this_ time too! when + + Young-ey'd Spring profusely throws + From her green lap the pink and rose. + +But whoever sees St. Mark's Place lighted up of an evening, adorned with +every excellence of human art, and pregnant with pleasure, expressed by +intelligent countenances sparkling with every grace of nature; the sea +washing its walls, the moon-beams dancing on its subjugated waves, sport +and laughter resounding from the coffee-houses, girls with guitars +skipping about the square, masks and merry-makers singing as they pass +you, unless a barge with a band of music is heard at some distance upon +the water, and calls attention to sounds made sweeter by the element +over which they are brought--whoever is led suddenly I say to this scene +of seemingly perennial gaiety, will be apt to cry out of Venice, as Eve +says to Adam in Milton, + + With thee conversing I _forget all time_, + All _seasons_, and their _change_--all please _alike_. + +For it is sure there are in this town many astonishing privations of all +that are used to make other places delightful: and as poor Omai the +savage said, when about to return to Otaheite--_No horse there! no ass! +no cow, no golden pippins, no dish of tea!--Ah, missey! I go without +every thing--I always so content there though_. + +It is really just so one lives at this lovely Venice: one has heard of a +horse being exhibited for a show there, and yesterday I watched the poor +people paying a penny a piece for the sight of a _stuffed one_, and am +more than persuaded of the truth of what I am told here, That +numberless inhabitants live and die in this great capital, nor ever find +out or think of enquiring how the milk brought from Terra Firma is +originally produced. When such fancies cross me I wish to exclaim, Ah, +happy England! whence ignorance is banished by the diffusion of +literature, and narrowness of notions is ridiculed even in the lowest +class of life. Candour must however confess, that while the possessor of +a Northern coal-mine riots in that variety of adulation which talents +deserve and riches contrive to obtain, those who labour in it are often +natives of the dismal region; where many have been known to be born, and +work, and die, without having ever seen the sun, or other light than +such as a candle can bestow. Let such dark recollections give place to +more cheerful imagery. + +We have just now been carried to see the so justly-renowned arsenal, and +unluckily missed the ship-launch we went thither chiefly to see. It is +no great matter though! one comes to Italy to look at buildings, +statues, pictures, people! The ships and guns of England have been such +as supported her greatness, established her dominion, and extended her +commerce in such a manner as to excite the admiration and terror of +Europe, whose kingdoms vainly as perfidiously combined with her own +colonies against that power which _they_ maintained, in spite of the +united efforts of half the globe. I shall hardly see finer ships and +guns till I go home again, though the keeping all together on one island +so--that island walled in too completely with only a single door to come +in and out at--is a construction of peculiar happiness and convenience; +while dock, armoury, rope-walk, all is contained in this space, exactly +two miles round I think. + +What pleased me best, besides the _whole_, which is best worth being +pleased with, was the small arms: there are so many Turkish instruments +of destruction among them quite new to me, and the picture commemorating +the cruel death of their noble gallant leader Bragadin, so inhumanly +treated by the Saracens in 1571. With infinite gratitude to his amiable +descendant, who shewed me unmerited civility, dining with us often, and +inviting us to his house, &c. I leave this repository of the Republic's +stores with one observation, That however suspicious the Venetians are +said to be, I found it much more easy for Englishmen to look over +_their_ docks, than for a foreigner to find his way into ours. + +Another reflection occurs on examination of this spot; it is, that the +renown attached to it in general conversation, is a proof that the world +prefers convenience to splendour; for here are no superfluous ornaments, +and I am apt to think many go away from it praising beauties by which +they have been but little struck, and utilities they have but little +understood. + +From this show you are commonly carried to the glass manufactory at +Murano; once the retreat of piety and freedom, when the Altinati fled +the fury of the Huns: a beautiful spot it is, and delightfully as oddly +situated; but these are _gems which inlay the bosom of the deep_, as +Milton says--and this perhaps, the prettiest among them, is walked over +by travellers with that curiosity which is naturally excited, in one +person by the veneration of religious antiquity; in another, by the +attention justly claimed by human industry and art. Here may be seen a +valuable library of books, and here may be seen glasses of all colours, +all sorts, and all prices, I believe: but whoever has looked much upon +the London work in this way, will not be easily dazzled by the lustre of +Venetian crystal; and whoever has seen the Paris mirrors, will not he +astonished at any breadth into which glass can be spread. + +We will return to Venice, the view of which from the Zueca, a word +contracted from Giudecca, as I am told, would invite one never more to +stray from it--farther at least than to St. George's church, on another +little opposite island, whence the prospect is surely wonderful; and one +sits longing for a pencil to repeat what has been so often exquisitely +painted by Canaletti, just as foolishly as one snatches up a pen to tell +what has been so much better told already by Doctor Moore. It was to +this church I was sent, however, for the purpose of seeing a famous +picture painted by Paul Veronese, of the marriage at Cana in +Galilee--where our Saviour's first miracle was performed; in which +immense work the artist is well known to have commemorated his own +likeness, and that of many of his family, which adds value to the piece, +when we consider it as a collection of portraits, besides the history it +represents. When we arrived, the picture was kept in a refectory +belonging to friars (of what order I have forgotten), and no woman could +be admitted. My disappointment was so great that I was deprived even of +the powers of solicitation by the extreme ill-humour it occasioned; and +my few intreaties for admission were completely disregarded by the good +old monk, who remained outside with me, while the gentlemen visited the +convent without molestation. At my return to Venice I met little +comfort, as every body told me it was my own fault, for I might put on +men's clothes and see it whenever I pleased, as nobody then would stop, +though perhaps all of them would know me. + +If such slight gratifications however as seeing a favourite picture, can +be purchased no cheaper than by violating truth in one's own person, and +encouraging the violation of it in others, it were better surely die +without having ever procured to one's self such frivolous enjoyments; +and I hope always to reject the temptation of deceiving mistaken piety, +or insulting harmless error. + +But it is almost time to talk of the Rialto, said to be the finest +single arch in Europe, and I suppose it is so; very beautiful too when +looked on from the water, but so dirtily kept, and deformed with mean +shops, that passing over it, disgust gets the better of every other +sensation. The truth is, our dear Venetians are nothing less than +cleanly; St. Mark's Place is all covered over in a morning with +chicken-coops, which stink one to death; as nobody I believe thinks of +changing their baskets: and all about the Ducal palace is made so very +offensive by the resort of human creatures for every purpose most +unworthy of so charming a place, that all enjoyment of its beauties is +rendered difficult to a person of any delicacy; and poisoned so +provokingly, that I do never cease to wonder that so little police and +proper regulation are established in a city so particularly lovely, to +render her sweet and wholesome. It was at the Rialto that the first +stone of this fair town was laid, upon the twenty-fifth of March, as I +am told here, with ideal reference to the vernal equinox, the moment +when philosophers have supposed that the sun first shone upon our earth, +and when Christians believe that the redemption of it was first +announced to _her_ within whose womb it was conceived. + +The name of _Venice_ has been variously accounted for; but I believe our +ordinary people in England are nearest to the right, who call it _Venus_ +in their common discourse; as that goddess was, like her best beloved +seat of residence, born of the sea's light froth, according to old +fables, and partook of her native element, the gay and gentle, not rough +and boisterous qualities. It is said too, and I fear with too much +truth, that there are in this town some permitted professors of the +inveigling arts, who still continue to cry _Veni etiam_, as their +ancestors did when flying from the Goths they sought these sands for +refuge, and gave their lion wings. Till once well fixed, they kindly +called their continental neighbours round to share their liberty, and to +accept that happiness they were willing to bestow and to diffuse; and +from this call--this _Veni etiam_ it is, that the learned men among them +derive the word _Venetia_. + +I have asked several friends about the truth of what one has been always +hearing of in England, that the Venetian gondoliers sing Tasso and +Ariosto's verses in the streets at night; sometimes quarrelling with +each other concerning the merit of their favourite poets; but what I +have been told since I came here, of their attachment to their +respective masters, and secrecy when trusted by them in love affairs, +seems far more probable; as they are proud to excess when they serve a +nobleman of high birth, and will tell you with an air of importance, +that the house of Memmo, Monsenigo, or Gratterola, has been served by +their ancestors for these eighty or perhaps a hundred years; +transmitting family pride thus from generation to generation; even when +that pride is but reflected only like the mock rainbow of a summer +sky.--But hark! while I am writing this peevish reflection in my room, I +hear some voices under my window answering each other upon the Grand +Canal. It is, it _is_ the gondolieri sure enough; they are at this +moment singing to an odd sort of tune, but in no unmusical manner, the +flight of Erminia from Tasso's Jerusalem. Oh, how pretty! how pleasing! +This wonderful city realizes the most romantic ideas ever formed of it, +and defies imagination to escape her various powers of enslaving it. + +Apropos to singing;--we were this evening carried to a well-known +conservatory called the Mendicanti; who performed an oratorio in the +church with great, and I dare say deserved applause. It was difficult +for me to persuade myself that all the performers were women, till, +watching carefully, our eyes convinced us, as they were but slightly +grated. The sight of girls, however, handling the double bass, and +blowing into the bassoon, did not much please _me_; and the deep-toned +voice of her who sung the part of Saul, seemed an odd unnatural thing +enough. What I found most curious and pretty, was to hear Latin verses, +of the old Leonine race broken into eight and six, and sung in rhyme by +these women, as if they were airs of Metastasio; all in their dulcified +pronunciation too, for the _patois_ runs equally through every language +when spoken by a Venetian. + +Well! these pretty syrens were delighted to seize upon us, and pressed +our visit to their parlour with a sweetness that I know not who would +have resisted. We had no such intent; and amply did their performance +repay my curiosity, for visiting Venetian beauties, so justly +celebrated for their seducing manners and soft address. They accompanied +their voices with the forte-piano, and sung a thousand buffo songs, with +all that gay voluptuousness for which their country is renowned. + +The school, however is running to ruin apace; and perhaps the conduct of +the married women here may contribute to make such _conservatorios_ +useless and neglected. + +When the Duchess of Montespan asked the famous Louison D'Arquien, by way +of insult, as she pressed too near her, "_Comment alloit le metier_[O]?" +"_Depuis que les dames sen melent_" (replied the courtesan with no +improper spirit,) "_il ne vaut plus rien_[P]." It may be these syrens +have suffered in the same cause; I thought the ardency of their manners +an additional proof of their hunger for fresh prey. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote O: How goes the profession?] + +[Footnote P: Why since the _quality_ has taken to it ma'am, it brings +_us_ in very little indeed.] + +Will Naples, the original seat of Ulysses's seducers, shew us any thing +stronger than this? I hardly expect or wish it. The state of music in +Italy, if one may believe those who ought to know it best, is not what +it was. The _manner of singing_ is much changed, I am told; and some +affectations have been suffered to encroach upon their natural graces. +Among the persons who exhibited their talents at the Countess of +Rosenberg's last week, our country-woman's performance was most +applauded; but when I name Lady Clarges, no one will wonder. + +It is said that painting is now but little cultivated among them; Rome +will however be the place for such enquiries. Angelica Kauffman being +settled there, seems a proof of their taste for living merit; and if one +thing more than another evinces Italian candour and true good-nature, it +is perhaps their generous willingness to be ever happy in acknowledging +foreign excellence, and their delight in bringing forward the eminent +qualities of every other nation; never insolently vaunting or bragging +of their own. Unlike to this is the national spirit and confined ideas +of perfection inherent in a Gallic mind, whose sole politeness is an +_applique_ stuck _upon_ the coat, but never _embroidered into it_. + +The observation made here last night by a Parisian lady, gave me a +proof of this I little wanted. We met at the Casino of the Senator +Angelo Quirini, where a sort of literary coterie assemble every evening, +and form a society so instructive and amusing, so sure to be filled with +the first company in Venice, and so hospitably open to all travellers of +character, that nothing can _now_ be to me a higher intellectual +gratification than my admittance among them; as _in future_ no place +will ever be recollected with more pleasure, no hours with more +gratitude, than those passed most delightfully by me in that most +agreeable apartment. + +I expressed to the French lady my admiration of St. Mark's Place. +"_C'est que vous n'avez jamais vue la foire St. Ovide_," said she; "_je +vous assure que cela surpasse beaucoup ces trifles palais qu'on +vantetant_[Q]." And _this could_ only have been arrogance, for she was a +very sensible and a very accomplished woman; and when talked to about +the literary merits of her own countrymen, spoke with great acuteness +and judgment. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote Q: You admire it, says she, only because you never saw the +fair at St. Ovid's in Paris; I assure you there is no comparison between +those gay illuminations and these dismal palaces the Venetians are so +fond of.] + +General knowledge, however, it must be confessed (meaning that general +stock that every one recurs to for the common intercourse of +conversation), will be found more frequently in France, than even in +England; where, though all cultivate the arts of table eloquence and +assembly-room rhetoric, few, from mere shyness, venture to gather in the +profits of their plentiful harvest; but rather cloud their countenances +with mock importance, while their hearts feel no hope beat higher in +them, than the humble one of escaping without being ridiculed; or than +in Italy, where nobody dreams of cultivating conversation at all--_as an +art_; or studies for any other than the natural reason, of informing or +diverting themselves, without the most distant idea of gaining +admiration, or shining in company, by the quantity of science they have +accumulated in solitude. _Here_ no man lies awake in the night for +vexation that he missed recollecting the last line of a Latin epigram +till the moment of application was lost; nor any lady changes colour +with trepidation at the severity visible in her husband's countenance +when the chickens are over-roasted, or the ice-creams melt with the +room's excessive heat. + +Among the noble Senators of Venice, meantime, many good scholars, many +Belles Lettres conversers, and what is more valuable, many thinking men, +may be found, and found hourly, who employ their powers wholly in care +for the state; and make their pleasure, like true patriots, out of _her +felicity_. The ladies indeed appear to study but _one_ science; + + And where the lesson taught + Is but to please, can pleasure seem a fault? + +Like all sensualists, however, they fail of the end proposed, from hurry +to obtain it; and consume those charms which alone can procure them +continuance or change of admirers; they injure their health too +irreparably, and _that_ in their earliest youth; for few remain +unmarried till fifteen, and at thirty have a wan and faded look. _On ne +goute pas ses plaisirs icy, on les avale_[Footnote: They do not taste +their pleasures here, they swallow them whole.], said Madame la +Presidente yesterday, very judiciously; yet it is only speaking +popularly that one can be supposed to mean, what however no one much +refuses to assert, that the Venetian ladies are amorously inclined: the +truth is, no check being put upon inclination, each acts according to +immediate impulse; and there are more devotees, perhaps, and more +doating mothers at Venice than any where else, for the same reason as +there are more females who practise gallantry, only because there are +more women there who _do their own way_, and follow unrestrained where +passion, appetite, or imagination lead them. + +To try Venetian dames by English rules, would be worse than all the +tyranny complained of when some East Indian was condemned upon the +Coventry act for slitting his wife's nose; a common practice in _his_ +country, and perfectly agreeable to custom and the _usage du pays_. Here +is no struggle for female education as with us, no resources in study, +no duties of family-management; no bill of fare to be looked over in the +morning, no account-book to be settled at noon; no necessity of reading, +to supply without disgrace the evening's chat; no laughing at the +card-table, or tittering in the corner if a _lapsus linguae_ has +produced a mistake, which malice never fails to record. A lady in Italy +is _sure_ of applause, so she takes little pains to obtain it. A +Venetian lady has in particular so sweet a manner naturally, that she +really charms without any settled intent to do so, merely from that +irresistible good-humour and mellifluous tone of voice which seize the +soul, and detain it in despite of Juno-like majesty, or Minerva-like +wit. Nor ever was there prince or shepherd, Paris I think was both, who +would not have bestowed his apple _here_. + +Mean while my countryman Howel laments that the women at Venice are so +little. But why so? the diminutive progeny of _Vulcan_, the _Cabirs_, +mysteriously adored of old, were of a size below that of the least +living woman, if we believe Herodotus; and they were worshipped with +more constant as well as more fervent devotion, than the symmetrical +goddess of Beauty herself. + +A custom which prevails here, of wearing little or no rouge, and +increasing the native paleness of their skins, by scarce lightly wiping +the very white powder from their faces, is a method no Frenchwoman of +quality would like to adopt; yet surely the Venetians are not +behind-hand in the art of gaining admirers; and they do not, like their +painters, depend upon _colouring_ to ensure it. + +Nothing can be a greater proof of the little consequence which dress +gives to a woman, than the reflection one must make on a Venetian lady's +mode of appearance in her zendalet, without which nobody stirs out of +their house in a morning. It consists of a full black silk petticoat, +sloped just to train, a very little on the ground, and flounced with +gauze of the same colour. A skeleton wire upon the head, such as we use +to make up hats, throwing loosely over it a large piece of black mode or +persian, so as to shade the face like a curtain, the front being trimmed +with a very deep black lace, or souflet gauze infinitely becoming. The +thin silk that remains to be disposed of, they roll back so as to +discover the bosom; fasten it with a puff before at the top of their +stomacher, and once more rolling it back from the shape, tie it +gracefully behind, and let it hang in two long ends. + +The evening ornament is a silk hat, shaped like a man's, and of the +same colour, with a white or worked lining at most, and sometimes _one +feather_; a great black silk cloak, lined with white, and perhaps a +narrow border down before, with a vast heavy round handkerchief of black +lace, which lies over neck and shoulders, and conceals shape and all +completely. Here is surely little appearance of art, no craping or +frizzing the hair, which is flat at the top, and all of one length, +hanging in long curls about the back or sides as it happens. No brown +powder, and no rouge at all. Thus without variety does a Venetian lady +contrive to delight the eye, and without much instruction too to charm, +the ear. A source of thought fairly cut off beside, in giving her no +room to shew taste in dress, or invent new fancies and disposition of +ornaments for to-morrow. The government takes all that trouble off her +hands, knows every pin she wears, and where to find her at any moment of +the day or night. + +Mean time nothing conveys to a British observer a stronger notion of +loose living and licentious dissoluteness, than the sight of one's +servants, gondoliers, and other attendants, on the scenes and circles +of pleasure, where you find them, though never drunk, dead with sleep +upon the stairs, or in their boats, or in the open street, for that +matter, like over-swilled voters at an election in England. One may +trample on them if one will, they hardly _can_ be awakened; and their +companions, who have more life left, set the others literally on their +feet, to make them capable of obeying their master or lady's call. With +all this appearance of levity, however, there is an unremitted attention +to the affairs of state; nor is any senator seen to come late or +negligently to council next day, however he may have amused himself all +night. + +The sight of the Bucentoro prepared for Gala, and the glories of Venice +upon Ascention-day, must now put an end to other observations. We had +the honour and comfort of seeing all from a galley belonging to a noble +Venetian Bragadin, whose civilities to us were singularly kind as well +as extremely polite. His attentions did not cease with the morning show, +which we shared in common with numbers of fashionable people that filled +his ship, and partook of his profuse elegant refreshments; but he +followed us after dinner to the house of our English friends, and took +six of us together in a gay bark, adorned with his arms, and rowed by +eight gondoliers in superb liveries, made up for the occasion to match +the boat, which was like them white, blue and silver, a flag of the same +colours flying from the stern, till we arrived at the Corso; so they +call the place of contention where the rowers exert their skill and +ingenuity; and numberless oars dashing the waves at once, make the only +agitation of which the sea seems capable; while ladies, now no longer +dressed in black, but ornamented with all their jewels, flowers, &c. +display their beauties unveiled upon the water; and covering the lagoons +with gaiety and splendour, bring to one's mind the games in Virgil, and +the galley of Cleopatra, by turns. + +Never was locality so subservient to the purposes of pleasure as in this +city; where pleasure has set up her airy standard, and which on this +occasion looked like what one reads in poetry of Amphitrite's court; and +I ventured to tell a nobleman who was kindly attentive in shewing us +every possible politeness, that had Venus risen from the Adriatic sea, +she would scarcely have been tempted to quit it for Olympus. I was upon +the whole more struck with the evening's gaiety, than with the +magnificence in which the morning began to shine. The truth is, we had +been long prepared for seeing the Bucentoro; had heard and read every +thing I fancy that could have been thought or said upon the subject, +from the sullen Englishmen who rank it with a company's barge floating +up the Thames upon my Lord Mayor's day, to the old writers who compare +it with Theseus's ship; in imitation of which, it is said, this calls +itself the very identical vessel wherein Pope Alexander performed the +original ceremony in the year 1171; and though, perhaps, not a whole +plank of that old galley can be now remaining in this, so often +careened, repaired, and adorned since that time, I see nothing +ridiculous in declaring that it is the same ship; any more than in +saying the oak I planted an acorn thirty years ago, is the same tree I +saw spring up then a little twig, which not even a moderate sceptic will +deny; though he takes so much pains to persuade plain folks out of their +own existence, by laughing us out of the dull notion that he who dies a +withered old fellow at fourscore, should ever be considered as the same +person whom his mother brought forth a pretty little plump baby eighty +years before--when, says he cunningly, you are forced yourself to +confess, that his mother, who died four months afterwards, would not +know him again now; though while she lived, he was never out of her +arms. + + Vain wisdom all! and false Philosophy, + Which finds no end, in wandering mazes lost. + +And better is it to travel, as Dr. Johnson says Browne did, from one +place where he saw little, to another where he saw no more--than write +books to confound common sense, and make men raise up doubts of a Being +to whom they must one day give an account. + +We will return to the Bucentoro, which, as its name imports, holds two +hundred people, and is heavy besides with statues, columns, &c. The top +covered with crimson velvet, and the sides enlivened by twenty-one oars +on each hand. Musical performers attend in another barge, while +foreigners in gilded pajots increase the general show. Mean time, the +vessel that contains the doge, &c. carries him slowly out to sea, where +in presence of his senators he drops a plain gold ring into the water, +with these words, _Desponfamus te mare, in fignum veri perpetuique +dominii_.[Footnote: We espouse thee, O sea! in sign of true and +perpetual dominion.] + +Our weather was favourable, and the people all seemed happy: when the +ceremony is put off from day to day, it naturally damps their spirits, +and produces superstitious presages of an unlucky year: nor is that +strange, for the season of storms ought surely to be past in a climate +so celebrated for mildness and equanimity. The praises of Italian +weather, though wearisomely frequent among us, seem however much +confined to this island for aught I see; who am often tired with hearing +their complaints of their own sky, now that they are under it: always +too cold or too hot, or a seiroc wind, or a rainy day, or a hard frost, +_che gela fin ai pensieri_[Footnote: Which freezes even one's fancy.]; +or something to murmur about, while their only great nuisances pass +unnoticed, the heaps of dirt, and crowds of beggars, who infest the +streets, and poison the pleasures of society. While ladies are eating +ice at a coffee-house door, while decent people are hearing mass at the +altar, while strangers are surveying the beauties of the place--no +peace, no enjoyment can one obtain for the beggars; numerous beyond +credibility, fancy and airy, and odd in their manners; and exhibiting +such various lamenesses and horrible deformities in their figure, that I +can sometimes hardly believe my eyes--but am willing to be told, what is +not very improbable, that many of them come from a great distance to +pass the season of ascension here at Venice. I never indeed saw any +thing so gently endured, which it appeared so little difficult to +remedy; but though I hope it would be hard to find a place where more +alms are asked, or less are given, than in Venice; yet I never saw +refusals so pleasingly softened, as by the manners of the high Italians +towards the low. Ladies in particular are so soft-mouthed, so tender in +replying to those who have their lot cast far below them, that one feels +one's own harsher disposition corrected by their sweetness; and when +they called my maid _sister_, in good time--pressing her hand with +affectionate kindness, it melted me; though I feared from time to time +there must be hypocrisy at bottom of such sugared words, till I caught a +lady of condition yesterday turning to the window, and praying fervently +for the girl's conversion to christianity, all from a tender and pious +emotion of her gentle heart: as notwithstanding their caresses, no man +is more firmly persuaded of a mathematical truth than they are of mine, +and my maid's living in a state of certain and eternal reprobation--_ma +fanno veramente vergogna a noi altri_[Footnote: But they really shame +_even us_.], say they, quite in the spirit of the old Romans, who +thought all nations _barbarous_ except their own. + +A woman of quality, near whom I sate at the fine ball Bragadin made two +nights ago in honour of this gay season, enquired how I had passed the +morning. I named several churches I had looked into, particularly that +which they esteem beyond the rest as a favourite work of Palladio, and +called the Redentore. "You do very right," says she, "to look at our +churches, as you have none in England, I know--but then you have so +many other fine things--such charming _steel buttons_ for example;" +pressing my hand to shew that she meant no offence; for, added she, _chi +pensa d'una maniera, chi pensa d'un altra_[Footnote: One person is of +one mind you know, another of another.]. + +Here are many theatres, the worst infinitely superior to ours; the best, +as far below those of Milan and Turin: but then here are other +diversions, and every one's dependance for pleasure is not placed upon +the opera. They have now thrown up a sort of temporary wall of painted +canvass, in an oval form, within St. Mark's Place, profusely illuminated +round the new-formed walk, which is covered in at top, and adorned with +shops round the right hand side, with pillars to support the canopy; the +lamps, &c. on the left hand. This open Ranelagh, so suited to the +climate, is exceedingly pleasing:--here is room to sit, to chat, to +saunter up and down, from two o'clock in the morning, when the opera +ends, till a hot sun sends us all home to rest--for late hours must be +complied with at Venice, or you can have no diversion at all, as the +earliest Casino belonging to your soberest friends has not a candle +lighted in it till past midnight. + +But I am called from my book to see the public library; not a large one +I find, but ornamented with pieces of sculpture, whose eminence has not, +I am sure, waited for my description: the Jupiter and Leda particularly, +said to be the work of Phidias, whose Ganymede in the same collection +they tell us is equally excellent. Having heard that Guarini's +manuscript of the Pastor Fido, written in his own hand, was safely kept +at this place, I asked for it, and was entertained to see his numberless +corrections and variations from the original thought, like those of +Pope's Homer preserved in the British Museum; some of which I copied +over for Doctor Johnson to print, at the time he published his Lives of +the English Poets. My curiosity led me to look in the Pastor Fido for +the famous passage of _Legge humana_, _inhumana_, _&c._ and it was +observable enough that he had written it three different ways before he +pitched on that peculiar expression which caused his book to be +prohibited. Seeing the manuscript I took notice, however, of the +beautiful penmanship with which it was written: our English hand-writing +cotemporary to his was coarse, if I recollect, and very angular;--but +_Italian hand_ was the first to become elegant, and still retains some +privileges amongst us. Once more, every thing small, and every thing +great, revived after the dark ages--in Italy. + +Looking at the Mint was an hour's time spent with less amusement. The +depuration of gold may be performed many ways, and the proofs of its +purity given by various methods: I was gratified well enough upon the +whole however, in watching the neatness of their process, in weighing +the gold, &c. and keeping it more free from alloy than any other coin of +any other state:--a zecchine will bend between your fingers from the +malleability of the metal--we may try in vain at a guinea, or louis +d'or. The operation of separating silver ore from gold by the powers of +aqua fortis, precipitating the first-named metal by suspension of a +copper plate in the liquid, and called _quartation_; was I believe +wholly unknown to the ancients, who got much earlier at the art of +weighing gold in water, testified by the old story of _King Hiero's +crown_. + +Talking of kings, and crowns, and gold, reminds me of my regret for not +seeing the treasure kept in St. Mark's church here, with the motto +engraven on the chest which contains it: + + Quando questo scrinio s'aprira, + Tutto il mondo tremera[R]. + +[Footnote R: + When this scrutoire shall open'd be, + The world shall all with wonder flee. +] + +Of this it was said in our Charles the First's time, that there was +enough in it to pay six kings' ransoms: when Pacheco, the Spanish +ambassador, hearing so much of it, asked in derision, If the chest had +any _bottom_? and being answered in the affirmative, made reply, That +_there_ was the difference between his master's treasures and those of +the Venetian Republic, for the mines of Mexico and Potosi had _no_ +bottom.