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diff --git a/7422-h/7422-h.htm b/7422-h/7422-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..060688a --- /dev/null +++ b/7422-h/7422-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9680 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!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" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Roman Holidays and Others, by W. D. Howells + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Roman Holidays and Others, by W. D. Howells + +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: Roman Holidays and Others + +Author: W. D. Howells + +Release Date: July 22, 2009 [EBook #7422] +Last Updated: February 25, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMAN HOLIDAYS AND OTHERS *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + + <p> + <br /><br /> <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-1.jpg" alt="01 Glimpse Outside of Modern Rome " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + <big>ROMAN HOLIDAYS</big> <br /> <br /> AND OTHERS + </h1> + <h2> + By W. D. Howells + </h2> + <h3> + ILLUSTRATED<br /> + </h3> + <h4> + HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS<br /> NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> Copyright, + 1908, by HARPER & BROTHERS.<br /> Copyright, 1908, by THE SUN PRINTING + AND PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION.<br /> Published October, 1908.<br /> + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>ROMAN HOLIDAYS AND OTHERS</b></big> + </a><br /><br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> I. UP AND DOWN MADEIRA. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> II. TWO UP-TOWN BLOCKS INTO SPAIN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> III. ASHORE AT GENOA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> IV. NAPLES AND HER JOYFUL NOISE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> V. POMPEII REVISITED </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> <big><b>VI. ROMAN HOLIDAYS</b></big> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> I. HOTELS, PENSIONS, AND APARTMENTS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> II. A PRAISE OF NEW ROME </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> III. THE COLOSSEUM AND THE FORUM </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> IV. THE ANGLO-AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE + SPANISH STEPS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> V. AN EFFORT TO BE HONEST WITH ANTIQUITY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> VI. PERSONAL RELATIONS WITH THE PAST </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> VII. CHANCES IN CHURCHES </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> VIII. A FEW VILLAS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> IX. DRAMATIC INCIDENTS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0017"> X. SEEING ROME AS ROMANS SEE US </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> XI. IN AND ABOUT THE VATICAN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0019"> XII. SUPERFICIAL OBSERVATIONS AND CONJECTURES + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> XIII. CASUAL IMPRESSIONS </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0021"> XIV. TIVOLI AND FRASCATI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> XV. A FEW REMAINING MOMENTS </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0023"> VII. A WEEK AT LEGHORN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> VIII. OVER AT PISA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0025"> IX. BACK AT GENOA </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> X. EDEN AFTER THE FALL </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>ILLUSTRATIONS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0001"> 01 Glimpse Outside of Modern Rome </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0002"> 02 Funchal Bay </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0003"> 03 Boats and Diving Boys, Funchal </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0004"> 04 Gibraltar from the Bay </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0005"> 05 Gibraltar from the Neutral Ground </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0006"> 06 Daughters of Climate Along the Riviera + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0007"> 07 Typical Monument in the Campo Santo </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0008"> 08 Naples and Her Joyful Noise </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0009"> 09 Out-door Life in Old Naples </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0010"> 10 Up-stairs Street in Old Naples </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0011"> 11 Naples and the Castel St. Elmo from The + Mole </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0012"> 12 Excavating at Pompeii </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0013"> 13 the Street of Tombs, Pompeii </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0014"> 14 the Capuchin Church, Rome </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0015"> 15 Glimpse Inside of Imperial Rome </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0016"> 16 Interior of Colosseum from the South </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0017"> 17 the Sacred Way Through The Forum </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0018"> 18 the Roman Forum </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0019"> 19 Spanish Steps </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0020"> 20 Toward the Pincian Hill </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0021"> 21 Sepulchre of Romulus, Forum </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0022"> 22 Trajan's Forum and Column </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0023"> 23 the Rostra in The Forum </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0024"> 24 the Mosaics Under The Capuchin Church </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0025"> 25 Santa Maria Sopra Minerva </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0026"> 26 Church Op Ara Coeli </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0027"> 27 Church of Santa Maggiore </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0028"> 28 Michelangelo's “moses” in San Pietro In + Vincoli </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0029"> 29 the Little Stadium With Its Gradines </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0030"> 30 Casino of the Villa Doria and Gardens </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0031"> 31 the Carnival (as It Once Was) </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0032"> 32 the Fountain of Trevi </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0033"> 33 Colonnade and Fountain at St. Peter's </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0034"> 34 Sistine Chapel, Vatican Palace </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0035"> 35 Piazza Del Popolo from the Pincian Hill + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0036"> 36 the Baths of Diocletian </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0037"> 37 Church of St. John Lateran and Lateran + Palace </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0038"> 38 Stairway and Fountain, Villa D'este </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0039"> 39 Villa Falconieri, Entrance, Frascati </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0040"> 40 in the Gardens of The Villa Falconieri + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0041"> 41 the Marble Faun </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0042"> 42 Marcus Aurelius With Out-stretched Arm + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0043"> 43 in the Villa Medici </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0044"> 44 the Baths of Caracalla </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0045"> 45 Piazza Victor Emanuel, Leghorn </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0046"> 46 the Canal at Leghorn </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0047"> 47 the Cathedral, Baptistery, and Leaning + Tower, Pisa </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0048"> 48 With Almost Any of My Backgrounds </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0049"> 49 Washing in the River, Genoa </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0050"> 50 Realistic Group in the Campo Santo </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0051"> 51 Monaco </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#linkimage-0052"> 52 the Casino, Monte Carlo </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + ROMAN HOLIDAYS AND OTHERS + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. UP AND DOWN MADEIRA. + </h2> + <p> + No drop-curtain, at any theatre I have seen, was ever so richly imagined, + with misty tops and shadowy clefts and frowning cliffs and gloomy valleys + and long, plunging cataracts, as the actual landscape of Madeira, when we + drew nearer and nearer to it, at the close of a tearful afternoon of + mid-January. The scenery of drop-curtains is often very boldly beautiful, + but here Nature, if she had taken a hint from art, had certainly bettered + her instruction. During the waits between acts at the theatre, while + studying the magnificent painting beyond the trouble of the orchestra, I + have been most impressed by the splendid variety which the artist had got + into his picture, where the spacious frame lent itself to his passion for + saying everything; but I remembered his thronging fancies as meagre and + scanty in the presence of the stupendous reality before me. I have, for + instance, not even mentioned the sea, which swept smoother and smoother in + toward the feet of those precipices and grew more and more trans-lucently + purple and yellow and green, while half a score of cascades shot straight + down their fronts in shafts of snowy foam, and over their pachydermatous + shoulders streamed and hung long reaches of gray vines or mosses. To the + view from the sea the island is all, with its changing capes and + promontories and bays and inlets, one immeasurable mountain; and on the + afternoon of our approach it was bestridden by a steadfast rainbow, of + which we could only see one leg indeed, but that very stout and athletic. + </p> + <p> + There were breadths of dark woodland aloft on this mountain, and terraced + vineyards lower down; and on the shelving plateaus yet farther from the + heights that lost themselves in the clouds there were scattered white + cottages; on little levels close to the sea there were set white villas. + These, as the ship coquetted with the vagaries of the shore, thickened + more and more, until after rounding a prodigious headland we found + ourselves in face of the charming little city of Funchal: long horizontal + lines of red roofs, ivory and pink and salmon walls, evenly fenestrated, + with an ancient fortress giving the modern look of things a proper + mediaeval touch. Large hotels, with the air of palaces, crowned the upland + vantages; there were bell-towers of churches, and in one place there was a + wide splotch of vivid color from the red of the densely flowering creeper + on the side of some favored house. There was an acceptable expanse of warm + brown near the quay from the withered but unfailing leaves of a + sycamore-shaded promenade, and in the fine roadstead where we anchored + there lay other steamers and a lead-colored Portuguese war-ship. I am not + a painter, but I think that here are the materials of a water-color which + almost any one else could paint. In the hands of a scene-painter they + would yield a really unrivalled drop-curtain. I stick to the notion of + this because when the beautiful goes too far, as it certainly does at + Madeira, it leaves you not only sated but vindictive; you wish to mock it. + </p> + <p> + The afternoon saddened more and more, and one could not take an interest + in the islanders who came out in little cockles and proposed to dive for + shillings and sixpences, though quarters and dimes would do. The company's + tender also came out, and numbers of passengers went ashore in the mere + wantonness of paying for their dinner and a night's lodging in the annexes + of the hotels, which they were told beforehand were full. The lights began + to twinkle from the windows of the town, and the dark fell upon the + insupportable picturesqueness of the prospect, leaving one to a gayety of + trooping and climbing lamps which defined the course of the streets. + </p> + <p> + The morning broke in sunshine, and after early breakfast the launches + began to ply again between the ship and the shore and continued till + nearly all the first and second cabin people had been carried off. The + people of the steerage satisfied what longing they had for strange sights + and scenes by thronging to the sides of the steamer until they gave her a + strong list landward, as they easily might, for there were twenty-five + hundred of them. At Madeira there is a local Thomas Cook & Son of + quite another name, but we were not finally sure that the alert youth on + the pier who sold us transportation and provision was really their agent. + However, his tickets served perfectly well at all points, and he was of + such an engaging civility and personal comeliness that I should not have + much minded their failing us here and there. He gave the first + charming-touch of the Latin south whose renewed contact is such a pleasure + to any one knowing it from the past. All Portuguese as Funchal was, it + looked so like a hundred little Italian towns that it seemed to me as if I + must always have driven about them in calico-tented bullock-carts set on + runners, as later I drove about Eunchal. + </p> + <p> + It was warm enough on the ship, but here in the town we found ourselves in + weather that one could easily have taken for summer, if the inhabitants + had not repeatedly assured us that it was the season of winter, and that + there were no flowers and no fruits. They could not, if they had wished, + have denied the flies; these, in a hotel interior to which we penetrated, + simply swarmed. If it was winter in Funchal it was no wintrier than early + autumn would have been in one of those Italian towns of other days; it had + the same temperament, the same little tree-planted spaces, the same + devious, cobble-paved streets, the same pleasant stucco houses; the + churches had bells of like tone, and if their facades confessed a Spanish + touch they were not more Spanish than half the churches in Naples. The + public ways were of a scrupulous cleanliness, as if, with so many English + signs glaring down at them, they durst not untidy out-of-doors, though + in-doors it was said to be different with them. There are three thousand + English living at Funchal and everybody speaks English, however slightly. + The fresh faces of English girls met us in the streets and no doubt + English invalids abound. + </p> + <p> + We shipmates were all going to the station of the funicular railway, but + our tickets did not call for bullock-sleds and so we took a clattering + little horse-car, which climbed with us through up-hill streets and got us + to the station too soon. Within the closed grille there the handsomest of + swarthy, black-eyed, black-mustached station-masters (if such was his + quality) told us that we could not have a train at once, though we had + been advised that any ten of us could any time have a train, because the + cars had all gone up the mountain and none would be down for twenty + minutes. He spoke English and he mitigated by a most amiable personality + sufferings which were perhaps not so great as we would have liked to + think. Some of us wandered off down a pink-and-cream colored avenue near + by and admired so much the curtains of red-and-yellow flowers—a + cross between honeysuckles and trumpet blossoms—overhanging a + garden-wall that two friendly boys began to share our interest in them. + One of them mounted the other and tore down handfuls of the flowers, which + they bestowed upon us with so little apparent expectation of reward that + we promptly gave them of the international copper coinage current in + Madeira, and went back to the station doubtless feeling guiltier than + they. Had we not been accessory after the fact to something like theft + and, as it was Sunday, to Sabbath-breaking besides? Afterward flowers + proved so abundant in Madeira in spite of its being winter, that we could + not feel the larceny a serious one, and the Sunday was a Latin Sabbath + well used to being broken. The pony engine which was to push our slanting + car over the cogged track up the mountain arrived with due ceremony of + bell and whistle, and we were let through the grille by the station-master + as politely as if we had been each his considered guest. Then the climb + began through the fields of sugar-cane, terraced vineyards, orchards of + fruit trees, and gardens of vegetables planted under the arbors over which + the grapes were trained. One of us told the others that the vegetables + were sheltered to save them from being scorched by the summer sun, and + that much of the work among them was done by moonlight to save the + laborers from the same fate. I do not know how he had amassed this + knowledge, and I am not sure that I have the right to impart it without + his leave. I myself saw some melons lolling on one of the tiled roofs of + the cottages where they had perhaps been pushed by the energetic forces of + the earth and sky. The grape-vines were quiescent, partly because it was + winter, as everybody said, and partly because the wine culture is no + longer so profitable in the island. It has been found for the moment that + Madeira is bad for the gout, and this discovery of the doctors is bad for + the peasants (already cruelly overtaxed by Portugal), who are leaving + their homes in great numbers and seeking their fortunes in both of the + Americas, as well as the islands of all the seas. It must be a heartbreak + for them to forsake such homes as we saw in the clean white cottages, with + the balconies and terraces. + </p> + <p> + But there were no signs of depopulation either of old or young. Smiling + mothers and fathers of all ages, in their Sunday leisure and their Sunday + best, watched our ascent as if they had never seen the like before, and + our course was never so swift but we could be easily overtaken by the + children; they embarrassed us with the riches of the camellias which they + flung in upon us, and they were accompanied by small dogs which barked + excitedly. Our train almost grazed the walls of the door-yards as we + passed through the succession of the one- and two-story cottages, which + dotted the mountain-side in every direction. When the eye could leave them + it was lured from height to height, and at each rise of the track to some + wider and lovelier expanse of the sea. We could see merely our own steamer + in the roadstead, with the Portuguese war-ship, and the few other vessels + at anchor, but we could never exhaust the variety of those varied mountain + slopes and tops. Their picturesqueness of form and their delight of color + would beggar any thesaurus of its descriptive reserves, and yet leave + their beauty almost unhinted. A drop-curtain were here a vain simile; the + chromatic glories of colored postal-cards might suggest the scene, but + then again they might overdo it. Nature is modest in her most magnificent + moods, and I do not see how she could have a more magnificent mood than + Madeira. It can never be represented by my art, but it may be measurably + stated: low lying sea; the town scattering and fraying everywhere into + outlying hamlets, villas and cottages; steep rising upon steep, till they + reach uninhabitable climaxes where the woods darken upward into the + everlasting snows, in one whole of grandeur resuming in its unity every + varying detail. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-2.jpg" alt="02 Funchal Bay " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + I dwell rather helplessly upon the scenery, because it was what we + professedly went up or half up, or one-tenth or-hundredth up, the mountain + for. Un-professedly we went up in order to come down by the toboggan of + the country, though we vowed one another not to attempt anything so mad. + In the meanwhile, before it should be time for lunch, we could walk up to + a small church near the station and see the people at prayer in an + interior which did not differ in bareness and tawdriness from most other + country churches of the Latin south, though it had a facade so + satisfyingly Spanish, because I suppose it was so perfectly Portuguese, + that heart could ask no more. Not all the people were at prayer within; + irregular files of them attended our progress to give us the opportunity + of doing charity. The beggars were of every sort, sex, and age, and some, + from the hands they held out, with fingers reduced to their last joints, + looked as if they might be lepers, but I do not say they were. What I am + sure of is that the faces of the worshippers—men, women, and + children—when they came out of the church were of a gentleness + which, if it was not innocence and goodness, might well have passed for + those virtues. They had kind eyes, which seemed as often blue as black, + and if they had no great beauty they were seldom quite ugly. I wish I + could think we strangers, as they gazed curiously, timorously at us, + struck them as favorably. + </p> + <p> + An involuntary ferocity from the famine which we began to feel may have + glared from our visages, for we had eaten nothing for three hours, which + was long for saloon passengers. At the first restaurant which we found, + and in which we all but sat down at table, our coupons were not good, but + this was not wholly loss, for we recouped ourselves in the beauties of the + walk on which we wandered along the mountain-side to the right of the + restaurant. At the point where we were no longer confident of our way an + opportune native appeared and Jed us over paths paved with fine pebbles, + sometimes wrought into geometric patterns, and always through pleasing sun + and shade, till we reached a pretty hotel set, with its gardens before it, + on a shelf of level land and commanding a view of our steamer and the + surrounding sea. Tropic growths, which I will venture to call myrtle, + oleander, laurel, and eucalyptus, environed the hotel, not too closely nor + densely, and our increasing party was presently discovered from the head + of its steps by a hospitable matron, who with a cry of comprehensive + welcome ran within and was replaced by a head-waiter of as friendly aspect + and much more English. He said our coupons were good there and that our + luncheon would be ready in two minutes; for proof of the despatch with + which we should be served he held up the first and second fingers of his + right hand. Restored by his assurance, we did not really mind waiting + twice the tale of all his ten fingers, and we spent our time variously in + wandering about the plateau, among the wonted iron tables and chairs in + front of the hotel, in being photographed in a fairy grotto behind it, and + in examining the visitors' book in the parlor. The names of visitors from + South Africa largely prevailed, for the Cape Town steamers, oftener than + any others, touch at Madeira, but there was one traveller of Portuguese + race who had written his name in bold characters above the cry, “Long live + the Portuguese Republic.” Soon after the Portuguese monarchy ceased to + live for a time in the person of the murdered king and his heir, but it is + doubtful if the health of the potential republic was as great as before. + </p> + <p> + That bright Sunday morning no shadow of the black event was forecast, and + we gave our unstinted sympathy to our unknown co-republican. The luncheon, + when we were called to it, had merits of novelty and quality which I will + celebrate only as regards the delicate fish fresh from the sea, and the + pease fresh from the garden, with poached eggs fresh from the coop dropped + upon them. The conception of chops which followed was not so faultless, + though the fruit with which we ended did much to repair any error of kid + which may have mistaken itself for lamb. Perhaps our enthusiasm was + heightened by the fine air which had sharpened our appetites. At any rate, + it all ended in an habitual transaction in real estate by which I became + the owner of the place, without expropriating the actual possessor, and + established there those castles in Spain belonging to me in so many parts + of the world. + </p> + <p> + There remained now nothing for us to do but to toboggan down the mountain, + and we overcame our resolution not to do so far enough to go and look at + the toboggans under the guidance of our head-waiter. When once we had + looked we were lost. The toboggans were flat baskets set on iron-shod + runners, and well cushioned and padded; they held one, two, or three + passengers; the track on which they descended was paved, in gentle + undulations, with thin pebbles set on edge and greased wherever the + descent found a level. A smiling native, with a strong rope attached to + the toboggan, stood on each side of it, and held it back or pulled it + forward, according to the exigencies of the case. It is long since I slid + down hill on a sled of my own, and I do not pretend to recall the + sensation; but I can remember nothing so luxurious in transportation as + the swift flight of the Madeira toboggan, which you temper at will through + its guides and guards, but do not wish to temper at all when your first + alarm, mainly theoretical, passes into the gayety ending in exultant + rejoicing at the bottom of the course. + </p> + <p> + Our two toboggan men were possibly vigilant and reassuring beyond the + common, but one was quite silently so; the other, who spoke a little + English, encouraged us from time to time to believe that they were “strong + mans,” afterward correcting himself in conformity to the rules of + Portuguese grammar, which make the adjective agree in number with the + noun, and declaring that they were “strongs mans.” We met many toboggan + men who needed to be “strongs mans” in their ascent of our track, with + their heavy toboggans on their heads; but some of them did not look + strong, and our own arrived spent and panting at the bottom. Something + like that is what always spoils pleasure in this world. Even when you have + paid for it with your money, some one else has paid with his person twice + as much, and you have not equalled his outlay when you have tipped him + your handsomest. + </p> + <p> + A shilling apiece seemed handsome for those “strongs mans,” but afterward + there were watches of the nights when the spirit grieved that the shilling + had not been made two apiece or even half a crown, and I wish now that the + first reader of mine who toboggans down Madeira would make up the + difference for me in his tip to those poor fellows. I do not mind if he + adds a few pennies for the children who ran before our toboggan and tossed + camellias into it, and then followed in the hopes of a reward, which we + tried not to disappoint. + </p> + <p> + The future traveller need not add to the fee of the authorized and + numbered guide who took possession of us as soon as we got out of our + basket and led us unresisting to a waiting bullock sled. He invited + himself into it, and gave himself the best of characters in the + autobiography into which he wove his scanty instruction concerning the + objects we passed. A bullock sled is not of such blithe progress as a + toboggan, but it is very comfortable, and it is of an Oriental and + litter-like dignity, with its calico cushions and curtains. One could not + well use it in New York, but it serves every purpose of a cab in Funchal, + where we noted a peculiar feature of local commerce which I hesitate to + specify, since it cast apparent discredit upon woman. It was, as I have + noted, Sunday; but every shop where things pleasing or even useful to + women were sold was wide open, and somewhat flaringly invited the custom + of our fellow-passengers of that sex; but there was not a shop where such + things as men's collars were for sale, or anything pleasing or useful to + man, but was closed and locked fast. I must except from this sweeping + statement the cafes, but these should not count, for women as well as men + frequented them, as we ascertained by going to a very bowery one on the + quay and ordering a bottle of the best and dryest Madeira. We wished + perhaps to prove that it was really not bad for gout, or perhaps that it + was no better than the Madeira you get in New York for the same price. + Even with the help of friends, of the sex which could have been freely + buying native laces, hats, fans, photographs, parasols, and tailor-made + dresses, we could not finish that bottle. Glass after glass we bestowed on + our smiling guide, with no final effect upon the bottle and none upon him, + except to make him follow us to the tender and take an after-fee for + showing us a way which we could not have missed blindfold. It was rather + strange, but not stranger than the behavior of the captain of the tender, + who, when he had collected our tickets, invited a free-will offering for + collecting them, and mostly got it. + </p> + <p> + When we were safely and gladly on board our steamer again, we had nothing + to do, until the deck-steward came round with tea, but watch the islanders + swarming around us in their cockles and diving for sixpences and + shillings, which they caught impartially with their fingers and toes. With + so many all shouting and gesticulating, one could not venture one's silver + indiscriminately; one must employ some particular diver, and I selected + for my investments a poor young fellow who had lost an arm. With his one + hand and his two feet he never failed of the coin I risked, and I wish + they had been many enough to enable him to retire from the trade, which + even in that mild air kept him visibly shivering when out of the water. I + do not know his name, but I commend him to future travellers by the token + of his pathetic mutilation. + </p> + <p> + By-and-by we felt the gentle stir of the steamer under us; the last tender + went ashore, and the divers retired in their cockles from our side. + Funchal began to rearrange the lines of her streets, while keeping those + of her roofs and house-walls and terraced gardens. We passed out of the + roadstead, we rounded the mighty headland by which we had entered, and + were once more in face of that magnificent drop-curtain, which had now + fallen upon one of the most vivid and novel passages of our lives. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-3.jpg" alt="03 Boats and Diving Boys, Funchal " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. TWO UP-TOWN BLOCKS INTO SPAIN + </h2> + <p> + There is nothing strikes the traveller in his approach to the rock of + Gibraltar so much as its resemblance to the trade-mark of the Prudential + Insurance Company. He cannot help feeling that the famous stronghold is + pictorially a plagiarism from the advertisements of that institution. As + the lines change with the ship's course, the resemblance is less + remarkable; but it is always remarkable, and I suppose it detracts + somewhat from the majesty of the fortress, which we could wish to be more + entirely original. This was my feeling when I first saw Gibraltar four + years ago, and it remains my feeling after having last seen it four weeks + ago. The eye seeks the bold, familiar legend, and one suffers a certain + disappointment in its absence. Otherwise Gibraltar does not and cannot + disappoint the most exacting tourist. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-4.jpg" alt="04 Gibraltar from the Bay " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + The morning which found us in face of it was in brisk contrast to the + bland afternoon on which we had parted from Madeira. No flocking coracles + surrounded our steamer, with crews eager to plunge into the hissing brine + for shillings or equivalent quarters. The whitecaps looked snow cold as + they tossed under the sharp north wind, and the tender which put us ashore + had all it could do to embark and disembark us upright, or even aslant. + But, once in the lee of the rocky Africa breathed a genial warmth across + the strait beyond which its summits faintly shimmered; or was it the + welcome of Cook's carriages which warmed us so? We were promised separate + vehicles for parties of three or four, with English-speaking drivers, and + the promise was fairly well kept. The carriages bore a strong family + likeness to the pictures of Spanish state coaches of the seventeenth + century, and were curtained and cushioned in reddish calico. Rubber tires + are yet unknown in southern Europe, and these mediaeval arks bounded over + the stones with a violence which must once have been characteristic of + those in the illustrations. But the English of our English-speaking driver + was all that we could have asked for the shillings we paid Cook for him, + or, if it was not, it was all we got. He was an energetic young fellow and + satisfyingly Spanish in coloring, but in his eagerness to please he was + less grave than I could now wish; I now wish everything in Spain to have + been in keeping. + </p> + <p> + What was most perfectly, most fittingly in keeping was the sight of the + Moors whom we began at once to see on the wharves and in the streets. They + probably looked very much like the Moors who followed their caliph, if he + was a caliph, into Spain when he drove Don Roderick out of his kingdom and + established his own race and religion in the Peninsula. Moslem costumes + can have changed very little in the last eleven or twelve hundred years, + and these handsome fellows, who had come over with fresh eggs and + vegetables and chickens and turkeys from Tangier, could not have been + handsomer when they bore scimitars and javelins instead of coops and + baskets. They had baggy drawers on, and brown cloaks, with bare, red legs + and yellow slippers; one, when he took his fez off, had a head shaved + perfectly bald, like the one-eyed Calender or the Barber's brother out of + the <i>Arabian Nights;</i> the sparse mustache and short-forked beard + heightened the verisimilitude. Whether they squatted on the wharf, or + passed gravely through the street, or waited for custom in their little + market among the hen-coops and the herds of rather lean, dispirited + turkeys (which had not the satisfaction of their American kindred in being + fattened for the sacrifice, for in Europe all turkeys are served lean), + these Moors had an allure impossible to any Occidental race. It was + greater even than that of their Semitic brethren, who had a market farther + up in the town, and showed that a Jewish market could be much filthier + than a' Moorish market without being more picturesque. Into the web of + Oriental life were wrought the dapper figures of the red-coated, + red-cheeked English soldiers, with blue, blue eyes and incredible red and + yellow hair, lounging or hurrying orderlies with swagger-sticks, and + apparently aimless privates no doubt bent 'upon quite definite business or + pleasure. Now and then an English groom led an English horse through the + long street from which the other streets in Gibraltar branch up and down + hill, for there is no other level; and now and then an English man or + woman rode trimly by. + </p> + <p> + The whole place is an incongruous mixture of Latin and Saxon. The strictly + South-European effect of the houses and churches is a mute protest against + the alien presence which keeps the streets so clean and maintains order by + means of policemen showing under the helmets of the London bobby the faces + of the native alguazil. In the shops the saleswomen speak English and look + Spanish. Our driver, indeed, looked more Spanish than he spoke English. + </p> + <p> + His knowledge of our rude tongue extended hardly beyond the mention of + certain conventional objects of interest, and did not suffice to explain + why we could not see the old disused galleries of the fortifications. I do + not know why we wished to see these; I doubt if we really did so, but we + embittered life for that well-meaning boy by our insistence upon them, and + we brought him under unjust suspicion of deceit by forcing him to a sort + of time-limit in respect to them. We appealed from him to the blandest of + black-mus-tached, olive-skinned bobby-alguazils, who directed us to a + certain government office for a permit. There our application caused + something like dismay, and we were directed to another office, but were + saved from the shame of failure by incidentally learning that the + galleries could not be seen till after three o'clock. As our ship sailed + at that hour, we were probably saved a life-long disappointment. + </p> + <p> + Everywhere the rock of the Prudential beetles and towers over the town; + but the fortifications are so far up in the sky that you can really + distinguish nothing but the Marconi telegraphic apparatus at the top. + Along the sea-level, which the town mostly keeps, the war-like harness of + the stronghold shows through the civil dress of the town in barracks and + specific forts and gray battle-ships lying at anchor in the docks. But all + is simple and reserved, in the right English fashion. The strength of the + place is not to be put forth till it is needed, which will be never, since + it is hard to imagine how it can ever be even attempted by a hostile + force. This is not saying, I hope, that an American fleet could not batter + it down, nor leave one letter of the insurance advertisement after another + on the face of the precipice. + </p> + <p> + There is a pretty public garden at Gibraltar in that part of the town + which is farthest from the steamer's landing, and this proved the end of + our excursion in our state coach. We found other state coaches there, and + joined their passengers in strolling over the pleasant paths and trying to + make out what bird it was singing somewhere in the trees. We made out an + almond-tree in bloom, after some dispute; and, in fact, the climate there + was much softer than at the landing, so insidiously soft that it required + great force of character to keep from buying the flowers which some + tasteful boys gathered from the public beds. There is a mild monument or + two in this garden, to what memories I promptly failed to remember + afterward; but as there are more military memories in the world than is + good for it, and as these were undoubtedly military memories, I cannot + much blame myself in the matter. After viewing them, there was nothing + left to do but to get lunch, which we got extremely good at the hotel + where a friend led us. There was at this hotel a head-waiter, in a + silver-braided silk dress-coat of a mauve color, who imagined our wants so + perfectly that I shall always regret not taking more of the omelette; the + table-waiter urged it upon us twice with true friendliness. The eggs must + have been laid for it in Africa that morning at daybreak, and brought over + by a Moorish marketman, but we turned from the poetic experience of this + omelette in the greedy hope of better things. Better things there could + not be, but the fish was as good as the fish at Madeira, and the belief of + the chops that they were lamb and not kid seemed better founded. + </p> + <p> + There had been an excellent bottle of Rioja Blanca, such as you may have + as good at some Spanish restaurant in New York for as little money; and + the lunch, when reckoned up in English shillings and Spanish undertones, + was not cheap. Yet it was not dear, either, and there was no specific + charge for that silver-braided dress-coat of a mauve color. An English + dean in full clericals, and some English ladies talking in the + waiting-room, added an agreeable confusion to our doubt of where and what + we were, and we came away from the hotel as well content as if we had + lunched in Plymouth or Bath. The table-waiter took an extra fee for + confiding that he was a Milanese, and was almost the only Italian in + Gibraltar; whether he was right or not I do not know, but it was certainly + not his fault that we did not take twice of the omelette. + </p> + <p> + It is said that living is dear in Gibraltar, especially in the matter of + house rent. The houses in the town are like all the houses of Latin Europe + in their gray or yellowish walls of stone or stucco and their dark-green + shutters. There is an English residential quarter at the east end of the + town, where the houses may be different, for all I know; the English of + our driver or the hire of our state coach did not enable us to visit that + suburb, where the reader may imagine villas standing in grounds with lawns + and gardens about them. The English have prevailed nothing against the + local civilization in most things, while they have infected it with the + costliness of the whole Anglo-Saxon life. We should not think seven + hundred dollars in New York dear for even a quite small house, but it has + come to that in Gibraltar, and there they think it dear, with other things + proportionately so. Of course, it is an artificial place; the fortress + makes the town, and the town in turn lives upon the fortress. + </p> + <p> + The English plant themselves nowhere without gathering English + conveniences or conventions about them; Americans would not always think + them comforts. There is at Gibraltar a club or clubs; there is a hunt, + there is a lending library, there is tennis, there is golf, there is + bridge, there is a cathedral, and I dare say there is gossip, but I do not + know it. It was difficult to get land for the golf links, we heard, + because of the Spanish jealousy of the English occupation, which they will + not have extended any farther over Spanish soil, even in golf links. + Gibraltar is fondly or whimsically known to the invaders as Gib, and I + believe it is rather a favorite sojourn, though in summer it is + frightfully hot, held out on the knees and insteps of the rock to the + burning African sun, which comes up every morning over the sea after + setting Sahara on fire. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-5.jpg" alt="05 Gibraltar from the Neutral Ground " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + All this foreign life must be exterior to the aboriginal Spanish life + which has so long outlasted the Moorish, and is not without hope of + outlasting the English. I do not know what the occupations and amusements + of that life are, but I will suppose them unworthy enough. There must be a + certain space of neutral life uniting or dividing the two, which would + form a curious inquiry, but would probably not lend itself to literary + study. Besides this middle ground there is another neutral territory at + Gibraltar which we traversed after luncheon, in order to say that we had + been in Spain. That was the country of many more youthful dreamers in my + time than, I fancy, it is in this. We used then, much more than now, to + read Washington Irving, his <i>Tales of the Alhambra,</i> and his history + of <i>The Conquest of Granada,</i> and we read Prescott's histories of + Spanish kings and adventures in the old world and the new. We read <i>Don + Quixote,</i> which very few read now, and we read <i>Gil Blas,</i> which + fewer still now read; and all these constituted Spain a realm of faery, + where every sort of delightful things did or could happen. I for my part + had always expected to go to Spain and live among the people I had known + in those charming books, yet I had been often in Europe, and had spent + whole years there without ever going near Spain. But now, I saw, was my + chance, and when the friend who had been lunching with us asked if we + would not like to drive across that neutral territory and go into Spain a + bit, it seemed as if the dream of my youth had suddenly renewed itself + with the purpose of coming immediately true. It was a charmingly + characteristic foretaste of Spanish travel that the driver of the state + coach which we first engaged should, when we presently came back, have + replaced himself by another for no other reason than, perhaps, that he + could so provide us with a worse horse. I am not sure of this theory, and + I do not insist upon it, but it seems plausible. + </p> + <p> + As soon as we rounded the rock of Gibraltar and struck across a flatter + country than I supposed could be found within fifty miles of Gibraltar, we + were swept by a blast which must have come from the Pyrenees, it was so + savagely rough and cold. It may be always blowing there as a Spanish + protest against the English treatment of the neutral territory; in fact, + it does not seem quite the thing to build over that space as the English + have done, though the structures are entirely peaceable, and it is not + strange that the Spaniards have refused to meet them half-way with a good + road over it, or to let them make one the whole way. They stand gravely + opposed to any further incursion. Officially in all the Spanish documents + the place is styled “Gibraltar, temporarily occupied by Great Britain,” + and there is a little town which you see sparkling in the sun no great way + off in Spain called San Roque, of which the mayor is also mayor of + Gibraltar; he visits his province once a year, and many people living for + generations over the Spanish line keep the keys of the houses that they + personally or ancestrally own in Gibraltar. The case has its pathos, but + as a selfish witness I wish they had let the English make that road + through the neutral territory. The present road is so bad that our state + coach, in bounding over its inequalities, sometimes almost flung us into + the arms of the Spanish beggars always extended toward us. They were + probably most of them serious, but some of the younger ones recognized the + <i>bouffe</i> quality of their calling. One pleasant starveling of ten or + twelve entreated us for bread with a cigarette in his mouth, and, being + rewarded for his impudence, entered into the spirit of the affair and + asked for more, just as if we had given nothing. + </p> + <p> + A squalid little town grew up out of the flying gravel as we approached, + and we left our state coach at the custom-house, which seemed the chief + public edifice. There the inspectors did not go through the form of + examining our hand-bags, as they would have done at an American frontier; + and they did not pierce our carriage cushions with the long javelins with + which they are armed for the detection of smuggling among the natives who + have been shopping in Gibraltar. As the gates of that town are closed + every day at nightfall by a patrol with drum and fife, and everybody is + shut either in or out, it may easily happen with shoppers in haste to get + through that they bring dutiable goods into Spain; but the official + javelins rectify the error. + </p> + <p> + We left our belongings in our state coach and started for that stroll in + Spain which I have measured as two up-town blocks, by what I think a + pretty accurate guess; two cross-town blocks I am sure it was not. It was + a mean-looking street, unswept and otherwise unkempt, with the usual + yellowish or grayish buildings, rather low and rather new, as if prompted + by a mistaken modern enterprise. They were both shops and dwellings; I am + sure of a neat pharmacy and a fresh-looking cafe restaurant, and one + dwelling all faced with bright-green tiles. An alguazil—I am certain + he was an alguazil, though he looked like an Italian carabiniere and wore + a cocked hat—loitered into a police station; but I remember no one + else during our brief stay in that street except those <i>bouffe</i> boy + beggars. Of course, they wished to sell us postal-cards, but they were + willing to accept charity on any terms. Otherwise our Spanish tour was, so + far as we then knew, absolutely without incident; but when we got too far + away to return we found that we had been among brigands as well as + beggars, and all the Spanish picaresque fiction seemed to come true in the + theft of a black chudda shawl, which had indeed been so often lost in + duplicate that it was time it was entirely lost. Whether it was secretly + confiscated by the customs, or was accepted as a just tribute by the + populace from a poetic admirer, I do not know, but I hope it is now in the + keeping of some dark-eyed Spanish girl, who will wear it while murmuring + through her lattice to her <i>novio</i> on the pavement outside. It was + rather heavy to be worn as a veil, but I am sure she could manage it after + dark, and <i>could</i> hold it under her chin, as she leaned forward to + the grille, with one little olive hand, so that the <i>novio</i> would + think it was a black silk mantilla. Or if it was a gift from him, it would + be all right, anyway. + </p> + <p> + Our visit to Spain did not wholly realize my early dreams of that romantic + land, and yet it had not been finally destitute of incident. Besides, <i>we</i> + had not gone very far into the country; a third block might have teemed + with adventure, but we had to be back on the steamer before three o'clock, + and we dared not go beyond the second. Even within this limit a love of + reality underlying all my love of romance was satisfied in the impression + left by that dusty, empty, silent street. It seemed somehow like the + street of a new, dreary, Western American town, so that I afterward could + hardly believe that the shops and restaurants had not eked out their + height with dashboard fronts. It was not a place that I would have chosen + for a summer sojourn; the sense of a fly-blown past must have become a + vivid part of future experience, and yet I could imagine that if one were + born to it, and were young and hopeful, and had some one to share one's + youth and hope, that Spanish street, which was all there was of that + Spanish town, might have had its charm. I do not say that even for age + there was not a railway station by which one might have got away, though + there was no sign of any trains arriving or departing—perhaps + because it was not one o'clock in the morning, which is the favorite hour + of departure for Spanish trains. + </p> + <p> + When we turned to drive back over the neutral territory the rock of + Gibraltar suddenly bulked up before us, in a sheer ascent that left the + familiar Prudential view in utterly inconspicuous unimpressive-ness. Till + one has seen it from this point one has not truly seen it. The vast stone + shows like a half from which the other half has been sharply cleft and + removed, that the sense of its precipitous magnitude may unrelievedly + strike the eye; and it seems to have in that moment the whole world to + tower up in from the level at its feet. No dictionary, however unabridged, + has language adequate to convey the notion of it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. ASHORE AT GENOA + </h2> + <p> + The pride of Americans in their native scenery is brought down almost to + the level of the South Shore of Long Island in arriving home from the + Mediterranean voyage to Europe. The last thing one sees in Europe is the + rock of Gibraltar, but before that there have been the snow-topped + Maritime Alps of Italy and the gray-brown, softly rounded, velvety heights + of Spain; and one has to think very hard of the Palisades above the point + where they have been blasted away for road-making material if one wishes + to keep up one's spirits. The last time I came home the Mediterranean way + I had a struggle with myself against excusing our sandy landscape, when we + came in sight of it, with its summer cottages for the sole altitudes, to + some Italian fellow-passengers who were not spellbound by its grandeur. I + had to remember the Rocky Mountains, which I had never seen, and all the + moral magnificence of our life before I could withhold the words of + apology pressing to my lips. I was glad that I succeeded; but now, going + back by the same route, I abandoned myself to transports in the beauty of + the Mediterranean coast which I hope were not untrue to my country. + Perhaps there is no country which can show anything like that beauty, and + America is no worse off than the rest of the world; but I am not sure that + I have a right to this consolation. Again there were those + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Silent pinnacles of aged snow,” + </pre> + <p> + flushed with the Southern sun; in those sombre slopes of pine; again the + olives climbing to their gloom; again the terraced vineyards and the white + farmsteads, with villages nestling in the vast clefts of the hills, and + all along the sea-level the blond towns and cities which broidei the hem + of the land from Marseilles to Genoa. One is willing to brag; one must be + a good American; but, honestly, have we anything like that to show the + arriving foreigner? For some reason our ship was abating the speed with + which she had crossed the Atlantic, and now she was swimming along the + Mediterranean coasts so slowly and so closely that it seemed as if we + could almost have cast an apple ashore, though probably we could not. We + were at least far enough off to mistake Nice for Monte Carlo and then for + San Remo, but that was partly because our course was so leisurely, and we + thought we must have passed Nice long before we did. It did not matter; + all those places were alike beautiful under the palms of their promenades, + with their scattered villas and hotels stretching along their upper + levels, and the ranks of shops and dwellings solidly forming the streets + which left the shipping of their ports to climb to the gardens and farms + beyond the villas. Cannes, Mentone, Ventimiglia, Ospedeletti, Bordighera, + Taggia, Alassio: was that their fair succession, or did they follow in + another order? Once more it did not matter; what is certain is that the + golden sun of the soft January afternoon turned to crimson and left the + last of them suffused in dim rose before we drifted into Genoa and came to + anchor at dusk beside a steamer which had left New York on the same day as + ours. By her vast size we could measure our own and have an objective + perception of our grandeur. We had crossed in one of the largest ships + afloat, but you cannot be both spectacle and spectator; and you must match + your magnificence with some rival magnificence before you can have a due + sense of it. That was what we now got at Genoa, and we could not help + pitying the people on that other ship, who must have suffered shame from + our overwhelming magnitude; the fact that she was of nearly the same + tonnage as our own ship had nothing to do with the case. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-6.jpg" alt="06 Daughters of Climate Along the Riviera " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + After the creamy and rosy tints of those daughters of climate along the + Riviera, it was pleasant to find a many-centuried mother of commerce like + Genoa of the dignified gray which she wears to the eye, whether it looks + down on her from the heights above her port or up at her from the thickly + masted and thickly funnelled waters of the harbor. Most European towns + have red tiled roofs, which one gets rather tired of putting into one's + word paintings, but the roofs of Genoa are gray tiled, and gray are her + serried house walls, and gray her many churches and bell-towers. The sober + tone gratifies your eye immensely, and the fact that your eye has noted it + and not attributed the conventional coloring of southern Europe to the + city is a flattery to your pride which you will not refuse. It is not a + setting for opera like Naples; there is something businesslike in it which + agrees with your American mood if you are true to America, and recalls you + to duty if you are not. + </p> + <p> + I had not been in Genoa since 1864 except for a few days in 1905, and I + saw changes which I will mostly not specify. Already at the earlier date + the railway had cut through the beautiful and reverend Doria garden and + left the old palace some scanty grounds on the sea-level, where commerce + noisily encompassed it with trains and tracks and lines of freight-cars. + But there had remained up to my last visit that grot on the gardened + hill-slope whence a colossal marble Hercules helplessly overlooked the + offence offered by the railroad; and now suddenly here was the lofty wall + of some new edifice stretching across in front of the Hercules and wholly + shutting him from view; for all I know it may have made him part of its + structure. + </p> + <p> + Let this stand for a type of the change which had passed upon Genoa and + has passed or is passing upon all Italy. The trouble is that Italy is full + of very living Italians, the quickest-witted people in the world, who are + alert to seize every chance for bettering themselves financially as they + have bettered themselves politically. For my part, I always wonder they do + not still rule the world when I see how intellectually fit they are to do + it, how beyond any other race they seem still equipped for their ancient + primacy. Possibly it is their ancient primacy which hangs about their + necks and loads them down. It is better to have too little past, as we + have, than too much, as they have. But if antiquity hampers them, they are + tenderer of its vast mass than we are of our little fragments of it; + tenderer than any other people, except perhaps the English, have shown + themselves; but when the time comes that the past stands distinctly in the + way of the future, down goes the past, even in Italy. I am not saying that + I do not see why that railroad could not have tunnelled under the Doria + garden rather than cut through it; and I am waiting for that new building + to justify its behavior toward that poor old Hercules; but in the mean + time I hold that Italy is for the Italians who now live in it, and have to + get that better living out of it which we others all want our countries to + yield us; and that it is not merely a playground for tourists who wish to + sentimentalize it, or study it, or sketch it, or make copy of it, as I am + doing now. + </p> + <p> + All the same I will not deny that I enjoyed more than any of the + improvements which I noted in Genoa that bit of the old Doria + palace-grounds which progress has left it. The gray edifice looks out on + the neighboring traffic across the leanness of a lovely old garden, with + statues and stone seats, and in the midst a softly soliloquizing fountain, + painted green with moss and mould. When you enter the palace, as you do in + response to a custodian who soon comes with a key and asks if you would + like to see it, you find yourself, one flight up, in a long glazed + gallery, fronting on the garden, which is so warm with the sun that you + wish to spend the rest of your stay in Genoa there. It is frescoed round + with classically imagined portraits of the different Dorias, and above all + the portrait of that great hero of the republic. I do