--Strange! if all these precious stones, metals, &c. have been +all spent since then, and nothing left except a few relics of no +intrinsic value. + +It is well enough known, that in the year 1450, one of the natives of +the island of Candia, who have never been men of much character, made a +sort of mine, or airshaft, or rather perhaps a burrow, like those +constructed by rabbits, down which he went and got quite under the +church, stealing out gems, money, &c. to a vast amount; but being +discovered by the treachery of his companion, was caught and hanged +between the two columns that face the sea on the Piazzetta. + +It strikes a person who has lived some months in other parts of Italy, +to see so very few clergymen at Venice, and none hardly who have much +the look or air of a man of fashion. Milan, though such heavy complaints +are daily made there of encroachments on church power and depredations +on church opulence, still swarms with ecclesiastics; and in an assembly +of thirty people, there are never fewer than ten or twelve at the very +least. But here it should seem as if the political cry of _fuori i +preti_[Footnote: Out with the clergy.], which is said loudly in the +council-chamber before any vote is suffered to pass into a law, were +carried in the conversation rooms too, for a priest is here less +frequent than a clergyman at London; and those one sees about, are +almost all ordinary men, decent and humble in their appearance, of a +bashful distant carriage, like the parson of the parish in North Wales, +or _le cure du village_ in the South of France; and seems no way related +to an _Abate of Milan or Turin_ still less to _Monsieur l' Abbe at +Paris_. + +Though this Republic has long maintained a sort of independency from the +court of Rome, having shewn themselves weary of the Jesuits two hundred +years before any other potentate dismissed them; while many of the +Venetian populace followed them about, crying _Andate, andate, niente +pigliate, emai ritornate_[Footnote: Begone, begone; nothing take, nor +turn anon.]; and although there is a patriarch here who takes care of +church matters, and is attentive to keep his clergy from ever meddling +with or even mentioning affairs of state, as in such a case the Republic +would not scruple punishing them as laymen; yet has Venice kept, as they +call it, St. Peter's boat from sinking more than once, when she saw the +Pope's territories endangered, or his sovereignty insulted: nor is there +any city more eminent for the decency with which divine service is +administered, or for the devout and decorous behaviour of individuals +at the time any sacred office is performing. She has ever behaved like +a true Christian potentate, keeping her faith firm, and her honour +scrupulously clear, in all treaties and conventions with other +states--fewer instances being given of Venetian falsehood or treachery +towards neighbouring nations, than of any other European power, +excepting only Britain, her truly-beloved ally; with whom she never had +a difference, and whose cause was so warmly espoused last war by the +inhabitants of this friendly state, that numbers of young nobility were +willing to run a-volunteering in her defence, but that the laws of +Venice forbid her nobles ranging from home without leave given from the +state. It was therefore not an ill saying, though an old one perhaps, +that the government of Venice was rich and consolatory like its treacle, +being compounded nicely of all the other forms: a grain of monarchy, a +scruple of democracy, a dram of oligarchy, and an ounce of aristocracy; +as the _teriaca_ so much esteemed, is said to be a composition of the +four principal drugs--but can never be got genuine except _here_, at the +original _Dispensary_. + +Indeed the longevity of this incomparable commonwealth is a certain +proof of its temperance, exercise, and cheerfulness, the great +preservatives in every body, _politic_ as well _natural_. Nor should the +love of peace be left out of her eulogium, who has so often reconciled +contending princes, that Thuanus gave her, some centuries ago, due +praise for her pacific disposition, so necessary to the health of a +commercial state, and called her city _civilis prudentiae officina_. + +Another reason may be found for the long-continued prosperity of Venice, +in her constant adherence to a precept, the neglect of which must at +length shake, or rather loosen the foundations of every state; for it is +a maxim here, handed down from generation to generation, that change +breeds more mischief from its novelty, than advantage from its +utility:--quoting the axiom in Latin, it runs thus: _Ipsa mutatio +consuetudinis magis perturbat novitate, quam adjuvat utilitate_. And +when Henry the Fourth of France solicited the abrogation of one of the +Senate's decrees, her ambassador replied, That _li decreti di Venezia +rassomigli avano poca i Gridi di Parigi_[Footnote: The decrees of Venice +little resemble the _edicts_ of Paris.], meaning the declaratory +publications of the Grand Monarque,--proclaimed to-day perhaps, repealed +to-morrow--"for Sire," added he, "our senate deliberates long before it +decrees, but what is once decreed there is seldom or ever recalled." + +The patriotism inherent in the breads of individuals makes another +strong cause of this state's exemption from decay: they say themselves, +that the soul of old Rome has transmigrated to Venice, and that every +galley which goes into action considers itself as charged with the fate +of the commonwealth. _Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori_, seems a +sentence grown obsolete in other Italian states, but is still in full +force here; and I doubt not but the high-born and high-fouled ladies of +this day, would willingly, as did their generous ancestors in 1600, part +with their rings, bracelets, every ornament, to make ropes for those +ships which defend their dearer country. + +The perpetual state of warfare maintained by this nation against the +Turks, has never lessened nor cooled: yet have their Mahometan +neighbours and natural enemies no perfidy to charge them with in the +time of peace or of hostility: nor can Venice be charged with the mean +vice of sheltering a desire of depredation, under the hypocritical cant +of protecting that religion which teaches universal benevolence and +charity to all mankind. Their vicinity to Turkey has, however, made them +contract some similarity of manners; for what, except being imbued with +Turkish notions, can account for the people's rage here, young and old, +rich and poor, to pour down such quantities of coffee? I have already +had seven cups to-day, and feel frighted lest we should some of us be +killed with so strange an abuse of it. On the opposite shore, across the +Adriatic, opium is taken to counteract its effects; but these dear +Venetians have no notion of sleep being necessary to their existence I +believe, as some or other of them seem constantly in motion; and there +is really no hour of the four and twenty in which the town seems +perfectly still and quiet; no moment in which it can be said, that + + Night! fable goddess! from her ebon throne, + In rayless majesty here stretches forth + Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumb'ring world. + +Accordingly I never did meet with any description of Night in the +Venetian poets, so common with other authors; and I am persuaded if one +were to live here (which could not be _long_ I think) he should forget +the use of sleep; for what with the market folks bringing up the boats +from Terra Firma loaded with every produce of nature, neatly arranged in +these flat-bottomed conveyances, the coming up of which begins about +three o'clock in a morning and ends about six;--the Gondoliers rowing +home their masters and ladies about that hour, and so on till +eight;--the common business of the town, which it is then time to +begin;--the state affairs and _pregai_, which often like our House of +Commons sit late, and detain many gentlemen from the circles of morning +amusements--that I find very entertaining;--particularly the street +orators and mountebanks in Piazza St. Marco;--the shops and stalls where +chickens, ducks, &c. are sold by auction, comically enough, to the +highest bidder;--a flourishing fellow, with a hammer in his hand, +shining away in character of auctioneer;--the crowds which fill the +courts of judicature, when any cause of consequence is to be tried;--the +clamorous voices, keen observations, poignant sarcasms, and acute +contentions carried on by the advocates, who seem more awake, or in +their own phrase _svelti_ than all the rest:--all these things take up +so much time, that twenty-four hours do not suffice for the business and +diversions of Venice; where dinner must be eaten as in other places, +though I can scarcely find a minute to spare for it, while such fish +wait one's knife and fork as I most certainly did never see before, and +as I suppose are not to be seen in any sea but this, in such perfection. +Fresh sturgeon, _ton_ as they call it, and fresh anchovies, large as +herrings, and dressed like sprats in London, incomparable; turbots, like +those of Torbay exactly, and plentiful as there, with enormous pipers, +are what one principally eats here. The fried liver, without which an +Italian can hardly go on from day to day, is so charmingly dressed at +Milan, that I grew to like it as well as they; but at Venice it is sad +stuff, and they call it _fegao_. + +Well! the ladies, who never hardly dine at all, rise about seven in the +evening, when the gentlemen are just got ready to attend them; and sit +sipping their chocolate on a chair at the coffee-house door with great +tranquillity, chatting over the common topics of the times: nor do they +appear half so shy of each other as the Milanese ladies, who seldom +seem to have any pleasure in the soft converse of a female friend. But +though certainly no women can be more charming than these Venetian +dames, they have forgotten the old mythological fable, _that the +youngest of the Graces was married to Sleep._ By which it was intended +we should consider that state as necessary to the reparation not only of +beauty but of youth, and every power of pleasing. + +There are men here however who, because they are not quite in the gay +world, keep themselves awake whole nights at study; and much has been +told me, of a collection of books belonging to a private scholar, +Pinelli, who goes very little out, as worthy attentive examination. + +All literary topics are pleasingly discussed at Quirini's Casino, where +every thing may be learned by the conversation of the company, as Doctor +Johnson said of his literary Club; but more agreeably, because women are +always half the number of persons admitted here. + +One evening our society was amused by the entrance of a foreign +nobleman, exactly what we should in London emphatically call a +_Character_,--learned, loud, and overbearing; though of a carriage that +impressed great esteem. I have not often listened to so well-furnished a +talker; nor one more capable of giving great information. He had seen +the Pyramids of Egypt, he told us; had climbed Mount Horeb, and visited +Damascus; but possessed the art of detaining our attention more on +himself, than on the things or places he harangued about; for +conversation that can scarcely be called, where one man holds the +company suspended on his account of matters pompously though +instructively related. He staid here a very little while among us; is a +native of France, a grandee of Spain, a man of uncommon talents, and a +traveller. I should be sorry never to meet him more. + +The Abate Arteaga, a Spanish ecclesiastic of the same agreeable coterie, +seemed of a very different and far more pleasing character;--full of +general knowledge, eminent in particular scholarship, elegant in his +sentiments, and sound in his learning. I liked his company exceedingly, +and respected his opinions. + +Zingarelli, the great musical composer, was another occasional member +of this charming society: his wit and repartie are famous, and his bons +mots are repeated wherever one runs to. I cannot translate any of them, +but will write one down, which will make such of my readers laugh as +understand Italian.--The Emperor was at Milan, and asked Zingarelli his +opinion of a favourite singer? "_Io penso maesta che non e cattivo +suddito del principi,_" replied the master, "_quantunque fara gran +nemico di giove._" "How so?" enquired the King.--"_Maesta,_" answered +our lively Neapolitan, "_ella sa naturalmente che Giove_ tuona, _ma +questo_ stuona." This we see at once was _humour_ not _wit_; and sallies +of humour are scarcely ever capable of translation. + +An odd thing to which I was this morning witness, has called my thoughts +away to a curious train of reflections upon the animal race; and how far +they may be made companionable and intelligent. The famous Ferdinand +Bertoni, so well known in London by his long residence among us, and +from the undisputed merit of his compositions, now inhabits this his +native city, and being fond of _dumb creatures_, as we call them, took +to petting a pigeon, one of the few animals which can live at Venice, +where, as I observed, scarcely any quadrupeds can be admitted, or would +exist with any degree of comfort to themselves. This creature has, +however, by keeping his master company, I trust, obtained so perfect an +ear and taste for music, that no one who sees his behaviour, can doubt +for a moment of the pleasure he takes in hearing Mr. Bertoni play and +sing: for as soon as he sits down to the instrument, Columbo begins +shaking his wings, perches on the piano-forte, and expresses the most +indubitable emotions of delight. If however he or any one else strike a +note false, or make any kind of discord upon the keys, the dove never +fails to shew evident tokens of anger and distress; and if teized too +long, grows quite enraged; pecking the offender's legs and fingers in +such a manner, as to leave nothing less doubtful than the sincerity of +his resentment. Signora Cecilia Giuliani, a scholar of Bertoni's, who +has received some overtures from the London theatre lately, will, if she +ever arrives there, bear testimony to the truth of an assertion very +difficult to believe, and to which I should hardly myself give credit, +were I not witness to it every morning that I chuse to call and confirm +my own belief. A friend present protested he should feel afraid to touch +the harpsichord before so nice a critic; and though we all laughed at +the assertion, Bertoni declared he never knew the bird's judgment fail; +and that he often kept him out of the room, for fear of his affronting +of tormenting those who came to take musical instructions. With regard +to other actions of life, I saw nothing particular in the pigeon, but +his tameness, and strong attachment to his master: for though never +winged, and only clipped a very little, he never seeks to range away +from the house or quit his master's service, any more than the dove of +Anacreon: + + While his better lot bestows + Sweet repast and soft repose; + And when feast and frolic tire, + Drops asleep upon his lyre. + +All the difficulty will be indeed for us _other_ two-legged creatures to +leave the sweet societies of charming Venice; but they begin to grow +fatiguing now, as the weather increases in warmth. + +I do think the Turkish sailor gave an admirable account of a carnival, +when he told his Mahometan friends at his return, That those poor +Christians were all disordered in their senses, and nearly in a state of +actual madness, while he remained among them, till one day, on a sudden, +they luckily found out a certain grey powder that cured such symptoms; +and laying it on their heads one Wednesday morning, the wits of all the +inhabitants were happily restored at _a stroke_: the people grew sober, +quiet, and composed; and went about their business just like other +folks. He meant the ashes strewed on the heads of all one meets in the +streets through many a Catholic country; when all masquerading, +money-making, &c. subside for forty days, and give, from the force of +the contrast, a greater appearance of devotion and decorous behaviour in +Venice, than almost any where else during Lent. + +I do not for my own part think well of all that violence, that strong +light and shadow in matters of religion; which requires rather an even +tenour of good works, proceeding from sound faith, than any of these +staring testimonials of repentance, as if it were a work to be done +_once a year only_. But neither do I think any Christian has a right to +condemn another for his opinions or practice; when St. Paul expressly +says, that "_One man esteemeth one day above another, another man +esteemeth every day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own +mind. But who art thou, that judgest another man's servant[Footnote: +Romans, chap. xiv.]?_" + +The Venetians, to confess the truth, are not quite so strenuously bent +on the unattainable felicity of finding every man in the same mind, as +others of the Italians are; and one great reason why they are more gay +and less malignant, have fewer strong prejudices than others of their +countrymen, is merely because they are happier. Most of the second rank, +and I believe _all_ of the first rank among them, have some share in +governing the rest; it is therefore necessary to exclude ignorance, and +natural to encourage social pleasures. Each individual feels his own +importance, and scorns to contribute to the degradation of the whole, by +indulging a gross depravity of manners, or at least of principles. Every +person listed one degree from the lowest, finds it his interest as well +as duty to love his country, and lend his little support to the general +fabric of a state they all know how to respect; while the very vulgar +willingly perform the condition exacted, and punctually pay obedience +for protection. They have an unlimited confidence in their rulers, who +live amongst them; and can desire only their utmost good. _How_ they are +governed, comes seldom into their heads to enquire; "_Che ne pensa +lu_[Footnote: Let _him_ look to that.]," says a low Venetian, if you ask +him, and humourously points at a Clarissimo passing by while you talk. +They have indeed all the reason to be certain, that where the power is +divided among such numbers, one will be sure to counteract another if +mischief towards the whole be intended. + +Of all aristocracies surely this is the most rationally and happily, as +well as most respectably founded; for though one's heart revolts +against the names of Baron and Vassal, while the petty tyrants live +scattered far from each other, as in Poland, Russia, and many parts of +Germany, like lions in the desert, or eagles in the rock, secure in +their distance from equals or superiors; yet _here_ at Venice, where +every nobleman is a baron, and all together inhabit one city, no subject +can suffer from the tyranny of the rest, though all may benefit from the +general protection: as each is separately in awe of his neighbour, and +desires to secure his client's tenderness by indulgence, instead of +wishing to disgust him by oppression: unlike the state so powerfully +delineated by our incomparable poet in his Paulina, + + Where dwelt in haughty wretchedness a lord, + Whose rage was justice, and whose law his word: + Who saw unmov'd the vassal perish near, + The widow's anguish, and the orphan's tear; + Insensible to pity--stern he stood, + Like some rude rock amid the Caspian flood, + Where shipwreck'd sailors unassisted lie, + And as they curse its barren bosom, die. + +And it is, I trust, for no deeper reason that the subjects of this +republic resident in the capital, are less savage and more happy than +those who live upon the Terra Firma; where many outrages are still +committed, disgraceful to the state, from the mere facility offenders +find, either in escaping to the dominion of other princes, or of finding +shelter at home from the madly-bestowed protection these old barons on +the Continent cease not yet to give, to ruffians who profess their +service, and acknowledge dependence upon _them_. In the _town_, however, +little is known of these enormities, and less is talked on; and what +information has come to my ears of the murders done at Brescia and +Bergamo, was given me at _Milan_; where Blainville's accounts of that +country, though written so long ago, did not fail to receive +confirmation from the lips of those who knew perfectly well what they +were talking about. And I am told that _Labbia_, Giovanni Labbia, the +new Podesta sent to Brescia, has worked wonderful reformation among the +inhabitants of that territory; where I am ashamed to relate the +computation of subjects lost to the state, by being killed in cold blood +during the years 1780 and 1781. + +The following sonnet, addressed to the new Magistrate, by the elegant +and learned Abbe Bettolini, will entertain such of my readers as +understand Italian: + + No, Brenne, il popol tuo non e spietato, + Colpa non e di clima, o fuol nemico: + Ma gli inulti delitti, e'l vezzo antico + D'impune andar coi ferro e fuoco a lato, + + Ira noi finor nudriro un branco irato + D'Orsi e di lupi, il malaccorto amico + Ti svenava un fellon sgherro mendico, + E per cauto timor n'era onorato. + + Al primiero spuntar d'un fausto lume + Tutto cangio: curvansi in falci i teh, + Mille Pluto perde vittime usate. + + Viva l'Eroe, il comun padre, il nume + Gridan le gente a si bei di ferbate. + E sia che ardisca dir che siam crudele. + +_Imitation_. + + No, Brennus, no longer thy sons shall retain + Of their founder ferocious, th'original stain; + It cannot be natural cruelty sure, + The reproaches for which from all men we endure; + Nor climate nor soil shall henceforth bear the blame, + 'Tis custom alone, and that custom our shame: + While arm'd at all points men were suffer'd to rove, + And brandish the steel in defence of their love; + What wonder that conduct or caution should fail, + And horrid Lycanthropy's terrors prevail? + Now justice resumes her insignia, we find + New light breaking in on each nebulous mind; + While commission'd from Heaven, a parent, a friend + Sees our swords at his nod into reaping-hooks bend, + And souls snatch'd from death round the hero attend. + +From these verses, written by a native of Brescia, one may see how +matters stood there very, _very_ little while ago: but here at Venice +the people are of a particularly sweet and gentle disposition, +good-humoured with each other, and kind to strangers; little disposed to +public affrays (which would indeed be punished and put a sudden end to +in an instant), nor yet to any secret or hidden treachery. They watch +the hour of a Regatta with impatience, to make some merit with the woman +of their choice, and boast of their families who have won in the manly +contest forty or fifty years ago, perhaps when honoured with the badge +and livery of some noble house; for here almost every thing is +hereditary, as in England almost every thing is elective; nor had I an +idea how much state affairs influence the private life of individuals in +a country, till I left trusting to books, and looked a little about me. +The low Venetian, however, knows that he works for the commonwealth, +and is happy; for things go round, says he, _Il Turco magna St. Marco; +St. Marco magna mi, mi magna ti, e ti tu magna un'altro_[S]. + +[Footnote S: The Turk feeds on St. Mark, St. Mark devours me; I eat +thee, neighbour, and thou subsistest on somebody else.] + +Apropos to this custom of calling Venice (when they speak of it) San +Marco; I heard so comical a story yesterday that I cannot refuse the +pleasure of inserting it; and if my readers do not find it as pleasant +as I did, they may certainly leave it out, without the smallest +prejudice either to the book, the author, or themselves. + +The procurator Tron was at Padua, it seems, and had a fancy to drive +forward to Vicenza that afternoon, but being particularly fond of a +favourite pair of horses which drew his chariot that day, would by no +means venture if it happened to rain; and took the trouble to enquire of +Abate Toaldo, "Whether he thought such a thing likely to happen, from +the appearance of the sky?" The professor, not knowing why the question +was asked, said, "he rather thought it would _not_ rain for four hours +at most." In consequence of this information our senator ordered his +equipage directly, got into it, and bid the driver make haste to +Vicenza: but before he was half-way on his journey, such torrents came +down from a black cloud that burst directly over their heads, that his +horses were drenched in wet, and their mortified master turned +immediately back to Padua, that they might suffer no further +inconvenience. To pass away the evening, which he did not mean to have +spent there, and to quiet his agitated spirits by thinking on something +else, he walked under the Portico to a neighbouring coffee-house, where +fate the Abate Toaldo in company of a few friends; wholly unconscious +that he had been the cause of vexing the Procuratore; who, after a short +pause, cried out, in a true Venetian spirit of anger and humour oddly +blended together, "_Mi dica Signor Professore Toaldo, chi e il piu gran +minchion di tutti i fanti in Paradiso?_" Pray tell me Doctor (we should +say), who is the greatest blockhead among all the saints of Heaven? The +Abbe looked astonished, but hearing the question repeated in a more +peevish accent still, replied gravely, "_Eccelenza non fon fatto io per +rispondere a tale dimande_"--My lord, I have no answer ready for such +extraordinary questions. Why then, replies the Procuratore Tron, I will +answer this question myself.--_St. Marco ved'ella--"e'l vero minchion: +mentre mantiene tanti professori per studiare (che so to mi) delle +stelle; roba astronomica che non vale un fico; e loro non sanno dirli +nemmeno s'ha da piovere o no._"--"Why it is St. Mark, do you see, that +is the true blockhead and dupe, in keeping so many professors to study +the stars and stuff; when with all their astronomy they cannot tell him +whether it will rain or no." + +Well, _pax tibi, Marce!_ I see that I have said more about Venice, where +I have lived five weeks, than about Milan, where I stayed five months; +but + + Si placeat varios hominum cognoscere vultus, + Area longa patet, sancto contermina Marco, + Celsus ubi Adriacas, Venetus Leo despicit undas, + Hic circum gentes cunctis e partibus orbis, + AEthiopes, Turcos, Slavos, Arabesque, Syrosque, + Inveniesque Cypri, Cretae, Macedumque colonos, + Innumerosque alios varia regione profectos: + Saepe etiam nec visa prius, nec cognita cernes, + Quae si cuncta velim tenui describere versu, + Heic omnes citius nautas celeresque Phaselos, + Et simul Adriaci pisces numerabo profundi. + +_Imitated loosely_. + + If change of faces please your roving sight, + Or various characters your mind delight, + To gay St. Mark's with eagerness repair; + For curiosity may pasture there. + Venetia's lion bending o'er the waves, + There sees reflected--tyrants, freemen, slaves. + The swarthy Moor, the soft Circassian dame, + The British sailor not unknown to fame; + Innumerous nations crowd the lofty door, + Innumerous footsteps print the sandy shore; + While verse might easier name the scaly tribe, } + That in her seas their nourishment imbibe, } + Than Venice and her various charms describe. } + +It is really pity ever to quit the sweet seducements of a place so +pleasing; which attracts the inclination and flatters the vanity of one, +who, like myself, has received the most polite attentions, and been +diverted with every amusement that could be devised. Kind, friendly, +lovely Venetians! who appear to feel real fondness for the inhabitants +of Great Britain, while Cavalier Pindemonte writes such verses in its +praise. Yet _must_ the journey go forward, no staying to pick every +flower upon the road. + +On Saturday next then am I to forsake--but I hope not for ever--this +gay, this gallant city, so often described, so certainly admired; seen +with rapture, quitted with regret: seat of enchantment! head-quarters of +pleasure, farewell! + + Leave us as we ought to be, + Leave the Britons rough and free. + +It was on the twenty-first of May then that we returned up the Brenta in +a barge to _Padua_, stopping from time to time to give refreshment to +our conductors and their horse, which draws on the side, as one sees +them at Richmond; where the banks are scarcely more beautifully adorned +by art, than here by nature; though the Brenta is a much narrower river +than the Thames at Richmond, and its villas, so justly celebrated, far +less frequent. The sublimity of their architecture however, the +magnificence of their orangeries, the happy construction of the cool +arcades, and general air of festivity which breathes upon the banks of +this truly _wizard stream_, planted with _dancing_, not _weeping_ +willows, to which on a bright evening the lads and lasses run for +shelter from the sun beams, + + Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri[T]; + + +[Footnote T: + While tripping to the wood my wanton hies, + She wishes to be seen before she flies. +] + + +are I suppose peculiar to itself, and best described by Monsieur de +Voltaire, whose Pococurante the Venetian senator in Candide that +possesses all delights in his villa upon the banks of the Brenta, is a +very lively portrait, and would be natural too; but that Voltaire, as a +Frenchman, could not forbear making his character speak in a very +unItalian manner, boasting of his felicity in a style they never use, +for they are really no puffers, no vaunters of that which they possess; +make no disgraceful comparisons between their own rarities and the want +of them in other countries, nor offend you as the French do, with false +pity and hateful consolations. + +If any thing in England seem to excite their wonder and ill-placed +compassion, it is our coal fires, which they persist in thinking +strangely unwholesome--and a melancholy proof that we are grievously +devoid of wood, before we can prevail upon ourselves to dig the bowels +of old earth for fewel, at the hazard of our precious health, if not of +its certain loss; nor could I convince the wisest man I tried at, that +wood burned to chark is a real poison, while it would be difficult by +any process of chemistry to force much evil out of coal. They are +steadily of opinion, that consumptions are occasioned by these fires, +and that all the subjects of Great Britain are consumptively disposed, +merely because those who are so, go into Italy for change of air: though +I never heard that the wood smoke helped their breath, or a brazierfull +of ashes under the table their appetite. Mean time, whoever seeks to +convince instead of persuade an Italian, will find he has been employed +in a Sisyphean labour; the stone may roll to the top, but is sure to +return, and rest at his feet who had courage to try the experiment. +Logic is a science they love not, and I think steadily refuse to +cultivate; nor is argument a style of conversation they naturally +affect--as Lady Macbeth says, "_Question enrageth him_;" and the +dialogues of Socrates would to them be as disgusting as the violence of +Xantippe. + +Well, here we are at Padua again! where I will run, and see once more +the places I was before so pleased with. The beautiful church of Santa +Giustina, the ancient church adorned by Cimabue, Giotto, &c. where you +fancy yourself on a sudden transported to Dante's Paradiso, and with for +Barry the painter, to point your admiration of its sublime and +extraordinary merits; but not the shrine of St. Anthony, or the tomb of +Antenor, one rich with gold, the other venerable with rust, can keep my +attention fixed on _them_, while an Italian _May_ offers to every sense, +the sweets of nature in elegant perfection. One view of a smiling +landschape, lively in verdure, enamelled with flowers, and exhilarating +with the sound of music under every tree, + + Where many a youth and many a maid + Dances in the chequer'd shade; + And young and old come forth to play, + On a sun-shine holiday; + +drives Palladio and Sansovino from one's head; and leaves nothing very +strongly impressed upon one's heart but the recollection of kindness +received and esteem reciprocated. Those pleasures have indeed pursued +me hither; the amiable Countess Ferris has not forgotten us; her +attentions are numerous, tender, and polite. I went to the play with +her, where I was unlucky enough to miss the representation of Romeo and +Juliet, which was acted the night before with great applause, under the +name of _Tragedia Veronese_. Monsieur de Voltaire was then premature in +his declarations, that Shakespear was unknown, or known only to be +censured, except in his native country. Count Kinigl at Milan took +occasion to tell me that they acted Hamlet and Lear when he was last at +Vienna; and I know not how it is, but to an English traveller each place +presents ideas originally suggested by Shakespear, of whom nature and +truth are the perpetual mirrors: other authors remind one of things +which one has seen in life--but the scenes of life itself remind one of +Shakespear. When I first looked on the Rialto, with what immediate +images did it supply me? Oh, the old long-cherished images of the +pensive merchant, the generous friend, the gay companion, and their +final triumph over the practices of a cruel Jew. Anthonio, Gratiano, +met me at every turn; and when I confessed some of these feelings before +the professor of natural history here, who had spent some time in +London; he observed, that no native of our island could sit three hours, +and not speak of Shakespear: he added many kind expressions of partial +liking to our nation, and our poets: and l'Abate Cesarotti +good-humouredly confessed his little skill in the English language when +he translated their so much-admired Ossian; but he had studied it pretty +hard since, he said, and his version of Gray's Elegy is charming. + +Gray and Young are the favourite writers among us, as far as I have yet +heard them talked over upon the continent; the first has secured them by +his residence at Florence, and his Latin verses I believe; the second, +by his piety and brilliant thoughts. Even Romanists are disposed to +think dear Dr. Young very _near_ to Christianity--an idea which must +either make one laugh or cry, while + + Sweet peace, and heavenly hope, and humble joy, + Divinely beam on _his_ exalted soul. + +But I must tell what I have been seeing at the theatre, and should tell +it much better had not the charms of Countess Ferris's conversation +engaged my mind, which would otherwise perhaps have been more seized on +than it _was_, by the sight of an old pantomime, or wretched farce (for +there was speaking in it, I remember), exploded long since from our very +lowest places of diversion, and now exhibited here at Padua before a +very polite and a very literary audience; and in a better theatre by far +than our newly-adorned opera-house in the Hay-market. Its subject was no +other than the birth of Harlequin; but the place and circumstances +combined to make me look on it in a light which shewed it to uncommon +advantage. The storm, for example, the thunder, darkness, &c. which is +so solemnly made to precede an incantation, apparently not meant to be +ridiculous, after which, a huge egg is somehow miraculously produced +upon the stage, put me in mind of the very old mythologists, who thus +desired to represent the chaotic state of things, when Night, Ocean, and +Tartarus disputed in perpetual confusion; till _Love_ and _Music_ +separated the elements, and as Dryden says, + + Then hot and cold, and moist and dry, + In order to their stations leap, + And music's power obey. + +For _Cupid_, advancing to a slow tune, steadies with his wand the +rolling mass upon the stage, that then begins to teem with its _motley +inhabitant_, and just representative of the _created world_, active, +wicked, gay, amusing, which gains your heart, but never your esteem: +tricking, shifting, and worthless as it is--but after all its _frisks_, +all its _escapes_, is condemned at last to burn in _fire, and pass +entirely away_. Such was, I trust, the idea of the person, whoever he +was, that had the honour first to compose this curious exhibition, and +model this mythological device into a pantomime! for the _mundane_, or +as Proclus calls it, the _orphick_ egg, is possibly the earliest of all +methods taken to explain the rise, progress, and final conclusion of our +earth and atmosphere; and was the original _theory_ brought from Egypt +into Greece by Orpheus. Nor has that prodigious genius, Dr. Thomas +Burnet, scorned to adopt it seriously in his _Telluris Theoria sacra_, +written less than a century ago, adapting it with wonderful ingenuity +to the Christian system and Mosaical account of things; to which it +certainly does accommodate itself the better, as the form of an egg well +resembles that of our habitable globe; and the internal divisions, our +four elements, leaving the central fire for the yolk. I therefore +regarded our pantomime here at Padua with a degree of reverence I should +have found difficult to excite in myself at Sadler's Wells; where ideas +of antiquity would have been little likely to cross my fancy. Sure I am, +however, that the original inventor of this old pantomime had his head +very full at the time of some very ancient learning. + +Now then I must leave this lovely state of Venice, where if the paupers +in every town of it did not crowd about one, tormenting passengers with +unextinguishable clamour, and surrounding them with sights of horror +unfit to be surveyed by any eyes except those of the surgeon, who should +alleviate their anguish, or at least conceal their truly unspeakable +distresses--one should break one's heart almost at the thoughts of +quitting people who show such tenderness towards their friends, that +less than ocular conviction would scarce persuade me to believe such +wandering misery could remain disregarded among the most amiable and +pleasing people in the world. His excellency Bragadin half promised me +that some steps should be taken at Venice at least, to remove a nuisance +so disgraceful; and said, that when I came again, I should walk about +the town in white sattin slippers, and never see a beggar from one end +of it to the other. + +On the twenty-sixth of May then, with the senator Quirini's letters to +Corilla, with the Countess of Starenberg's letters to some Tuscan +friends of her's; and with the light of a full moon, if we should want +it, we set out again in quest of new adventures, and mean to sleep this +night under the pope's protection:--may God but grant us his! + + + +FERRERA. + + +We have crossed the Po, which I expected to have found more magnificent, +considering the respectable state I left it in at Cremona; but scarcely +any thing answers that expectation which fancy has long been fermenting +in one's mind. + +I took a young woman once with me to the coast of Sussex, who, at +twenty-seven years old and a native of England, had never seen the sea; +nor any thing else indeed ten miles out of London:--And well, child! +said I, are not you much surprised?--"It is a fine sight, to be sure," +replied she coldly, "but,"--but what? you are not disappointed are +you?--"No, not disappointed, but it is not quite what I expected when I +saw the ocean." Tell me then, pray good girl, and tell me quickly, what +did you expect to see? "_Why I expected_," with a hesitating accent, "_I +expected to see a great deal of water_." This answer set me _then_ into +a fit of laughter, but I have _now_ found out that I am not a whit +wiser than Peggy: for what did I figure to myself that I should find the +Po? only a great deal of water to be sure; and a very great deal of +water it certainly is, and much more, God knows, than I ever saw before, +except between the shores of Calais and Dover; yet I did feel something +like disappointment too; when my imagination wandering over all that the +poets had said about it, and finding earth too little to contain their +fables, recollected that they had thought Eridanus worthy of a place +among the constellations, I wished to see such a river as was worthy all +these praises, and even then, says I, + + O'er golden sands let rich Pactolus flow. + And trees weep amber on the banks of Po. + +But are we sure after all it was upon the _banks_ these trees, not now +existing, were ever to be found? they grew in the Electrides if I +remember right, and even there Lucian laughingly said, that he spread +his garments in vain to catch the valuable distillation which poetry had +taught him to expect; and Strabo (worse news still!) said that there +were no Electrides neither; so as we knew before--fiction is false: and +had I not discovered it by any other means, I might have recollected a +comical contest enough between a literary lady once, and Doctor Johnson, +to which I was myself a witness;--when she, maintaining the happiness +and purity of a country life and rural manners, with her best eloquence, +and she had a great deal; added as corroborative and almost +incontestable authority, that the _Poets_ said so: "and didst thou not +know then," replied he, my darling dear, that the _Poets lye_? + +When they tell us, however, that great rivers have horns, which twisted +off become cornua copiae, dispensing pleasure and plenty, they entertain +us it must be confessed; and never was allegory more nearly allied with +truth, than in the lines of Virgil; + + Gemina auratus taurino cornua vultu, + Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta, + In mare purpureuin violentior influit amnis[U]; + +[Footnote U: + Whence bull-fac'd, so adorn'd with gilded horns, + Than whom no river through such level meads, + Down to the sea in swifter torrents speeds. +] + +so accurately translated by Doctor Warton, who would not reject the +epithet _bull-faced_, because he knew it was given in imitation of the +Thessalian river Achelous, that fought for Dejanira; and Servius, who +makes him father to the Syrens, says that many streams, in compliment to +this original one, were represented with horns, because of their winding +course. Whether Monsieur Varillas, or our immortal Addison, mention +their being so perpetuated on medals now existing, I know not; but in +this land of rarities we shall soon hear or see. + +Mean time let us leave looking for these weeping Heliades, and enquire +what became of the Swan, that poor Phaeton's friend and cousin turned +into, for very grief and fear at seeing him tumble in the water. For my +part I believe that not only now he + + Eligit contraria flumina flammis, + +but that the whole country is grown disagreeably hot to him, and the +sight of the sun's chariot so near frightens him still; for he certainly +lives more to his taste, and sings sweeter I believe on the banks of the +Thames, than in Italy, where we have never yet seen but _one_; and that +was kept in a small marble bason of water at the Durazzo palace at +Genoa, and seemed miserably out of condition. I enquired why they gave +him no companion? and received for answer, "That it would be wholly +useless, as they were creatures who never bred _out if their own +country_." But any reply serves any common Italian, who is little +disposed to investigate matters; and if you tease him with too much +ratiocination, is apt to cry out, "_Cosa serve sosistieare cosi? ci fara +andare tutti matti_[V]." They have indeed so many external amusements in +the mere face of the country, that one is better inclined to pardon +_them_, than one would be to forgive inhabitants of less happy climates, +should they suffer _their_ intellectual powers to pine for want of +exercise, not food: for here is enough to think upon, God knows, were +they disposed so to employ their time; where one may justly affirm that, + +[Footnote V: What signifies all this minuteness of inquiry?--it will +drive us mad.] + + On every thorn delightful wisdom grows, + And in each rill, some sweet instruction flows; + But some untaught o'erhear the murmuring rill, + In spite of sacred leisure--blockheads still. + +The road from Padua hither is not a good one; but so adorned, one cares +not much whether it is good or no: so sweetly are the mulberry-trees +planted on each side, with vines richly festooning up and down them, as +if for the decoration of a dance at the opera. One really expects the +flower-girls with baskets, or garlands, and scarcely can persuade one's +self that all is real. + +Never sure was any thing more rejoicing to the heart, than this lovely +season in this lovely country. The city of Ferrara too is a fine one; +Ferrara _la civile_, the Italians call it, but it seems rather to merit +the epithet _solenne_; so stately are its buildings, so wide and uniform +its streets. My pen was just upon the point of praising its cleanliness +too, till I reflected there was nobody to dirty it. I looked half an +hour before I could find one beggar, a bad account of poor Ferrara; but +it brought to my mind how unreasonably my daughter and myself had +laughed seven years ago, at reading in an extract from some of the +foreign gazettes, how the famous Improvisatore Talassi, who was in +England about the year 1770, and entertained with his justly-admired +talents the literati at London; had published an account of his visit to +Mr. Thrale, at a villa eight miles from Westminster-bridge, during that +time, when he had the good fortune, he said, to meet many celebrated +characters at his country-seat; and the mortification which nearly +overbalanced it, to miss seeing the immortal Garrick then confined by +illness. In all this, however, there was nothing ridiculous; but we +fancied his description of Streatham village truly so; when we read that +he called it _Luogo assai popolato ed ameno_[Footnote: A populous and +delightful place.], an expression apparently pompous, and inadequate to +the subject: but the jest disappeared when I got into _his_ town; a +place which perhaps may be said to possess every other excellence but +that of being _popolato ed ameno_; and I sincerely believe that no +Ferrara-man could have missed making the same or a like observation; as +in this finely-constructed city, the grass literally grows in the +street; nor do I hear that the state of the air and water is such as is +likely to tempt new inhabitants. How much then, and how reasonably must +he have wondered, and how easily must he have been led to express his +wonder, at seeing a village no bigger than that of Streatham, contain a +number of people equal, as I doubt not but it does, to all the dwellers +in Ferrara! + +Mr. Talassi is reckoned in his own country a man of great genius; in +ours he was, as I recollect, received with much attention, as a person +able and willing to give us demonstration that improviso verses might be +made, and sung extemporaneously to some well-known tune, generally one +which admits of and requires very long lines; that so alternate rhymes +may not be improper, as they give more time to think forward, and gain a +moment for composition. Of this power, many, till they saw it done, did +not believe the existence; and many, after they had seen it done, +persisted in _saying_, perhaps in _thinking_, that it could be done only +in Italian. I cannot however believe that they possess any exclusive +privileges or supernatural gifts; though it will be hard to find one who +thinks better of them than I do: but Spaniards can sing sequedillas +under their mistresses window well enough; and our Welch people can +make the harper sit down in the church-yard after service is over, and +placing themselves round him, command the instrument to go over some old +song-tune: when having listened a while, one of the company forms a +stanza of verses, which run to it in well-adapted measure; and as he +ends, another begins: continuing the tale, or retorting the satire, +according to the style in which the first began it. All this too in a +language less perhaps than any other melodious to the ear, though Howell +found out a resemblance between their prosody and that of the Italian +writer in early days, when they held agnominations, or the inforcement +of consonant words and syllables one upon the other, to be elegant in a +more eminent degree than they do now. For example, in Welch, _Tewgris, +todykris, ty'r derrin, gwillt_, &c. in Italian, _Donne, O danno che selo +affronto affronta: in selva salvo a me_, with a thousand more. The whole +secret of improvisation, however, seems to consist in this; that +extempore verses are never written down, and one may easily conceive +that much may go off well with a good voice in singing, which no one +would read if they were once registered by the pen. + +I have already asserted that the Italians are not a laughing nation: +were ridicule to step in among them, many innocent pleasures would soon +be lost; and this among the first. For who would risque the making +impromptu poems at Paris? _pour s'attirer persiflage_ in every _Coterie +comme il faut_[Footnote: To draw upon one's self the ridicule of every +polite assembly.]? Or in London, at the hazard of being _taken off, and +held up for a laughing-stock at every print-seller's window_? A man must +have good courage in England, before he ventures at diverting a little +company by such devices: while one would yawn, and one would whisper, a +third would walk gravely out of the room, and say to his friend upon the +stairs, "Why sure we had better read our old poets at home, than be +called together, like fools, to hear what comes uppermost in +such-a-one's head, about his _Daphne_! In good time! Why I have been +tired of _Daphne_ since I was fourteen years old." But the best jest of +all would be, to see an ordinary fellow, a strolling player for example, +set seriously to make or repeat verses in our streets or squares +concerning his sweetheart's _cruelty_; when he would be in more danger +from that of the mob and the magistrates; who, if the first did not +throw dirt at him, and drive him home quickly, would come themselves, +and examine into his sanity, and if they found him not _statutably mad_, +commit him for a vagrant. + +Different amusements, like different sorts of food, suit different +countries; and this is among the efforts of those who have learned to +refine their _pleasures_ without so refining their _ideas_ as to be able +no longer to hit on any pleasure subtle enough to escape their own power +of ridiculing it. + +This city of Ferrara has produced some curious and opposite characters +in times past, however empty it may now be thought: one painter too, and +one singer, both super-eminent in their professions, have dropped their +own names, and are best known to fame by that of _Il_ and _La +Ferrarese_. Nor can I leave it without some reflections on the +extraordinary life of Renee de France, daughter of Louis XII surnamed +the Just, and Anne de Bretagne, his first wife. This lady having married +the famous Hercules D'Este, one of the handsomest men in Europe, lived +with him here in much apparent felicity as Duchess of Ferrara; but took +such an aversion to the church and court of Rome, from the superstitions +she saw practised in Italy, that though she resolved to dissemble her +opinions during the life of her husband, whom she wished not to disgust, +at the instant of his death she quitted all her dignities; and retiring +to France, was protected by her father in the open profession of +Calvinism, living a life of privacy and purity among the Huguenots in +the southern provinces. This _Louis le Juste_ was he who gave the French +what little pretensions they have ever obtained on which to fix the +foundations of future liberty: he first established a parliament at +Rouen, another at Aix; but while thus gentle to his subjects, he was a +scourge to Italy, made his public entry into Genoa as Sovereign, and +tore the Milanese from the Sforza family, somewhat before the year 1550. + +The well-known Franciscus Ferrariensis, whose name was Silvester, is a +character very opposite to that of fair Renee: he wrote the best apology +for the Romanists against Luther, and gained applause from both sides +for his controversial powers; while the strictness of his life gave +weight to his doctrine, and ornamented the sect which he delighted to +defend. + +By a native of Ferrara too were first collected the books that were +earliest placed in the Ambrosian library at Milan, Barnardine Ferrarius, +whose deep erudition and simple manners gained him the favour of +Frederick Borromeo, who sent him to Spain to pick up literary rarities, +which he bestowed with pleasure on the place where he had received his +education. His treatise on the rites of sepulture used by the ancients +is in good estimation; and Sir Thomas Brown, in his _Urn Burial_, owes +him much obligation. + +The custom of wearing swords here seems to proceed from some connection +they have had with the Spaniards; and Dr. Moore has given us an +admirable account of why the Highland broad-sword is still called an +_Andrew Ferrara_. + +The Venetians, not often or easily intimidated by Papal power, having +taken this city in the year 1303, were obliged to restore it, for fear +of the consequences of Pope Boniface the Eighth's excommunications; his +displeasure having before then produced dreadful effects in the +conspiracy of Bajamonti Tiepulo; which was suppressed, and he killed, by +a woman, out of a flaming zeal for the honour and tranquillity of her +country: and so disinterested too was her spirit of patriotism, that the +only reward she required for a service so essential, was that a constant +memorial of it might be preserved in the dress of the Doge; who from +that moment obliged himself to wear a woman's cap under the state +diadem, and so his successors still continue to do. + +But Ferrara has other distinctions.--Bonarelli here, at the academy of +gl'Intrepidi, read his able defence of that pastoral comedy so much +applauded and censured, called _Filli di Sciro_; and here the great +Ariosto lived and died. + +Nothing leads however to a less gloomy train of thought, than the tomb +of a celebrated man; where virtue, wit, or valour triumph over death, +and wait the consummation of all sublunary things, before the +remembrance of such superiority shall be lost. Italy must be shaken from +her deepest foundation, and England made a scene of general ruin, when +Shakespear and Ariosto shall be forgotten, and their names confounded +among deedless nobility, and worthless wasters of treasure, long ago +passed from hand to hand, perhaps from the dwellers in one continent to +the inhabitants of another. It has been equally the fate of these two +heroes of modern literature, that they have pleased their countrymen +more than foreigners; but is that any diminution of their merit? or +should it serve as a reason for making disgraceful comparisons between +Ariosto and Virgil, whom he scorned to imitate? A dead language is like +common ground;--all have a right to pasture, and all a claim to give or +to withhold admiration. Virgil is the old original trough at the corner +of the road, where every passer-by pays, drinks, and goes on his journey +well refreshed. But the clear spring in the meadow sure, though private +property, and lately dug, deserves attention: and confers delight not +only on the actual master of the ground, but on all his visitants who +can climb the style, and lift the silver cup to their lips which hangs +by the fountain-side. + +I am glad, however, to be gone from a place where they are thinking less +of all these worthies just at present, than of a circumstance which +cannot redound to their honour, as it might have happened to any other +town, and could do great good to none: no less than the happy arrival of +Joseph, and Leopold, and Maximilian of Austria, on the thirtieth of May +1775; and this wonderful event have they recorded in a pompous +inscription upon a stone set at the inn door. But princes can make +poets, and scatter felicity with little exertion on their own parts. + +At Tuillemont, an English gentleman once told me he had the misfortune +to sleep one night where all the people's heads were full of the +Emperor, who had dined there the day before; and some _wise_ fellow of +the place wrote these lines under his picture: + + Ingreditur magnus magno de Caesare Caesar, + Thenas, sub signo Cervi, sua prandia sumit. + +He immediately set down this distich under them: + + Our poor little town has no little to brag, + The Emperor was here, and he dined at the Stag. + +The people of the inn concluding that this must be a high-strained +compliment, it produced him many thanks from all, and a better breakfast +than he would otherwise have obtained at Tuillemont. + +To-morrow we go forward to Bologna. + + + +BOLOGNA + + +SEEMS at first sight a very sorrowful town, and has a general air of +melancholy that surprises one, as it is very handsomely and regularly +built; and set in a country so particularly beautiful, that it is not +easy to express the nature of its beauty, and to express it so that +those who inhabit other countries can understand me. + +The territory belonging to Bologna la Grassa concenters all its charms +in a happy _embonpoint_, which leaves no wrinkle unfilled up, no bone to +be discerned; like the fat figure of Gunhilda at Fonthill, painted by +Chevalier Cafali, with a face full of woe, but with a sleekness of skin +that denotes nothing less than affliction. From the top of the only +eminence, one looks down here upon a country which to me has a new and +singular appearance; the whole horizon appearing one thick carpet of the +softest and most vivid green, from the vicinity of the broad-leaved +mulberry trees, I trust, drawn still closer and closer together by +their amicable and pacific companions the vines, which keep cluttering +round, and connect them so intimately that no object can be separately +or distinctly viewed, any more than the habitations formed by animals +who live in moss, when a large portion of it is presented to the +philosopher for speculation. One would not therefore, on a flight and +cursory inspection, suspect this of being a painter's country, where no +prominence of features arrests the sight, no expression of latent +meaning employs the mind, and no abruptness of transition tempts fancy +to follow, or imagination to supply, the sudden loss of what it +contemplated before. + +Here however the great Caraccis kept their school; here then was every +idea of dignity and majestic beauty to be met with; and if _I_ meet with +nothing in nature near this place to excite such ideas, it is _my_ +fault, not Bologna's. + + If vain the toil, + We ought to blame the culture,--not the soil. + +Wonderful indeed! yet not at all distracting is the variety of +excellence that one contemplates here; such matters! and such scholars! +The sweetly playful pencil of Albano, I would compare to Waller among +our English poets; Domenichino to Otway, and Guido Rheni to Rowe; if +such liberties might be permitted on the old notion of _ut pictura +poesis_. But there is an idea about the world, that one ought in +delicacy to declare one's utter incapacity of understanding pictures, +unless immediately of the profession.--And why so? No man protests, that +he cannot read poetry, he can make no pleasure out of Milton or +Shakespear, or shudder at the ingratitude of Lear's daughters on the +stage. Why then should people pretend insensibility, when divine +Guercino exerts his unrivalled powers of the pathetic in the fine +picture at Zampieri palace, of Hagar's dismission into the desert with +her son? While none else could have touched with such truth of +expression the countenances of each; leaving him most to be pitied, +perhaps, who issues the command against his will; accompanying it +however with innumerable benedictions, and alleviating its severity with +the softest tenderness. + +He only among our poets could have planned such a picture, who penned +the Eloisa, and knew the agonies of a soul struggling against +unpermitted passions, and conquering from the noblest motives of faith +and of obedience. + +Glorious exertion of excellence! This is the first time my heart has +been made really alive to the powers of this magical art. Candid +Italians! let me again exclaim; they shewed us a Vandyke in the same +palace, surrounded by the works of their own incomparable countrymen; +and _there_ say they, "_Quasi quasi si puo circondarla_[Footnote: You +may almost run round her.]." You may almost run round it, was the +expression. The picture was a very fine one; a single figure of the +Madona, highly painted, and happily placed among those who knew, because +they possessed his perfections who drew it. Were Homer alive, and +acquainted with our language, he would admire that Shakespear whom +Voltaire condemns. Twice in this town has Guido shewed those powers +which critics have denied him: the power of grouping his figures with +propriety, and distributing his light and shadow to advantage: as he +has shewn it _but twice_, however, it is certain the connoisseurs are +not very wrong, and even in those very performances one may read their +justification: for Job, though surrounded by a crowd of people, has a +strangely insulated look, and the sweet sufferer on the fore-ground of +his Herodian cruelty seems wholly uninterested in the general distress, +and occupies herself and every spectator completely and solely with her +own particular grief. + +The boasted Raphael here does not in my eyes triumph over the wonders of +this Caracci school. At Rome, I am told, his superiority is more +visible. _Nous verrons_[Footnote: We shall see.]. + +The reserved picture of St. Peter and St. Paul, kept in the last chamber +of the Zampieri palace, and covered with a silk curtain, is valued +beyond any specimen of the painting art which can be moved from Italy to +England. We are taught to hope it will soon come among us; and many say +the sale cannot be now long delayed. Why Guido should never draw another +picture like that, or at all in the same style, who can tell? it +certainly does unite every perfection, and every possible excellence, +except choice of subject, which cannot be happy I think, when the +subject itself is left disputable. + +I will mention only one other picture: it is in an obscure church, not +an unfrequented one by these pious Bolognese, who are the most devout +people I ever lived amongst, but I think not much visited by travellers. +It is painted by Albano, and represents the Redeemer of mankind as a boy +scarce thirteen years old: ingenuous modesty, and meek resignation, +beaming from each intelligent feature of a face divinely beautiful, and +throwing out luminous rays round his sacred head, while the blessed +Virgin and St. Joseph, placed on each side him, adore his goodness with +transport not unmixed with wonder: the instruments of his future passion +cast at his feet, directing us to consider him as in that awful moment +voluntarily devoting himself for the sins of the whole world. + +This picture, from the sublimity of the subject, the lively colouring, +and clear expression, has few equals; the pyramidal group drops in as of +itself, unsought for, from the raised ground on which our Saviour +stands; and among numberless wild conceits and extravagant fancies of +painters, not only permitted but encouraged in this country, to deviate +into what _we_ justly think profane representations of the deity:--this +is the most pleasing and inoffensive device I have seen. + +The august Creator too is likewise more wisely concealed by Albano than +by other artists, who daringly presume to exhibit that of which no +mortal man can give or receive a just idea. But we will have done for a +while with connoisseurship. + +This fat Bologna has a tristful look, from the numberless priests, +friars, and women all dressed in black, who fill the streets, and stop +on a sudden to pray, when I see nothing done to call forth immediate +addresses to Heaven. Extremes do certainly meet however, and my Lord +Peter in this place is so like his fanatical brother Jack, that I know +not what is come to him. To-morrow is the day of _corpus domini_; why it +should be preceded by such dismal ceremonies I know not; there is +nothing melancholy in the idea, but we shall be sure of a magnificent +procession. + +So it was too, and wonderfully well attended: noblemen and ladies, with +tapers in their hands, and their trains borne by well-dressed pages, had +a fine effect. All still in black. + + Black, but such as in esteem + Prince Memnon's sister might beseem; + With sable stole of cypress lawn, + O'er their decent shoulders drawn. + +I never saw a spectacle so stately, so solemn a show in my life before, +and was much less tired of the long continued march, than were my Roman +Catholic companions. + +Our inn is not a good one; the Pellegrino is engaged for the King of +Naples and his train: the place we are housed in, is full of bugs, and +every odious vermin: no wonder, surely, where such oven-like porticoes +catch and retain the heat as if constructed on set purpose so to do. The +Montagnola at night was something of relief, but contrary to every other +resort of company: the less it is frequented the gayer it appears; for +Nature there has been lavish of her bounties, which seem disregarded by +the Bolognese, who unluckily find out that there is a burying-ground +within view, though at no small distance really; and planting +themselves over against that, they stand or kneel for many minutes +together in whole rows, praying, as I understand, for the souls which +once animated the bodies of the people whom they believe to lie interred +there; all this too even at the hours dedicated to amusement. + +Cardinal Buon Compagni, the legate, sent from Rome here, is gone home; +and the vice-legate officiated in his place, much to the consolation of +the inhabitants, who observed with little delight or gratitude his +endeavours to improve their trade, or his care to maintain their +privileges; while his natural disinclination to hypocritical manners, or +what we so emphatically call _cant_, gave them an aversion to his person +and dislike of his government, which he might have prevented by +formality of look, and very trifling compliances. But every thing helps +to prove, that if you would please people, it must be done _their_ way, +not your own. + +Here are some charming manufactures in this town, and I fear it requires +much self-denial in an Englishwoman not to long at least for the fine +crapes, tiffanies, &c. which might here be bought I know not how cheap, +and would make one _so_ happy in London or at Bath. But these +Customhouse officers! these _rats de cave_, as the French comically call +them, will not let a ribbon pass. Such is the restless jealousy of +little states, and such their unremitted attention to keep the goods +made in one place out of the gates of another. Few things upon a journey +contribute to torment and disgust one more than the teasing enquiries at +the door of every city, who one is, what one's name is? what one's rank +in life or employment is; that so all may be written down and carried to +the chief magistrate for his information, who immediately dispatches a +proper person to examine whether you gave in a true report; where you +lodge, why you came, how long you mean to stay; with twenty more +inquisitive speeches, which to a subject of more liberal governments +must necessarily appear impertinent as frivolous, and make all my hopes +of bringing home the most trifling presents for a friend abortive. So +there is an end of that felicity, and we must sit like the girl at the +fair, described by Gay, + + Where the coy nymph knives, combs, and scissars spies, + And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes. + +The Specola, so they call their museum here, of natural and artificial +rarities, is very fine indeed; the inscription too denoting its +universality, is sublimely generous: I thought of our Bath hospital in +England; more usefully, if not more magnificently so; but durst not tell +the professor, who shewed the place. At our going in he was apparently +much out of humour, and unwilling to talk, but grew gradually kinder, +and more communicative; and I had at last a thousand thanks to pay for +an attention that rendered the sight of all more valuable. Nothing can +surpass the neatness and precision with which this elegant repository is +kept, and the curiosities contained in it have specimens very uncommon. +The native gold shewed here is supposed to be the largest and most +perfect lump in Europe; wonderfully beautiful it certainly is, and the +coral here is such as can be seen nowhere else; they shewed me some +which looked like an actual tree. + +It might reasonably lower the spirits of philosophy, and tend to +restraining the genius of remote enquiry, did we reflect that the very +first substance given into our hand as an amusement, or subject of +speculation, as soon as we arrive in this great world of wonders, never +gets fully understood by those who study hardest, or live longest in it. + +Coral is a substance, concerning which the natural historians have had +many disputes, and settled nothing yet; knowing, as it should seem, but +little more of its original, than they did when they sucked it first. Of +gold we have found perhaps but too many uses; but when the professor +told us here at Bologna, that silver in the mine was commonly found +mixed with _arsenick_, a corroding poison, or _lead_, a narcotic one; +who could help being led forward to a train of thought on the nature and +use and abuse of money and minerals in general. _Suivez_ (as Rousseau +says), _la chaine de tout cela_[Footnote: Follow this clue, and see +where it will lead you to.]. + +The astronomical apparatus at this place is a splendid one; but the +models of architecture, fortifications, &c. are only more numerous; not +so exact or elegant I think as those the King of England has for his own +private use at the Queen's house in St. James's Park. The specimens of +a human figure in wax are the work of a woman, whose picture is +accordingly set up in the school: they are reckoned incomparable of +their kind, and bring to one's fancy Milton's fine description of our +first parents: + + Two of far nobler kind--erect and tall. + +This University has been particularly civil to women; many very learned +ladies of France and Germany have been and are still members of it;--and +la Dottoressa Laura Bassi gave lectures not many years ago in this very +spot, upon the mathematics and natural philosophy, till she grew very +old and infirm; but her pupils always handed her very respectfully to +and from the Doctor's chair, _Che brava donnetta ch'era!_[Footnote: Ah, +what a fine woman was that!] says the gentleman who shewed me the +academy, as we came out at the door; over which a marble tablet, with an +inscription more pious than pompous, is placed to her memory; but +turning away his eyes--while they filled with tears--_tutli +muosono_[Footnote: All must die.], added he, and I followed; as nothing +either of energy or pathos could be added to a reflection so just, so +tender, and so true: we parted sadly therefore with our agreeable +companion and instructor just where her cenotaph (for the body lies +buried in a neighbouring church) was erected; and shall probably meet no +more; for as he said and sighed--_tutti muosono_[Footnote: All must +die.]. + +The great Cassini too, who though of an Italian family, was born at Nice +I think, and died at Paris, drew his meridian line through the church of +St. Petronius in this city, across the pavement, where it still remains +a monument to his memory, who discovered the third and fifth satellites +of Jupiter. Such was in his time the reputation of a mineral spring near +Bologna, that Pope Alexander the Seventh set him to analyse the waters +of it; and so satisfactory were his proofs of its very slight importance +to health, that the same pope called him to Rome to examine the waters +round that capital; but dying soon after his arrival, he had no time to +recompence Cassini's labours, though a very elegantly-minded man, and a +great encourager of learning in all its branches. The successor to this +sovereign, Rospigliosi, had different employment found for _him_, in +helping the Venetians to regain Candia from the Turks, his +disappointment in not being able to accomplish which design broke his +heart; and Cassini, returning to Bologna, found it less pleasing than it +was before he left it, so went to Paris, and died there at ninety or +ninety-one years old, as I remember, early in this present century, but +not till after he had enjoyed the pleasure of hearing that Count +Marsigli had founded an academy at the place where he had studied whilst +his faculties were strong. + +Another church, situated on the only hill one can observe for miles, is +dedicated to the Madonna St. Luc, as it is called; and a very beautiful +and curiously covered way is made to it up the hill, for three miles in +length, and at a prodigious expence, to guard the figure from the rain +as it is carried in procession. The ascent is so gentle that one hardly +feels it. Pillars support the roof, which defends you from a sun-stroke, +while the air and prospect are let in between them on the right hand as +you go. The left side is closed up by a wall, adorned from time to time +with fresco paintings, representing the birth and most distinguished +passages in the life of the blessed Virgin. Round these paintings a +little chapel is railed in, open, airy, and elegantly, not very +pompously, adorned; there are either seven or twelve of them, I forget +which, that serve to rest the procession as it passes, on days +particularly dedicated to her service. When you arrive at the top, a +church of a most beautiful construction recompenses your long but not +tedious walk, and there are some admirable pictures in it, particularly +one of St. William laying down his armour, and taking up the habit of a +Carthusian, very fine--but the figure of the Madonna is the prize they +value, and before this I did see some men kneel with a truly idolatrous +devotion. That it was painted by St. Luke is believed by them all. But +if it _was_ painted by St. Luke, said I, what then? do you think _he_, +or the still more excellent person it was done for, would approve of +your worshipping any thing but God? To this no answer was made; and I +thought one man looked as if he had grace enough to be ashamed of +himself. + +The girls, who sit in clusters at the chapel doors as one goes up, +singing hymns in praise of the Virgin Mary, pleased me much, as it was +a mode of veneration inoffensive to religion, and agreeable to the +fancy; but seeing them bow down to that black figure, in open defiance +of the Decalogue, shocked me. Why all the _very very_ early pictures of +the Virgin, and many of our blessed Saviour himself, done in the first +ages of Christianity should be _black_, or at least tawny, is to me +wholly incomprehensible, nor could I ever yet obtain an explanation of +its cause from men of learning or from connoisseurs. + +We have in England a black Madonna, very ancient of course, and of +immense value, in the cathedral of Wells in Somersetshire; it is painted +on glass, and stands in the middle pane of the upper window I think, is +a profile face, and eminently handsome. My mind tells me that I have +seen another somewhere in Great Britain, but cannot recollect the spot, +unless it were Arundel Castle in Sussex, but I am not sure: none was +ever painted so since the days of Pietro Perugino I believe, so their +antiquity is unquestionable: he and his few contemporaries drew her +white, as Sir Joshua Reynolds and Pompeio Battoni. + +Whilst I perambulated the palaces of the Bolognese nobility, gloomy +though spacious, and melancholy though splendid, I could not but admire +at Richardson's judgment when he makes his beautiful Bigot, his +interesting Clementina, an inhabitant of superstitious Bologna. The +unconquerable attachment she shews to original prejudices, and the +horror of what she has been taught to consider as heresy, could scarcely +have been attributed so happily to the dweller in any town but this: +where I hear nothing but the sound of people saying their rosaries, and +see nothing in the street but people telling their beads. The Porretta +palace is hourly presenting itself to my imagination, which delights in +the assurance that genius cannot be confined by place. Dear Richardson +at Salisbury Court Fleet Street, and Parson's Green Fulham, felt all +within him that travelling can tell, or experience confirm: he had seen +little, and Johnson has often told me that he had read little; but what +he did read never forsook a memory that was not contented with +retaining, but fermented all that fell into it, and made a new creation +from the fertility of his own rich mind.