not know that this + portrait particularly impresses you; if you have been here before you will + be reserving yourself for the portrait which the custodian will lead you + to see in the ultimate chamber of the rather rude old palace, where it is + like a living presence. + </p> + <p> + It is the picture of a very old man in a flat cap, sitting sunken forward + in his deep chair, with his thin, long hands folded one on the other, and + looking wearily at you out of his faded eyes, in which dwell the memories + of action in every sort and counsel in every kind. Victor in battles by + land and sea, statesman and leader and sage, he looks it all in that + wonderful effigy, which shuns no effect of his more than ninety years, but + confesses his great age as a part of his greatness with a pathetic + reality. The white beard, with “each particular hair” defined, falling + almost to the pale, lean hands, is an essential part of the presentment, + which is full of such scrupulous detail as the eye would unconsciously + take note of in confronting the man himself and afterward supply in the + remembrance of the whole. As if it were a part of his personality, on a + table facing him, covered with maps and papers, sits the mighty admiral's + cat, which, with true feline im-passiveness, ignores the spectator and + gives its sole regard to the admiral. There are possibly better portraits + in the world than this, which was once by Sebastiano del Piombo and is now + by Titian; but I remember none which has moved me more. + </p> + <p> + We tried in vain for a photograph of it, and then after a brief glance at + the riches of the Church of the Annunziata, where we were followed around + the interior by a sacristan who desired us to note that the pillars were + “All inlady, all inlady” with different marbles, and, after a chilly + moment in San Lorenzo, which the worshippers and the masons were sharing + between them in the prayers and repairs always going on in cathedrals, we + drove for luncheon to the hotel where we had sojourned in great comfort + three years before. Genoa has rather a bad name for its hotels, but we had + found this one charming, perhaps because when we had objected to going + five flights up the landlord had led us yet a floor higher, that we might + walk into the garden. It is so in much of Genoa, where the precipitous + nature of the site makes this vivid contrast between the levels of the + front door and the back gate. Many of the streets have been widened since + Heine saw the gossiping neighbors touching knees across them, but nothing + less than an earthquake could change the temperamental topography of the + place. It has its advantages; when there is a ring at the door the + housemaid, instead of panting up from the kitchen to answer it, has merely + to fall down five pairs of stairs. It cannot be denied, either, that the + steep incline gives a charm to the streets which overcome it with + sidewalks and driveways and trolley-tracks. Such a street as the Via + Garibaldi (there is a Via Garibaldi in every Italian city, town, and + village, and ought to be a dozen), compactly built, but giving here and + there over the houses' shoulders glimpses of the gardens lurking behind + them, is of a dignity full of the energy which a flat thoroughfare never + displays or imparts. Without the inspiration lent us by the street, I am + sure we should never have got to the top of it with our cab when we went + to the Campo Santo; and, as it was, we had to help our horses upward by + involuntarily straining forward from our places. But the Campo Santo was + richly worth the effort, for to visit that famous cemetery is to enjoy an + experience of which it is the unique opportunity. + </p> + <p> + I wish to celebrate it because it seems to me one of the frankest + expressions of national taste and nature, and I do like simplicity—in + others. The modern Italians are the most literal of the realists in all + the arts, and, as I had striven for reality in my own poor way, I was + perhaps the more curious to see its effects in sculpture which I had heard + of so much. I will own that they went far beyond my expectation and + possibly my wishes; but it is not to be supposed that it is only inferior + artists who have abandoned themselves to the excesses of fidelity so + abundant in the Campo Santo. There are, of course, enough poor falterings + of allegory and tradition in the marble walls and floors of this vast + residence of the dead (as it gives you the cheerful impression of being), + but the characteristic note of the place is a realism braving it out in + every extreme of actuality. Possibly the fact is most striking in that + death-bed scene where the family, life-size and unsparingly portraitured, + and, as it were, photographed in marble, are gathered in the room of the + dying mother. She lies on a bedstead which bears every mark of being one + of a standard chamber-set in the early eighteen-seventies, and about her + stand her husband and her sons and daughters and their wives and husbands, + in the fashions of that day. I recall a brother, in a cutaway coat, and a + daughter, in a tie-back, embraced in their grief and turning their faces + away from their mother toward the spectator; and doubtless there were + others whom to describe in their dress would render as grotesque. It is + enough to say that the artist, of a name well known in Italy and of + uncommon gift, has been as true to the moment in their costume as to the + eternal humanity in their faces. He has done what the sculptor or painter + of the great periods of art used to do with their historical and + scriptural people—he has put them in the dress of his own time and + place; and it is impossible to deny him a convincing logic. No sophistry + or convention of drapery in the scene could have conveyed its pathos half + so well, or indeed at all. It does make you shudder, I allow; it sets your + teeth on edge; but then, if you are a real man or woman, it brings the + lump into your throat; the smile fails from your lip; you pay the tribute + of genuine pity and awe. I will not pretend that I was so much moved by + the meeting in heaven of a son and father: the spirit of the son in a + cutaway, with a derby hat in his hand, gazing with rapture into the face + of the father's spirit in a long sack-coat holding his marble bowler + elegantly away from his side, if I remember rightly. But here the fact + wanted the basis of simplicity so strong in the other scene; in the + mixture of the real and the ideal the group was romanticistic. + </p> + <p> + There are innumerable other portrait figures and busts in which the civic + and social hour is expressed. The women's hair is dressed in this + fashionable way or that; the men's beards are cut in conformity to the + fashion or the personal preference in side whiskers or mustache or + imperial or goatee; and their bronze or marble faces convey the + contemporary character of aristocrat or bourgeois or politician or + professional. I do not know just what the reader would expect me to say in + defence of the full-length figure of a lady in <i>decollete</i> and + trained evening dress, who enters from the tomb toward the spectator as if + she were coming into a drawing-room after dinner. She is very beautiful, + but she is no longer very young, and the bare arms, which hang gracefully + at her side, respond to an intimation of <i>embonpoint</i> in the figure, + with a slightly flabby over-largeness where they lose themselves in the + ample shoulders. Whether this figure is the fancy of the sorrowing husband + or the caprice of the defunct herself, who wished to be shown to + after-time as she hoped she looked in the past, I do not know; but I had + the same difficulty with it as I had with that father and son; it was + romanticistic. Wholly realistic and rightly actual was that figure of an + old woman who is said to have put by all her savings from the grocery + business that she might appear properly in the Campo Santo, and who is + shown there short and stout and common, in her ill-fitting best dress, but + motherly and kind and of an undeniable and touching dignity. + </p> + <p> + If I am giving the reader the impression that I went to the Campo Santo in + my last stop at Genoa, I am deceiving him; I record here the memories of + four years ago. I did not revisit the place, but I should like to see it + again, if only to revive my recollections of its unique interest. I did + really revisit the Pal-lavicini-Durazzo palace, and there revived the + pleasure I had known before in its wonderful Van Dycks. Most wonderful was + and will always be the “Boy in White,” the little serene princeling, + whoever he was, in whom the painter has fixed forever a bewitching mood + and moment of childhood. “The Mother with two Children” is very well and + self-evidently true to personality and period and position; but, after + all, she is nothing beside that “Boy in White,” though she and her + children are otherwise so wonderful. Now that I speak of her, however, she + rather grows upon my recollection as a woman greater than her great world + and proudly weary of it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-7.jpg" alt="07 Typical Monument in the Campo Santo " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + She was a lady of that very patrician house whose palace, in its cold + grandeur and splendor, renews at once all one's faded or fading sense of + the commercial past of Italy, when her greatest merchants were her + greatest nobles and dwelt in magnificence unparalleled yet since Rome + began to be old. Genoa, Venice, Pisa, Florence, what state their business + men housed themselves in and environed themselves with! Their palaces by + the hundreds were such as only the public edifices of our less simple + State capitols could equal in size and not surpass in cost. Their <i>folie + des grandeurs</i> realized illusions in architecture, in sculpture, and in + painting which the assembled and concentrated feats of those arts all the + way up and down Fifth Avenue, and in the millionaire blocks eastward could + not produce the likeness of. We have the same madness in our brains; we + have even a Roman megalomania, but the effect of it in Chicago or + Pittsburg or Philadelphia or New York has not yet got beyond a ducal or a + princely son-in-law. The splendors of such alliances have still to take + substantial form in a single instance worthy to compare with a thousand + instances in the commercial republics of Italy. This does not mean that + our rich people have not so much money as the Italians of the Renaissance, + but that perhaps in their <i>folie des grandeurs</i> they are a different + kind of madmen; it means also that land and labor are dearer positively + and comparatively with us, and that our pork-packing or stock-broking + princes prefer to spend on comfort rather than size in their houses, and + do not like the cold feet which the merchant princes of Italy must have + had from generation to generation. I shall always be sorry I did not wear + arctics when I went to the Pallavicini-Durazzo palace, and I strongly urge + the reader to do so when he goes. + </p> + <p> + He will not so much need them out-of-doors in a Genoese January, unless a + <i>tramontana</i> is blowing, and there was none on our half-day. But in + any case we did not walk. We selected the best-looking cab-horse we could + find, and he turned out better than his driver, who asked a fabulous price + by the hour. We obliged him to show his tariff, when his wickedness was + apparent from the printed rates. He explained that the part we were + looking at was obsolete, and he showed us another part, which was really + for drives outside the city; but we agreed to pay it, and set out hoping + for good behavior from him that would make up the difference. Again we + were deceived; at the end he demanded a franc beyond even his unnatural + fare. I urged that one should be reasonable; but he seemed to think not, + and to avoid controversy I paid the extortionate franc. I remembered that + just a month before, in New York, I had paid an extortionate dollar in + like circumstances. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, that franc above and beyond the stipulated extortion + impoverished me, and when we came to take a rowboat back to our steamer I + beat the boatman down cruelly, mercilessly. He was a poor, lean little + man, with rather a superannuated boat, and he labored harder at the oar + than I could bear to see without noting his exertion to him. This was + fatal; instantly he owned that I was right, and he confessed, moreover, + that he was the father of a family, and that some of his children were + then suffering from sickness as well as want. What could one do but make + the fare up to the first demand of three francs after having got the price + down to one and a half? At the time it seemed to me that I was somehow by + this means getting the better of the cabman who had obliged me to pay a + franc more than his stipulated extortion, but I do not now hope to make it + appear so to the reader. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. NAPLES AND HER JOYFUL NOISE + </h2> + <p> + We heard the joyful noise of Naples as soon as our steamer came to anchor + within the moles whose rigid lines perhaps disfigure her famous bay, while + they render her harbor so secure. The noise first rose to us, hanging over + the guard, and trying to get phrases for the glory of her sea and sky and + mountains and monuments, from a boat which seemed to have been keeping + abreast of us ever since we had slowed up. It was not a largo boat, but it + managed to contain two men with mandolins, a mother of a family with a + guitar, and a young girl with an alternate tambourine and umbrella. The + last instrument was inverted to catch the coins, such as they were, which + the passengers flung down to the minstrels for their repetitions of “Santa + Lucia,” “Funicoli-Funicola,” “II Cacciatore,” and other popular Neapolitan + airs, such as “John Brown's Body” and “In the Bowery.” To the songs that + had a waltz movement the mother of a family performed a restricted dance, + at some risk of falling overboard, while she smiled radiantly up at us, + as, in fact, they all did, except the young girl, who had to play + simultaneously on her tambourine and her inverted umbrella, and seemed + careworn. Her anxiety visibly deepened to despair when she missed a + shilling, which must have looked as large to her as a full moon as it sank + slowly down into the sea. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-8.jpg" alt="08 Naples and Her Joyful Noise " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + But her despair did not last long; nothing lasts long in Naples except the + joyful noise, which is incessant and perpetual, and which seems the + expression of the universal temperament in both man and beast. Our + good-fortune placed us in a hotel fronting the famous Castel dell' Ovo, + across a little space of land and water, and we could hear, late and + early, the cackling and crowing of the chickens which have replaced the + hapless prisoners of other days in that fortress. At times the voices of + the hens were lifted in a choral of self-praise, as if they had among them + just laid the mighty structure which takes its name from its resemblance + to the egg they ordinarily produce. In other lands the peculiar note of + the donkey is not thought very melodious, but in Naples before it can fade + away it is caught up in the general orchestration and ceases in music. The + cabmen at our corner, lying in wait by scores for the strangers whom it is + their convention to suppose ignorant of their want of a carriage, + quarrelled rhythmically with one another; the mendicants, lying everywhere + in wait for charity, murmured a modulated appeal; if you heard shouts or + yells afar off they died upon your ear in a strain of melody at the moment + when they were lifted highest. I am aware of seeming to burlesque the + operatic fact which every one must have noticed in Naples; and I will not + say that the neglected or affronted babe, or the trodden dog, is as + tuneful as the midnight cat there, but only that they approach it in the + prevailing tendency of all the local discords to soften and lose + themselves in the general unison. This embraces the clatter of the cabs, + which are seldom less than fifty years old, and of a looseness in all + their joints responsive to their effect of dusty decrepitude. Their + clatter penetrates the volumed tread of the myriad feet in a city where, + if you did not see all sorts of people driving, you would say the whole + population walked. Above the manifold noises gayly springing to the sky + spreads and swims the clangor of the church-bells and holds the + terrestrial uproar in immeasurable solution. It would be rash to say that + the whole population of Naples is always in the street, for if you look + into the shops or cafes, or, I dare say, the houses, you will find them + quite full; but the general statement verifies itself almost tiresomely in + its agreement with what everybody has always said of Naples. It is so + quite what you expect that if you could you would turn away in satiety, + especially from the swarming life of the poor, which seems to have no + concealments from the public, but frankly works at all the trades and arts + that can be carried on out-of-doors; cooks, eats, laughs, cries, sleeps, + wakes, makes love, quarrels, scolds, does everything but wash itself—clothes + enough it washes for other people's life. There is a reason for this in + the fact that in bad weather at Naples it is cold and dark and damp + in-doors, and in fine so bright and warm and charming without that there + is really no choice. Then there is the expansive temperament, which if it + were shut up would probably be much more explosive than it is now. As it + is, it vents itself in volleyed detonations and scattered shots which + language can give no sense of. + </p> + <p> + For the true sense of it you must go to Naples, and then you will never + lose the sense of it. I had not been there since 1864, but when I woke up + the morning after my arrival, and heard the chickens cackling in the + Castel dell' Ovo, and the donkeys braying, and the cab-drivers + quarrelling, and the cries of the street vendors, and the dogs barking, + and the children wailing, and their mothers scolding, and the clatter of + wheels and hoops and feet, and all that mighty harmony of the joyful + Neapolitan noises, it seemed to me that it was the first morning after my + first arrival, and I was still only twenty-seven years old. As soon as + possible, when the short but sweet Vincenzo had brought up my breakfast of + tea and bread-and-butter and honey (to which my appetite turned from the + gross superabundance of the steamer's breakfasts with instant + acquiescence), and announced with a smile as liberal as the sunshine that + it was a fine day, I went out for those impressions which I had better + make over to the reader in their original disorder. Vesuvius, which was + silver veiled the day before, was now of a soft, smoky white, and the sea, + of a milky blue, swam round the shore and out to every dim island and low + cape and cliffy promontory. The street was full of people on foot and in + trolleys and cabs and donkey pleasure-carts, and the familiar teasing of + cabmen and peddlers and beggars began with my first steps toward what I + remembered as the Toledo, but what now called itself, with the moderner + Italian patriotism, the Via Roma. The sole poetic novelty of my experience + was in my being offered loaves of bread which, when I bought them, would + be given to the poor, in honor of what saint's day I did not learn. But it + was all