--These are the men for whom +monuments need not be erected. + + They in our pleasure and astonishment, + Do build themselves a live long monument; + +as Milton says of a much greater writer still. + +But the King of Naples is arrived, and that attention which wits and +scholars can retain for centuries, may not be unjustly paid to princes +while they last. + +Our Bolognese have hit upon an odd method of entertaining him however: +no other than making a representation of Mount Vesuvius on the +Montagnuola, or place of evening resort, hoping at least to treat him +with something new I trow. Were the King of England to visit these _cari +Bolognese_, surely they would shew him Westminster Bridge, with a view +of the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth on one side the river, and +Somerset-house on the other. + +A pretty throne, or state-box, was soon got in order, _that it was_; and +the motion excited by carrying the fire-works to have them prepared for +the evening's show, gave life to the morning, which hung less heavily +than usual; nor did the people recollect the church-yard at a distance, +while the merry King of Naples was near them. His Majesty appeared +perfectly contented and good-humoured, and happy with whatever was done +for his amusement. I remember his behaviour at Milan though, too well to +be surprised at his pleasantness of disposition, when my maid was +delighted to see him dance among the girls at a Festa di Ballo, from +whence I retired early myself, and sent her back to enjoy it all in my +domino. He played at cards too when at Milan I recollect, in the common +Ridotto Chamber at the Theatre, and played for common sums, so as to +charm every one with his kindness and affability. + +I am glad however that we shall now be soon released from this upon the +whole disagreeable town, where there is the best possible food too for +body and mind; but where the inhabitants seem to think only of the next +world, and do little to amuse those who have not yet quite done with +this. If they are sincere mean time, God will bless them with a long +continuance of the appellation they so justly deserve; and those +travellers who pass through will find some amends in the rich cream and +incomparable dinners every day, for the insects that devour them every +night; and will, if they are wise, seek compensation from the company of +the half animated pictures that crowd the palaces and churches, for the +half dead inhabitants who kneel in the streets of Bologna. + + + +FLORENCE. + + +We slept no-where, except perhaps in the carriage, between our last +residence at Bologna and this delightful city, to which we passed +apparently through a new region of the earth, or even air; clambering up +mountains covered with snow, and viewing with amazement the little +vallies between, where, after quitting the summer season, all glowing +with heat and spread into verdure, we found cherry-trees in blossom, +oaks and walnuts scarcely beginning to bud. These mountains are however +much below those of Savoy for dignity and beauty of appearance, though +high enough to be troublesome, and barren enough to be desolate. These +Appenines have been called by some the Back Bone of Italy, as Varenius +and others style the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, Back Bone of the +World; and these, as they do, run in a long chain down the middle of the +Peninsula they are placed in; but being rounded at top are supposed to +be aquatick, while the Alps, Andes, &c. are of late acknowledged by +philosophers to be volcanic, as the most lofty of _them_ terminate in +points of granite, wholly devoid of horizontal strata, and without +petrifactions contained in them, + + _Here_ the tracts around display + How impetuous ocean's sway + Once with wasteful fury spread + The wild waves o'er each mountain's head. + + PARSONS. + +But the offspring of fire somehow _should_ be more striking than that of +water, however violent might have been the concussion that produced +them; and there is no comparison between the sensations felt in passing +the Roche Melon, and these more neatly-moulded Appenines; upon whose +tops I am told too no lakes have been formed, as on Mount Cenis, or +even on Snowdon in North Wales, where a very beautiful lake adorns the +summit of the rock; which affords trout precisely such as you eat before +you go down to Novalesa, but not so large. + +Sir William Hamilton, however, is the man to be referred to in all these +matters; no man has examined the peculiar properties and general nature +of mountains, those which vomit fire in particular, with half as much +application, inspired by half as much genius, as he has done. + +We arrived late at our inn, an English one they say it is; and many of +the last miles were passed very pleasantly by my maid and myself, in +anticipating the comforts we should receive by finding ourselves among +our own country folks. In good time! and by once more eating, sleeping, +&c. _all in the English way_, as her phrase is. Accordingly, here are +small low beds again, soft and clean, and down pillows; here are currant +tarts, which the Italians scorn to touch, but which we are happy and +delighted to pay not ten but twenty times their value for, because a +currant tart is so much _in the English way_: and here are beans and +bacon in a climate where it is impossible that bacon should be either +wholesome or agreeable; and one eats infinitely worse than one did at +Milan, Venice, or Bologna: and infinitely dearer too; but that makes it +still more completely _in the English way_. + +Mean time here we are however in Arno's Vale; the full moon shining over +Fiesole, which I see from my windows. Milton's verses every moment in +one's mouth, and Galileo's house twenty yards from one's door, + + Whence her bright orb the Tuscan artist view'd, + At evening from the top of Fesole; + Or in Val d'Arno to descry new lands, + Rivers or mountains on her spotty globe. + +Our apartments here are better than we hoped for, situated most sweetly +on the banks of this classical stream; a noble terrace underneath our +window, broad as the south parade at Bath I think, and the fine Ponte +della Santa Trinita within sight. Many people have asserted that this is +the first among all bridges in the world; but architecture triumphs in +the art of building bridges, and, though this is a most exquisitely +beautiful fabric, I can scarcely venture to call it an unrivalled one: +it shall, if the fine statues at the corners can assist its power over +the fancy, and if cleanliness can compensate for stately magnificence, +or for the fire of original and unassisted genius, it shall obliterate +from my mind the Rialto at Venice, and the fine arch thrown over the +Conway at Llanwrst in our North Wales. + +I wrote to a lady at Venice this morning though, to say, however I might +be charmed by the sweets of Arno's side, I could not forbear regretting +the Grand Canal. + +Count Manucci, a nobleman of this city, formerly intimate with Mr. +Thrale in London and Mr. Piozzi at Paris, came early to our apartments, +and politely introduced us to the desirable society of his sisters and +his friends. We have in his company and that of Cavalier d'Elci, a +learned and accomplished man, of high birth, deep erudition, and +polished manners, seen much, and with every possible advantage. + +This morning they shewed us La Capella St. Lorenzo, where I could but +think how surprisingly Mr. Addison's prediction was verified, that these +slow Florentines would not perhaps be able to finish the burial-place +of their favourite family, before the family itself should be extinct. +This reflection felt like one naturally suggested to me by the place; +Doctor Moore however has the original merit of it, as I afterwards found +it in his book: but it is the peculiar property of natural thoughts well +expressed, to sink into one's mind and incorporate themselves with it, +so as to make one forget they were not all one's own. + +_Poets, as well as jesters, do oft prove prophets:_ Prior's happy +prediction for the female wits in one of his epilogues is come true +already, when he says, + + Your time, poor souls! we'll take your very money, + Female _third nights_ shall come so thick upon ye, &c. + +and every hour gives one reason to hope that Mr. Pope's glorious +prophecy in favour of the Negroes will not now remain long +unaccomplished, but that liberty will extend her happy influence over +the world; + + Till the _freed Indians_, in their native groves, + Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves. + +I will not extend myself in describing the heaps of splendid ruin in +which the rich chapel of St. Lorenzo now lies: since the elegant Lord +Corke's letters were written, little can be said about Florence not +better said by him; who has been particularly copious in describing a +city which every body wishes to see copiously described. + +The libraries here are exceedingly magnificent; and we were called just +now to that which goes under Magliabechi's name, to hear an eulogium +finely pronounced upon our circumnavigator Captain Cook; whose character +has attracted the attention, and extorted the esteem of every European +nation: far less was the wonder that it forced my tears; they flowed +from a thousand causes: my distance from England! my pleasure in hearing +an Englishman thus lamented in a language with which he had no +acquaintance! + + By strangers honoured, and by strangers mourn'd! + +Every thing contributed to soften my heart, though not to lower my +spirits. For when a Florentine asked me, how I came to cry so? I +answered, in the words of their divine Mestastasio: + + "Che questo pianto mio + Tutto non e dolor; + E meraviglia, e amore, + E riverenza, e speme, + Son mille affetti assieme + Tutti raccolti al cor." + + 'Tis not grief alone, or fear, + Swells the heart, or prompts the tear; + Reverence, wonder, hope, and joy, + Thousand thoughts my soul employ, + Struggling images, which less + Than falling tears can ne'er express. + +Giannetti, who pronounced the panegyric, is the justly-celebrated +improvisatore so famous for making Latin verses _impromptu_, as others +do Italian ones: the speech has been translated into English by Mr. +Merry, with whom I had the honour here first to make acquaintance, +having met him at Mr. Greatheed's, who is our fellow-lodger, and with +whom and his amiable family the time passes in reciprocations of +confidential friendship and mutual esteem. + +Lord and Lady Cowper too contribute to make the society at this place +more pleasing than can be imagined; while English hospitality softens +down the stateliness of Tuscan manners. + +Sir Horace Mann is sick and old; but there are conversations at his +house of a Saturday evening, and sometimes a dinner, to which we have +been almost always asked. + +The fruits in this place begin to astonish me; such cherries did I never +yet see, or even hear tell of, as when I caught the Laquais de Place +weighing two of them in a scale to see if they came to an ounce. These +are, in the London street phrase, _cherries like plums_, in size at +least, but in flavour they far exceed them, being exactly of the kind +that we call bleeding-hearts, hard to the bite, and parting easily from +the stone, which is proportionately small. Figs too are here in such +perfection, that it is not easy for an English gardener to guess at +their excellence; for it is not by superior size, but taste and colour, +that _they_ are distinguished; small, and green on the outside, a bright +full crimson within, and we eat them with raw ham, and truly delicious +is the dainty. By raw ham, I mean ham cured, not boiled or roasted. It +is no wonder though that fruits should mature in such a sun as this is; +which, to give a just notion of its penetrating fire, I will take leave +to tell my countrywomen is so violent, that I use no other method of +heating the pinching-irons to curl my hair, than that of poking them out +at a south window, with the handles shut in, and the glasses darkened to +keep us from being actually fired in his beams. Before I leave off +speaking about the fruit, I must add, that both fig and cherry are +produced by standards; that the strawberries here are small and +high-flavoured, like our _woods_, and that there are no other. England +affords greater variety in _that_ kind of fruit than any nation; and as +to peaches, nectarines, or green-gage plums, I have seen none yet. Lady +Cowper has made us a present of a small pine-apple, but the Italians +have no taste to it. Here is sun enough to ripen them without hot-houses +I am sure, though they repeatedly told us at Milan and Venice, that +_this_ was the coolest place to pass the summer in, because of the +Appenine mountains shading us from the heat, which they confessed to be +intolerable with _them_. + +_Here_ however, they inform us, that it is madness to retire into the +country as English people do during the hot season; for as there is no +shade from high timber trees, one is bit to death by animals, gnats in +particular, which here are excessively troublesome, even in the town, +notwithstanding we scatter vinegar, and use all the arts in our power; +but the ground-floor is coolest, and every body struggles to get +themselves a _terreno_ as they call it. + +Florence is full just now, and Mr. Jean Figliazzi, an intelligent +gentleman who lives here, and is well acquainted with both nations, +says, that all the genteel people come to take refuge _from_ the country +to Florence in July and August, as the subjects of Great Britain run +_to_ the country from the heats of London or Bath. + +The flowers too! how rich they are in scent here! how brilliant in +colour! how magnificent in size! Wall-flowers perfuming every street, +and even every passage; while pinks and single carnations grow beside +them, with no more soil than they require themselves; and from the tops +of houses, where you least expect it, an aromatic flavour highly +gratifying is diffused. The jessamine is large, broad-leaved, and +beautiful as an orange-flower; but I have seen no roses equal to those +at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect counting eighty-four within +my own reach; it grew against the house of Doctor Darwin. Such a +profusion of sweets made me enquire yesterday morning for some scented +pomatum, and they brought me accordingly one pot impelling strong of +garden mint, the other of rue and tansy. + +Thus do the inhabitants of every place forfeit or fling away those +pleasures, which the inhabitants of another place think _they_ would use +in a much wiser manner, had Providence bestowed the blessing upon +_them_. + +A young Milanese once, whom I met in London, saw me treat a hatter that +lives in Pallmall with the respect due to his merit: when the man was +gone, "Pray, madam," says the Italian, "is this a _gran riccone[Footnote: +Heavy-pursed fellow.]?"_ "He is perhaps," replied I, "worth twenty or +thirty thousand pounds; I do not know what ideas you annex to a _gran +riccone_" "_Oh santissima vergine!_" exclaims the youth, "_s'avessi io mai +settanta mila zecchini! non so pur troppo cosa nesarei; ma questo e +chiaro--non venderei mai cappelli_"--"Oh dear me! had I once seventy +thousand sequins in my pocket, I would--dear--I cannot think myself +_what_ I should do with them all: but this at least is certain, I would +not _sell hats_" + +I have been carried to the Laurentian library, where the librarian Bandi +shewed me all possible, and many unmerited civilities; which, for want +of deeper erudition, I could not make the use I wished of. We asked +however to see some famous manuscripts. The Virgil has had a _fac +simile_ made of it, and a printed copy besides; so that it cannot now +escape being known all over Europe. The Bible in Chaldaic characters, +spoken of by Langius as inestimable, and brought hither, with many other +valuable treasures of the same nature, by Lascaris, after the death of +Lorenzo de Medici, who had sent him for the second time to +Constantinople for the purpose of collecting Greek and Oriental books, +but died before his return, is in admirable preservation. The old +geographical maps, made out in a very early age, afforded me much +amusement; and the Latin letters of Petrarch, with the portrait of his +Laura, were interesting to me perhaps more than many other things rated +much higher by the learned, among those rarities which adorn a library +so comprehensive. + +Every great nation except ours, which was immersed in barbarism, and +engaged in civil broils, seems to have courted the residence of +Lascaris, but the university of Paris fixed his regard: and though Leo +X. treated with favour, and even friendship, the man whom he had +encouraged to intimacy when Cardinal John of Medicis; though he made him +superintendant of a Greek college at Rome; it is said he always wished +to die in France, whither he returned in the reign of Francis the First; +and wrote his Latin epigrams, which I have heard Doctor Johnson prefer +even to the Greek ones preserved in Anthologia; and of which our Queen +Elizabeth, inspired by Roger Ascham, desired to see the author; but he +was then upon a visit to Rome, where he died of the gout at ninety-three +years old. + + * * * * * + +June 24, 1785. + +St. John the Baptist is the tutelary Saint of this city, and upon this +day of course all possible rejoicings are made. After attending divine +service in the morning, we were carried to a house whence we could +conveniently see the procession pass by. It was not solemn and stately +as that I saw at Bologna, neither was it gaudy and jocund like the show +made at Venice upon St. George's day; but consisted chiefly in vast +heavy pageants, or a sort of temporary building set on wheels, and drawn +by oxen some, and some by horses; others carried upon things made not +unlike a chairman's horse in London, and supported by men, while +priests, in various coloured dresses, according to their several +stations in the church, and to distinguish the parishes, &c. to which +they belong, follow singing in praise of the saint. + +Here is much emulation shewed too, I am told, in these countries, where +religion makes the great and almost the sole amusement of men's lives, +who shall make most figure on St. John the Baptist's day, produce most +music, and go to most expence. For all these purposes subscriptions are +set on foot, for ornamenting and venerating such a picture, statue, &c. +which are then added to the procession by the managers, and called a +Confraternity, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angel Raphael, +or who comes in their heads. + +The lady of the house where we went to partake the diversion, was not +wanting in her part; there could not be fewer than a hundred and fifty +people assembled in her rooms, but not crowded as we should have been in +England; for the apartments in Italy are all high and large, and run in +suits like Wanstead house in Essex, or Devonshire house in London +exactly, but larger still: and with immense balconies and windows, not +sashes, which move all away, and give good room and air. The ices, +refreshments, &c. were all excellent in their kinds, and liberally +dispensed. The lady seemed to do the honours of her house with perfect +good-humour; and every body being full-dressed, though so early in a +morning, added much to the general effect of the whole. + +Here I had the honour of being introduced to Cardinal Corsini, who put +me a little out of countenance by saying suddenly, "_Well, madam! you +never saw one of us red-legged partridges before I believe; but you are +going to Rome I hear, where you will find such fellows as me no +rarities_" The truth is, I had seen the amiable Prince d'Orini at Milan, +who was a Cardinal; and who had taken delight in showing me prodigious +civilities: nothing ever struck me more than his abrupt entrance one +night at our house, when we had a little music, and every body stood up +the moment he appeared: the Prince however walked forward to the +harpsichord, and blessed my husband in a manner the most graceful and +affecting: then sate the amusement out, and returned the next morning to +breakfast with us, when he indulged us with two hours conversation at +least; adding the kindest and most pressing invitations to his +country-seat among the mountains of Brianza, when we should return from +our tour of Italy in spring 1786. Florence therefore was not the first +place that shewed me a Cardinal. + +In the afternoon we all looked out of our windows which faced the +street,--not mine, as they happily command a view of the river, the +Caseine woods, &c. and from them enjoyed a complete sight of an Italian +horse-race. For after the coaches have paraded up and down some time to +shew the equipages, liveries, &c. all have on a sudden notice to quit +the scene of action; and all _do_ quit it, in such a manner as is +surprising. The street is now covered with sawdust, and made fast at +both ends: the starting-post is adorned with elegant booths, lined with +red velvet, for the court and first nobility: at the other end a piece +of tapestry is hung, to prevent the creatures from dashing their brains +out when they reach the goal. Thousands and ten thousands of people on +foot fill the course, that it is standing wonder to me still that +numbers are not killed. The prizes are now exhibited to view, quite in +the old classical style; a piece of crimson damask for the winner +perhaps; a small silver bason and ewer for the second; and so on, +leaving no performer unrewarded. At last come out the _concurrenti_ +without riders, but with a narrow leathern strap hung across their +backs, which has a lump of ivory fastened to the end of it, all set full +of sharp spikes like a hedge-hog, and this goads them along while +galloping, worse than any spurs could do; because the faster they run, +the more this odd machine keeps jumping up and down, and pricking their +sides ridiculously enough; and it makes one laugh to see that some of +them are not provoked by it not to run at all, but set about plunging, +in order to rid themselves of the inconvenience, instead of driving +forward to divert the mob; who leap and shout and caper with delight, +and lash the laggers along with great indignation indeed, and with the +most comical gestures. I never saw horses in so droll a state of +degradation before, for they are all striped or spotted, or painted of +some colour to distinguish them each from other; and nine or ten often +start at a time, to the great danger of lookers-on I think, but +exceedingly to my entertainment, who have the comfort of Mrs. +Greatheed's company, and the advantage of seeing all safely from her +well-situated _terreno_, or ground-floor. + +The chariot-race was more splendid, but less diverting: this was +performed in the Piazza, or Square, an unpaved open place not bigger +than Covent Garden I believe, and the ground strangely uneven. The cars +were light and elegant; one driver and two horses to each: the first +very much upon the principle of the antique chariots described by old +poets, and the last trapped showily in various colours, adapted to the +carriages, that people might make their betts accordingly upon the pink, +the blue, the green, &c. I was exceedingly amused with seeing what so +completely revived all classic images, and seemed so little altered from +the classic times. Cavalier D'Elci, in reply to my expressions of +delight, told me that the same spirit still subsisted exactly; but that +in order to prevent accidents arising from the disputants' endeavours to +overturn or circumvent each other, it was now sunk into a mere +appearance of contest; for that all the chariots belonged to one man, +who would doubtless be careful enough that his coachmen should not go to +sparring at the hazard of their horses. The farce was carried on to the +end however, and the winner spread his velvet in triumph, and drove +round the course to enjoy the acclamations and caresses of the crowd. + +That St. John the Baptist's birth-day should be celebrated by a horse or +chariot race, appears to have little claim to the praise of propriety; +but mankind seems agreed that there must be some excuse for merriment; +and surely if any saint is to be venerated, he stands foremost whom +Christ himself declared to be the greatest man ever born of a woman. + +The old Romans had an institution in this month of games to Neptune +Equester, as they called their Sea God, with no great appearance of good +sense neither; but the horse he produced at the naming of Athens was the +cause assigned--these games are perhaps half transmitted ones from those +in the ancient mythology. + +The evening concluded, and the night began with fire-works; the church, +or duomo, as a cathedral is always called in Italy, was illuminated on +the outside, and very beautiful, and very very magnificent was the +appearance. The reflection of the cupola's lights in the river gave us +back a faint image of what we had been admiring; and when I looked at +them from my window, as we were retiring to rest; such, thought I, and +fainter still are the images which can be given of a show in written or +verbal description; yet my English friends shall not want an account of +what I have seen; for Italy, at last, is only a fine well-known academy +figure, from which we all sit down to make drawings according as the +light falls; and our seat affords opportunity. Every man sees that, and +indeed most things, with the eyes of his then present humour, and begins +describing away so as to convey a dignified or despicable idea of the +object in question, just as his disposition led him to interpret its +appearance. + +Readers now are grown wiser, however, than very much to mind us: they +want no further telling that one traveller was in pain, and one in love +when the tour of Italy was made by them; and so they pick out their +intelligence accordingly, from various books, written like two letters +in the Tatler, giving an account of a rejoicing night; one endeavouring +to excite majestic ideas, the other ludicrous ones of the very same +thing. + +Well 'tis true enough, however, and has been often enough laughed at, +that the Italian horses run without riders, and scamper down a long +street with untrimmed heels, hundreds of people hooking them along, as +naughty boys do a poor dog, that has a bone tied to his tail in England. +This diversion was too good to end with the day. + +Dulness, dear Queen, repeats the jest again. + +We had another, and another just such a race for three or four evenings +together, and they got an English _cock-tailed nag_, and set _him_ to +the business, as they said _he was trained to it_; but I don't recollect +his making a more brilliant figure than his painted and chalked +neighbours of the Continent. + +We will not be prejudiced, however; that the Florentines know how to +manage horses is certain, if they would take the trouble. Last night's +theatre exhibited a proof of skill, which might shame Astley and all his +rivals. Count Pazzi having been prevailed on to lend his four beautiful +chesnut favourites from his own carriage to draw a pageant upon the +stage, I saw them yesterday evening harnessed all abreast, their own +master in a dancer's habit I was told, guiding them himself, and +personating the Cid, which was the name of the ballet, if I remember +right, making his horses go clear round the stage, and turning at the +lamps of the orchestra with such dexterity, docility, and grace, that +they seemed rather to enjoy than feel disturbance at the deafening noise +of instruments, the repeated bursts of applause, and hollow sound of +their own hoofs upon the boards of a theatre. I had no notion of such +discipline, and thought the praises, though very loud, not ill bestowed: +as it is surely one of man's earliest privileges to replenish the earth +with animal life, and to subdue it. + +I have, for my own part, generally speaking, little delight in the +obstreperous clamours of these heroic pantomimes;--their battles are so +noisy, and the acclamations of the spectators so distressing to weak +nerves, I dread an Italian theatre--it distracts me.--And always the +same thing so, every and every night! how tedious it is! + +This want of variety in the common pleasures of Italy though, and that +surprising content with which a nation so sprightly looks on the same +stuff, and laughs at the same joke for months and months together, is +perhaps less despicable to a thinking mind, than the affectation of +weariness and disgust, where probably it is not felt at all; and where a +gay heart often lurks under a clouded countenance, put on to deceive +spectators into a notion of his philosophy who wears it; and what is +worse, who wears it chiefly as a mark of distinction cheaply obtained; +for neither science, wit, nor courage are _now_ found necessary to form +a man of fashion, or the _ton_, to which may be said as justly as ever +Mr. Pope affirmed it of silence, + + That routed reason finds her sure retreat in thee. + +Affectation is certainly that faint and sickly weed which is the curse +of cultivated,--not naturally fertile and extensive countries; an insect +that infests our forcing stoves and hot-house plants: and as the +naturalists tell us all animals may be bred _down_ to a state very +different from that in which they were originally placed; that +_carriers_, and _fantails_, and _croppers_, are produced by early +caging, and minutely attending to the common blue pigeon, flights of +which cover the ploughed fields in distant provinces of England, and +shew the rich and changeable plumage of their fine neck to the summer +sun; so from the warm and generous Briton of ancient days may be +produced, and happily bred _down_, the clay-cold coxcomb of St. +James's-street. + +In Italy, so far at least as I have gone, there is no impertinent desire +of appearing what one is _not_: no searching for talk, and torturing +expression to vary its phrases with something new and something fine; or +else sinking into silence from despair of diverting the company, and +taking up the opposite method, contriving to impress them with an idea +of bright intelligence, concealed by modest doubts of our own powers, +and stifled by deep thought upon abstruse and difficult topics. To get +quit of all these deep-laid systems of enjoyment, where + + To take our breakfast we project a scheme, + Nor drink our tea without a stratagem, + +like the lady in Doctor Young; the surest method is to drop into Italy; +where a conversazione at Venice or Florence, after the society of +London, or _les petit soupers de Paris_, where, in their own phrase, _un +tableau n'attend pas l'autre_[Footnote: One picture don't wait for +another.], is like taking a walk in Ham Gardens, or the Leasowes, after +_les parterres de Versailles ed i Terrazzi di Genoa_. We are affected in +the house, but natural in the gardens. Italians are natural in society, +affected and constrained in the disposition of their grounds. No one, +however, is good or bad, or wise or foolish without a reason why. +Restraint is made for man, and where religious and political liberty is +enjoyed to its full extent, as in Great Britain, the people will forge +shackles for themselves, and lay the yoke heavy on society, to which, on +the contrary, Italians give a loose, as compensation for their want of +freedom in affairs of church or state. + +It is, I think, observable of uncontradicted, homebred, and, as we say, +spoiled children, that when a dozen of them get together for the purpose +of passing a day in mutual amusement, they will make to themselves the +strictest laws for their game, and rigidly punish whatever breach of +rule has been made while the time allotted for diversion lasts: but in a +school of girls, strictly kept, at _their_ hours of permitted recreation +no distinct sounds can be heard through the general clamour of joy and +confusion; nor does any thing come less into their heads than the notion +of imposing regulations on themselves, or making sport out of the harsh +sounds of _rule and government_. + +Ridicule too points her arrows only among highly-polished +societies--_Paris_ and _London_, in the first of which all wit is +comprised in the power of ridiculing one's neighbours, and in the other +every artifice is put in practice to escape it. In Italy no such +terrors restrain conversation; no public censure pursues that +fantastical behaviour which leads to no public offence; and as it is +only fear which can beget falsehood, these people seek such behavior as +naturally suits them; and in our theatrical phrase, they let the +character come to them, they do not go to the character. + +Let us not fail to remember after all, that such severity as we use, +quickens the desire of pleasing, and deadens the diffusion of immoral +sentiments, or indelicate language, in England; where, I must add, for +the honour of my country, that if such liberties were taken upon the +stage as are frequent in the first ranks of Italian society, they would +be hissed by those who paid only a shilling for their entrance: so that +affectation and a forced refinement may be considered as the bad leaden +statues still left in our delicately-neat and highly-ornamented gardens; +of which elegance and science are the white and red roses: but to be +possessed of their _sweets_, one must venture a little through the +_thorns_.--_Thorns_, though figurative, remind one of the _cicala_, a +creature which leaves nothing else untouched here. Surely their clamours +and depredations have no equal. I used to walk in the Boboli Gardens, +defying the heat, till they had eaten up the little shade some hedges +there afforded me; and till, by their incessant noise, all thought is +disturbed, and no line presented itself to my memory but + + Sole sob ardenti resonant arbusta Cicadis[W]; + +[Footnote W: + While in the scorching sun I trace in vain + Thy flying footsteps o'er the burning plain, + The creaking locusts with my voice conspire, + They fried with heat, and I with fierce desire. + + DRYDEN. +] + +till Mr. Merry's sweet ode to summer here at Florence made one less +discontented, + + To hear the light cicala's ceaseless din, + That vibrates shrill; or the near-weeping brook + That feebly winds along, + And mourns his channel shrunk. + + MERRY. + +This animal has four wings, four eyes, and two membranes like parchment +under the hard scales he is covered with; and these, it is said, create +the uncommon noise he makes, by blowing them somewhat like bellows, to +sharpen the sound; which, whatever it proceeds from, is louder than can +be guessed at by those who have not heard it in Tuscany. He is of the +locust kind, an inch and a half long, and wonderfully light in +proportion; though no small feeder, I should imagine, by the total +destruction his noisy tribe make amongst the leaves, which are now +wholly stript by them of all their verdure, the fibres only being left; +and I observed yesterday evening, as we returned from airing, another +strange deprivation practised on the mulberry leaves round the city, +which being all forcibly torn away for the use of the silk-worms, make +an odd fort of artificial winter near the town walls; and remind one of +the wretched geese in Lincolnshire, plucked once a year for their +feathers by their truly unfeeling proprietors. I am told indeed, that +both revegetate, though I trust neither tree nor bird can fail to +experience fatal effects one day or other in consequence of so unnatural +an operation. Here is some ivy of uncommon growth, but I have seen +larger both at Beaumaris castle in North Wales, and at the abbey of +Glastonbury in Somersetshire: but the great pines in the Caseine woods +have, I suppose, no rival nearer than the Castagno a Cento Cavalli, +mentioned by Mr. Brydone. They afford little shade or shelter from heat +however, as their umbrella-like covering is strangely small in +proportion to their height and size; some of them being ten, and some +twelve feet in diameter. These venerable, these glorious productions of +nature are all now marked for destruction however; all going to be put +in wicker baskets, and feed the Grand Duke's fires. I saw a fellow +hewing one down to-day, and the rest are all to follow;--the feeble +Florentines had much ado to master it; + + Seemed the harmful hatchet to fear, + And to wound holy Eld would forbear, + +as Spenser says: I did half hope they could not get it down; but the +loyal Tuscans (evermore awed by the name _principe_) told us it was +right to get rid of them, as one of the cones, of which they bore vast +quantities, might chance to drop upon the head of a _Principettino_, or +little Prince, as he passed along. + +I was observing that restraint was necessary to man; I have now learned +a notion that noise is necessary too. The clatter made here in the +Piazza del Duomo, where you sit in your carriage at a coffee-house door, +and chat with your friends according to Italian custom, while _one_ +eats ice, and _another_ calls for lemonade, to while away the time after +dinner, the noise made then and there, I say, is beyond endurance. + +Our Florentines have nothing on earth to do; yet a dozen fellows crying +_ciambelli_, little cakes, about the square, assisted by beggars, who +lie upon the church steps, and pray or rather promise to pray as loud as +their lungs will let them, for the _anime sante di purgatorio_[Footnote: +Holy souls in purgatory.]; ballad-singers meantime endeavouring to drown +these clamours in their own, and gentlemen's servants disputing at the +doors, whose master shall be first served; ripping up the pedigrees of +each to prove superior claims for a biscuit or macaroon; do make such an +intolerable clatter among them, that one cannot, for one's life, hear +one another speak: and I did say just now, that it were as good live at +Brest or Portsmouth when the rival fleets were fitting out, as here; +where real tranquillity subsists under a bustle merely imaginary. Our +Grand Duke lives with little state for aught I can observe here; but +where there is least pomp, there is commonly most power; for a man must +have _something pour se de dommages_[Footnote: To make himself amends.], +as the French express it; and this gentleman possessing the _solide_ has +no care for the _clinquant_, I trow. He tells his subjects when to go to +bed, and who to dance with, till the hour he chuses they should retire +to rest, with exactly that sort of old-fashioned paternal authority that +fathers used to exercise over their families in England before commerce +had run her levelling plough over all ranks, and annihilated even the +name of subordination. If he hear of any person living long in Florence +without being able to give a good account of his business there, the +Duke warns him to go away; and if he loiter after such warning given, +sends him out. Does any nobleman shine in pompous equipage or splendid +table; the Grand Duke enquires soon into his pretensions, and scruples +not to give personal advice, and add grave reproofs with regard to the +management of each individual's private affairs, the establishment of +their sons, marriage of their sisters, &c. When they appeared to +complain of this behaviour to _me_, I know not, replied I, what to +answer: one has always read and heard that the Sovereigns ought to +behave in despotic governments like the _fathers of their family_: and +the Archbishop of Cambray inculcates no other conduct than this, when +advising his pupil, heir to the crown of France. "Yes, Madam," replied +one of my auditors, with an acuteness truly Italian; "but this Prince is +_our father-in-law_." The truth is, much of an English traveller's +pleasure is taken off at Florence by the incessant complaints of a +government he does not understand, and of oppressions he cannot remedy. +Tis so dull to hear people lament the want of liberty, to which I +question whether they have any pretensions; and without ever knowing +whether it is the tyranny or the tyrant they complain of. Tedious +however and most uninteresting are their accounts of grievances, which a +subject of Great Britain has much ado to comprehend, and more to pity; +as they are now all heart-broken, because they must say their prayers in +their own language and not in Latin, which, how it can be construed +into misfortune, a Tuscan alone can tell. + +Lord Corke has given us many pleasing anecdotes of those who were +formerly Princes in this land. Had they a sovereign of the old