charming; even the inattention of the young woman over the + book-counter was charming, since it was a condition of her flirtation with + the far younger man beside me who wanted something far more interesting + from her than any brief sketch of the history of Naples, in either English + or Italian or French or, at the worst, German. She was very pretty, though + rather powdered, and when the young man went away she was sympathetically + regretful to me that there was no such sketch, in place of which she + offered me several large histories in more or less volumes. But why should + I have wanted a history of Naples when I had Naples itself? It was like + wanting a photograph when you have the original. Had I not just come + through the splendid Piazza San Ferdinando, with the nobly arcaded church + on one hand and the many-statued royal palace on the other, and between + them a lake of mellow sunshine, as warm as ours in June? + </p> + <p> + What I found Naples and the Neapolitans in 1908 I had found them in 1864, + and Mr. Gray (as he of the “Elegy” used to be called on his title-pages) + found them in 1740. “The streets,” he wrote home to his mother, “are one + continued market, and thronged with populace so much that a coach can + hardly pass. The common sort are a jolly, lively kind of animals, more + industrious than Italians usually are; they work till evening; then they + take their lute or guitar (for they all play) and walk about the city or + upon the seashore with it, to enjoy the fresco.” There was, in fact, a + bold gayety in the aspect of the city, without the refinement which you do + not begin to feel till you get into North Italy. When I came upon church + after church, with its facade of Spanish baroque, I lamented the want of + Gothic delicacy and beauty, but I was consoled abundantly later in the + churches antedating the Spanish domination. I had no reason, such as + travellers give for hating places, to be dissatisfied with Naples in any + way. I had been warned that the customs officers were terrible there, and + that I might be kept hours with my baggage. But the inspector, after the + politest demand for a declaration of tobacco, ordered only a small valise, + the Benjamin of its tribe, opened and then closed untouched; and his + courteous forbearance, acknowledged later through the hotel porter, cost + me but a dollar. The hotel itself was inexpressibly better in lighting, + heating, service, and table than any New York hotel at twice the money—in + fact, no money could buy the like with us at any hotel I know of; but this + is a theme which I hope to treat more fully hereafter. It is true that the + streets of Naples are very long and rather narrow and pretty crooked, and + full of a damp cold that no sunlight seems ever to hunt out of them; but + then they are seldom ironed down with trolley-tracks; the cabs feel their + way among the swarming crowds with warning voices and smacking whips; even + the prepotent automobile shows some tenderness for human life and limb, + and proceeds still more cautiously than the cabs and carts—in fact, + I thought I saw recurrent proofs of that respect for the average man which + seems the characteristic note of Italian liberty; and this belief of mine, + bred of my first observations in Naples, did not, after twelve weeks in + Italy, prove an illusion. If it is not the equality we fancy ourselves + having, it is rather more fraternity in effect. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-9.jpg" alt="09 Out-door Life in Old Naples " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + The failure of other researches for that sketch of Neapolitan history left + me in the final ignorance which I must share with the reader; but my + inquiries brought me prompt knowledge of one of those charming features in + which the Italian cities excel, if they are not unique. I remember too + vaguely the Galleria, as they call the beautiful glazed arcade of Milan, + to be sure that it is finer than the Galleria at Naples, but I am sure + this is finer than that at Genoa, with which, however, I know nothing in + other cities to compare. The Neapolitan gallery, wider than any avenue of + the place, branching in the form of a Greek cross to four principal + streets, is lighted by its roof of glass, and a hundred brilliant shops + and cafes spread their business and leisure over its marble floor. Nothing + could be architecturally more cheerful, and, if it were not too hot in + summer, there could be no doubt of its adaptation to our year, for it + could be easily closed against the winter by great portals, and at other + seasons would give that out-door expansion which in Latin countries + hospitably offers the spectacle of pleasant eating and drinking to people + who have nothing to eat and drink. These spectators could be kept at a + distance with us by porters at the entrances, while they would not be + altogether deprived of the gratifying glimpses. + </p> + <p> + I do not know whether poverty avails itself of its privileges by visiting + the Neapolitan gallery; but probably, like poverty elsewhere, it is too + much interested by the drama of life in its own quarter ever willingly to + leave it. Poverty is very conservative, for reasons more than one; its + quarter in Naples is the oldest, and was the most responsive to our + recollections of the Naples of 1864. Overhead the houses tower and beetle + with their balconies and bulging casements, shutting the sun, except at + noon, from the squalor below, where the varied dwellers bargain and battle + and ply their different trades, bringing their work from the dusk of + cavernous shops to their doorways for the advantage of the prevailing + twilight. Carpentry and tailoring and painting and plumbing, locksmithing + and copper-smithing go on there, touching elbows with frying and feeding, + and the vending of all the strange and hideous forms of flesh, fish, and + fowl. If you wish to know how much the tentacle of a small polyp is worth + you may chance to see a cent pass for it from the crone who buys to the + boy who sells it smoking from the kettle; but the price of cooked cabbage + or pumpkin must remain a mystery, along with that of many raw vegetables + and the more revolting viscera of the less-recognizable animals. + </p> + <p> + The poor people worming in and out around your cab are very patient of + your progress over the terrible floor of their crooked thoroughfare, + perhaps because they reciprocate your curiosity, and perhaps because they + are very amiable and not very sensitive. They are not always crowded into + these dismal chasms; their quarter expands here and there into + market-plates, like the fish-market where the uprising of the fisherman + Masaniello against the Spaniards fitly took place; and the Jewish + market-place, where the poor young Corra-dino, last of the imperial + Hohenstaufen line, was less appropriately beheaded by the Angevines. The + open spaces are not less loathsome than the reeking alleys, but if you + have the intelligent guide we had you approach them through the triumphal + arch by which Charles V. entered Naples, and that is something. Yet we + will now talk less of the emperor than of the guide, who appealed more to + my sympathy. + </p> + <p> + He had been six years in America, which he adored, because, he said, he + had got work and earned his living there the very day he landed. That was + in Boston, where he turned his hand first to one thing and then another, + and came away at last through some call home, honoring and loving the + Americans as the kindest, the noblest, the friendliest people in the + world. I tried, politely, to persuade him that we were not all of us all + he thought us, but he would not yield, and at one place he generously + claimed a pre-eminence in wickedness for his fellow-Neapolitans. That was + when we came to a vast, sorrowful prison, from which an iron cage + projected into the street. Around this cage wretched women and children + and old men clustered till the prisoners dear to them were let into it + from the jail and allowed to speak with them. The scene was as public as + all of life and death is in Naples, and the publicity seemed to give it + peculiar sadness, which I noted to our guide. He owned its pathos; “but,” + he said, “you know we have a terrible class of people here in Naples.” I + protested that there were terrible classes of people everywhere, even in + America. He would not consent entirely, but in partly convincing each + other we became better friends. He had a large black mustache and gentle + black eyes, and he spoke very fair English, which, when he wished to be + most impressive, he dropped and used a very literary Italian instead. He + showed us where he lived, on a hill-top back of our gardened quay, and + said that he paid twelve dollars a month for a tenement of five rooms + there. Schooling is compulsory in Naples, but he sends his boy willingly, + and has him especially study English as the best provision he can make for + him—as heir of his own calling of cicerone, perhaps. He has a little + farm at Bavello, which he tills when it is past the season for cultivating + foreigners in Naples; he expects to spend his old age there; and I thought + it not a bad lookout. He was perfectly well-mannered, and at a hotel where + we stopped for tea he took his coffee at our table unbidden, like any + American fellow-man. He and the landlord had their joke together, the + landlord warning me against him in English as “very bad man,” and clapping + him affectionately on the shoulder to emphasize the irony. We did not + demand too much social information of him; all the more we valued the + gratuitous fact that the Neapolitan nobles were now rather poor, because + they preferred a life of pleasure to a life of business. I could have told + him that the American nobles were increasingly like them in their love of + pleasure, but I would not have known how to explain that they were not + poor also. He was himself a moderate in politics, but he told us, what + seems to be the fact everywhere in Italy, that singly the largest party in + Naples is the Socialist party. + </p> + <p> + He went with me first one day to the beautiful old Church of Santa Chiara, + to show me the Angevine tombs there, in which I satisfied a secret, + lingering love for the Gothic; and then to the cathedral, where the + sacristan showed us everything but the blood of St. Jannarius, perhaps + because it was not then in the act of liquefying; but I am thankful to say + I saw one of his finger-bones. My guide had made me observe how several of + the churches on the way to this were built on the sites and of the + remnants of pagan temples, and he summoned the world-old sacristan of St. + Januarius to show us evidences of a rival antiquity in the crypt; for it + had begun as a temple of Neptune. The sacristan practically lived in those + depths and the chill sanctuary above them, and-he was so full of + rheumatism that you could almost hear it creak as he walked; yet he was a + cheerful sage, and satisfied with the fee which my guide gave him and + which he made small, as he explained, that the sacristan might not be + discontented with future largesse. I need not say that each church we + visited had its tutelary beggar, and that my happy youth came back to me + in the blindness of one, or the mutilation of another, or the haggish + wrinkles of a third. At Santa Chiara I could not at first make out what it + was which caused my heart to rejoice so; but then I found that it was + because the church was closed, and we had to go and dig a torpid monk out + of his crevice in a cold, many-storied cliff near by, and get him to come + and open it, just as I used, with the help of neighbors, to do in the + past. + </p> + <p> + Our day ended at sunset—a sunset of watermelon red—with a + visit to the Castel Nuovo, where my guide found himself at home with the + garrison, because, as he explained, he had served his term as a soldier. + He was the born friend of the custodian of the castle church, which was + the most comfortable church for warmth we had visited, and to which we + entered by the bronze gates of the triumphal arch raised in honor of the + Aragonese victory over the Angevines in 1442, when this New Castle was + newer than it is now. The bronze gates record in bas-relief the battles + between the French and Spanish powers in their quarrel over the people one + or other must make its prey; but whether it was to the greater advantage + of the Neapolitans to be battened on by the house of Aragon and then that + of Bourbon for the next six hundred years after the Angevines had retired + from the banquet is problematical. History is a very baffling study, and + one may be well content to know little or nothing about it. I knew so + little or had forgotten so much that I scarcely deserved to be taken down + into the crypt of this church and shown the skeletons of four conspirators + for Anjou whom Aragon had put to death—two laymen and an archbishop + by beheading, and a woman by dividing crosswise into thirds. The skeletons + lay in their tattered and dusty shrouds, and I suppose were authentic + enough; but I had met them, poor things, too late in my life to wish for + their further acquaintance. Once I could have exulted to search out their + story and make much of it; but now I must leave it to the reader's + imagination, along with most other facts of my observation in Naples. + </p> + <p> + I was at some pains to look up the traces of my lost youth there, and if I + could have found more of them no doubt I should have been more interested + in these skeletons. For forty-odd years I had remembered the prodigious + picturesqueness of certain streets branching from a busy avenue and + ascending to uplands above by stately successions of steps. When I + demanded these of my guide, he promptly satisfied me, and in a few + moments, there in the Chiaja, we stood at the foot of such a public + staircase. I had no wish to climb it, but I found it more charming even + than I remembered. All the way to the top it was banked on either side + with glowing masses of flowers and fruits and the spectacular vegetables + of the South, and between these there were series of people, whom I + tacitly delegated to make the ascent for me, passing the groups bargaining + at the stalls. Nothing could have been better; nothing that I think of is + half so well in New York, where the markets are on that dead level which + in the social structure those above it abhor; though there are places on + the East River where we might easily have inclined markets. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-10.jpg" alt="10 Up-stairs Street in Old Naples " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Other associations of that far past awoke with my identification of the + hotel where we had stayed at the end of the Villa Nazionale. In those days + the hotel was called, in appeal to our patriotism, more flattered then + than now in Europe, Hotel Washington; but it is to-day a mere pension, + though it looks over the same length of palm-shaded, statue-peopled + garden. The palms were larger than I remembered them, and the statues had + grown up and seemed to have had large families since my day; but the + lovely sea was the same, with all the mural decorations of the skyey + horizons beyond, dim precipices and dreamy island tops, and the dozing + Vesuvius mistakable for any of them. At one place there was a file of + fishermen, including a fisherwoman, drawing their net by means of a rope + carried across the carriage-way from the seawall, with a splendid show of + their black eyes and white teeth and swarthy, bare legs, and always there + were beggars, both of those who frankly begged and those who importuned + with postal-cards. This terrible traffic pervades all southern Europe, and + everywhere pesters the meeting traveller with undesired bargains. In its + presence it is almost impossible to fit a scene with the apposite phrase; + and yet one must own that it has its rights. What would those boys do if + they did not sell, or fail to sell, postal-cards. It is another aspect of + the labor problem, so many-faced in our time. Would it be better that they + should take to open mendicancy, or try to win the soft American heart with + such acquired slang as “Skiddoo to twenty-three”? One who had no + postal-cards had English enough to say he would go away for a penny; it + was his price, and I did not see how he could take less; when he was + reproached by a citizen of uncommon austerity for his shameless annoyance + of strangers, I could not see that he looked abashed—in fact, he + went away singing. He did not take with him the divine beauty of the + afternoon light on the sea and mountains; and, if he was satisfied, we + were content with our bargain. + </p> + <p> + In fact, it would be impossible to exaggerate in the praise of that + incomparable environment. At every hour of the day, and, for all I know, + the night, it had a varying beauty and a constant loveliness. Six days out + of the week of our stay the sunshine was glorious, and five days of at + least a May or September warmth; and though one day was shrill and stiff + with the <i>tramontana,</i> it was of as glorious sunshine as the rest. + The gale had blown my window open and chilled my room, but with that sun + blazing outside I could not believe in the hurricane which seemed to blow + our car up the funicular railway when we mounted to the height where the + famous old Convent of San Martino stands, and then blew us all about the + dust-clouded streets of that upland in our search for the right way to the + monastery. It was worth more than we suffered in finding it; for the + museum is a record of the most significant events of Neapolitan history + from the time of the Spanish domination down to that of the Garibaldian + invasion; and the church and corridors through which the wind hustled us + abound in paintings and frescos such as one would be willing to give a + whole week of quiet weather to. I do not know but I should like to walk + always in the convent garden, or merely look into it from my window in the + cloister wall, and gossip with my fellow-friars at their windows. We + should all be ghosts, of course, but the more easily could the sun warm us + through in spite of the <i>tramontana.</i> + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-11.jpg" + alt="11 Naples and the Castel St. Elmo from The Mole " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + I do not know that Naples is very beautiful in certain phases in which + Venice and Genoa are excellent. Those cities were adorned by their sons + with palaces of an outlook worthy of their splendor. But in the other + Italian cities the homes of her patricians were crowded into the narrow + streets where their architecture fails of its due effect. It is so with + them in Naples, and even along the Villa Nazionale, where many palatial + villas are set, they seclude themselves in gardens where one fancies + rather than sees them. These are, in fact, sometimes the houses of the + richest bourgeoisie—bankers and financiers—and the houses + which have names conspicuous in the mainly inglorious turmoil of + Neapolitan history help unnoted to darken the narrow and winding ways of + the old city. A glimpse of a deep court or of a towering facade is what + you get in passing, but it is to be said of the sunless streets over which + they gloom that they are kept in a modern neatness beside which the dirt + of New York is mediaeval. It is so with most other streets in Naples, + except those poorest ones where the out-door life insists upon the most + intimate domestic expression. Even such streets are no worse than our + worst streets, and the good streets are all better kept than our best. + </p> + <p> + I am not sure that there are even more beggars in Naples than in New York, + though I will own that I kept no count. In both cities beggary is common + enough, and I am not noting it with disfavor in either, for it is one of + my heresies that comfort should be constantly reminded of misery by the + sight of it—comfort is so forgetful. Besides, in Italy charity costs + so little; a cent of our money pays a man for the loss of a leg or an arm; + two cents is the compensation for total blindness; a sick mother with a + brood of starving children is richly rewarded for her pains with a nickel + worth four cents. Organized charity is not absent in the midst of such + volunteers of poverty; one day, when we thought we had passed the last + outpost of want in our drive, two Sisters of Charity suddenly appeared + with out-stretched tin cups. Our driver did not imagine our inexhaustible + benovelence; he drove on, and before we could bring him to a halt the + Sisters of Charity ran us down, their black robes flying abroad and their + sweet faces flushed with the pursuit. Upon the whole it was very + humiliating; we could have wished to offer our excuses and regrets; but + our silver seemed enough, and the gentle sisters fell back when we had + given it. + </p> + <p> + That was while we were driving toward Posilipo for the beauty of the + prospect along the sea and shore, and for a sense of which any colored + postal-card will suffice better than the most hectic word-painting. The + worst of Italy is the superabundance of the riches it offers ear and eye + and nose—offers every sense—ending in a glut of pleasure. At + the point where we descended from our carriage to look from the upland out + over the vast hollow of land and sea toward Pozzuoli, which is so + interesting as the scene of Jove's memorable struggle with the Titans, and + just when we were really beginning to feel equal to it, a company of + minstrels suddenly burst upon us with guitars and mandolins and comic + songs much dramatized, while the immediate natives offered us violets and + other distracting flowers. In the effect, art and nature combined to + neutralize each other, as they do with us, for instance, in those + restaurants where they have music during dinner, and where you do not know + whether you are eating the <i>chef-d'oeuvre</i> of a cook or a composer. + </p> + <p> + It was at the new hotel which is evolving itself through the repair of the + never-finished and long-ruined Palace of Donn' Anna, wife of a Spanish + viceroy in the seventeenth century, that our guide stopped with us for + that cup of tea already mentioned. We had to climb four nights of stairs + for it to the magnificent salon overlooking the finest postal-card + prospect in all Naples. We lingered long upon it, in the balcony from + which we could have dropped into the sunset sea any coin which we could + have brought ourselves to part with; but we had none of the bad money + which had been so easily passed off upon us. This sort rather abounds in + Naples, and the traveller should watch not only for false francs, but for + francs of an obsolete coinage which you can know by the king's head having + a longer neck than in the current pieces. At the bookseller's they would + not take a perfectly good five-franc piece because it was so old as 1815; + and what becomes of all the bad money one innocently takes for good? One + fraudulent franc I made a virtue of throwing away; but I do not know what + I did with a copper refused by a trolley conductor as counterfeit. I could + not take the affair seriously, and perhaps I gave that copper in charity. + </p> + <p> + As we drove hotelward through the pink twilight we met many carriages of + people who looked rich and noble, but whether they were so I do not know. + I only know that old ladies who regard the world severely from their + coaches behind the backs of their perfectly appointed coachmen and footmen + ought to be both, and that old gentlemen who frown over their white + mustaches have no right to their looks if they are neither. It was, at any + rate, the hour of the fashionable drive, which included a pause midway of + the Villa Nazionale for the music of the military band. + </p> + <p> + The band plays near the Aquarium, which I hope the reader will visit at + the earlier hours of the day. Then, if he has a passion for polyps, and + wishes to imagine how they could ingulf good-sized ships in the ages of + fable, he can see one of the hideous things float from its torpor in the + bottom of its tank, and seize Avith its hungry tentacles the food lowered + to it by a string. Still awfuller is it to see it rise and reach with + those prehensile members, as with the tails of a multi-caudate ape, some + rocky projection of its walls and lurk fearsomely into the hollow, and + vanish there in a loathly quiescence. The carnivorous spray and bloom of + the deep-sea flowers amid which drowned men's “bones are coral made” seem + of one temperament with the polyps as they slowly, slowly wave their + tendrils and petals; but there is amusement if not pleasure in store for + the traveller who turns from them to the company of shad softly and + continuously circling in their tank, and regarding the spectators with a + surly dignity becoming to people in better society than others. One large + shad, imaginably of very old family and independent property, sails at the + head of several smaller shad, his flatterers and toadies, who try to look + like him. Mostly his expression is very severe; but in milder moments he + offers a perverse resemblance to some portraits of Washington. + </p> + <p> + All our days in Naples died like dolphins to the music which I have tried + to impart the sense of. The joyful noises which it was made up of + culminated for us on that evening when a company of the street and boat + musicians came into the hotel and danced and sang and played the + tarantella. They were of all ages, sexes, and bulks, and of divers + operatic costumes, but they were of one temperament only, which was glad + and childlike. They went through their repertory, which included a great + deal more than the tarantella, and which we applauded with an enthusiasm + attested by our contributions when the tambourine went round. Then they + repeated their selections, and at the second collection we guests of the + hotel repeated our contributions, but in a more guarded spirit. After the + second repetition the prettiest girl came round with her photographs and + sold them at prices out of all reason. Then we became very melancholy, and + began to steal out one by one. I myself did not stay for the fourth + collection, and I cannot report how the different points of view, the + Southern and the Northern, were reconciled in the event which I am not + sure was final. But I am sure that unless you can make allowance for a + world-wide difference in the Neapolitans from yourself you can never + understand them. Perhaps you cannot, even then. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. POMPEII REVISITED + </h2> + <p> + Because I felt very happy in going back to Pompeii after a generation, and + being alive to do so in the body, I resolved to behave handsomely by the + cabman who drove me from my hotel to the station. I said to myself that I + would do something that would surprise him, and I gave him his fee and + nearly a franc over; but it was I who was surprised, for he ran after me + into the station, as I supposed, to extort more. He was holding out a + franc toward me, and I asked the guide who was bothering me to take him to + Pompeii (where there are swarms of guides always on the grounds) what the + matter was. “It is false,” he explained, and this proved true, though + whether the franc was the one I had given the driver or whether it was one + which he had thoughtfully substituted for it to make good an earlier loss + I shall now never know. I put it into my pocket, wondering what I should + do with it; the question what you shall do with counterfeit money in Italy + is one which is apt to recur as I have hinted, and in despair of solving + it at the moment I threw the false franc out of the car-window; it was the + false franc I have already boasted of throwing away. + </p> + <p> + This was, of course, after I got into the car, and after I had suffered + another wrong, and was resolved at least to be good myself. I had taken + first-class tickets, but, when we had followed several conductors up and + down the train, the last of them said there were no first-class places + left, though I shall always doubt this. I asked what we should do, and he + shrugged. I had heard that if you will stand upon your rights in such a + matter the company will have to put on another car for you. But I was now + dealing with the Italian government, which has nationalized the railroads, + but has apparently not yet repleted the rolling stock; and when the + conductor found us places in a second-class carriage, rather than quarrel + with a government which had troubles enough already I got aboard. I + suppose really that I have not much public spirit, and that the little I + have I commonly leave at home; in travelling it is burdensome. Besides, + the second-class carriage would have been comfortable enough if it had not + been so dirty; it looked as if it had not been washed since it was flooded + with liquid ashes at the destruction of Pompeii, though they seemed to be + cigar ashes. + </p> + <p> + The country through which we made the hour's run was sympathetically + squalid. We had, to be sure, the sea on one side, and that was clean + enough; but the day was gray, and the sea was responsively gray; while the + earth on the other side was torn and ragged, with people digging manure + into the patches of broccoli, and gardening away as if it had been April + instead of January. There were shabby villas, with stone-pines and + cypresses herding about the houses, and tatters of life-plant overhanging + their shabby walls; there were stucco shanties which the men and women + working in the fields would lurk in at nightfall. At places there was some + cheerful boat building, and at one place there was a large macaroni + manufactory, with far stretches of the product dangling in hanks and + skeins from rows of trellises. We passed through towns where women and + children swarmed, working at doorways and playing in the dim, cold + streets; from the balconies everywhere winter melons hung in nets, dozens + and scores of them, such as you can buy at the Italian fruiterers' in New + York, and will keep buying when once you know how good they are. In Naples + they sell them by the slice in the street, the fruiterer carrying a board + on his head with the slices arranged in an upright coronal like the rich, + barbaric head-dress of some savage prince. + </p> + <p> + Our train was slow and our car was foul, but nothing could keep us from + arriving at Pompeii in very good spirits. The entrance to the dead city is + gardened about with a cemeterial prettiness of evergreens; but, after you + have bought your ticket and been assigned your guide, you pass through + this decorative zone and find yourself in the first of streets where the + past makes no such terms with the present. If some of the houses of an + ampler plan had little spaces beyond the atrium planted with such flowers + as probably grew there two thousand years ago, and stuck round with tiny + figurines, it was to the advantage of the people's fancy; but it did not + appeal so much to the imagination as the mould and moss, and the small, + weedy network that covered the ground in the roofless chambers and temples + and basilicas, where the broken columns and walls started from the floors + which this unmeditated verdure painted in the favorite hue of ruin. + </p> + <p> + Most of the places I re-entered through my recollection of them, but to + this subjective experience there was added that of seeing much newer and + vaster things than I remembered. That sad population of the victims of the + disaster, restored to the semhlance of life, or perhaps rather of death, + in plaster casts taken from the moulds their decay had left in the + hardening ashes, had much increased in the melancholy museum where one + visits them the first thing within the city gates. But their effect was + not cumulative; there were more writhing women and more contorted men; but + they did not make their tragedy more evident than it had been when I saw + them, fewer but not less affecting, all those years ago. It was the same + with the city itself; Pompeii had grown, like the rest of the world in the + interval, and, although it had been dug tip instead of built up, a good + third had been added to the count of its streets and houses. There were + not, so far as I could see, more ruts from chariot-wheels in the lava + blocks of the thoroughfares, but some convincingly two-storied dwellings + had been exhumed, and others with ceilings in better condition than those + of the earlier excavations; there were more all-but-unbroken walls and + columns; some mosaic floors were almost as perfect as when their dwellers + fled over them out of the stifling city. But upon the whole the result was + a greater monotony; the revelation of house after house, nearly the same + in design, did not gain impressiveness from their repetition; just as the + case would be if the dwellings of an old-fashioned cross-town street in + New York were dug out two thousand years after their submergence by an + eruption of Orange Mountain. The identity of each of the public edifices + is easily attested to the archaeologist, but the generally intelligent, as + the generally unintelligent, visitor must take the archaeologist's word + for the fact. One temple is much like another in its stumps of columns and + vague foundations and broken altars. Among the later discoveries certain + of the public baths are in the best repair, both structurally and + decoratively, and in these one could replace the antique life with the + least wear and tear of the imagination. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-12.jpg" alt="12 Excavating at Pompeii " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + I could not tell which the several private houses were; but the + guide-books can, and there I leave the specific knowledge of them; their + names would say nothing to the reader if they said nothing to me. In + Pompeii, where all the houses were rather small, some of the new ones were + rather large, though not larger than a few of the older ones. Not more + recognizably than these, they had been devoted to the varied uses known to + advanced civilization in all ages: there were dwellings, and taverns and + drinking-houses and eating-houses, and there were those houses where the + feet of them that abide therein and of those that frequent them alike take + hold on hell. In these the guide stays the men of his party to prove the + character of the places to them from the frescos and statues; but it may + be questioned if the visitors so indulged had not better taken the guide's + word for the fact. There can be no doubt that at the heart of paganism the + same plague festered which poisons Christian life, and which, while the + social conditions remain the same from age to age, will poison life + forever. + </p> + <p> + The pictures on the walls of the newly excavated houses are not strikingly + better than those I had not forgotten; but of late it has been the purpose + to leave as many of the ornaments and utensils in position as possible. + The best are, as they ought to be, gathered into the National Museum at + Naples, but those which remain impart a more living sense of the past than + such wisely ordered accumulations; for it is the Pompeian paradox that in + the image of death it can best recall life. It is a grave which has been + laid bare, and it were best to leave its ghastly memories unhindered by + other companionship. One feels that one ought to be there alone in order + to see it aright. One should not perhaps + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Go visit it by the pale moonlight,” + </pre> + <p> + but if one could have it all to one's self by day, such a gray day as we + had for it, there is no telling what might happen. One thing only would + certainly happen: one would get lost. It never was a town of large area; + and, like all spaces that have been ruined over, it looked smaller than it + would have looked if all its walls were standing with all their roofs upon + them. Still, it was a mesh of streets, out of which you would in vain have + sought your way if you had been caught in it alone; though it is mostly so + level that if you had mounted a truncated column almost anywhere you could + have looked over the labyrinth to its verge. + </p> + <p> + It was not much crowded by visitors; though there were strings of them at + the heels of the respective guides, with, I thought, a prevalence of the + Germans, who are now overrunning Italy; I am sorry to say they are not + able to keep it cheap, at least for other nationalities. Among these I + noted two little smiling, shining, twinkling Japs, who carried kodaks for + the capture of that classical antiquity which could never really belong to + them. Their want of a pagan past in common with us may be what keeps us + alien even more than the want of a common Christian tradition. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The glory that was Greece + And the grandeur that was Rome” + </pre> + <p> + could never mean to our brown companions what they meant to us; but they + put on a polite air of being interested in the Graeco-Roman ruin, and were + so gentle and friendly that one could almost feel they were fellow-men. + Very likely they were; at any rate, until we are at war with them I shall + believe so. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-13.jpg" alt="13 the Street of Tombs, Pompeii " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Our guide, whom we had really bought the whole use of at the gate, + thriftily took on another party, with our leave, and it was pleasant to + find that the American type from Utah was the same as from Ohio or + Massachusetts; with all our differences we are the most homogeneous people + under the sun, and likest a large family. We all frankly got tired at + about the same time at the same place, and agreed that we had, without the + amphitheatre, had enough when we ended at the Street of Tombs, where the + tombs are in so much better repair than the houses. For myself, I + remembered the amphitheatre so perfectly from 1864 that I did not see how + I could add a single emotion there in 1908 to those I had already turned + into literature; and though Pompeii is but small, the amphitheatre is + practically as far from the Street of Tombs, after you have walked about + the place for two hours, as the Battery is from High Bridge. There is no + Elevated or Subway at Pompeii, and even the lines of public chariots, if + such they were, which left those ruts in the lava pavements seem to have + been permanently suspended after the final destruction in the year 79. + </p> + <p> + We were not only very tired, but very hungry, and we asked our guide to + take us back the shortest way. I suggested a cross-cut at one point, and + he caught at the word eagerly, and wrote it in his note-book for future + use. He also acted upon it instantly, and we cut across the back yards and + over the kitchen areas of several absent citizens on our way back. Our + guide was as good and true as it is in the nature of guides to be, but + absolute goodness and truth are rather the attributes of American + travellers; and you will not escape the small graft which the guides are + so rigorously forbidden to practise. Pompeii is no longer in the keeping + of the Italian army; with the Italian instinct of decentralization the + place has claimed the right of self-government, and now the guides are + civilians, and not soldiers, as they were in my far day. They do not + accept fees, but still they take them; and our guide said that he had a + brother-in-law who had the best restaurant outside the gate, where we + could get luncheon for two francs. As soon as we were in the hands of the + runner for that restaurant the price augmented itself to two francs and a + half; when we mounted to the threshold, lured on by the fascinating + mystery of this increase, it became three francs, without wine. But as the + waiter justly noted, in hovering about us with the cutlery and napery + while he laid the table, a two-fifty luncheon was unworthy such lords as + we. When he began to bring on the delicious omelette, the admirable fish, + the excellent cutlets, he made us observe that if we paid three francs we + ought to eat a great deal; and there seemed reason in this; at any rate, + we did so. The truth is, that luncheon was worth the money, and more; as + for the Vesuvian wine, it had the rich red blood of the volcano in it, and + it could not be bought in New York for half a franc the bottle, if at all; + at thrice that sum in Naples it was not a third as good. + </p> + <p> + If there had been anything to do after lunch except go to the train, we + could not have done it, we were so spent with our two hours' walk through + Pompeii, though the gray day had been rather invigorating. Certainly it + was not so exhausting as that white-hot day forty-three years before when + I had broiled over the same ground under the blazing sun of a Pompeian + November. Yet the difference in the muscles and emotions of twenty-seven + as against those of seventy told in favor of the white-hot day; and, + besides that, in the time that had elapsed a much greater burden of + antiquity had been added to the city than had accumulated in its history + between the year 79 and the year 1864. During most of those centuries + Pompeii had been dreamlessly sleeping under its ashes, but in the ensuing + less than half a century it had wakefully, however unwillingly, witnessed + such events as the failure of secession and the abolition of slavery, the + unification of Italy and Germany, the fall of the Second Empire, the + liberation of Cuba, and the acquisition of the Philippines, the exile of + Richard Croker, the destruction of the Boer Republic, the rise and spread + of the trusts, the purification of municipal politics, the invention of + wireless telegraphy, and the general adoption of automobiling. These + things, and others like them, had perhaps not aged Pompeii so much as they + had aged me, but their subjective effect was the same, and upon the whole + I was not altogether sorry to have added scarcely a new impression of the + place to those I had been carrying for more than a generation. + Quantitatively there were plenty of new impressions to be had; impressions + of more roofs, gardens, columns, houses, temples, walls, frescos; but + qualitatively the Greater Pompeii was now not different from the lesser + which I remembered so well. + </p> + <p> + This, at least, was what I said to myself on the ground and afterward in + the National Museum at Naples, where most of the precious Pompeian things, + new and old, are heaped up. They still make but a poor show there beside + the treasures of Herculaneum, where the excavation of a few streets and + houses has yielded costlier and lovelier things than all the lengths and + breadths of Pompeii. But not for this would I turn against Pompeii at the + last moment, as it were, though my second visit had not aesthetically + enriched me beyond my first. I keep the vision of it under that gray + January sky, with Vesuvius smokeless in the background, and the plan of + the dead city, opener to the eye than ever it could have been in life, + inscribed upon the broadly opened area of the gentle slopes within its + gates. Whether one had not better known it dead than alive, one might not + wish perhaps to say; but the place itself is curiously without pathos; + Newport in ruins might not be touching; possibly all skeletons or even + mummies are without pathos; and Pompeii is a skeleton, or at the most a + mummy, of the past. + </p> + <p> + Seeing what antiquity so largely was, however, one might be not only + resigned but cheerful in the ef-facement of any particular piece of it; + and for a help to this at Pompeii I may advise the reader to take with him + a certain little guide-book, written in English by a very courageous + Italian, which I chanced to find in Naples. Though it treats of the + tragical facts with seriousness, it is not with equal gravity that one + reads that sixteen years before the Vesuvian eruption “the region had been + shaken by strong sismic movements, which induced Pompei inhabitants to + forsake precipitately their habitations. But being the amazement up, they + got one's home again as soon as the earth was quiet and all fear and + sadness went off by memory.” Signs of the final disaster to follow were + not wanting; the wells failed, the water-courses were crossed by currents + of carbonic acid; “the domestic animals were also very sensible of the + approaching of the scourge; they lost the habitual vivacity, and having + the food in disgust, had from time to time to complain with mournful + wailings, without justified reasons.... The sky became of a thick + darkness,... interrupted only by flashes of light which the lava + reverberated, by the bloody gliding of the thunderbolts, by the + incandescence of enormous projectiles, thrown to an incommensurable + highness.... Death surprised the charming town; houses and streets became + the tombs of the unhappies hit by an atrocious torture.” + </p> + <p> + The author's study of the life of Pompeii is notable for diction which, if + there were logic in language, would be admirable English, for while yet in + his mind it must have been “very choice Italian.” He tells us that + “Pompei's dwellings are surprising by their specific littleness,” and + explains that “Pompei inhabitants, for the habitudes of the climate could + allow, lived almost always to the open sky,” just as the Naples + inhabitants do now. “They got home only to rest a little, to fulfill life + wants, to be protected by bad weather. They spent much time during the day + in forum, temples, thermes, tennis-court, or intervened to public sports, + religious functions and meetings.... Few houses only had windows. The + sunlight and ventilation to the ancients was given through empty spaces in + the roofs.... Hoofs knocked under the weight of materials thrown out by + Vesuvius; it is undoubted, however, that roofs were provided with covers + or supported terraces. In the middle of the roofs was cut an overture + through which air and light brought their benefits to the underlaid + ambients.... Proprietor disposed the locals according to his own + delight.... So that, there were bed, bath, dining, talking and game + rooms.” In the peristyle “the ground was gardened, the area shared in + flower beds, had narrow paths; herbs, flowers, shrubs were put with art + well in order on flower beds, delighted from time to time by statues of + various subjects,” as may be noted in the actual restorations of some of + the Pompeian houses. + </p> + <p> + As for their spiritual life, “Pompeian's religion, like by Roman people, + was the Paganism. Deities were worshipped in the temples with prayers, + sacrifices, vows, and festivities.... Banquets to the Deity were joined to + prayers. In fact, dining tables were dressed near the altars, and all + around them on dining beds, <i>tricli-nari,</i> placed Divinities statues + as these were assembled to own account to the joyous banquet.” Auspices or + auguries “gave interpretation to thunders, lightnings, winds, rain + crashes, comets, or to bird songs and flights.... Horuspices inquired the + divine will on the animal bowels, sacrificed to the altar; they took out + further indications by fleshes and bowels flames when burnt on the altar.” + </p> + <p> + An important feature of Pompeian social life was the bath, which “was one + of the hospitality duty, and very often required in several religious + functions.... Large and colossal edifices were quite furnished with all + the necessary for care and sport. Besides localities for all kind of bath—cold, + warm, steam bath—didn't want parks, alleys, and porticos in order to + walk; lists rings for gymnastic exercises, conversation and reading rooms, + localities for theatrical representations, swimming stations, localities + for scientific disquisitions, moral and religious teachings. The most + splendid art works adorned the ambient.” + </p> + <p> + When we pass to the popular amusements we are presented with the materials + of pictures vividly realized in <i>The Last Days of Pompeii,</i> but + somewhat faded since. “In the beginning gladiators' rank was made by + condemned to death slaves and war prisoners. Later also thoughtless young + men, who had never learned an advantageous trade, became gladiators.” In + the arena they engaged in sham fights till the spectators demanded blood. + Then, “sometimes one provided one's self nets for wrapping up the + adversary, who, hit by a trident much, frequently die. When the gladiator + was deadly wounded, forsaking the arm, struck down and stretching the + index, asked the people grace of life. The spectators decided up his + destiny, turning the thumb to the breast, or toward the ground. The thumb + turned toward the ground was the unlucky's death doom, and he had without + fail the throat cut off.” + </p> + <p> + Such, dimly but unmistakably seen through our Italian author's + well-reasoned English, were the ancient Pompeians; and, upon the whole, + the visitor to their city could not wish them back in it. I preferred even + those modern Pompeians who followed us so molestively to the train with + bargains in postal-cards and coral. They are very alert, the modern + Pompeians, to catch the note of national character, and I saw one of them + pursuing an elderly American with a spread of hat-pins, primarily two + francs each, and with the appeal, evidently studied from some fair + American girl: “Buy it, Poppa! Six for one franc. Oh, Poppa, buy it!” + </p> + <p> + I had again lavished my substance upon first-class tickets, and so had my + Utah friend, who expounded his philosophy of travel as we managed to + secure a first-class carriage. “When I can't go first-class in Italy, I'll + go home.” I promptly and proudly agreed with him, but I concealed my + morning's experience of the fact that in Italy you may sometimes go second + class when you have paid first. I agreed with him, however, in not minding + the plunder of Italian travel, since, with all the extortions, it would + come to a third less than you expected to spend. His was the true American + spirit. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. ROMAN HOLIDAYS + </h2> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. HOTELS, PENSIONS, AND APARTMENTS + </h2> + <p> + “Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?” the traveller asks rather + anxiously than defiantly when he finds himself a stranger in a strange + place, and he is apt to add, if he has not written or wired ahead to some + specific hotel, “Which of mine inns shall I take mine ease in?” He is the + more puzzled to choose the more inns there are to choose from, and his + difficulty is enhanced if he has not considered that some of his inns may + be full or may be too dear, and yet others undesirable. + </p> + <p> + The run from Naples in four hours and a half had been so flattering fair + an experience to people who had last made it in eight that they arrived in + Rome on a sunny afternoon of January preoccupied with expectations of an + instant ease in their inn which seemed the measure of their merit. They + indeed found their inn, and it was with a painful surprise that they did + not find the rooms in it which they wanted. There were neither rooms full + south, nor over the garden, nor off the tram, and in these circumstances + there was nothing for it but to drive to some one else's inn and try for + better quarters there. They, in fact, drove to half a dozen such, their + demands rising for more rooms and sunnier and quieter and cheaper, the + fewer and darker and noisier and dearer were those they found. + </p> + <p> + The trouble was that they found in the very first alien hotel where they + applied an apartment so exactly what they wanted, with its four rooms and + bath, all more or less full south, though mostly veering west and north, + that they carried the fatal norm in their consciousness and tested all + other apartments by it, the earlier notion of single rooms being promptly + rejected after the sight of it. The reader will therefore not be so much, + astonished as these travellers were to learn that there was nothing else + in Rome (where there must be about five hundred hotels, <i>hotels garnis,</i> + and pensions) that one could comparatively stay even overnight in, and + that they settled in that alluring apartment provisionally, the next day + being Sunday, and the crystalline Saturday of their arrival being well + worn away toward its topaz and ruby sunset. Of course, they continued + their search for several days afterward, zealously but hopelessly, yet not + fruitlessly, for it resulted in an acquaintance with Roman hotels which + they might otherwise never have made, and for one of them in literary + material of interest to every one hoping to come to Rome or despairing of + it. The psychology of the matter was very curious, and involved the sort + of pleasing self-illusion by which people so often get themselves over + questionable passes in life and come out with a good conscience, or a dead + one, which is practically the same thing. These particular people had come + to Rome with reminiscences of in-expensiveness and had intended to recoup + themselves for the cost of several previous winters in New York hotels by + the saving they would make in their Roman sojourn. When it appeared, after + all the negotiation and consequent abatement, that their Roman hotel + apartment would cost them hardly a fifth less than they had last paid in + New York, they took a guilty refuge in the fact that they were getting for + less money something which no money could buy in New York. Gradually all + sense of guilt wore off, and they boldly, or even impudently, said to + themselves that they ought to have what they could pay for, and that there + were reasons, which they were not obliged to render in their frankest + soliloquies, why they should do just what they chose in the matter. + </p> + <p> + The truth is that the modern Roman hotel is far better in every way than + the hotel of far higher class, or of the highest class, in New York. In + the first place, the managers are in the precious secret, which our + managers have lost, of making you believe that they want you; and, having + you, they know how to look after your pleasure and welfare. The table is + always of more real variety, though vastly less stupid profusion than + ours. The materials are wholesomer and fresher and are without the proofs, + always present in our hotel viands, of a probationary period in cold + storage. As for the cooking, there is no comparison, whether the things + are simply or complexly treated; and the service is of that neatness and + promptness which ours is so ignorant of. + </p> + <p> + Your agreement is usually for meals as well as rooms; the European plan is + preferably ignored in Europe; and the <i>table d'hote</i> luncheon and + dinner are served at small, separate tables; your breakfast is brought to + your room. Being old-fashioned, myself, I am rather sorry for the small, + separate tables. I liked the one large, long table, where you made talk + with your neighbors; but it is gone, and much facile friendliness with it, + on either hand and across the board. The rooms are tastefully furnished, + and the beds are unquestionable; the carpets warmly cover the floor if + stone, or amply rug it if of wood. The steam-heating is generous and + performs its office of “roasting you out of the house” without the + sizzling and crackling which accompany its efforts at home. The + electricity really illuminates, and there is always an electric lamp at + your bed-head for those long hours when your remorse or your digestion + will not let you sleep, and you must substitute some other's waking dreams + for those of your own slumbers. Above all, there is a lift, or elevator, + not enthusiastically active or convulsively swift, but entirely + practicable and efficient. It will hold from four to eight persons, and + will take up at least six without reluctance. + </p> + <p> + It must be clearly understood that the ideal of American comfort is fully + and faithfully realized, and if the English have reformed the Italian + hotels in respect of cleanliness, it is we who have brought them quite to + our domestic level in regard to heat and light. But if we want these + things in Rome, we must pay for them as we do at home, though still we do + not pay so much as we pay at home. The tips are about half our average, + but whether they are given currently or ultimately I do not know. Who, + indeed, knows about others' tips anywhere in the world? I asked an + experienced fellow-citizen what the custom was, and he said that he + believed the English gave in going away, but he thought the spirits of the + helpers drooped under the strain of hope deferred, and he preferred to + give every week. The donations, I understood, were pooled by the + dining-room waiters and then equally divided; but gifts bestowed above + stairs were for the sole behoof of him or her who took them. Germans are + said to give less than Anglo-Saxons, and it is said that Italians in some + cases do not give at all. But, again, who knows? The Italians are said + never to give drink money to the cabmen, but to pay only the letter of the + tariff. If I had done that in driving about to look up worse hotels than + the one I chose first and last, I should now be a richer man, but I doubt + if a happier. Two cents seems to satisfy a Roman cabman; five cents has + for him the witchery of money found in the road; but I must not leave the + subject of hotels for that of cabs, however alluringly it beckons. + </p> + <p> + The reader who knows Italy only from the past should clear his mind of his + old impressions of the hotels. There is no longer that rivalry between the + coming guest and the manager to see how few or many candles can be lighted + in his room and charged in the bill; there are no longer candles, but only + electricity. There is no longer an extortion for hearth-fires which send + all the heat up the chimney; there are steam radiators in every room. + There is no longer a tedious bargaining for rooms; the price is fixed and + cannot be abated except for a sojourn of weeks or months. But the price is + much greater than it used to be—twice as great almost; for the taxes + are heavy and provisions are dear, and coal and electricity are costly, + and you must share the expense with the landlord. He is not there for his + health, and, if for your comfort, you are not his invited guest. As I have + intimated, an apartment of four rooms with a bath will cost almost as + much, with board, as the same quarters in New York, but you will get far + more for your money in Rome. If you take a single room, even to the south, + in many first-class Roman hotels it will cost you for room and board only + two dollars or two and a half a day, which is what you pay for a far + meaner and smaller room alone in