Medici +family, they would go to bed when _he_ bid them quietly enough I +believe, and say their prayers in what language _he_ would have them: +'tis in our parliamentary phrase, the _men_, not the _measures_ that +offend them; and while they pretend to whine as if despotism displeased +them, they detest every republican state, feel envy towards Venice, and +contempt for Lucca. + +I would rather talk of their gallery than their government: and surely +nothing made by man ever so completely answered a raised expectation, as +the apparent contest between Titian's recumbent beauty, glowing with +colour and animated by the warmest expression, and the Greek statue of +symmetrical perfection and fineness of form inimitable, where sculpture +supplies all that fancy can desire, and all that imagination can +suggest. These two models of excellence seem placed near each other, at +once to mock all human praise, and defy all future imitation. The +listening slave appears disturbed by the blows of the wrestlers in the +same room, and hearkens with an attentive impatience, such as one has +often felt when unable to distinguish the words one wishes to repeat. +You really then do not seem as if you were alone in this tribune, so +animated is every figure, so full of life and soul: yet I commend not +the representing of St Catharine with leering eyes, as she is here +painted by Titian; that it is meant for a portrait, I find no excuse; +some character more suited to the expression should have been chosen; +and if it were only the picture of a saint, that expression was +strangely out of character. An anachronism may be found in the Tobit +over the door too, by acute observers, who will deem it ill-managed to +paint the cross in the clouds, where it is an old testament story, and +that story apocryphal beside; might I add, that Guido's meek Madonna, so +divinely contrasted to the other women in the room, loses something of +dignity by the affected position of the thumbs. I think I might leave +the tribune without a word said of the St. John by Raphael, which no +words are worthy to extol: 'tis all sublimity; and when I look on it I +feel nothing but veneration pushed to astonishment. Unlike the elegant +figure of the Baptist at Padua, covered with glass, and belonging to a +convent of friars, who told me, and truly, That it had no equal; it is +painted by Guido with every perfection of form and every grace of +expression. I agree with them it has no equal; but in the tribune at +Florence maybe found its superior. + +We were next conducted to the Niobe, who has an apartment to herself: +and now, thought I, dear Mrs. Siddons has never seen this figure: but +those who can see it or her, without emotions equally impossible to +contain or to suppress, deserve the fate of Niobe, and have already +half-suffered it. Their hearts and eyes are stone. + +Nothing is worth speaking of after this Niobe! Her beauty! her maternal +anguish! her closely-clasped Chloris! her half-raised head, scarcely +daring to deprecate that vengeance of which she already feels such +dreadful effects! What can one do + + But drop the shady curtain on the scene, + +and run to see the portraits of those artists who have exalted one's +ideas of human nature, and shewn what man can perform. Among these +worthies a British eye soon distinguishes Sir Joshua Reynolds; a citizen +of the world fastens his to Leonardo da Vinci. + +I have been out to dinner in the country near Prato, and what a +charming, what a delightful thing is a nobleman's seat near Florence! +How cheerful the society! how splendid the climate! how wonderful the +prospects in this glorious country! The Arno rolling before his house, +the Appenines rising behind it! a sight of fertility enjoyed by its +inhabitants, and a view of such defences to their property as nature +alone can bestow. + +A peasantry so rich too, that the wives and daughters of the farmer go +dressed in jewels; and those of no small value. A pair of one-drop +ear-rings, a broadish necklace, with a long piece hanging down the +bosom, and terminated with a cross, all of set garnets clear and +perfect, is a common, a _very_ common treasure to the females about this +country; and on every Sunday or holiday, when they dress and mean to +look pretty, their elegantly-disposed ornaments attract attention +strongly; though I do not think them as handsome as the Lombard lasses, +and our Venetian friends protest that the farmers at Crema in _their_ +state are still richer. + +La Contadinella Toscana however, in a very rich white silk petticoat, +exceedingly full and short, to shew her neat pink slipper and pretty +ancle, her pink _corps de robe_ and straps, with white silk lacing down +the stomacher, puffed shirt sleeves, with heavy lace robbins ending at +the elbow, and fastened at the shoulders with at least eight or nine +bows of narrow pink ribbon, a lawn handkerchief trimmed with broad lace, +put on somewhat coquettishly, and finishing in front with a nosegay, +must make a lovely figure at any rate: though the hair is drawn away +from the face in a way rather too tight to be becoming, under a red +velvet cushion edged with gold, which helps to wear it off I think, but +gives the small Leghorn hat, lined with green, a pretty perking air, +which is infinitely nymphish and smart. A tolerably pretty girl so +dressed may surely more than vie with a _fille d' opera_ upon the Paris +stage, even were she not set off as these are with a very rich suit of +pearls or set garnets, that in France or England would not be purchased +for less than forty or fifty pounds: and I am now speaking of the women +perpetually under one's eye; not one or two picked from the crowd, like +Mrs. Vanini, an inn-keeper's wife in Florence, who, when she was dressed +for the masquerade two nights ago, submitted her finery to Mrs. +Greatheed's inspection and my own; who agreed she could not be so +adorned in England for less than a thousand pounds. + +It is true the nobility are proud of letting you see how comfortably +their dependants live in Tuscany; but can any pride be more rational or +generous, or any desire more patriotick? Oh may they never look with +less delight on the happiness of their inferiors! and then they will not +murmur at their prince, whose protection of _this_ rank among his +subjects is eminently tender and attentive. + +Returning home from our splendid dinner and agreeable day passed at +Conte Mannucci's country-seat, while our noble friends amused me with +various chat, I thought some unaccountable sparks of fire seemed to +strike up and down the hedges as if in perpetual motion, but checked +the fancy concluding it a trick of the imagination only; till the +evening, which shuts in strangely quick here in Tuscany, grew dark, and +exhibited an appearance wholly new to me; whose surprise that no flame +followed these wandering fires was not small, when I recollected the +state of desiccation that nature suffered, and had done for some months. +My dislike of interrupting an agreeable conversation kept me long from +enquiring into the cause of this appearance, which however I doubted not +was electrick, till they told me it was the _lucciola_, or fire-fly; of +which a very good account is given in twenty books, but I had forgotten +them all. As the Florence Miscellany has never been published, I will +copy out what is said of it _there_, because the Abate Fontana was +consulted when that description was given. + +"This insect then differs from every other of the luminous tribe, +because its light is by no means continual, but emitted by flashes, +suddenly striking out as it flies; when crushed it leaves a lustre on +the spot for a considerable time, from whence one may conclude its +nature is phosphorick." + + Oh vagrant insect, type of our short life, + 'Tis thus we shine, and vanish from the view; + For the cold season comes, + And all our lustre's o'er. + + MERRY's Ode to Summer. + +It is said I think, that no animal affords an acid except ants, which +are therefore most quickly destroyed by lime, pot-ash, &c. or any strong +alkali of course; yet acid must the lucciola be proved, or she can never +be phosphorick surely; as upon its analysis that strangest of all +compositions appears to be a union of violent acid with inflammable +matter, whence it may be termed an animal sulphur, and is actually found +to burn successfully under a common glass-bell; and to afford flowers +too, which, by attracting the humidity of the air, become a liquor like +_oleum sulphuris per campanam_[Footnote: Oil of sulphur by the bell.]. + +The colour of the sky viewed, when one dares to look at it, through this +pure atmosphere is particularly beautiful; of a much more brilliant and +celestial blue I think, than it appeared from the tower of St. Mark's +Place, Venice. Were I to affirm that the sea is of a more peculiar +transparent brightness upon the coast of North Wales than elsewhere, it +would seem prejudice perhaps, and yet is strictly true: I am not less +persuaded that the sky appears of a finer tint in Tuscany than any other +country I have visited:--Naples is however the vaunted climate, and that +yet remains to be examined. + +I have been shewed, at the horse-race, the theatre, &c. the unfortunate +grandson of King James the Second. He goes much into publick still, +though old and sickly; gives the English arms and livery, and wears the +garter, which he has likewise bestowed upon his natural daughter. The +Princess of Stoldberg, his consort, whom he always called Queen, has +left him to end a life of disappointment and sorrow by _himself_, with +the sad reflection, that even conjugal attachment, and of course +domestic comfort, was denied to _him_, and fled--in defiance of poetry +and fiction--fled with the crown, to its powerful and triumphant +possessors. + +The Duomo, or Cathedral, has engaged my attention all to-day: its +prodigious size, perfect proportions, and exquisite taste, ought to +have detained me longer. Though the outside does not please me as well +as if it had been less rich and less magnificent. Superfluity always +defeats its own purpose, of striking you with awe at its superior +greatness; while simplicity looks on, and laughs at its vain attempts. +This wonderful church, built of striped marbles, white, black, and red +alternately, has scarcely the air of being so composed, but looks like +painted ivory to _me_, who am obliged to think, and think again, before +I can be sure it is of so ponderous and massy, as well as so inestimable +a substance: nor can I, without more than equal difficulty, persuade +myself to give its sudden view the decided preference over St. Paul's in +London, which never, never misses its immediate effect on a spectator, + + But stands sublime in simplest majesty. + +The Battisterio is another structure close to the church, and of +surprising beauty; Michael Angelo said the gates of it deserved to be +those which open Paradise: and that speech was more the speech of a good +workman, than of a man whose mind was exalted by his profession. The +gates are of brass, divided into ninety-six compartments each, and +carved with such variety of invention, such elaboration of art and +ingenuity, that no praise except that which he gave them could have been +too high. The font has not been used since the days when immersion in +baptism was deemed necessary to salvation; a ceremony still considered +by the Greek church as indispensable. Why the disputes concerning _this_ +sacrament were carried on with more decency and less lasting rancour +among Christians, than those which related to the other great pledge of +our pardon, the communicating with our Saviour Christ in his last +Supper, I know not, nor can imagine. Every page of ecclesiastical +history exhibits the tenaciousness with which the smallest attendant +circumstance on this last-mentioned sacrament has been held fast by the +Romanists, who dropped the immersion at baptism of themselves; and in so +warm a climate too! it moves my wonder; when nothing is more obvious to +the meanest understanding, than that if the first sacrament is not +rightly and duly administered, we never shall arrive at receiving the +other at all. I hope it is impossible for any one less than myself to +wish the continuance or revival of contentions so disgraceful to +humanity in general; so peculiarly repugnant to the true spirit of +Christianity, which consists chiefly in charity, and that brotherly love +we know to have been cemented by the blood of our blessed Lord: yet very +strange it is to think, that while other innovations have been resisted +even to death, scarcely any among the many sects we have divided into, +retain the original form in that ceremony so emphatically called +_christening_. + +These observations suggested by the sight of the old font at Florence +shall now be succeeded by lighter subjects of reflection; among which +the first that presents itself is the superior elegance of the language; +for till we arrive _here_, all is dialect; though by this word I would +not have any one mistake me, or understand it as meant in the limited +sense of a provincial jargon, such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire, or +Cornwall, present us with; where every sound is corruption, barbarism, +and vulgarity. + +The States of Italy being all under different rulers, are kept separate +from each other, and speak a different dialect; that of Milan full of +consonants and harsh to the ear, but abounding with classical +expressions that rejoice one's heart, and fill one with the oddest but +most pleasing sensations imaginable. I heard a lady there call a runaway +nobleman _Profugo_ mighty prettily; and added, that his conduct had put +all the town into _orgasmo grande_. All this, however, the Tuscans may +possibly have in common with them. My knowledge of the language must +remain ever too imperfect for me to depend on my own skill in it; all I +can assert is, that the Florentines _appear_, as far as I have been +competent to observe, to depend more on their own copious and beautiful +language for expression, than the Milanese do; who run to Spanish, +Greek, or Latin for assistance, while half their tongue is avowedly +borrowed from the French, whose pronunciation, in the letter _u_, they +even profess to retain. + +At Venice, the sweetness of the patois is irresistible; their lips, +incapable of uttering any but the sweetest sounds, reject all +consonants they can get quit of; and make their mouths drop honey more +completely than it can be said by any eloquence less mellifluous than +their own. + +The Bolognese dialect is detested by the other Italians, as gross and +disagreeable in its sounds: but every nation has the good word of its +own inhabitants; and the language which Abbate Bianconi praises as +nervous and expressive, I would advise no person, less learned than +himself, to censure as disgusting, or condemn as dull. I staid very +little at Bologna; saw nothing but their pictures, and heard nothing but +their prayers: those were superior, I fancy, to all rivals. Language can +be never spoken of by a foreigner to any effect of conviction. I have +heard our countryman. Mr. Greatheed himself, who perhaps possesses more +Italian than almost any Englishman, and studies it more closely, refuse +to decide in critical disputations among his literary friends here, +though the sonnets he writes in the Tuscan language are praised by the +natives, who best understand it, and have been by some of them preferred +to those written by Milton himself. Mean time this is acknowledged to +be the prime city for purity of phrase and delicacy of expression, +which, at last, is so disguised to me by the guttural manner in which +many sounds are pronounced, that I feel half weary of running about from +town to town so, and never arriving at any, where I can understand the +conversation without putting all the attention possible to their +discourse. I am now told that less efforts will be necessary at Rome. + +Nothing can be prettier, however, than the slow and tranquil manners of +a Florentine; nothing more polished than his general address and +behaviour: ever in the third person, though to a blackguard in the +street, if he has not the honour of his particular acquaintance, while +intimacy produces _voi_ in those of the highest rank, who call one +another Carlo and Angelo very sweetly; the ladies taking up the same +notion, and saying Louisa, or Maddalena, without any addition at all. + +The Don and Donna of Milan were offensive to me somehow, as they +conveyed an idea of Spain, not Italy. Here Signora is the term, which +better pleases one's ear, and Signora Contessa, Signora Principessa, if +the person is of higher quality, resembles our manners more when we say +my Lady Dutchess, &c. What strikes me as most observable, is the +uniformity of style in all the great towns. + +At Venice the men of literature and fashion speak with the same accent, +and I believe the same quick turns of expression as their Gondolier; and +the coachman at Milan talks no broader than the Countess; who, if she +does not speak always in French to a foreigner, as she would willingly +do, tries in vain to talk Italian; and having asked you thus, _alla +capi?_ which means _ha ella capita?_ laughs at herself for trying to +_toscaneggiare_, as she calls it, and gives the point up with _no cor +altr._ that comes in at the end of every sentence, and means _non +occorre altro_; there is no more occurs upon the subject. + +The Laquais de Place who attended us at Bologna was one of the few +persons I had met then, who spoke a language perfectly intelligible to +me. "Are you a Florentine, pray friend, said I?" "No, madam, but the +_combinations_ of this world having led me to talk much with strangers, +I contrive to _tuscanize_ it all I can for _their_ advantage, and doubt +not but it will tend to my own at last." + +Such a sentiment, so expressed by a footman, would set a plain man in +London a laughing, and make a fanciful Lady imagine he was a nobleman +disguised. Here nobody laughs, nor nobody stares, nor wonders that their +valet speaks just as good language, or utters as well-turned sentences +as themselves. Their cold answer to my amazement is as comical as the +fellow's fine style--_e battizzato_[Footnote: He has been baptized.], +say they, _come noi altri_[Footnote: As well as we.]. But we are called +away to hear the fair Fantastici, a young woman who makes improviso +verses, and sings them, as they tell me, with infinite learning and +taste. She is successor to the celebrated Corilla, who no longer +exhibits the power she once held without a rival: yet to _her_ +conversations every one still strives for admittance, though she is now +ill, and old, and hoarse with repeated colds. She spares, however, now +by no labour or fatigue to obtain and keep that superiority and +admiration which one day perhaps gave her almost equal trouble to +receive and to repay. But who can bear to lay their laurels by? Corilla +is gay by nature, and witty, if I may say so, by habit; replete with +fancy, and powerful to combine images apparently distant. Mankind is at +last more just to people of talents than is universally allowed, I +think. Corilla, without pretensions either to immaculate character (in +the English sense), deep erudition, or high birth, which an Italian +esteems above all earthly things, has so made her way in the world, that +all the nobility of both sexes crowd to her house; that no Prince passes +through Florence without waiting on Corilla; that the Capitol will long +recollect her being crowned there, and that many sovereigns have not +only sought her company, but have been obliged to put up with slights +from her independent spirit, and from her airy, rather than haughty +behaviour. She is, however, (I cannot guess why) not rich, and keeps no +carriage; but enjoying all the effect of money, convenience, company, +and general attention, is probably very happy; as she does not much +suffer her thoughts of the next world to disturb her felicity in +_this_, I believe, while willing to turn every thing into mirth, and +make all admire _her wit_, even at the expence of _their own virtue_. +The following Epigram, made by her, will explain my meaning, and give a +specimen of her present powers of improvisation, undecayed by ill +health; and I might add, _undismayed_ by it. An old gentleman here, one +Gaetano Testa Grossa had a young wife, whose name was Mary, and who +brought him a son when he was more than seventy years old. Corilla led +him gaily into the circle of company with these words: + + "Miei Signori Io vi presento + Il buon Uomo Gaetano; + Che non sa che cosa sia + Il misterio sovr'umano + Del Figliuolo di Maria." + +Let not the infidels triumph however, or rank among them the +truly-illustrious Corilla! 'Twas but the rage, I hope, of keeping at any +rate the fame she has gained, when the sweet voice is gone, which once +enchanted all who heard it--like the daughters of Pierius in Ovid. + +And though I was exceedingly entertained by the present improvisatrice, +the charming Fantastici, whose youth, beauty, erudition, and fidelity to +her husband, give her every claim upon one's heart, and every just +pretension to applause, I could not, in the midst of that delight, which +classick learning and musical excellence combined to produce, forbear a +grateful recollection of the civilities I had received from Corilla, and +half-regretting that her rival should be so successful; + + For tho' the treacherous tapster, Thomas, + Hangs a new angel ten doors from us, + We hold it both a shame and sin + To quit the true old Angel Inn. + +Well! if some people have too little appearance of respect for religion, +there are others who offend one by having too much, and so the balance +is kept even. + +We were a walking last night in the gardens of Porto St. Gallo, and met +two or three well-looking women of the second rank, with a baby, four or +five years old at most, dressed in the habit of a Dominican Friar, +bestowing the benediction as he walked along like an officiating Priest. +I felt a shock given to all my nerves at once, and asked Cavalier +D'Elci the meaning of so strange a device. His reply to me was, "_E +divozione mal intesa, Signora_[Footnote: 'Tis ill-understood devotion, +madam.];" and turning round to the other gentlemen, "Now this folly," +said he, "a hundred years ago would have been the object of profound +veneration and prodigious applause. Fifty years hence it would be +censured as hypocritical; it is now passed by wholly unnoticed, except +by this foreign Lady, who, I believe, thought it was done for a joke. + +I have had a little fever since I came hither from the intense heat I +trust; but my maid has a worse still. Doctor Bicchierei, with that +liberality which ever is found to attend real learning, prescribed +James's powders to _her_, and bid me attend to Buchan's Domestick +Medicine, and I should do well enough he said. + +Mr. Greatheed, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Biddulph, and Mr. Piozzi, have been +together on a party of pleasure to see the renowned Vallombrosa, and +came home contradicting Milton, who says the devils lay bestrewn + + Thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa: + +Whereas, say they, the trees are all evergreen in those woods. Milton, +it seems, was right notwithstanding: for the botanists tell me, that +nothing makes more litter than the shedding of leaves, which, replace +themselves by others, as on the plants stiled ever-green, which change +like every tree, but only do not change all at once, and remain stript +till spring. They spoke highly of their very kind and hospitable +reception at the convent, where + + Safe from pangs the worldling knows, + Here secure in calm repose, + Far from life's perplexing maze, + The pious fathers pass their days; + While the bell's shrill-tinkling sound + Regulates their constant round. + +And + + Here the traveller elate + Finds an ever-open gate: + All his wants find quick supply, + While welcome beams from every eye. + + PARSONS. + +This pious foundation of retired Benedictines, situated in the +Appenines, about eighteen miles from Florence, owes its original to +Giovanni Gualberto, a Tuscan nobleman, whose brother Hugo having been +killed by a relation in the year 1015, he resolved to avenge his death; +but happening to meet the assassin alone and in a solitary place, +whither he appeared to have been driven by a sense of guilt, and seeing +him suddenly drop down at his feet, and without uttering a word produce +from his bosom a crucifix, holding it up in a supplicating gesture, with +look submissively imploring, he felt the force of this silent rhetoric, +and generously gave his enemy free pardon. + +On further reflection upon the striking scene, Gualberto felt still more +affected; and from seeing the dangers and temptations which surround a +bustling life, resolved to quit the too much mixed society of mankind, +and settle in a state of perpetual retirement. For this purpose he chose +Vallombrosa, and there founded the famous convent so justly admired by +all who visit it. + +Such stories lead one forward to the tombs of Michael Angelo and the +great Galileo, which last I looked on to-day with reverence, pity, and +wonder; to think that a change so surprising should be made in worldly +affairs since his time; that the man who no longer ago than the year +1636, was by the torments and terrors of the Inquisition obliged +formally to renounce, as heretical, accursed, and contrary to religion, +the revived doctrines of Copernicus, should now have a monument erected +to his memory, in the very city where he was born, whence he was cruelly +torn away to answer at Rome for the supposed offence; to which he +returned; and strange to tell, in which he lived on, by his own desire, +with the wife who, by her discovery of his sentiments, and information +given to the priests accordingly, had caused his ruin; and who, after +his death, in a fit of mad mistaken zeal, flung into the fire, in +company with her confessor, all the papers she could find in his study. + +How wonderful are these events! and how sweet must the science of +astronomy have been to that poor man, who suffered all but actual +martyrdom in its cause! How odd too, that ever Galileo's son, by such a +mother as we have just described, should apply himself to the same +studies, and be the inventor of the simple pendulum so necessary to +every kind of clock-work! + +Religious prejudices however, and their effects--and thanks be to God +their almost final conclusion too--may be found nearer home than +Galileo's tomb; while Milton has a monument in the same cathedral with +Dr. South, who perhaps would have given credit to no _human_ +information, which should have told him that event would take place. + +We are now going soon to leave Florence, seat of the arts and residence +of literature! I shall be sincerely sorry to quit a city where not a +step can be taken without a new or a revived idea being added to our +store;--where such statues as would in England have colleges founded, or +palaces built for their reception, stand in the open street; the +Centaur, the Sabine woman, and the Justice: Where the Madonna della +Seggiola reigns triumphant over all pictures for brilliancy of colouring +and vigour of pencil. + +It was the portrait of Raphaelle's favourite mistress, and his own child +by her sate for the Bambino:--is it then wonderful that it should want +that heavenly expression of dignity divine, and grace unutterable, which +breathes through the school of Caracci? Connoisseurs will have all +excellence united in one picture, and quarrel unkindly if merit of any +kind be wanting: Surely the Madonna della Seggiola has nature to +recommend it, and much more need not be desired. If the young and tender +and playful innocence of early infancy is what chiefly delights and +detains one's attention, it may be found to its utmost possible +perfection in a painter far inferior to Raphael, Carlo Marratt. + +If softness in the female character, and meek humility of countenance, +be all that are wanted for the head of a Madonna, we must go to +Elisabetta Sirani and Sassoferrata I think; but it is ever so. The +Cordelia of Mrs. Cibber was beyond all comparison softer and sweeter +than that of her powerful successor Siddons; yet who will say that the +actresses were equal? + +But I must bid adieu to beautiful Florence, where the streets are kept +so clean one is afraid to dirty _them_, and not _one's self_, by walking +in them: where the public walks are all nicely weeded, as in England, +and the gardens have a homeish and Bath-like look, that is excessively +cheering to an English eye:--where, when I dined at Prince Corsini's +table, I heard the Cardinal say grace, and thought of the ceremonies at +Queen's College, Oxford; where I had the honour of entertaining, at my +own dinner on the 25th of July, many of the Tuscan, and many of the +English nobility; and Nardini kindly played a solo in the evening at a +concert we gave in Meghitt's great room:--where we have compiled the +little book amongst us, known by the name of the Florence Miscellany; as +a memorial of that friendship which does me so much honour, and which I +earnestly hope may long subsist among us:--where in short we have lived +exceeding comfortably, but where dear Mrs. Greatheed and myself have +encouraged each other, in saying it would be particularly sad to _die_, +not of the gnats, or more properly musquitoes, for they do not sting one +quite to death, though their venom has swelled my arm so as to oblige me +to carry it for this last week in a sling; but of the _mal di petto_, +which is endemial in this country, and much resembling our pleurisy in +its effects. + +Blindness too seems no uncommon misfortune at Florence, from the strong +reverberation of the sun's rays on houses of the cleanest and most +brilliant whiteness; kept so elegantly nice too, that I should despair +of seeing more delicacy at Amsterdam. + +Apoplexies are likewise frequent enough: I saw a man carried out stone +dead from St. Pancrazio's church one morning about noon-day; but nobody +seemed disturbed at the event I think, except myself. Though this is no +good town to take one's last leave of life in neither; as the body one +has been so long taking care of, would in twenty-four hours be hoisted +up upon a common cart, with those of all the people who died the same +day, and being fairly carried out of Porto San Gallo towards the dusk of +evening, would be shot into a hole dug away from the city, properly +enough, to protect Florence, and keep it clear of putrid disorders and +disagreeable smells. All this with little ceremony to be sure, and less +distinction; for the Grand Duke suffers the pride of birth to last no +longer than life however, and demolishes every hope of the woman of +quality lying in a separate grave from the distressed object who begged +at her carriage door when she was last on an airing. + +Let me add, that his liberality of sentiment extends to virtue on the +one hand, if hardness of heart may be complained of on the other. He +suffers no difference of opinions to operate on his philosophy, and I +believe we heretics here should sleep among the best of his Tuscan +nobles. But there is no comfort in the possibility of being buried alive +by the excessive haste with which people are catched up and hurried +away, before it can be known almost whether all sparks of life are +extinct or no. Such management, and the lamentations one hears made by +the great, that they should thus be forced to keep _bad company_ after +death, remind me for ever of an old French epigram, the sentiment of +which I perfectly recollect, but have forgotten the verses, of which +however these lines are no unfaithful translation; + + I dreamt that in my house of clay, + A beggar buried by me lay; + Rascal! go stink apart, I cry'd, + Nor thus disgrace my noble side. + Heyday! cries he, what's here to do? + I'm on my dunghill sure, as well as you. + +Of elegant Florence then, so ornamented and so lovely, so neat that it +is said she should be seen only on holidays; dedicated of old to Flora, +and still the residence of sweetness, grace, and the fine arts +particularly; of these kind friends too, so amiable, so hospitable, +where I had the choice of four boxes every night at the theatre, and a +certainty of charming society in each, we must at last unwillingly take +leave; and on to-morrow, the twelfth day of September 1785, once more +commit ourselves to our coach, which has hitherto met with no accident +that could affect us, and in which, with God's protection, I fear not my +journey through what is left of Italy; though such tremendous tales are +told in many of our travelling books, of terrible roads and wicked +postillions, and ladies labouring through the mire on foot, to arrive at +bad inns where nothing eatable could be found. All which however is less +despicable than Tournefort, the great French botanist; who, while his +works swell with learning, and sparkle with general knowledge; while he +enlarges _your_ stock of ideas, and displays _his own_; laments +pathetically that he could not get down the partridges caught for him in +one of the Archipelagon islands, because they were not larded--_a la +mode de Paris_. + + + +LUCCA. + + +From the head-quarters of painting, sculpture, and architecture then, +where art is at her acme, and from a people polished into brilliancy, +perhaps a little into weakness, we drove through the celebrated vale of +Arno; thick hedges on each side us, which in spring must have been +covered with blossoms and fragrant with perfume; now loaded with +uncultivated fruits; the wild grape, raspberry, and azaroli, inviting to +every sense, and promising every joy. This beautiful and fertile, this +highly-adorned and truly delicious country carried us forward to Lucca, +where the panther sits at the gate, and liberty is written up on every +wall and door. It is so long since I have seen the word, that even the +letters of it rejoice my heart; but how the panther came to be its +emblem, who can tell? Unless the philosophy we learn from old Lilly in +our childhood were true, _nec vult panthera domari_[Footnote: That the +panther will never be tamed.]. + +That this fairy commonwealth should so long have maintained its +independency is strange; but Howel attributes her freedom to the active +and industrious spirit of the inhabitants, who, he says, resemble a hive +of bees, for order and for diligence. I never did see a place so +populous for the size of it: one is actually thronged running up and +down the streets of Lucca, though it is a little town enough for a +capital city to be sure; larger than Salisbury though, and prettier than +Nottingham, the beauties of both which places it unites with all the +charms peculiar to itself. + +The territory they claim, and of which no power dares attempt to +dispossess them, is much about the size of _Rutlandshire_ I fancy; +surrounded and apparently fenced in on every side, by the Appenines as +by a wall, that wall a hot one, on the southern side, and wholly planted +over with vines, while the soft shadows which fall upon the declivity of +the mountains make it inexpressibly pretty; and form, by the particular +disposition of their light and shadow, a variety which no other prospect +so confined can possibly enjoy. + +This is the Ilam gardens of Europe; and whoever has seen that singular +spot in Derbyshire belonging to Mr. Port, has seen little Lucca in a +convex mirror. Some writer calls it a ring upon the finger of the +Emperor, under whose protection it has been hitherto preserved safe from +the Grand Duke of Tuscany till these days, in which the interests of +those two sovereigns, united by intimacy as by blood and resemblance of +character, are become almost exactly the same. + +A Doge, whom they call the _Principe_, is elected every two months; and +is assisted by ten senators in the administration of justice. + +Their armoury is the prettiest plaything I ever yet saw, neatly kept, +and capable of furnishing twenty-five thousand men with arms. Their +revenues are about equal to the Duke of Bedford's I believe, eighty or +eighty-five thousand pounds sterling a year; every spot of ground +belonging to these people being cultivated to the highest pitch of +perfection that agriculture, or rather gardening (for one cannot call +these enclosures fields), will admit: and though it is holiday time just +now, I see no neglect of necessary duty. They were watering away this +morning at seven o'clock, just as we do in a nursery-ground about +London, a hundred men at once, or more, before they came home to make +themselves smart, and go to hear music in their best church, in honour +of some saint, I have forgotten who; but he is the patron of Lucca, and +cannot be accused of neglecting his charge, that is certain. + +This city seems really under admirable regulations; here are fewer +beggars than even at Florence, where however one for fifty in the states +of Genoa or Venice do not meet your eyes: And either the word liberty +has bewitched me, or I see an air of plenty without insolence, and +business without noise, that greatly delight me. Here is much +cheerfulness too, and gay good-humour; but this is the season of +devotion at Lucca, and in these countries the ideas of devotion and +diversion are so blended, that all religious worship seems connected +with, and to me now regularly implies, _a festive show_. + +Well, as the Italians say, "_Il mondo e bello perche e +variabile_[Footnote: The world is pleasant because it is various.]." We +English dress our clergymen in black, and go ourselves to the theatre +in colours. Here matters are reversed, the church at noon looked like a +flower-garden, so gaily adorned were the priests, confrairies, &c. while +the Opera-house at night had more the air of a funeral, as every body +was dressed in black: a circumstance I had forgotten the meaning of, +till reminded that such was once the emulation of finery among the +persons of fashion in this city, that it was found convenient to +restrain the spirit of expence, by obliging them to wear constant +mourning: a very rational and well-devised rule in a town so small, +where every body is known to every body; and where, when this silly +excitement to envy is wisely removed, I know not what should hinder the +inhabitants from living like those one reads of in the Golden Age; +which, above all others, this climate most resembles, where pleasure +contributes to sooth life, commerce to quicken it, and faith extends its +prospects to eternity. Such is, or such at least appears to me this +lovely territory of Lucca: where cheap living, free government, and +genteel society, may be enjoyed with a tranquillity unknown to larger +states: where there are delicious and salutary baths a few miles out of +town, for the nobility to make _villeggiatura_ at; and where, if those +nobility were at all disposed to cultivate and communicate learning, +every opportunity for study is afforded. + +Some drawbacks will however always be found from human felicity. I once +mentioned this place with warm expectations of delight, to a Milanese +lady of extensive knowledge, and every elegant accomplishment worthy her +high birth, _the Contessa Melzi Resla_. "Why yes," said she, "if you +would find out the place where common sense stagnates, and every topic +of conversation dwindles and perishes away by too frequent or too +unskilful touching and handling, you must go to Lucca. My ill-health +sent me to their beautiful baths one summer; where all the faculties of +my body were restored, thank God, but those of my soul were stupified to +such a degree, that at last I was fit to keep no other company but _Dame +Lucchesi_ I think; and _our_ talk was soon ended, heaven knows, for when +they had once asked me of an evening, what I had for dinner? and told me +how many pair of stockings their neighbours sent to the wash, we had +done." + +This was a young, a charming, a lively lady of quality; full of +curiosity to know the world, and of spirits to bustle through it; but +had she been battered through the various societies of London and Paris +for eighteen or twenty years together, she would have loved Lucca +better, and despised it less. "We must not look for whales in the Euxine +Sea," says an old writer; and we must not look for great men or great +things in little nations to be sure, but let us respect the innocence of +childhood, and regard with tenderness the territory of Lucca: where no +man has been murdered during the life or memory of any of its peaceful +inhabitants; where one robbery alone has been committed for sixteen +years; and the thief hanged by a Florentine executioner borrowed for the +purpose, no Lucchese being able or willing to undertake so horrible an +office, with terrifying circumstances of penitence and public +reprehension: where the governed are so few in proportion to the +governors; all power being circulated among four hundred and fifty +nobles, and the whole country producing scarcely ninety thousand souls. +A great boarding-school in England is really an infinitely more +licentious place; and grosser immoralities are every day connived at in +it, than are known to pollute this delicate and curious commonwealth; +which keeps a council always subsisting, called the _Discoli_, to +examine the lives and conduct, professions, and even _health_ of their +subjects: and once o'year they sweep the town of vagabonds, which till +then are caught up and detained in a house of correction, and made to +work, if hot disabled by lameness, till the hour of their release and +dismission. I wondered there were so few beggars about, but the reason +is now apparent: these we see are neighbours, come hither only for the +three days gala. + +I was wonderfully solicitous to obtain some of their coin, which carries +on it the image of no _earthly_ prince; but his head only who came to +redeem us from general slavery on the one side, _Jesus Christ_; on the +other, the word _Libertas_. + +Our peasant-girls here are in a new dress to me; no more jewels to be +seen, no more pearls; the finery of which so dazzled me in Tuscany: +these wenches are prohibited such ornaments it seems. A muslin +handkerchief, folded in a most becoming manner, and starched exactly +enough to make it wear clean four days, is the head-dress of Lucchese +lasses; it is put on turban-wise, and they button their gowns close, +with long sleeves _a la Savoyarde_; but it is made often of a stiff +brocaded silk, and green lapels, with cuffs of the same colour; nor do +they wear any hats at all, to defend them from a sun which does +undoubtedly mature the fig and ripen the vine, but which, by the same +excess of power, exalts the venom of the viper, and gives the scorpion +means to keep me in perpetual torture for fear of his poison, of which, +though they assure us death is seldom the consequence among _them_, I +know his sting would finish me at once, because the gnats at Florence +were sufficient to lame me for a considerable time. + +The dialect has lost much of the guttural sound that hurt one's ear at +the last place of residence; but here is an odd squeaking accent, that +distinguishes the Tuscan of Lucca. + +The place appropriated for airing, showing fine equipages, &c. is +beautiful beyond all telling; from the peculiar shadows on the +mountains. They make the bastions of the town their Corso, but none +except the nobles can go and drive upon one part of it. I know not how +many yards of ground is thus let apart, sacred to sovereignty; but it +makes one laugh. + +Our inn here is an excellent one, as far as I am concerned; and the +sallad-oil green, like Irish usquebaugh, nothing was ever so excellent. +I asked the French valet who dresses our hair, "_Si ce n'etait pas une +republique mignonne?_[X]"--"_Ma foy, madame, je la trouve plus tot la +republique des rats et des souris[Y];_" replies the fellow, who had not +slept all night, I afterwards understood, for the noise those +troublesome animals made in his room. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote X: If it were not a dear little pretty commonwealth--this?] + +[Footnote Y: Faith, madam, I call it the republic of the rats and +mice.] + + + +PISA. + + +This town has been so often described that it is as well known in +England as in Italy almost; where I, like others, have seen the +magnificent cathedral; have examined the two pillars which support its +entrance, and which once adorned Diana's temple at Ephesus, one of the +seven wonders of the world. Their carving is indeed beyond all idea of +workmanship; and the possession of them is inestimable. I have seen the +old stones with inscriptions on them, bearing date the reign of +Antoninus Pius, stuck casually, some with the letters reversed, some +sloping, according to accident merely, as it appears to me, in the body +of the great church: and I have seen the leaning tower that Lord +Chesterfield so comically describes our English travellers eagerness to +see. It is a beautiful building though after all, and a strange thing +that it should lean so. The cylindrical form, and marble pillars that +support each story, may rationally enough attract a stranger's notice, +and one is sorry the lower stories have sunk from their foundations, +originally defective ones I trust they were, though, God knows, if the +Italians do not build towers well, it is not for want either of skill or +of experience; for there is a tower to every town I think, and commonly +fabricated with elaborate nicety and well-fixed bases. But as +earthquakes and subterranean fires here are scarcely a wonder, one need +not marvel much at seeing the ground retreat just _here_. It is nearer +our hand, and quite as well worth our while to enquire, why the tower at +_Bridgnorth_ in Shropshire leans exactly in the same direction, and is +full as much out of the perpendicular as this at Pisa. + +The brazen gates here, carved by John of Bologna, at least begun by him, +are a wonderful work; and the marbles in the baptistery beat those of +Florence for value and for variety. A good lapidary might find perpetual +amusement in adjusting the claims of superiority to these precious +columns of jasper, granite, alabaster, &c. The different animals which +support the font being equally admirable for their composition as for +their workmanship. + +The Campo Santo is an extraordinary place, and, for aught I know, +unparalleled for its power over the mind in exciting serious +contemplations upon the body's decay, and suggesting consolatory +thoughts concerning the soul's immortality. Here in three days, owing to +quick-lime mixed among the earth, vanishes every vestige, every trace of +the human being carried thither seventy hours before, and here round the +walls Giotto and Cimabue have exhausted their invention to impress the +passers-by with deep and pensive melancholy. + +The four stages of man's short life, infancy, childhood, maturity, and +decrepit age, not ill represented by one of the ancient artists, shew +the sad but not slow progress we make to this dark abode; while the last +judgment, hell, and paradise inform us what events of the utmost +consequence are to follow our journey. All this a modern traveller finds +out to be _vastly ridiculous!_ though Doctor Smollet _(whose book I +think he has read)_ confesses, that the spacious Corridor round the +Campo Santo di Pisa would make the noblest walk in the world perhaps for +a contemplative philosopher. + +The tomb of Algarotti produces softer ideas when one looks at the +sepulchre of a man who, having deserved and obtained such solid and +extensive praise, modestly contented himself with desiring that his +epitaph might be so worded, as to record, upon a simple but lasting +monument, that he had the honour of being disciple to the immortal +_Newton_. + +The battle of the bridge here at Pisa drew a great many spectators this +year, as it has not been performed for a considerable time before: the +waiters at our inn here give a better account of it than one should have +got perhaps from Cavalier or Dama, who would have felt less interested +in the business, and seen it from a greater distance. The armies of +Sant' Antonio, and I think San Giovanni Battista, but I will not be +positive as to the last, disputed the possession of the bridge, and +fought gallantly I fancy; but the first remained conqueror, as our very +conversible _Camerieres_ took care to inform us, as it was on that side +it seems that they had exerted their valour. + +Calling theatres, and ships, and running horses, and mock fights, and +almost every thing so by the names of Saints, whom we venerate in +silence, and they themselves publicly worship, has a most profane and +offensive sound with it to be sure; and shocks delicate ears very +dreadfully: and I used to reprimand my maids at Milan for bringing up +the blessed Virgin Mary's name on every trivial, almost on every +ludicrous occasion, with a degree of sharpness they were not accustomed +to, because it kept me in a constant shivering. Yet let us reflect a +moment on our own conduct in England, and we shall be forced candidly to +confess that the Puritans alone keep their lips unpolluted by breach of +the third commandment, while the common exclamation of _good God!_ +scrupled by few people on the slightest occurrences, and apparently +without any temptation in the world, is no less than gross irreverence +of his sacred name, whom we acknowledge to be + + Father of all, in _every_ age + In _every_ clime ador'd; + By saint, by savage, and by sage, + Jehovah, Jove, or Lord. + +Nor have the ladies at a London card-table Italian ignorance to plead +in their excuse; as not instruction but docility is wanted among almost +all ranks of people in Great Britain, where, if the Christian religion +were practised as it is understood, little could be wished for its +eternal, as little is left out among the blessings of its temporal +welfare. + +I have been this morning to look at the Grand Duke's camels, which he +keeps in his park as we do deer in England. There were a hundred and +sixteen of them, pretty creatures! and they breed very well here, and +live quite at their ease, only housing them the winter months: they are +perfectly docile and gentle the man told me, apparently less tender of +their young than mares, but more approachable by human creatures than +even such horses as have been long at grass. That dun hue one sees them +of, is, it seems, not totally and invariably the same, though I doubt +not but it is so in their native deserts. Let it once become a fashion +for sovereigns and other great men to keep and to caress them, we shall +see camels as variegated as cats, which in the woods are all of the +uniformly-streaked tabby--the males inclining to the brown shade--the +females to blue among them;--but being bred _down_, become +tortoise-shell, and red, and every variety of colour, which +domestication alone can bestow. + +The misery of Tuscany is, that _all animals_ thrive so happily under +this productive sun; so that if you scorn the Zanzariere, you are +half-devoured before morning, and so disfigured, that I defy one's +nearest friends to recollect one's countenance; while the spiders sting +as much as any of their insects; and one of them bit me this very day +till the blood came. + +With all this not ill-founded complaint of these our active companions, +my constant wonder is, that the grapes hang untouched this 20th of +September, in vast heavy clusters covered with bloom; and unmolested by +insects, which, with a quarter of this heat in England, are encouraged +to destroy all our fruit in spite of the gardener's diligence to blow up +nests, cover the walls with netting, and hang them about with bottles of +syrup, to court the creatures in, who otherwise so damage every fig and +grape and plum of ours, that nothing but the skins are left remaining +_by now. Here_ no such contrivances are either wanted or thought on; +and while our islanders are sedulously bent to guard, and studious to +invent new devices to protect their half dozen peaches from their half +dozen wasps, the standard trees of Italy are loaded with high-flavoured +and delicious fruits. + + Here figs sky-dy'd a purple hue disclose, + Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows; + Here dangling pears exalted scents unfold, + And yellow apples ripen into gold. + +The roadside is indeed hedged with festoons of vines, crawling from +olive to olive, which they plant in the ditches of Tuscany as we do +willows in Britain: mulberry trees too by the thousand, and some +pollarded poplars serve for support to the glorious grapes that will now +soon be gathered. What least contributes to the beauty of the country +however, is perhaps most subservient to its profits. I am ashamed to +write down the returns of money gained by the oil alone in this +territory and that of Lucca, where I was much struck with the colour as +well as the excellence of this useful commodity. Nor can I tell why none +of that green cast comes over to England, unless it is, that, like +essential oil of chamomile, it loses the tint by exposure to the air. + +An olive tree, however, is no elegantly-growing or happily-coloured +plant: straggling and dusky, one is forced to think of its produce, +before one can be pleased with its merits, as in a deformed and ugly +friend or companion. + +The fogs now begin to fall pretty heavily in a morning, and rising about +the middle of the day, leave the sun at liberty to exert his violence +very powerfully. At night come forth the inhabitants, like dor-beetles +at sunset on the coast of Sussex; then is their season to walk and chat, +and sing and make love, and run about the street with a girl and a +guittar; to eat ice and drink lemonade; but never to be seen drunk or +quarrelsome, or riotous. Though night is the true season of Italian +felicity, they place not their happiness in brutal frolics, any more +than in malicious titterings; they are idle and they are merry: it is, I +think, the worst we can say of them; they are idle because there is +little for them to do, and merry because they have little given them to +think about. To the busy Englishman they might well apply these verses +of his own Milton in the Masque of Comus: + + What have we with day to do? + Sons of Care! 'twas made for you. + + + +LEGHORN. + + +Here we are by the sea-side once more, in a trading town too; and I +should think myself in England almost, but for the difference of dresses +that pass under my balcony: for here we were immediately addressed by a +young English gentleman, who politely put us in possession of his +apartments, the best situated in the town; and with him we talked of the +dear coast of Devonshire, agreed upon the resemblance between that and +these environs, but gave the preference to home, on account of its +undulated shore, finely fringed with woodlands, which here are wanting: +nor is this verdure equal to ours in vivid colouring, or variegated with +so much taste as those lovely hills which are adorned by the antiquities +of Powderham Castle, and the fine disposition of Lord Lisburne's park. + +But here is an English consul at Leghorn. Yes indeed! an English chapel +too; our own King's arms over the door, and in the desk and pulpit an +English clergyman; high in character, eminent for learning, genteel in +his address, and charitable in every sense of the word: as such, truly +loved and honoured by those of his own persuasion, exceedingly respected +by those of every other, which fill this extraordinary city: a place so +populous, that Cheapside alone can surpass it. + +It is not a large place however; one very long straight street, and one +very large wide square, not less than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, but I think +bigger, form the whole of Leghorn; which I can compare to nothing but a +_camera obscura,_ or magic lanthron, exhibiting prodigious variety of +different, and not uninteresting figures, that pass and re-pass to my +incessant delight, and give that sort of empty amusement which is _a la +portee de chacun_[Footnote: Within every one's reach.] so completely, +that for the present it really serves to drive every thing else from my +head, and makes me little desirous to quit for any other diversion the +windows or balcony, whence I look down now upon a Levantine Jew, +dressed in long robes, a sort of odd turban, and immense beard: now upon +a Tuscan contadinella, with the little straw hat, nosegay and jewels, I +have been so often struck with. Here an Armenian Christian, with long +hair, long gown, long beard, all black as a raven; who calls upon an old +grey Franciscan friar for a walk; while a Greek woman, obliged to cross +the street on some occasion, throws a vast white veil all over her +person, lest she should undergo the disgrace of being seen at all. + +Sometimes a group goes by, composed of a broad Dutch sailor, a +dry-starched puritan, and an old French officer; whose knowledge of the +world and habitual politeness contrive to conceal the contempt he has of +his companions. + +The geometricians tell us that the figure which has most angles bears +the nearest resemblance to that which has no angles at all; so here at +Leghorn, where you can hardly find forty men of a mind, dispute and +contention grow vain, a comfortable though temporary union takes place, +while nature and opinion bend to interest and necessity. + +The _Contorni_ of Leghorn are really very pretty; the Appenine +mountains degenerate into hills as they run round the bay, but gain in +beauty what in sublimity they lose. + +To enjoy an open sea view, one must drive further; and it really affords +a noble prospect from that rising ground where I understand that the +rich Jews hold their summer habitations. They have a synagogue in the +town, where I went one evening, and heard the Hebrew service, and +thought of what Dr. Burney says of their singing. + +It is however no credit to the Tuscans to tell, that of all the people +gathered together here, they are the worst-looking--I speak of the +_men_--but it is so. When compared with the German soldiery, the English +sailors, the Venetian traders, the Neapolitan peasants, for I have seen +some of _them_ here, how feeble a fellow is a genuine Florentine! And +when one recollects the cottagers of Lombardy, that handsome hardy race; +bright in their expression, and muscular in their strength; it is still +stranger, what can have weakened these too delicate Tuscans so. As they +are very rich, and might be very happy under the protection of a prince +who lets slip no opportunity of preferring his plebeian to his patrician +subjects; yet here at Leghorn they have a tender frame and an unhealthy +look, occasioned possibly by the stagnant waters, which tender the +environs unwholesome enough I believe; and the millions of live +creatures they produce are enough to distract a person not accustomed to +such buzzing company. + +We went out for air yesterday morning three or four miles beyond the +town-walls, where I looked steadily at the sea, till I half thought +myself at home. The ocean being peculiarly British property favoured the +idea, and for a moment I felt as if on our southern coast; we walked +forward towards the shore, and I stepped upon some rocks that broke the +waves as they rolled in, and was wishing for a good bathing house that +one might enjoy the benefit of salt-water so long withheld; till I saw +our _laquais de place_ crossing himself at the carriage door, and +wondering, as I afterwards found out, at my matchless intrepidity. The +mind however took another train of thought, and we returned to the +coach, which when we arrived at I refused to enter; not without +screaming I fear, as a vast hornet had taken possession in our absence, +and the very notion of such a companion threw me into an agony. Our +attendant's speech to the coachman however, made me more than amends: +"_Ora si vede amico_" (says he), "_cos'e la Donna; del mare istesso non +ha paura e pur va in convulsioni per via d'una mosca_[Z]." This truly +Tuscan and highly contemptuous harangue, uttered with the utmost +deliberation, and added to the absence of the hornet, sent me laughing +into the carriage, with great esteem of our philosophical _Rosso_, for +so the fellow was called, because he had red hair. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote Z: Now, my friend, do but observe what a thing is a woman! she +is not afraid even of the roaring ocean, and yet goes into fits almost +at the sight of a fly.] + +In a very clear day, it is said, one may see Corsica from hence, though +not less than forty or fifty miles off: the pretty island Gorgona +however, whence our best anchovies are brought to England, lies +constantly in view, + + Assurgit ponti medio circumflua Gorgon. + + RUTELIUS's Itinerary. + +How she came by that extraordinary name though, is not I believe well +known; perhaps her likeness to one of the Cape Verd islands, the +original Hesperides, might be the cause; for it was _there_ the +daughters of Phorcus fixed their habitation: or may be, as Medusa was +called _Gorgon par eminence_, because she applied herself to the +enriching of ground, this fertile islet owes its appellation from being +particularly manured and fructified. + +Here is an extraordinary good opera-house; admirable dancers, who +performed a mighty pretty pantomime Comedie _larmoyante_ without words; +I liked it vastly. The famous Soprano singer Bedini was at Lucca; but +here is our old London favourite Signora Giorgi, improved into a degree +of perfection seldom found, and from her little expected. + +Mr. Udney the British Consul is alone now; his lady has been obliged to +leave him, and take her children home for health's sake; but we saw his +fine collection of pictures, among which is a Danae that once belonged +to Queen Christina of Sweden, and fell from her possession into that of +some nobleman, who being tormented by scruples of morality upon his +death-bed, resolved to part with all his undraped figures, but not +liking to lose the face of this Danae, put the picture into a painter's +hands to cut and clothe her: the man, instead of obeying orders he +considered as barbarous, copied the whole, and dressed the copy +decently, sending it to his sick friend, who never discerned the trick; +and kept the original to dispose of, where fewer scruples impeded an +advantageous sale. The gentleman who bought it then, died; when Mr. +Udney purchased Danae, and highly values her; though some connoisseurs +say she is too young and ungrown a female for the character. There is a +Titian too in the same collection, of Cupid riding on a lion's back, to +which some very remarkable story is annexed; but one's belief is so +assailed by such various tales, told of all the striking pictures in +Italy, that one grows more tenacious of it every day I think; so that at +last the danger will be of believing too little, instead of too much +perhaps. Happy for travellers would it be, were that disposition of mind +confined to _painting_ only: but if it should prove extended to more +serious subjects, we can only hope that the violent excess of the +temptation may prove some excuse, or at least in a slight degree +extenuate the offence: A wise man cannot believe half he hears in Italy +to be sure, but a pious man will be cautious not to discredit it all. + +Our evening's walk was directed towards the burying-ground appointed +here to receive the bodies of our countrymen, and consecrated according +to the rites of the Anglican church: for _here_, under protection of a +factory, we enjoy that which is vainly sought for under the auspices of +a king's ambassador.--_Here_ we have a churchyard of our own, and are +not condemned as at other towns in Italy, to be stuffed into a hole like +dogs, after having spent our money among them like princes. Prejudice +however is not banished from Leghorn, though convenience keeps all in +good-humour with each other. The Italians fail not to class the subjects +of Great Britain among the Pagan inhabitants of the town, and to +distinguish themselves, say, "_Noi altri Christiani_[Footnote: We that +are Christians.]:" their aversion to a Protestant, conceal it as they +may, is ever implacable; and the last day only will convince them that +it is criminal. + +_Coelum non animum mutant_[Footnote: One changes one's sky but not +one's soul.], is an old observation; I passed this afternoon in +confirming the truth of it among the English traders settled here: whose +conversation, manners, ideas, and language, were so truly _Londonish_, +so little changed by transmigration, that I thought some enchantment had +suddenly operated, and carried me to drink tea in the regions of +_Bucklersbury_. + +Well! it is a great delight to see such a society subsisting in Italy +after all; established where distress may run for refuge, and sickness +retire to prepare for lasting repose; whence narrowness of mind is +banished by principles of universal benevolence, and prejudice precluded +by Christian charity: where the purse of the British merchant, ever open +to the poor, is certain to succour and to soothe affliction; and where +it is agreed that more alms are given by the natives of our island +alone, than by all the rest of Leghorn, and the palaces of Pisa put +together. + +I have here finished that work which chiefly brought me hither; the +Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson's Life. It is from this port they take their +flight for England, while we retire for refreshment to the + + + +BAGNI DI PISA. + + +But not only the waters here are admirable, every look from every window +gives images unentertained before; sublimity happily wedded with +elegance, and majestick greatness enlivened, yet softened by taste. + +The haughty mountain St. Juliano lifting its brown head over our house +on one side, the extensive plain stretched out before us on the other; a +gravel walk neatly planted by the side of a peaceful river, which winds +through a valley richly cultivated with olive yards and vines; and +sprinkled, though rarely, with dwellings, either magnificent or +pleasing: this lovely prospect, bounded only by the sea, makes a variety +incessant as the changes of the sky; exhibiting early tranquillity, and +evening splendour by turns. + +It was perhaps particularly delightful to me, to obtain once more a +cottage in the country, after running so from one great city to another; +and for the first week I did nothing but rejoice in a solitude so new, +so salutiferous, so total. I therefore begged my husband not to hurry us +to Rome, but take the house we lived in for a longer term, as I would +now play the English housewife in Italy I said; and accordingly began +calling the chickens and ducks under my window, tasted the new wine as +it ran purple from the cask, caressed the meek oxen that drew it to our +door; and felt sensations so unaffectedly pastoral, that nothing in +romance ever exceeded my felicity. + +The cold bath here is the most delicate imaginable; of a moderate degree +of coldness though, not three degrees below Matlock surely; but +omitting, simply enough, to carry a thermometer, one can measure the +heat of nothing. Our hot water here seems about the temperature of the +Queen's bath in Somersetshire; it is purgative, not corroborant, they +tell me; and its taste resembles Cheltenham water exactly. + +These springs are much frequented by the court I find, and here are +very tolerable accommodations; but it is not the season now, and our +solitude is perfect in a place which beggars all description, where the +mountains are mountains of marble, and the bushes on them bushes of +myrtle; large as our hawthorns, and white with blossoms, as _they_ are +at the same time of year in Devonshire; where the waters are salubrious, +the herbage odoriferous, every trodden step breathing immediate +fragrance from the crushed sweets of thyme, and marjoram, and winter +savoury: while the birds and the butterflies frolick around, and flutter +among the loaded lemon, and orange, and olive trees, till imagination is +fatigued with following the charms that surround one. + +I am come home this moment from a long but not tedious walk, among the +crags of this glorious mountain; the base of which nearly reaches, +within half a mile perhaps, to the territories of Lucca. Some country +girls passed me with baskets of fruit, chickens, &c. on their heads. I +addressed them as natives of the last-named place, saying I knew them to +be such by their dress and air; one of them instantly replied, "_Oh si, +siamo Lucchesi, noi altri; gia si puo vedere subito una Reppubblicana, e +credo bene ch'ella fe n' e accorta benissimo che siamo del paese della +liberta_[AA]." + +[Footnote AA: Oh yes, we are Lucca people sure enough, and I am +persuaded that you soon saw in our faces that we come from a land of +liberty.] + +I will add that these females wear no ornaments at all; are always proud +and gay, and sometimes a little fancy too. The Tuscan damsels, loaded +with gold and pearls, have a less assured look, and appear disconcerted +when in company with their freer neighbours--Let them tell why. + +Mean time my fairy dream of fantastic delight seems fading away apace. +Mr. Piozzi has been ill, and of a putrid complaint in his throat, which +above all things I should dread in this hot climate. This accident, +assisted by other concurring circumstances, has convinced me that we are +not shut up in measureless content as Shakespeare calls it, even under +St. Julian's Hill: for here was no help to be got in the first place, +except the useless conversation of a medical gentleman whose accent and +language might have pleased a disengaged mind, but had little chance to +tranquilize an affrighted one. What is worse, here was no rest to be +had, for the multitudes of vermin up stairs and below. When we first +hired the house, I remember my maid jumping up on one of the kitchen +chairs while a ragged lad cleared _that_ apartment for her of scorpions +to the number of seventeen. But now the biters and stingers drive me +_quite wild_, because one must keep the windows open for air, and a sick +man can enjoy none of that, being closed up in the Zanzariere, and +obliged to respire the same breath over and over again; which, with a +sore throat and fever, is most melancholy: but I keep it wet with +vinegar, and defy the hornets how I can. + +What is more surprising than all, however, is to hear that no lemons can +be procured for less than two pence English a-piece; and now I am almost +ready to join myself in the general cry against Italian imposition, and +recollect the proverb which teaches us + + Chi ha da far con Tosco, + Non bisogna esser losco[AB]; + +[Footnote AB: + Who has to do with Tuscan wight, + Of both his eyes will need the light. +] + +as I am confident they cannot be worth even two pence a hundred here, +where they hang like apples in our cyder countries; but the rogues know +that my husband is sick, and upon poor me they have no mercy. + +I have sent our folks out to gather fruit at a venture: and now this +misery will soon be ended with his illness; driven away by deluges of +lemonade, I think, made in defiance of wasps, flies, and a kind of +volant beetle, wonderfully beautiful and very pertinacious in his +attacks; and who makes dreadful depredations on my sugar and +currant-jelly, so necessary on this occasion of illness, and so +attractive to all these detestable inhabitants of a place so lovely. + +My patient, however, complaining that although I kept these harpies at a +distance, no sleep could yet be obtained;--I resolved when he was risen, +and had changed his room, to examine into the true cause: and with my +maid's assistance, unript the mattress, which was without exaggeration +or hyperbole _all alive_ with creatures wholly unknown to me. +Non-descripts in nastiness I believe they are, like maggots with horns +and tails; such a race as I never saw or heard of, and as would have +disgusted Mr. Leeuenhoeck himself. My willingness to quit this place and +its hundred-footed inhabitants was quickened three nights after by a +thunder storm, such as no dweller in more northern latitudes can form an +idea of; which, afflicted by some few slight shocks of an earthquake, +frighted us all from our beds, sick and well, and gave me an opportunity +of viewing such flashes of lightning as I had never contemplated till +now, and such as it appeared impossible to escape from with life. The +tremendous claps of thunder re-echoing among these Appenines, which +double every sound, were truly dreadful. I really and sincerely thought +St. Julian's mountain was rent by one violent stroke, accompanied with a +rough concussion, and that the rock would fall upon our heads by +morning; while the agonies of my English maid and the French valet, +became equally insupportable to themselves and me; who could only repeat +the same unheeded consolations, and protest our resolution of releasing +them from this theatre of distraction the moment our departure should +become practicable. Mean time the rain fell, and such a torrent came +tumbling down the sides of St. Juliano, as I am persuaded no female +courage could have calmly looked on. I therefore waited its abatement in +a darkened room, packed up our coach without waiting to copy over the +verses my admiration of the place had prompted, and drove forward to +Sienna, through Pisa again, where our friends told us of the damages +done by the tempest; and shewed us a pretty little church just out of +town, where the officiating priest at the altar was saved almost by +miracle, as the lightning melted one of the chalices completely, and +twisted the brazen-gilt crucifix quite round in a very astonishing +manner. + +Here, however, is the proper place, if any, to introduce the poem of +seventy-three short lines, calling itself an Ode to Society written in a +state of perfect solitude, secluded from all mortal tread, as was our +habitation at the Bagni di Pisa. + + ODE TO SOCIETY. + + I. + + SOCIETY! gregarious dame! + Who knows thy favour'd haunts to name? + Whether at Paris you prepare + The supper and the chat to share, + While fix'd in artificial row, + Laughter displays its teeth of snow: + Grimace with raillery rejoices, + And song of many mingled voices, + Till young coquetry's artful wile + Some foreign novice shall beguile, + Who home return'd, still prates of thee, + Light, flippant, French SOCIETY. + + II. + + Or whether, with your zone unbound, + You ramble gaudy Venice round, + Resolv'd the inviting sweets to prove, + Of friendship warm, and willing love; + Where softly roll th' obedient seas, + Sacred to luxury and ease, + In coffee-house or casino gay + Till the too quick return of day, + Th' enchanted votary who sighs + For sentiments without disguise, + Clear, unaffected, fond, and free, + In Venice finds SOCIETY. + + III. + + Or if to wiser Britain led, + Your vagrant feet desire to tread + With measur'd step and anxious care, + The precincts pure of Portman square; + While wit with elegance combin'd, + And polish'd manners there you'll find; + The taste correct--and fertile mind: + Remember vigilance lurks near, + And silence with unnotic'd sneer, + Who watches but to tell again + Your foibles with to-morrow's pen; + Till titt'ring malice smiles to see + Your wonder--grave SOCIETY. + + IV. + + Far from your busy crowded court, + Tranquillity makes her report; + Where 'mid cold Staffa's columns rude, + Resides majestic solitude; + Or where in some sad Brachman's cell, + Meek innocence delights to dwell, + Weeping with unexperienc'd eye, + The death of a departed fly: + Or in _Hetruria_'s heights sublime, + Where science self might fear to climb, + But that she seeks a smile from thee, + And wooes thy praise, SOCIETY. + + V. + + Thence let me view the plains below, + From rough St. Julian's rugged brow; + Hear the loud torrents swift descending, + Or mark the beauteous rainbow bending, + Till Heaven regains its favourite hue, + AEther divine! celestial blue! + Then bosom'd high in myrtle bower, + View letter'd Pisa's pendent tower; + The sea's wide scene, the port's loud throng, + Of rude and gentle, right and wrong; + A motley groupe which yet agree + To call themselves SOCIETY. + + VI. + + Oh! thou still sought by wealth and fame, + Dispenser of applause and blame: + While flatt'ry ever at thy side, + With slander can thy smiles divide; + Far from thy haunts, oh! let me stray, + But grant one friend to cheer my way, + Whose converse bland, whose music's art, + May cheer my soul, and heal my heart; + Let soft content our steps pursue, + And bliss eternal bound our view: + Pow'r I'll resign, and pomp, and glee, + Thy best-lov'd sweets--SOCIETY. + + + +SIENNA. + + +20th October 1786. + +We arrived here last night, having driven through the sweetest country +in the world; and here are a few timber trees at last, such as I have +not seen for a long time, the Tuscan spirit of mutilation being so +great, that every thing till now has been pollarded that would have +passed twenty feet in height: this is done to support the vines, and not +suffer their rambling produce to run out of the way, and escape the +gripe of the gatherers. I have eaten too many of these delicious grapes +however, and it is now my turn to be sick--No wonder, I know few who +would resist a like temptation, especially as the inn afforded but a +sorry dinner, whilst every hedge provided so noble a dessert. _Paffera +pur la malattia_[Footnote: The disorder will die away though.], as these +soft-mouthed people tell me; the sooner perhaps, as we are not here +annoyed by insects, which poison the pleasure of other places in Italy; +here are only _lizards_, lovely creatures! who being of a beautiful +light green colour upon the back and legs, reside in whole families at +the foot of every tree, and turn their scarlet bosoms to the sun, as if +to display the glories of colouring which his beams alone can bestow. + +The pleasing tales told of this pretty animal's amical disposition +towards man are strictly true, I hear; and it is no longer ago than +yesterday I was told an odd anecdote of a young farmer, who, carrying a +basket of figs to his mistress, lay down in the field as he crossed it, +quite overcome with the weather, and fell fast asleep. A serpent, +attracted by the scent, twined round the basket, and would have bit the +fellow as well as robbed him, had not a friendly lizard waked, and given +him warning of the danger. + +Swift says, that in the course of life he meets many asses, but they +have not _lucky names_. I have met many _vipers, and so few lizards_, it +is surprising! but they will not live in London. + +All the stories one has ever heard of sweetness in language and delicacy +in pronunciation, fall short of Siennese converse. The girls who wait +on us at the inn here, would be treasures in England, could one get them +thither; and they need move nothing but their tongues to make their +fortunes. I told Rosetta so, and said I would steal from them a poor +girl of eight years old, whom they kept out of charity, and called +Olympia, to be my language mistress, "_Battezata com' e, la lascieremo +Christiana_[AC]," was the answer. It is impossible, without their +manners, to express their elegance, their superior delicacy, graceful +without diffusion, and terse without laconicism. You ask the way to the +town of a peasant girl, and she replies, "_Passato'l Ponte, o pur +barcato'l Fiume, eccola a Sienna_[AD]." And as we drove towards the city +in the evening, our postillion sung improviso verses on his sweetheart, +a widow who lived down at Pistoja, they told me. I was ashamed to think +that no desk or study was likely to have produced better on so trite a +subject. Candour must confess, however, that no thought was new, though +the language made them for a moment seem so. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote AC: Being baptized as she is, we will leave her a Christian.] + +[Footnote AD: The bridge once passed, or the river crossed, Sienna lies +before you.] + +This town is neat and cleanly, and comfortable and airy. The prospect +from the public walks wants no beauty but water; and here is a +suppressed convent on the neighbouring hill, where we half-longed to +build a pretty cottage, as the ground is now to be disposed of vastly +cheap; and half one's work is already done in the apartments once +occupied by friars. With half a word's persuasion I should fix for life +here. The air is so pure, the language so pleasing, the place so +inviting;--_but we drive on_. + +There is, mean time, resident in the neighbourhood an English gentleman, +his name Greenfield, who has formed to himself a mighty sweet habitation +in the English taste, but not extensive, as his property don't reach +far: he is however a sort of little oracle in the country I am told; +gives money, and dispenses James's powders to the poor, is happy in the +esteem of numberless people of fashion, and the comfort of his country +people's lives beside; who, travelling to Sienna, as many do for the +advantage of studying Italian to perfection, find a friend and +companion where perhaps it is least expected. + +The cathedral here at Sienna deserves a volume, and I shall scarcely +give it a page. The pavement of it is the just pride of Italy, and may +challenge the world to produce its equal. St. Mark's at Venice floored +with precious stones dies away upon the comparison; this being all +inlaid with dove-coloured and white marbles representing historical +subjects not ill told. Were this operation performed in mosaic work, +others of rival excellence might be found. The pavement of Sienna's dome +is so disposed by an effort of art one never saw but here, that it +produces an effect most resembling that of a very fine and beautiful +damask table-cloth, where the large patterns are correctly drawn. + +_Rome_ however is to be our next stage, and many of our English +gentlemen now here, are with ourselves impatiently waiting for the +numberless pleasures it is expected to afford us. I will here close this +chapter upon our various desires; one wishing to see St. Peters; one +setting his heart upon entering the Capitol: to-morrow's sun will light +us all upon our search. + + + +ROME. + + +The first sleeping place between Sienna and this capital shall not +escape mentioning; its name is Radicosani, its title an inn, and its +situation the summit of an exhausted volcano. Such a place did I never +see. The violence of the mountain, when living, has split it in a +variety of places, and driven it to a breadth of base beyond +credibility, its height being no longer formidable. Whichever way you +turn your eyes, nothing but portions of this black rock appear +therefore; so here is extent without sublimity, and here is terror +mingled with disgust. The inside of the house is worthy of the prospect +seen from its windows; wild, spacious, and scantily provided. Never had +place so much the appearance of a haunted hall, where Sir Rowland or Sir +Bertrand might feel proud of their courage when + + The knight advancing strikes the fatal door, + And hollow chambers send a sullen roar. + + MERRY + +To this truly dismal reposing place is however kindly added a little +chapel; and few persons can imagine what a comfortable feel it gave me +on entering it in the morning after hearing the winds howl all night in +the black mountain. Here too we first made acquaintance with Signor +Giovanni Ricci, a mighty agreeable gentleman, who was kindly assistant +to us in a hundred little difficulties, afterwards occasioned by horses, +postillions, &c. which at last brought us through a bad country enough +to Viterbo, where we slept. + +The melancholy appearance of the Campagna has been remarked and +described by every traveller with displeasure, by all with truth. The +ill look of the very few and very unhealthy inhabitants confirms their +descriptions; and beside the pale and swelled faces which shock one's +sight, here is a brassy scent in the air as of verdigris, which offends +one's smell; the running water is of an odd colour too, like that in +which copper has been steeped. These are sad desolated scenes indeed, +though this is not the season for _mal' aria_ neither, which, it is +said, begins in May, and ends with September. The present sovereign is +mending matters as fast as he can, we hear; and the road now cutting, +will greatly facilitate access to his capital, but cannot be done +without a prodigious expence. The first view of Rome is wonderfully +striking. + + Ye awful wrecks of ancient times! + Proud monuments of ages past + Now mould'ring in decay. + + MERRY. + +But mingled with every crowding, every classical idea, comes to one's +recollection an old picture painted by R. Wilson about thirty years ago, +which I am now sure must have been a very excellent representation. + +Well, then! here we are, admirably lodged at Strofani's in the Piazza di +Spagna, and have only to chuse what we will see and talk on first among +this galaxy of rarities which dazzles, diverts, confounds, and nearly +fatigues one. I will speak of the oldest things first, as I was earnest +to see something of Rome in its very early days, if possible; for +example the Sublician Bridge, defended by Cocles when the infant +republic, like their favourite Hercules in his cradle, strangled the +serpent despotism: and of this bridge some portion may yet be seen when +the water is very low. + +The prison is more ancient still however; it was built by the kings; and +by the solidity of its walls, and depth of its dungeon, seems built for +eternity. Was it not this place to which Juvenal alludes, when he says, + + Felicia dicas + Tempora quae quondam sub regibus atque tribunis + Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam. + +And it is in this horrible spot they shew you the miraculous mark of St. +Peter's head struck against the wall in going down, with the fountain +which burst out of the ground for his refreshment. Antiquaries, however, +assure us, that he could not have ever been confined there, as it was a +place for state prisoners only, and those of the highest rank: they +likewise tell us that Jugurtha passed seven months there, which is as +difficult to believe as any miracle ever wrought; for the world was at +least somewhat civilized in those days, and how it should be contented +with looking quietly on whilst a Prince of Jugurtha's consequence +should be so kept, appears incredible at the distance of 1900 years. +That Christians should be treated still worse, if worse could be found +for them, is less strange, when every step one treads is upon the bones +of martyrs; and who dares say that the surrounding campagna, so often +drenched in innocent blood, may not have been cursed with pestilence and +sterility to all succeeding ages? I have examined the place where Sylla +massacred 8000 fellow-citizens at once, and find that it produces no +herb but thistles, a weed almost unknown in any other part of Italy; and +one of the first punishments bestowed on sinful man. + +Marcellus's Theatre, an old fountain erected by Camillus when Dictator, +and the Tarpeian rock, attract attention powerfully: the last +particularly, + + Where brave Manlius stood, + And hurl'd indignant decads down, + And redden'd Tyber's flood. + + GREATHEED. + +People have never done contradicting Burnet, who says, in his travels, +that a man might jump down it now and not do himself much harm: the +truth is, its present appearance is not formidable; but I believe it is +not less than forty feet high at this moment, though the ground is +greatly raised. + +Of all things at Rome the Cloaca is acknowledged most ancient; a very +great and a very useful work it is, of Ancus Martius, fourth king of +Rome. The just and zealous detestation of Christians towards Pontius +Pilate, is here comically expressed by their placing his palace just at +its exit into the Tyber; and one who pretended to doubt of its being his +residence, would be thought the worse of among them. + +I recollect nothing else built before the days of the Emperors, who, for +the most part, were such disgracers of human nature and human reason, +that one would almost wish their names expunged, and all their deeds +obliterated from the face of the globe, which could ever tamely submit +to such truly wretched rulers. + +The Capitol, built by Tarquin, stood till the days of Marius and Sylla +it seems; that last-named Dictator erected a new one, which was +overthrown in the contests about Vitellius; Vespasian set it up again, +but his performance was burned soon after its author's death; and this +we contemplate now, is one of the works of Domitian, and celebrated by +Martial of course. Adrian however added one room to it, dedicated to +Egyptian deities alone: as a matter of mere taste I fancy, like our +introducing Chinese temples into the garden; but many hold that it was +very serious and superstitious regard, inspired by the victory Canopus +won over the Persian divinity of fire, by the subtlety of the Egyptian +priests, who, to defend their idol from that all-subduing element, +wisely set upon his head a vessel filled with water, and having +previously made the figure of Terra Cotta hollow, and full of water, +with holes bored at the bottom stopped only by wax to keep it in, a +seeming miracle extinguished the flames, as soon as approached by +Canopus; whose triumph was of course proclaimed, and he respected +accordingly. The figure was a monkey, whose sitting attitude favoured +the imposture: our antiquaries tell us the story after _Suidas_. + +As cruelty is more detestable than fraud, one feels greater disgust at +the sight of captive monarchs without hands and arms, than even these +idolatrous brutalities inspire; and no greater proof can be obtained of +Roman barbarity, than the statues one is shewn here of kings and +generals over whom they triumphed; being made on purpose for them +without hands and arms, of which they were deprived immediately on their +arrival at Rome. + +Enormous heads and feet, to which the other parts are wanting, let one +see, or at least guess; what colossal figures were once belonging to +them; yet somehow these celebrated artists seem to me to have a little +confounded the ideas of _big_ and _great_ like my countryman Fluellyn in +Shakespear's play: while the two famous demi-gods Castor and Pollux, +each his horse in his hand, stand one on each side the stairs which lead +to the Capitol, and are of a prodigious size--fifteen feet, as I +remember. The knowing people tell us they are portraits, and bid us +observe that one has pupils to his eyes, the other _not_; but our +_laquais de place_, who was a very sensible fellow too, as he saw me +stand looking at them, cried out, "Why now to be sure here are a vast +many miracles in this holy city--that there are:" and I heard one of our +own folks telling an Englishman the other day, how these two monstrous +statues, horses and all I believe, _came out of an egg_: a very +extraordinary thing certainly; but it is our business to believe, not to +enquire. He saw my countenance express something he did not like, and +continued, "_Eh basta! sara stato un uovo strepitoso, e cosi sinisce +l'istoria_[AE]." + +[Footnote AE: Well, well! it was a famous egg we'll say, and there's an +end.] + +In this repository of wonders, this glorious _campidoglio_, one is first +shewn as the most valuable curiosity, the two pigeons mentioned by Pliny +in old mosaic; and of prodigious nicety is the workmanship, though done +at such a distant period: and here is the very wolf which bears the very +mark of the lightning mentioned by Cicero:--and here is the beautiful +Antinous again; _he_ meets one at every turn, I think, and always hangs +his head as if ashamed: here too is the dying gladiator; wonderfully +fine! savage valour! mean extraction! horrible anguish! all marking, all +strongly characteristical expressions--_all there_; yet all swallowed +up, in that which does inevitably and certainly swallow up all +things--approaching death. + +The collection of pictures here would put any thing but these statues +out of one's head: Guido's Fortune flying over the globe, scattering her +gifts; of which she gave him _one_, the most precious, the most +desirable. How elegantly gay and airy is this picture! But St. Sebastian +stands opposite, to shew that he could likewise excel in the pathetic. +Titian's famous Magdalen, of which the King of France boasts one copy, a +noble family at Venice another, is protested by the Roman connoisseurs +to reside here only; but why should not the artist be fond of repeating +so fine an idea? Guercino's Sybil however, intelligently pensive, and +sweetly sensible, is the single figure I should prefer to them all. + +Before we quit the Capitol, it is pity not to name Marforio; broken, +old, and now almost forgotten: though once companion, or rather +respondent to Pasquin, and once, a thousand years before those days, a +statue of the river _Nar_, as his recumbent posture testifies; not _Mars +in the forum_, as has been by some supposed. The late Pope moved him +from the street, and shut him up with his betters in the Capitol. + +Of Trajan and Antonine's Pillars what can one say? That St. Peter and +St. Paul stand on the tops of each, setting forth that uncertainty of +human affairs which they preached in their life-time, and shewing that +_they_, who were once the objects of contempt and abhorrence, are now +become literally _the head stones of the corner_; being but too +profoundly venerated in that very city, which once cruelly persecuted, +and unjustly put them to death. Let us then who look on them recollect +their advice, and set our affections on a place of greater stability. +The columns are of very unequal excellence, that of Trajan's confessedly +the best; one grieves to think he never saw it himself, as few princes +were less puffed up by well-deserved praise than he; but dying at +Seleucia of a dysenteric fever, his ashes were brought home, and kept on +the top of his own pillar in a gilt vase; which Sextus Quintus with more +zeal than taste took down, I fear destroyed, and placed St. Peter there. +Apollodorus was the architect of the elegant structure, on which, says +Ammianus Marcellinus, the Gods themselves gazed with wonder, seeing +that nothing but heaven itself was finer. "_Singularem sub omni caelo +structuram etiam numinum ascensione mirabilem_." + +I know not whether this is the proper place to mention that the good +Pope Gregory, who added to the possession of every cardinal virtue the +exertion of every Christian one, having looked one day with peculiar +stedfastness at this column, and being naturally led to reflect on his +character to whose honour it was erected, felt just admiration of a mind +so noble; and retiring to his devotions in a church not far off, began +praying earnestly for Trajan's soul: till a preternatural voice, +accompanied with rays of light round the altar he knelt at, commanded +his forbearance of further solicitation; assuring him that Trajan's soul +was secure in the care of his Creator. Strange! that those who record, +and give credit to such a story, can yet continue as a duty their +intercessions for the dead! + +But I have seen the Coliseo, which would swallow that of pretty Verona; +it is four times as large I am told, and would hold fourscore thousand +spectators. After all the depredations of all the Goths, and afterwards +of the Farnese family, the ruin is gloriously beautiful; possibly more +beautiful than when it was quite whole; there is enough left now for +Truth to repose upon, and a perch for Fancy beside, to fly out from, and +fetch in more. + +The orders of its architecture are easily discerned, though the height +of the upper story is truly tremendous; I climbed it once, not to the +top indeed, but till I was afraid to look down from the place I was in, +and penetrated many of its recesses. The modern Italians have not lost +their taste of a prodigious theatre; were they once more a single +nation, they would rebuild _this_ I fancy; for here are all the +conveniencies in _grande_, as they call it, that amaze one even in +_piccolo_ at Milan and Turin: Here were supper-rooms, and taverns, and +shops, and I believe baths; certainly long galleries big enough to drive +a coach round, and places where slaves waited to receive the commands of +masters and ladies, who perhaps if they did not wait to please them, +would scarcely scruple to detain them in the cage of offenders, and +keep them to make sport upon a future day. + +The cruelties then exercised on servants at Rome were truly dreadful; +and we all remember reading that in Augustus's time, when he did a +private friend the honour to dine with him, one of the waiters broke a +glass he was about to present full of liquor to the King; at which +offence the master being enraged, suddenly caused him to be seized by +the rest, and thrown instantly out of the window to feed his lampreys, +which lived in a pond on which the apartment looked. Augustus said +nothing at the moment; to punish the nobleman's inhumanity however, he +sent his officers next morning to break every glass in the house: A +curious chastisement enough, and worthy of a nation who, being powerful +to erect, populous to fill, and elegantly-skilful to adorn such a fabric +as this Coliseum which I have just been contemplating, were yet +contented and even happy to view from its well-arranged seats, +exhibitions capable of giving nothing but disgust and horror;--lions +rending unarmed wretches in pieces; or, to the still deeper disgrace of +poor Humanity, those wretches armed unwillingly against each other, and +dying to divert a brutal populace. + +These reflections upon Pagan days and classical cruelties do not disturb +however the peace of an old hermit, who has chosen one of these +close-concealed recesses for his habitation, and accordingly dwells, +dismally enough, in a hole seldom visited by travellers, and certainly +never enquired about by the natives. I stumbled on his strange apartment +by mere chance, and asked him why he had chosen it? He had been led in +early youth, he said, to reflect upon the miseries suffered by the +original professors of Christianity; the tortures inflicted on them in +this horrible amphitheatre, and the various vicissitudes of Rome since: +that he had dedicated himself to these meditations: that he had left the +world seventeen years, never stirring from his cell but to buy food, +which he eat alone and sparingly, and to pay his devotions in the _Via +Crucis_, for so the old Arena is now called; a simple plain wooden cross +occupying the middle of it, and round the Circus twelve neat, not +splendid chapels; a picture to each, representing the various stages of +our Saviour's passion. Such are the meek triumphs of our meek religion! +And that such substitutes should have replaced the African savages, +tigers, hyaenas, &c. and Roman gladiators, not less ferocious than their +four-legged antagonists, I am quite as willing to rejoice at as the +hermit: They must be better antiquarians too than I am, who regret that +a nunnery now covers the spot where ambitious Tullia drove over the +bleeding body of her murdered parent, + + Pressit et inductis membra paterna rotis: + +That nunnery, supported by the arch of Nerva, which is all that is now +left standing of that Emperor's Forum. + +I must not however quit the Coliseum, without repeating what passed +between the King of Sweden and his Roman _laquais de place_ when he was +here; and the fellow, in the true cant of his Ciceroneship, exclaimed as +they looked up, "_Ah Maesta!_ what cursed Goths those were that tore +away so many fine things here, and pulled down such magnificent pillars, +&c." "Hold, hold friend," replies the King of Sweden; "I am one of those +cursed Goths myself you know: but what were your Roman nobles a-doing, +I would ask, when they laboured to destroy an edifice like this, and +build their palaces with its materials?" + +The baths of Livia are still elegantly designed round her small +apartments; and one has copies sold of them upon fans; the curiosity of +the original is to see how well the gilding stands; in many places it +appears just finished. These baths are difficult of access somehow; I +never could quite understand how we got in or out of them, but they did +belong to the Imperial palace, which covered this whole Palatine hill, +and here was Nero's golden house, by what I could gather, but of that I +thank Heaven there is no trace left, except some little portion of the +wall, which was 120 feet high, and some marbles in shades, like women's +worsted work upon canvass, very curious, and very wonderful; as all are +natural marbles, and no dye used: the expence must have surpassed +credibility. + +The Temple of Vesta, supposed to be the _very_ temple to which Horace +alludes in his second Ode, is a pretty rotunda, and has twenty pillars +fluted of Parian marble: it is now a church, as are most of the heathen +temples. + +Such adaptations do not please one, but then it must be allowed and +recollected that one is very hard to please: finding fault is so easy, +and doing right so difficult! + +The good Pope Gregory, who feared (by sacred inspiration one would +think) all which should come to pass, broke many beautiful antique +statues, "lest," said he, "induced by change of dress or name perhaps +our Christians may be tempted to adore them:" and we say he was a +blockhead, and burned Livy's decads, and so he did; but he refused all +titles of earthly dignity; he censured the Oriental Patriarchs for +substituting temporal splendours in the place of primitive simplicity; +which he said ought _alone_ to distinguish the followers of Jesus +Christ. He required a strict attention to morality from all his inferior +clergy; observed that those who strove to be first, would end in being +last; and took himself the title of servant to the servants of God. + +Well! Sabinian, his successor, once his favourite Nuncio, flung his +books in the fire as soon as he was dead; so his injunctions were obeyed +but while he lived to enforce them; and every day now shews us how +necessary they were: when, even in these enlightened times, there +stands an old figure that every Abate in the town knows to have been +originally made for the fabulous God of Physic, Esculapius, is prayed to +by many old women and devotees of all ages indeed, just at the Via +Sacra's entrance, and called St. Bartolomeo. + +A beautiful Diana too, with her trussed-up robes, the crescent alone +wanting, stands on the high altar to receive homage in the character of +St. Agnes, in a pretty church dedicated to her _fuor delle Porte_, where +it is supposed she suffered martyrdom; and why? Why for not venerating +that _very Goddess Diana_, and for refusing to walk in her procession at +the _New Moon_, like a good Christian girl. "_Such contradictions put +one from one's self_" as Shakespear says. + +We are this moment returned home from Tivoli; have walked round Adrian's +Villa, and viewed his Hippodrome, which would yet make an admirable open +Manege. I have seen the Cascatelle, so sweetly elegant, so rural, so +romantic; and I have looked with due respect on the places once +inhabited, and ever justly celebrated by genius, wit, and learning; have +shuddered at revisiting the spot I hastened down to examine, while +curiosity was yet keen enough to make me venture a very dangerous and +scarcely-trodden path to Neptune's Grotto; where, as you descend, the +Cicerone shews you a wheel of some coarse carriage visibly stuck fast in +the rock till it is become a part of it; distinguished from every other +stone only by its shape, its projecting forward, and its shewing the +hollow places in its fellies, where nails were originally driven. This +truly-curious, though little venerable piece of antiquity, serves to +assist the wise men in puzzling out the world's age, by computing how +many centuries go to the petrifying a cart wheel. A violent roar of +dashing waters at the bottom, and a fall of the river at this place from +the height of 150 feet, were however by no means favourable to my +arithmetical studies; and I returned perfectly disposed to think the +world's age a less profitable, a less diverting contemplation, than its +folly. + +We looked at the temple of the old goddess that cured coughs, now a +Christian church, dedicated to _la Madonna della Tosse_; it is exactly +all it ever was, I believe; and we dined in the temple of Sibylla +Tiburtina, a beautiful edifice, of which Mr. Jenkins has sent the model +to London in cork, which gives a more exact representation after all +than the best-chosen words in the world. I would rather make use of +_them_ to praise Mr. Jenkins's general kindness and hospitality to all +his country-folks, who find a certain friend in him; and if they please, +a very competent instructor. + +In order however to understand the meaning of some spherical _pots_ +observed in the Circus of Caracalla, I chose above all men to consult +Mr. Greatheed, whose correct taste, deep research, and knowledge of +architecture, led me to prefer his account to every other, of their use +and necessity: it shall be given in his own words, which I am proud of +his permission to copy. + +"Of those _pots_ you mention, there are not any remaining in the Circus +Maxiouis, as the walls, seats and apodium of that have entirely +disappeared. They are to be seen in the Circus of Caracalla, on the +Appian way; of this, and of this alone, enough still exists to ascertain +the form, structure, and parts of a Roman course. It was surrounded by +two parallel walls which supported the seats of the spectators. The +exterior wall rose to the summit of the gallery; the interior one +was much lower, terminated with the lowest rows, and formed +the apodium. This rough section may serve to elucidate my +description. From wall to wall an arch was turned which formed a +quadrant, and on this the seats immediately rested: but as the upper +rows were considerably distant from the crown of the arch, it was +necessary to fill the intermediate space with materials sufficiently +strong to support the upper stone benches and the multitude. Had these +been of solid substance, they would have pressed prodigious and +disproportionate weight on the summit of the arch, a place least able to +endure it from its horizontal position. To remedy this defect, the +architect caused _spherical pots_ to be baked; of these each formed of +itself an arch sufficiently powerful to sustain its share of the +incumbent weight, and the whole was rendered much less ponderous by the +innumerable vacuities. + +[Illustration] + +"A similiar expedient was likewise used to diminish the pressure of +their domes, by employing the scoriae of lava brought for that purpose +from the Lipari Islands. The numberless bubbles of this volcanic +substance give it the appearance of a honeycomb, and answer the same +purpose as the pots in Caracalla's Circus, so much so, that though very +hard, it is of less specific gravity than wood, and consequently floats +in water." + +Before I quit the Circus of Caracalla, I must not forbear mentioning his +bust, which so perfectly resembles Hogarth's idle 'Prentice; but why +should they not be alike? + + For black-guards are black-guards in every degree, + +I suppose, and the people here who shew one things, always take delight +to souce an Englishman's hat upon his head, as if they thought so too. + +This morning's ramble let us to see the old grotto, sacred to Numa's +famous nymph, AEgeria, not far from Rome even now. I wonder that it +should escape being built round when Rome was so extensive as to contain +the crowds which we are told were lodged in it. That the city spread +chiefly the other way, is scarce an answer. London spreads chiefly the +Marybone way perhaps, yet is much nearer to Rumford than it was fifty or +sixty years ago. + +The same remark may be made of the Temple of Mars without the walls, +near the Porta Capena: a rotunda it was on the road side _then_: it is +on the road side _now_, and a very little way from the gate. + +Caius Cestius's sepulchre however, without the walls, on the other side, +is one of the most perfect remains of antiquity we have here. Aurelian +made use of that as a boundary we know: it stands at present half +without and half within the limit that Emperor set to the city; and is a +very beautiful pyramid a hundred and ten feet high, admirably +represented in Piranesi's prints, with an inscription on the white +marble of which it is composed, importing the name and office and +condition of its wealthy proprietor: _C. Cestius, septem vir epulonum_. +He must have lived therefore since Julius Caesar's time it is plain, as +he first increased the number of epulones to seven, from three their +original institution. It was probably a very lucrative office for a man +to be Jupiter's caterer; who, as he never troubled himself with looking +over the bills, they were such commonly, I doubt not, as made ample +profits result to him who went to market; and Caius Cestius was one of +the rich contractors of those days, who neglected no opportunity of +acquiring wealth for himself, while he consulted the honour of Jupiter +in providing for his master's table very plentiful and elegant banquets. + +That such officers were in use too among the Persians during the time +their monarchy lasted, is plain from the apocryphal story of Bel and the +Dragon in our Bibles, where, to the joy of every child that reads it, +Daniel detects the fraud of the priests by scattering ashes or saw-dust +in the temple. + +But I fear the critics will reprove me for saying that Julius Caesar +only increased the number to seven, while many are of opinion he added +three more, and made them a decemvirate: mean time Livy tells us the +institution began in the year of Rome 553, during the consulate of +Fulvius Purpurio and Marcellus, upon a motion of Romuleius if I +remember. They had the privilege granted afterwards of edging the gown +with purple like the pontiffs, when increased to seven in number; and +they were always known by the name _Septemviratus,_ or _Septemviri +Epulonum_, to the latest hours of Paganism. + +The tomb of Caius Cestius is supposed to have cost twelve thousand +pounds sterling of our money in those days; and little did he dream that +it should be made in the course of time a repository for the bones of +_divisos orbe Britannos_: for such it is now appointed to be by +government. All of us who die at Rome, sleep with this purveyor of the +gods; and from his monument shall at the last day rise the re-animated +body of our learned and incomparable Sir James Macdonald: whose numerous +and splendid acquirements, though by the time he had reached twenty-four +years old astonished all who knew him, never overwhelmed one little +domestic virtue. His filial piety however; his hereditary courage, his +extensive knowledge, his complicated excellencies, have now, I fear, no +other register to record their worth, than a low stone near the stately +pyramid of Jupiter's caterer. + +The tomb of Caecilia Metella, wife of the rich and famous Crassus, claims +our next attention; it is a beautiful structure, and still called _Capo +di Bove_ by the Italians, on account of its being ornamented with the +_oxhead and flowers_ which now flourish over every door in the new-built +streets of London; but the original of which, as Livy tells us, and I +believe Plutarch too, was this. That Coratius, a Sabine farmer, who +possessed a particularly fine cow, was advised by a soothsayer to +sacrifice her to Diana upon the Aventine Hill; telling him, that the +city where _she_ now presided--_Diana_--should become mistress of the +world, and he who presented her with that cow should become master over +that city. The poor Sabine went away to wash in the Tyber, and purify +himself for these approaching honours[AF]; but in the mean time, a boy +having heard the discourse, and reported it to _Servius Tullius_, he +hastened to the spot, killed Coratius's cow for him, sacrificed her to +Diana, and hung her head with the horns on, and the garland just as she +died, upon the temple door as an ornament. From that time, it seems, the +ornament called _Caput Bovis_ was in a manner consecrated to Diana, and +her particular votaries used it on their tombs. Nor could one easily +account for the decorations of many Roman sarcophagi, till one +recollects that they were probably adapted to that divinity in whose +temple they were to be placed, rather than to the particular person +occupying the tomb, or than to our general ideas of death, time, and +eternity. It is probably for this reason that the immense sarcophagus +lately dug up from under the temple of Bacchus without the walls, cut +out of one solid piece of red porphyry, has such gay ornaments round it, +relative to the sacrifices of Bacchus, &c.; and I fancy these stone +coffins, if we may call them so, were often made ready and sold to any +person who wished to bury their friend, and who chose some story +representing the triumph of whatever deity they devoted themselves to. +Were the modern inhabitants of Rome who venerate St. Lorenzo, St. +Sebastiano, &c. to place, not uncharacteristically at all--a gridiron, +or an arrow on their tombstone, it might puzzle succeeding antiquarians, +and yet be nothing out of the way in the least. + +[Footnote AF: A circumstance alluded to and parodied by Ben Johnson in +his Alchemist. See the conduct of Dapper, &c.] + +Of the Egyptian obelisks at Rome I will not strive to give any account, +or even any idea. They are too numerous, too wonderful, too learned for +me to talk about; but I must not forbear to mention the broken thing +which lies down somewhere in a heap of rubbish, and is said to be the +greatest rarity in Rome, column, or _obelisk_ and the greatest antiquity +surely, if 1630 years before the birth of Christ be its date; as that +was but two centuries after the invention of letters by _Memnon_, and +just about the time that Joseph the favourite of Pharaoh died. There is +a sphinx upon it, however, mighty clearly expressed; and some one said, +how strange it was, if the world was no older than we think it, that +they should, in so early a stage of existence, represent, or even +imagine to themselves a compound animal[AG]: though the chimaera came in +play when the world was pretty young too, and the Prophet Isaiah speaks +of centaurs; but that was long after even Hesiod's time. + +[Footnote AG: The ornaments of the ark and tabernacle exhibit much +improvement in the arts of engraving, carving, &c. Nor did it seem to +cost Aaron any trouble to make a cast of Apis in the Wilderness for the +Israelites' amusement, 1491 years before Christ; while the dog Anubis +was probably another figure with which Moses was not unacquainted, and +that was certainly composite: a cynopephalus I believe.] + +A modern traveller has however, with much ingenuity of conjecture, given +us an excellent reason why the Sphinx was peculiar to Egypt, as the +Nile was observed to overflow when the sun was in those signs of the +Zodiack: + + The lion virgin Sphinx, which shows + What time the rich Nile overflows. + +And sure I think, as people lived longer then than they do now; as Moses +was contemporary with Cecrops, so that monarchy and a settled form of +government had begun to obtain footing in Greece, and apparently +migrated a little westward even then; that this column might have +employed the artists of those days, without any such exceeding stretch +of probability as our modern Aristotelians study to make out, from their +zeal to establish his doctrine of the world's eternity. While, if +conjecture were once as liberally permitted to believers as it is +generously afforded to scepticks, I know not whether a hint concerning +Sphinx's original might not be deduced from old Israel's last blessing +to his sons; _The lion of Judah_, with the _head of a virgin_, in whose +offspring that lion was one day to sink and be lost, except his hinder +parts; might naturally enough grow into a favourite emblem among the +inhabitants of a nation who owed their existence to one of the family; +and who would be still more inclined to commemorate the mystical +blessing, if they observed the fructifying inundation to happen +regularly, as Mr. Savary says, when the Sun left Leo for Virgo. + +The broken pillar has however carried me too far perhaps, though every +day passed in the Pope's Musaeum confirms my belief, nay certainty, that +they did mingle the veneration of Joseph with that of their own gods: +The bushel or measure of corn on the Egyptian Jupiter's head is a proof +of it, and the name _Serapis_, a further corroboration: the dream which +he explained for Pharaoh relative to the event that fixed his favour in +that country, was expressed by _cattle_; and _for apis_, the _ox's +head_, was perfectly applicable to him for every reason. + +But we will quit mythology for the Corso. This is the first town in +Italy I have arrived at yet, where the ladies fairly drive up and down a +long street by way of shewing their dress, equipages, &c. without even a +pretence of taking fresh air. At Turin the view from the place destined +to this amusement, would tempt one out merely for its own sake; and at +Milan they drive along a planted walk, at least a stone's throw beyond +the gates. Bologna calls its serious inhabitants to a little rising +ground, whence the prospect is luxuriantly verdant and smiling. The +Lucca bastions are beyond all in a peculiar style of miniature beauty; +and even the Florentines, though lazy enough, creep out to Porto St. +Gallo. But here at Roma la Santa, the street is all our Corso; a fine +one doubtless, and called the _Strada del Popolo_, with infinite +propriety, for except in that strada there is little populousness enough +God knows. Twelve men to a woman even there, and as many ecclesiastics +to a lay-man: all this however is fair, when celibacy is once enjoined +as a duty in one profession, encouraged as a virtue in all. Where +females are superfluous, and half prohibited, it were as foolish to +complain of the decay of population, as it was comical in Omai the South +American savage, when he lamented that no cattle bred upon their island; +and one of our people replying, That they left some beasts on purpose to +furnish them; he answered, "Yes, but the idol worshipped at Bola-bola, +another of the islands, insisted on the males and females living +separate: so they had sent _him_ the cows, and kept only the bulls at +home." + +_Au reste_, as the French say, we must not be too sure that all who +dress like Abates are such. Many gentlemen wear black as the court garb; +many because it is not costly, and many for reasons of mere convenience +and dislike of change. + +I see not here the attractive beauty which caught my eye at Venice; but +the women at Rome have a most Juno-like carriage, and fill up one's idea +of Livia and Agrippina well enough. The men have rounder faces than one +sees in other towns I think; bright, black, and somewhat prominent eyes, +with the finest teeth in Europe. A story told me this morning struck my +fancy much; of an herb-woman, who kept a stall here in the market, and +who, when the people ran out flocking to see the Queen of Naples as she +passed, began exclaiming to her neighbours--"_Ah, povera Roma! tempo fu +quando passo qui prigioniera la regina Zenobia; altra cosa amica, robba +tutta diversa di questa_ reginuccia[AH]!" + +[Footnote AH: "Ah, poor degraded Rome! time was, my dear, when the great +Zenobia passed through these streets in chains; anotherguess figure from +this little Queeney, in good time!"] + +A characteristic speech enough; but in this town, unlike to every other, +the _things_ take my attention all away from the _people_; while, in +every other, the people have had much more of my mind employed upon +them, than the things. + +The arch of Constantine, however, must be spoken of; the sooner, because +there is a contrivance at the top of it to conceal musicians, which +added, as it passed, to the noise and gaiety of the triumph. Lord +Scarsdale's back front at Keddlestone exhibits an imitation of this +structure; a motto, expressive of hospitality, filling up the part +which, in the original, is adorned with the siege of Verona, that to me +seems well done; but Michael Angelo carried off Trajan's head they tell +us, which had before been carried thither from the arch of Trajan +himself. The arch of Titus Vespasian struck me more than all the others +we have named though; less for its being the first building in which the +Composite order of architecture is made use of, among the numberless +fabrics that surround one, than for the evident completion of the +prophecies which it exhibits. Nothing can appear less injured by time +than the bas-reliefs, on one side representing the ark, and golden +candlesticks; on the other, Titus himself, delight of human kind, drawn +by four horses, his look at once serene and sublime. The Jews cannot +endure, I am told, to pass under this arch, so lively is the +_annihilation_ of their government, and utter _extinction_ of their +religion, carved upon it. When reflecting on the continued captivity +they have suffered ever since this arch was erected here at Rome, and +which they still suffer, being strictly confined to their own miserable +Ghetto, which they dare not leave without a mark upon their hat to +distinguish them, and are never permitted to stir without the walls, +except in custody of some one whose business it is to bring them back; +when reflecting, I say, on their sorrows and punishments, one's heart +half inclines to pity their wretchedness; the dreadful recollection +immediately crosses one, that these are the direct and lineal progeny of +those very Jews who cried out aloud--"_Let his blood be upon us, and +upon our children!_"--Unhappy race! how sweetly does St. Austin say of +them--"_Librarii nostri facti sunt, quemadmodum solent libros post +dominos ferre_." + +The _arca degli orefici_ is a curious thing too, and worth observing: +the goldsmiths set it up in honour of Caracalla and Geta; but one +plainly discerns where poor Geta's head has been carried off in one +place, his figure broken in another, apparently by Caracalla's order. +The building is of itself of little consequence, but as a confirmation +of historical truth. + +The fountains of Rome should have been spoken of long ago; the number of +them is known to all though, and of their magnificence words can give no +idea. One print of the Trevi is worth all the words of all the +describers together. Moses striking the rock, at another fountain, where +water in torrents tumble forth at the touch of the rod, has a glorious +effect, from the happiness of the thought, and an expression so suitable +to the subject. When I was told the story of Queen Christina admiring +the two prodigious fountains before St. Peter's church, and begging that +they might leave off playing, because she thought them occasional, and +in honour of her arrival, not constant and perpetual; who could help +recollecting a similar tale told about the Prince of Monaco, who was +said to have expressed his concern, when he saw the roads lighted up +round London, that our king should put himself to so great an expence on +his account--in good time!--thinking it a temporary illumination made to +receive him with distinguished splendour. These anecdotes are very +pretty now, if they are strictly true; because they shew the mind's +petty but natural disposition, of reducing and attributing all _to +self_: but if they are only inventions, to raise the reputation of +London lamps, or Roman cascades, one scorns them;--I really do hope, and +half believe, that they are true. + +But I have been to see the two Auroras of Guido and Guercino. Villa +Ludovisi contains the last, of which I will speak first for forty +reasons--the true one because I like it best. It is so sensible, so +poetical, so beautiful. The light increases, and the figure advances to +the fancy: one expects Night to be waked before one looks at her again, +if ever one can be prevailed upon to take one's eyes away. The bat and +owl are going soon to rest, and the lamp burns more faintly as when day +begins to approach. The personification of Night is wonderfully hit off. +But Guercino is _such_ a painter! We were driving last night to look at +the Colisseo by moon-light--there were a few clouds just to break the +expanse of azure and shew the gilding. I thought how like a sky of +Guercino's it was; other painters remind one of nature, but nature when +most lovely makes one think of Guercino and his works. The Ruspigliosi +palace boasts the Aurora of Guido--both are ceilings, but this is not +rightly named sure. We should call it the Phoebus, for Aurora holds only +the second place at best: the fun is driving over her almost; it is a +more luminous, a more graceful, a more showy picture than the other, +more universal too, exciting louder and oftener repeated praises; yet +the other is so discriminated, so tasteful, so classical! We must go see +what Domenichino has done with the same subject. + +I forget the name of the palace where it is to be admired: but had we +not seen the others, one should have said this was divine. It is a +Phoebus again, _this_ is; not a bit of an Aurora: and Truth is springing +up from the arms of Time to rejoice in the sun's broad light. Her +expression of transport at being set free from obscurity, is happy in +an eminent degree; but there are faults in her form, and the Apollo has +scarcely dignity enough in _his_. The horses are best in Guide's +picture: Aurora at the Villa Ludovisi has but two; they are very +spirited, but it is the spirit of three, not six o'clock in a summer +morning. Surely Thomson had been living under these two roofs when he +wrote such descriptions as seem to have been made on purpose for them; +could any one give a more perfect account of Guercino's performance than +these words afford? + + The meek-ey'd morn appears, mother of dews, + At first faint-gleaming in the dappled East + Till far o'er aether spreads the widening glow, + And from before the lustre of her face + White break the clouds away: with quicken'd step + Brown Night retires, young Day pours in apace + And opens all the lawny prospect wide. + +As for the Ruspigliosi palace I left these lines in the room, written by +the same author, and think them more capable than any description I +could make, of giving some idea of Guido's Phoebus. + + While yonder comes the powerful King of Day + Rejoicing in the East; the lessening cloud, + The kindling azure, and the mountains brow + Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach + Betoken glad; lo, now apparent all + He looks in boundless majesty abroad, + And sheds the shining day. + +So charming Thomson wrote from his lodgings at a milliner's in +Bond-street, whence he seldom rose early enough to see the sun do more +than glisten on the opposing windows of the street: but genius, like +truth, cannot be kept down. So he wrote, and so they painted! _Ut +pictura poesis_. + +The music is not in a state so capital as we left it in the north of +Italy; we regret Nardini of Florence, Alessandri of Venice, and Ronzi of +Milan; and who that has heard Signior Marchesi sing, could ever hear a +successor (for rival he has none), without feeling total indifference to +all their best endeavours? + +The conversations of Cardinal de Bernis and Madame de Boccapaduli are +what my countrywomen talk most of; but the Roman ladies cannot endure +perfumes, and faint away even at an artificial rose. I went but once +among them, when Memmo the Venetian ambassador did me the honour to +introduce me _somewhere_, but the conversation was soon over, not so my +shame; when I perceived all the company shrink from me very oddly, and +stop their noses with rue, which a servant brought to their assistance +on open salvers. I was by this time more like to faint away than +they--from confusion and distress; my kind protector informed me of the +cause; said I had some grains of marechale powder in my hair perhaps, +and led me out of the assembly; to which no intreaties could prevail on +me ever to return, or make further attempts to associate with a delicacy +so very susceptible of offence. + +Mean time the weather is exceedingly bad, heavy, thick, and foggy as our +own, for aught I see; but so it was at Milan too I well remember: one's +eye would not reach many mornings across the Naviglio that ran directly +under our windows. For fine bright Novembers we must go to +Constantinople I fancy; certain it is that Rome will not supply them. + +What however can make these Roman ladies fly from _odori_ so, that a +drop of lavenderwater in one's handkerchief, or a carnation in one's +stomacher, is to throw them all into, convulsions thus? Sure this is the +only instance in which they forbear to _fabbricare fu +l'antico_[Footnote: Build upon the old foundations.], in their own +phrase: the dames, of whom Juvenal delights to tell, liked perfumes well +enough if I remember; and Horace and Martial cry "_Carpe rosas_" +perpetually. Are the modern inhabitants still more refined than _they_ +in their researches after pleasure? and are the present race of ladies +capable of increasing, beyond that of their ancestors, the keenness of +any corporeal sense? I should think not. Here are however amusements +enough at Rome without trying for their conversations. + +The Barberini palace, whither I carried a distracting tooth-ach, amused +even that torture by the variety of its wonders. The sleeping faun, +praised on from century to century, and never yet praised enough; so +drunk, so fast asleep, so like a human body! Modesty reproving Vanity, +by Leonardo da Vinci, so totally beyond my expectation or comprehension, +great! wise! and fine! Raphael's Mistress, painted by himself, and +copied by Julio Romano; this picture gives little satisfaction though +except from curiosity gratified, the woman is too coarse. Guido's +Magdalen up stairs, the famous Magdalen, effacing every beauty, of +softness mingled with distress. A St. John too, by dear Guercino, +transcendent! but such was my anguish the very rooms turned round: I +must come again when less ill I believe. + +Nothing can equal the nastiness at one's entrance to this magazine of +perfection: but the Roman nobles are not disgusted with _all sorts_ of +scents it is plain; these are not what we should call perfumes indeed, +but certainly _odori_: of the same nature as those one is obliged to +wade through before Trajan's Pillar can be climbed. + +That the general appearance of a city which contains such treasures +should be mean and disgusting, while one literally often walks upon +granite, and tramples red porphyry under one's feet, is one of the +greatest wonders to me, in a town of which the wonders seem innumerable: +that it should be nasty beyond all telling, all endurance, with such +perennial streams of the purest water liberally dispersed, and +triumphantly scattered all over it, is another unfathomable wonder: that +so many poor should be suffered to beg in the streets, when not a hand +can be got to work in the fields, and that those poor should be +permitted to exhibit sights of deformity and degradations of our species +to me unseen till now, at the most solemn moments, and in churches where +silver and gold, and richly-arrayed priests, scarcely suffice to call +off attention from their squallid miseries, I do not try to comprehend. +That the palaces which taste and expence combine to decorate should look +quietly on, while common passengers use their noble vestibules, nay +flairs, for every nauseous purpose; that princes whose incomes equal +those of our Dukes of Bedford and Marlborough, should suffer their +servants to dress other men's dinners for hire, or lend out their +equipages for a day's pleasuring, and hang wet rags out of their palace +windows to dry, as at the mean habitation of a pauper; while looking in +at those very windows, nothing is to be seen but proofs of opulence, and +scenes of splendour, I will not undertake to explain; sure I am, that +whoever knows Rome, will not condemn this _ebauche_ of it. + +When I spoke of their beggars, many not unlike Salvator Rosa's Job at +the Santa Croce palace, I ought not to have omitted their eloquence, and +various talents. We talked to a lame man one day at our own door, whose +account of his illness would not have disgraced a medical professor; so +judicious were his sentiments, so scientific was his discourse. The +accent here too is perfectly pleasing, intelligible, and expressive; and +I like their _cantilena_ vastly. + +The excessive lenity of all Italian states makes it dangerous to live +among them; a seeming paradox, yet certainly most true; and whatever is +evil in this way at any other town, is worst at Rome; where those who +deserve hanging, enjoy almost a moral certainty of never being hanged; +so unwilling is everybody to detect the offender, and so numerous the +churches to afford him protection if found out. + +A man asked importunately in our antichamber this morning for the +_padrone,_ naming no names, and our servants turned him out. He went +however only five doors, further, found a sick old gentleman sitting in +his lodging attended by a feeble servant, whom he bound, stuck a knife +in the master, rifled the apartments, and walked coolly out again at +noon-day: nor should we have ever heard of _such a trifle_, but that it +happened just by so; for here are no newspapers to tell who is murdered, +and nobody's pity is excited, unless for the malefactor when they hear +he is caught. + +But the Palazzo Farnese is a more pleasing speculation; the Hercules +faces us entering; Guglielmo della Porta made his legs I hear, and when +the real ones were found, _his were better:_ and Michael Angelo said, it +was not worth risquing the statue to try at restoring the old ones. +There is another Hercules stands near, as a foil to Glycon's, I suppose; +and the Italians tell you of our Mr. Sharp's acuteness in finding some +fault till then undiscovered, a very slight one though, with some of the +neck muscles: they tell it approvingly however, and make one admire +their candour, even beyond their Flora, who carries that in her +countenance which they possess in their hearts. Under a shed on the +right hand you find the famous groupe called Toro Farnese. It has been +touched and repaired, they tell you, till much of the spirit is lost; +but I did not miss it. The Bull and the Brothers are greatness itself; +but Dirce draws no compassion by her looks somehow, and the lady who +comes to her relief, seems too cold a spectatress of the scene. + +There were several broken statues in the place, and while my companions +were examining the groupe after I had done, the wench's conversation who +shewed it made my amusement: as we looked together at an Egyptian +_Isis_, or, as many call her, _the Ephesian Diana_, with a hundred +breasts, very hideous, and swathed about the legs like a mummy at Cairo, +or a baby at Rome, I said to the girl, "_They worshipped these filthy +things formerly before Jesus Christ came; but he taught us better_," +added I, "_and we are wiser now: how foolish was not it to pray to this +ugly stone_?"--"The people were _wickeder_ then, very likely;" replied +my friend the wench, "but I do not see that it _was foolish at all."_ + +Who says the modern Romans are degenerated? I swear I think them so like +their ancestors, that it is my delight to contemplate the resemblance. +A statue of a peasant carrying game at this very palace, is habited +precisely in the modern dress, and shews how very little change has yet +been made. The shoes of the low fellows too particularly attract my +notice: they exactly resemble the ancient ones, and when Persius +mentions his ploughman _peronatus arator_, one sees he would say so +to-day. + +The Dorian palace calls however, and people must give way to things +where the miraculous powers of Benvenuto Garofani are concerned; where +Lodovico Caracci exhibits a _testa del redentore_ beyond all praise, +uniting every excellence, and expressing every perfection; where, in the +deluge represented by Bonati, one sees the eagle drooping from a weight +of rain, majestic in his distress, and looking up to the luminous part +of the picture as if hoping to discover some ray of that sun he never +shall see again. How characteristic! how tasteful is the expression! The +famous Virgin and Child too, so often engraved and copied. + +I will run away from this Doria; it is too full of beauty--it dazzles: +and I will let them shew the pale green Gaspar Pouffins, so valuable, +so curious, to whom they please, while Nature and Claude content my +fancy and fill up every idea. + +At the Colonna palace what have I remarked? That it possesses the gayest +gallery belonging to any subject upon earth: one hundred and thirty-nine +feet long, thirty-four broad, and seventy high: profusely ornamented +with pillars, pictures, statues, to a degree of magnificence difficult +to express. The Herodias here by Guido, is the perfection of dancing +grace. No Frenchman enters the room that does not bear testimony to its +peculiar excellence. But here's Guercino's sweet returning Prodigal, and +here is a _Madonna disperata_ bursting as from a cavern to embrace the +body of her dead son and saviour.--Such a sky too! But it is treating +too theatrically a subject which impresses one more at last in the +simple _Pieta_[AI] d'Annibale Caracci at Palazzo Doria. + +[Footnote AI: The Christ in his mother's lap, after crucifixion, is +always called in Italy a _Pieta_.] + +One wonderfully-imagined picture by Andrea Sacchi, of Cain flying from +the sight of his murdered brother, shall alone detain me from mentioning +here at Rome what certainly would never have been thought on by +Englishmen had it remained at Windsor; no other than our old King +Charles's cabinet, sold to the Colonna family by Cromwell, and set about +in the old-fashioned way with gems, cameos, &c. one of which has been +stolen. + +And now to the Borghese, which I am told is for a time to finish my +fatigues, as after three days more we go to Naples. News perfectly +agreeable to me, who never have been well here for two hours together. + +All the great churches remain yet unvisited: they are to be taken at our +return in spring; mean while I will go see Mons Sacer in spite of +connoisseurship, though the place it seems is nothing, and the prospect +from it dull; but it produces thoughts, or what is next to +thought,--recollection of books read, and events related in one's early +youth, when names and stories make impression on a mind not yet hardened +by age, or contracted by necessary duty, so as no longer to receive with +equal relish the _tales of other times._ The lake too, with the floating +islands, should be mentioned; the colour of which is even blue with +venom, and left a brassy taste in my mouth for a whole day, after only +observing how it boiled with rage on dropping in a stone, and incrusted +a stick with its tartar in two minutes. One of our companions indeed +leaped upon the little spots of ground which float in it, and deserved +to feel some effect of his rashness; but it is sufficient to stand near, +I think; one scarcely can escape contagion. The sudden and violent +powers observable in this lake should at least check the computists from +thinking they can gather the world's age from its petrefactions. + +But we are called to the Vatican, where the Apollo, Laocoon, Antinous, +and Meleager, with others of less distinguished merit, suffer one to +think on nothing but themselves, and of the artists who framed such +models of perfection. Laocoon's agonies torment one. I was forced to +recollect the observation Dr. Moore says was first made by Mr. Locke, in +order to harden my heart against him who appears to feel only for +himself, when two such youths are expiring close beside him. But though +painting can do much, and sculpture perhaps more, at least one learns to +think so here at Rome, the comfort is, that poetry beats them both. +Virgil knew, and Shakespeare would have known, how to heighten even +this distress, by adding paternal anguish:--here is distress enough +however. + +Let us once more acknowledge the modesty and candour of Italians, when +we repeat what has been so often recorded, that Michael Angelo refused +adding the arm that was wanting to this chef d'oeuvre; and when +Bernini undertook the task, he begged it might remain always a different +colour, that he might not be suspected of hoping that his work could +ever lie confounded with that of the Greek artist. + +Such is not the spirit of the French: they have been always adding to +Don Quixote! a personage whose adventures were little likely to cross +one's fancy in the Vatican; but perfection is perfection. + +Here stands the Apollo though, in whom alone no fault has yet been +found. They tell you, he has just killed the serpent Python. "Let us beg +of him," says one of the company, "just to turn round and demolish those +cursed snakes which are devouring the poor old man and his boys yonder." +This was like the speech of _Marchez donc_ to the fine bronze horse +under the heavenly statue of Marcus Aurelius at the Capitol, and made me +hope that story might be true. It is the fashion for every body to go +see Apollo by torch light: he looks like _Phoebus_ then, the Sun's +bright deity, and seems to say to his admirers, as that Divinity does to +the presumptuous hero in Homer, + + Oh son of Tydeus, cease! be wise, and see + How vast the difference 'twixt the gods and thee. + +Indeed every body finds the remark obvious, that this statue is of +beauty and dignity beyond what human nature now can boast; and the +Meleager just at hand, with the Antinous, confirm it; for all elegance +and all expression, unpossessed by the Apollo, _they have_, while none +can miss the inferiority of their general appearance to his. + +The Musaeum Clementinum is altogether such though, that these singularly +excellent productions of art are only proper and well-adapted ornaments +of a gallery, so stately as, on the other hand, that noble edifice seems +but the due repository of such inhabitants. Never were place and +decorations so adapted: never perhaps was so refined a taste engaged on +subjects so worthy its exertion. The statues are disposed with a +propriety that charms one; the situation of the pillars so contrived, +the colours of them so chosen to carry the eye forward--not fatigue it; +the rooms so illuminated: Hagley park is not laid out with more +judicious attention to diversify, and relieve with various objects a +mind delighting in the contemplation of ornamented nature; than is the +Pope's Musaeum calculated to enchain admiration, and fix it in those +apartments where sublimity and beauty have established their residence; +and those would be worse than Goths, who could think of moving even an +old torso from the place where Pius Sextus has commanded it to remain. + +The other parts of this prodigious structure would take up one's life +almost to see completely, to remember distinctly, and to describe +accurately. When the reader recollects that St. Peter's, with all its +appurtenances, palace, library, musaeum, every thing that we include in +the word _Vatican_, is said by the Romans to occupy an equal quantity of +space, to that covered by the city of Turin: the assertion need not any +longer be thought hyperbolical. + +I will say no more about it till at our return from Naples we visit all +the churches. + +Vopiscus said, that the statues in his time at Rome out-numbered the +people; and I trust the remark is now almost doubly true, as every day +and hour digs up dead worthies, and the unwholesome weather must surely +send many of the living ones to their ancestors: upon the whole, the men +and women of Porphyry, &c. please me best, as they do not handle long +knives to so good an effect as the others do, "_qui aime bien a +s'egorger encore[Footnote: Who have still a taste to be cut-throats.],"_ +says a French gentleman of them the other day. There is however an air +of cheerfulness in the streets at a night among the poor, who fry fish, +and eat roots, sausages, &c. as they walk about gaily enough, and though +they quarrel too often, never get drunk at least. + +The two houses belonging to the Borghese family shall conclude my first +journey to Rome, and with that the first volume of my observations and +reflexions. + +Their town palace is a suite of rooms constructed like those at Wanstead +exactly; and where you turn at the end to come back by another suite, +you find two alabaster fountains of superior beauty, and two glass +lustres made in London, but never wiped since they left Fleet-street +certainly. They do not however _want_ cleaning as the fountains do; +which, by the extraordinary use made of them, give the whole palace an +offensive smell. + +Among the pictures here, the entombing our blessed Saviour by Rafaelle +is most praised: It is supposed indeed wholly inestimable, and I believe +is so, while Venus, binding Cupid's eyes, by Titian, engraved by +Strange, is possibly one of the pleasantest pictures in Rome. The Christ +disputing with the Doctors is inimitable, one of the wonderful works of +Leonardo da Vinci: but here is Domenichino's Diana among her nymphs, +very laboured, and very learned. Why did it put me in mind of Hogarth's +strolling actresses dressing in a barn? + +Villa Borghese presents more to one's mind at once than it will bear, +from the bas relief of Curtius over the door that faces you going in, to +the last gate of the garden you drive out at;--large as the saloon is +however, the figure of Curtius seems too near you; and the horse's hind +quarters are heavy, and ill-suited to the forehand; but here are men +and women enough, and odd things that are neither, at this house; so we +may let the horse of Curtius alone. + +Nothing can be gayer or more happily expressed in its way than the +Centaur, which Dr. Moore, like Dr. Young, finds _not_ fabulous; while +the brute runs away with the man, and Cupid keeps urging him forward. +The fawn nursing Bacchus when a baby, is another semi-human figure of +just and high estimation; and that very famous composition for which +Cavalier Bernini has executed a mattress infinitely softer to the eye +than any real one I ever found in _his_ country, has here an apartment +appropriated to itself. + +From monsters the eye turns of its own accord towards Nero, and here is +an incomparable one of about ten years old, in whose face I vainly +looked for the seeds of parricide, and murderous tyranny; but saw only a +sturdy boy, who might have been made an honest man perhaps, had not the +rod been spared by his old tutor, whose lenity is repaid by death here +in the next room. It is a relief to look upon the smiling Zingara; her +lively character is exquisitely touched, her face the only one perhaps +where Bernini could not go beyond the proper idea of arch waggery and +roguish cunning, adorned with beauty that must have rendered its +possessor, while living, irresistible. His David is scarcely young +enough for a ruddy shepherd swain; he seems too muscular, and confident +of his own strength; _this_ fellow could have worn Saul's armour well +enough. AEneas carrying his father, I understand, is by the other +Bernini; but the famous groupe of Apollo and Daphne is the work of our +Chevalier himself. + +There is a Miss Hillisberg, a dancer on the stage, who reminds every +body of this graceful statue, when theatrical distress drives her to +force expression: I mean the stage in Germany, not Rome, whence females +are excluded. But the vases in this Borghese villa! the tables! the +walls! the cameos stuck in the walls! the frames of the doors, all +agate, porphyry, onyx, or verd antique! the enormous riches contained in +every chamber, actually takes away my breath and leaves me stunned. Nor +are the gardens unbecoming or inadequate to the house, where on the +outside appear such bas-reliefs as would be treasured up by the +sovereigns of France or England, and shewn as valuable rarities. The +rape of Europa first; it is a beautiful antique. Up stairs you see the +rooms constantly inhabited; in the princess's apartment, her +chimney-piece is one elegant but solid amethyst: over the prince's bed, +which changes with the seasons, hangs a Ganymede painted by Titian, to +which the connoisseurs tell you no rival has yet been found. The +furniture is suitably magnificent in every part of the house, and our +English friends assured me, that they met the lady of it last night, +when one gentleman observing how pretty she was, another replied he +could not see her face for the dazzling lustre of her innumerable +diamonds, that actually by their sparkling confounded his sight, and +surrounded her countenance so that he could not find it. + +Among all the curiosities however belonging to this wealthy and +illustrious family, the single one most prized is a well-known statue, +called in Catalogues by the name of the Fighting Gladiator, but +considered here at Rome as deserving of a higher appellation. They now +dispute only what hero it can be, as every limb and feature is +expressive of a loftier character than the ancients ever bestowed in +sculpture upon those degraded mortals whom Pliny contemptuously calls +_Hordiarij_, and says they were kept on barley bread, with ashes given +in their drink to strengthen them. Indeed the statue of the expiring +Gladiator at the Capitol, his rope about his neck, and his unpitied +fate, marked strongly in his vulgar features, exhibits quite a separate +class in the variety of human beings; and though Faustina's favourite +found in the same collection was probably the showiest fellow then among +them, we see no marks of intelligent beauty or heroic courage in his +form or face, where an undaunted steadiness and rustic strength make up +the little merit of the figure. + +This charming statue of the prince Borghese is on the other hand the +first in Rome perhaps, for the distinguished excellencies of animated +grace and active manliness: his head raised, the body's attitude, not +studied surely, but the apparent and seemingly sudden effect of +patriotic daring. Such one's fancy forms young Isadas the Spartan; who, +hearing the enemy's approach while at the baths, starts off unmindful of +his own defenceless state, snatches a spear and shield from one he +meets, flies at the foe, performs prodigies of valour, is looked on by +both armies as a descended God, and returns home at last unhurt, to be +fined by the Ephori for breach of discipline, at the same time that a +statue was ordered to commemorate his exploits, and erected at the +state's expence. Monsignor Ennio Visconti, who saw that the figure +reminded me of this story, half persuaded himself for a moment that this +was the very Isadas; and that Jason, for whom he had long thought it +intended, was not young enough, and less likely to fight undefended by +armour against bulls, of whose fury he had been well apprised. Mr. +Jenkins recollected an antique ring which confirmed our new hypothesis, +and I remained flattered, whether they were convinced or no. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Observations and Reflections Made in +the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I, by Hester Lynch Piozzi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 16445.txt or 16445.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/4/16445/ + +Produced by Robert Connal, Mark Stewart and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +Produced from images generously made available by gallica +(Bibliotheque nationale de France) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + diff --git a/old/16445.zip b/old/16445.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b37a9e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/16445.zip |