New York; and the Roman board is such, as + you can get at none but our most expensive houses for twice the money. + Generally you cannot get a single room and bath, but at present a very + exclusive hotel is going up in a good quarter which promises, with huge + English signs, a bath with every room and every room full south. One does + not see just how the universal sunny exposure is to be managed, but there + can be no question of the baths; and, with the steam radiators everywhere, + the northernmost room might well imagine itself full south. + </p> + <p> + Nearly all the hotels have a pleasant tea-room, which is called a winter + garden, because of a pair of palm-trees set under the centre of its glass + roof and the painted bamboo chairs and tables set about. This sort of + garden is found even in the hotels which are almost of the grade of + pensions and of their prices; but generally the pensions proper are + without it. Their rates are much lower, but quite as good people frequent + them, and they are often found in good streets and sometimes open into or + overlook charming gardens; the English especially seem to like the + pensions, which are managed like hotels. They are commonly without + steam-heat, which might account for their being less frequented by + Americans. + </p> + <p> + There are two supreme hotels in Rome—one in the Ludovisi quarter, as + it is called, and the other near the Baths of Diocletian, which Americans + frequent to their cost, for the rates approach a New York or London + magnificence. The first is rather the more spectacular of the two and is + the resort of all the finer sort of afternoon tea-drinkers, who find + themselves the observed of observers of all nationalities; there is music + and dress, and there are titles of every degree, with as much informality + as people choose, if they go to look, or as much state if they go to be + looked at; these things are much less cumbrously contrived than with us. + The other hotel, I have the somewhat unauthorized fancy, is rather more + addicted to very elect dinner-parties and suppers. Below these two are an + endless variety of first-rate and second-rate houses, both in the newer + quarter of the city, where the villa paths have been turned into streets, + and in the old town on all the pleasant squares and avenues. There is a + tradition of unhealth concerning the old town which the modern death-rate + of Rome shows to be unjust; at the worst these places have more dark and + damp, and the hotels are not steam-heated. + </p> + <p> + It has seemed to me that there are not so many <i>hotels garnis</i> in + Rome as there used to be in Italian cities, but they, too, abound in + pleasant streets, and the stranger who has a fancy for lodgings with + breakfast in his rooms, and likes to browse about for his luncheon and + dinner, will easily suit himself. If it comes to taking a furnished + apartment for the season, there is much range in price and much choice in + place. The agents who have them to let will begin, rather dismayingly, + “Oh, apartments in Rome are very dear.” But you learn on inquiry that a + furnished flat in the Ludovisi region, in a house with a lift and full + sun, may be had for two hundred dollars a month. From this height the + rents of palatial apartments soar to such lonely peaks as eight hundred + and sink to such levels as a hundred and twenty or a hundred; and for this + you have linen and silver and all the movables and utensils you want, as + well as several vast rooms opening wastefully from one to another till you + reach the salon. The rents of the like flats, if vacant, would be a + quarter or a third less, though again the agents begin by telling you that + there is very little difference between the rents of furnished and + unfurnished flats. The flats are in every part of the old town and the + new; and some are in noble sixteenth and seventeenth century palaces, such + as we are accustomed to at home only in the theatre. My own experience is + that everybody, especially in houses where there are no lifts, lives on + the top floor. You pass many other floors in going up, but you are left to + believe that nobody lives on them. When you reach the inhabited levels, + you find them charming inside for their state and beauty, and outside for + their magnificent view, which may be pretty confidently relied upon to + command the dome of St. Peter's. That magnificent stone bubble seems to + blow all round the horizon. + </p> + <p> + When you have taken your furnished flat, the same agency will provide you + a cook at ten or twelve dollars a month, a maid at seven dollars, a lady's + maid at eight or nine dollars, and so on; the cook will prefer to sleep + out of the house. Then will come the question of provisions, and these + seem really to be dear in Rome. Meats and vegetables both are dear, and + game and poultry. Beef will be forty cents a pound, and veal and mutton in + proportion; a chicken which has been banting for the table from its birth + will be forty cents; eggs which have not yet taken active shape are + twenty-five and thirty cents throughout winters so bland that a hen of any + heart can hardly keep from laying every day. I am afraid I am no authority + on butter and milk, and groceries I do not know the prices of; but coffee + ought to be cheap, for nobody drinks anything but substitutes more or less + unabashed. + </p> + <p> + For the passing stranger, or even the protracted so-journer, whose time + and money are not too much at odds, a hotel is best, and a hotel in the + new quarter is pleasanter than one in the old quarters. Ours, at any rate, + was in a wide, sunny, and (if I must own it) dusty street, laid out in a + line of beauty on the borders of the former Villa Ludovisi, where the + aging or middle-aging reader used to come to see Guercino's “Aurora” in + the roof of the casino. Now all trace of the garden is hidden under vast + and vaster hotels and great blond apartment-houses, and ironed down with + trolley-rails; but the Guercino has been spared, though it is no longer so + accessible to the public. Still, there is a garden left, and our hotel, + with others, looks across the sun and dust of its street into the useful + vegetation of the famous old Capuchin convent, with the church, to which I + came so eagerly so long ago to revere Guido's “St. Michael and the Dragon” + and the decorative bones of the good brothers braided on the walls and + roofs of the crypt in the indissoluble community of floral and geometric + designs. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-14.jpg" alt="14 the Capuchin Church, Rome " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + All through the months of February and March I woke to the bell that woke + the brothers to their prayers before daybreak and burst the beauty-sleep + of the hotel-dwellers, who have so far outnumbered the monks since the + obliteration of the once neighboring villa. This was, of course, a + hardship, and one thought things of that bell which the monks were too + good to say; but being awake, and while one was reading one's self to + sleep again, one could hear the beginning of the bird singing in the + modern garden in the rear which followed upon the bell-ringing. I do not + know what make or manner of bird it was that mostly sang among the palms + and laurels and statues, but it had a note of liquid gold, which it poured + till a certain flageo-lettist, whom I never saw, came to the corner under + the villa wall and blew his soul into one end of his instrument and out of + the other in the despondent breathings of most melancholy music. Then, + having attuned the spirits of his involuntary listeners to a pensive + sympathy, he closed with that international hymn which does not rightly + know whether it is “My Country, 'tis of Thee,” or “God Save the King,” but + serves equally for the patriotism of any English or Americans in hearing. + I do not know why this harmless hymn, which the flageolettist gave + extremely well, should always have seemed to provoke the derision of the + donkey which apparently dwelt in harmony with the birds in that garden, + but the flageolettist had no sooner ended than the donkey burst into a + bray, loud, long, and full of mockery, with a close of ironical whistling + and most insolent hissing; you would think that some arch-enemy of the + Anglo-Saxon race was laughing the new-felt unity of the English and + Americans to scorn. Later, but still before daylight, came the wild cry of + a boy, somewhere out of perdition, following the deep bass invitation of + his father's lost spirit to buy his wares, whatever they were. We never + knew, but we liked that boy's despairing wail, and would not have missed + it for ever so much extra slumber. When all hope of more sleep was past + there was no question of the desirability of the boy who visibly arranged + his store of oranges on the curbstone under the villa wall, and seemed to + think that they had a peculiar attraction from being offered for sale in + pairs. His cry filled the rest of the forenoon. + </p> + <p> + The Italian spring comes on slowly everywhere, with successive snubs in + its early ardor from the snows on the mountains, which regulate the + climate from north to south. We could not see that it made more speed + behind the sheltering walls of the Capuchin convent garden than in other + places. The old gardener whom we saw pottering about in it seemed to + potter no more actively at the end of March than at the beginning of + February; on the first days of April a heap of old leaves and stalks was + sending up the ruddy flame and pleasant smell that the like burning heaps + do with us at the like hour of spring—in fact, vegetation had much + more reason to be cheerful throughout February than at any time in March. + Those February days were really incomparable. They had not the melting + heat of the warm spells that sometimes come in our Februaries; but their + suns were golden, and their skies unutterably blue, and their airs mild, + yet fresh. You always wanted a heavy coat for driving or for the shade in + walking; otherwise the temperature was that of a New England April which + was resolved to begin as it could carry out. But March came with cold + rains of whole days, and with suns that might overheat but could not be + trusted to warm you. The last Sunday of January I found ice in the + Colosseum; but that was the only time I saw ice anywhere in Rome. In + March, however, in a moment of great exasperation from the mountains, it + almost snowed. Yet that month would in our climate have been remembered + for its beauty and for a prevailing kindness of temperature. The worst you + could say of it was that it left the spring in the Capuchin garden where + it found it. But possibly, since the temporal power was overthrown, the + seasons are neglected and indifferent. Certainly man seems so in the case + of the Capuchin convent. Great stretches of the poor old plain edifice + look vacant, and the high wall which encloses it is plastered and painted + with huge advertisements of clothiers and hotels and druggists, and + announcements of races and other events out of keeping with its character + and tradition. + </p> + <p> + The sentimentalists who overrun Rome from all the Northern lands will tell + you that this is of a piece with all the Newer Rome which has sprung into + existence since the Italian occupation. Their griefs with the thing that + is are loud and they are long; but I, who am a sentimentalist too, though + of another make, do not share them. No doubt the Newer Rome has made + mistakes, but, without defending her indiscriminately, I am a Newer-Roman + to the core, perhaps because I knew the Older Rome and what it was like; + and not all my brother and sister sentimentalists can say as much. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. A PRAISE OF NEW ROME + </h2> + <p> + Rome and I had both grown older since I had seen her last, but she seemed + not to show so much as I the forty-three years that had passed. Naturally + a city that was already twenty-seven centuries of age (and no one knows + how much more) would not betray the lapse of time since 1864 as a man must + who was then only twenty-seven years of age. In fact, I should say that + Rome looked, if anything, younger at our second meeting, in 1908, or, at + any rate, newer; and I am so warm a friend of youth (in others) that I was + not sorry to find Rome young, or merely new, in so many good things. At + the same time I must own that I heard no other foreigner praising her for + her newness except a fellow-septuagenarian, who had seen Rome earlier even + than I, and who thought it well that the Ghetto should have been cleared + away, though some visitors, who had perhaps never lived in a Ghetto, + thought it a pity if not a shame, and an incalculable loss to the + picturesque. These also thought the Tiber Embankments a wicked sacrifice + to the commonplace, though the mud-banks of other days invited the torrent + to an easy overflow of whole quarters of the town, which were left reeking + with the filth of the flood that overlay the filth of the streets, and + combined with it to an effect of disease and of discomfort not always + personally unknown to the lover of the picturesque. There used to be a + particular type of typhoid known as Roman fever, but now quite unknown, + thanks to the Tiber Embankments and to the light and air let into the + purlieus of that mediaeval Rome for which the injudicious grieve so + loudly. The perfect municipal housekeeping of our time leaves no darkest + and narrowest lane or alley unswept; every morning the shovel and broom go + over the surfaces formerly almost impassable to the foot and quite + impossible to the nose. + </p> + <p> + I am speaking literally as well as frankly, and though I can understand + why some envious New-Yorker, remembering our blackguard streets and + avenues, should look askance at the decency of the newer Rome and feign it + an offence against beauty and poetry, I do not see why a Londoner, who + himself lives in a well-kept town, should join with any of my + fellow-barbarians in hypocritically deploring the modern spirit which has + so happily invaded the Eternal City. The Londoner should rather entreat us + not to be humbugs and should invite us to join him in rejoicing that the + death-rate of Rome, once the highest in the civilized world, is now almost + the lowest. But the language of Shakespeare and Milton is too often + internationally employed in deploring the modernity which has housed us + aliens there in such perfect comfort and safety. One must confine one's + self to instances, and one may take that of the Ludovisi Quarter, as it is + called, where I dwelt in so much peace and pleasure except when I was + reminded that it was formed by plotting the lovely Villa Ludovisi in house + lots and building it up in attractive hotels and apartment-houses. Even + then I did not suffer so keenly as some younger people, who had never seen + the villa, seemed to do, though there are still villas to burn in and + about Rome, and they could not really miss the Ludovisi. It was a pretty + place, but not beyond praise, and the quarter also is pretty, though also + not beyond praise. The villa was for the pleasure and pride of one family, + but it signified, even in its beauty, nothing but patrician splendor, + which is a poor thing at best; and the quarter is now for the pleasure and + pride of great numbers of tourists, mostly of that plutocracy from which a + final democracy is inevitably to evolve itself. I could see no cause to + beat the breast in this; and in humbler instances, even to very humble, I + could not find that things were nearly as bad in Rome as they have been + painted. + </p> + <p> + There is no doubt but at one time, directly after the coming of the + capital, Rome was badly overbuilt. There is no doubt, also, that Rome has + grown up to these rash provisions for her growth, and that she now “stuffs + out her vacant garments with her form” pretty fully. One must not say that + all the flats in all the houses are occupied, but most of them are; and if + now the property of the speculators is the property of the banks, the + banks are no bad landlords, and the law does not spare them the least of + their duties to their tenants; or so, at least, it is said. + </p> + <p> + Another typical wrong to the old Rome, or rather to the not-yet Rome, was + the building-up, beyond the Tiber, of the Quarter of the Fields, so + called, where Zola in his novel of <i>Rome</i> has placed most of the + squalor which he so lavishly employs in its contrasts. In these he shows + himself the romanticist that he always frankly owned he was in spite of + himself; but after I had read his book I made it my affair to visit the + scenes of poverty and misery in the Quartiere dei Prati. When I did so I + found that I had already passed through the quarter without noting + anything especially poor or specifically miserable, and I went a third + time to make sure that I had not overlooked something impressively + lamentable. But I did not see above three tenement-houses with the wash + hung from the windows, and with the broken shutters of poverty and misery, + in a space where on the East Side or the North Side in New York I could + have counted such houses by the score, almost the hundred. In this quarter + the streets were swept every morning as they are everywhere in Rome, and + though toward noon they were beginning to look as slovenly as our streets + look when they have just been “cleaned,” I knew that the next morning + these worst avenues of Rome would be swept as our best never have been + since the days of Waring. + </p> + <p> + Beyond the tenements the generous breadth of the new streets has been + bordered by pleasant stucco houses of the pretty Italian type, fleetingly + touched but not spoiled by the taste of the <i>art nouveau,</i> standing + in their own grounds, and not so high-fenced but one could look over their + garden-walls into the shrubs and flowers about them. Like suburban effects + are characteristic of the new wide residential streets on the hither side + of the Tiber, and on both shores the streets expand from time to time into + squares, with more or less tolerable new monuments—say, of the + Boston average—in them. The business streets where they bear the + lines of the frequently recurrent trams are spacious and straight, and + though they are not the Corso, the Corso itself, it must be remembered, is + only a street of shops by no means impressive, and is mostly dim under the + overtowering walls of palaces which have no space to be dignified in. Now + and then their open portals betray a glimpse of a fountained or foliaged + court, but whether these palaces are outwardly beautiful or not no one can + tell from what sight one can get of them; no, not even the most besotted + sentimentalist of those who bewail the loss of mediaeval Rome when they + mean Rome of the Renaissance. How much of that Rome has been erased by + modern Rome I do not know, but I think not so much as people pretend. Some + of the ugly baroque churches have been pulled down to allow the excavation + of imperial Rome, but there are plenty of ugly baroque churches left. It + is said the princely proprietors of the old palaces which are let in + apartments along the different Corsos (for the Corso is several) are going + to pull them down and put up modern houses, with the hope of modern rents, + but again I do not know. More than once the fortuities of hospitality + found one the guest of dwellers in such stately domiciles, and I could + honestly share the anxiety with which they spoke of these rumors; but + there are a great many vast edifices of the sort, and I should not be + surprised if I went back to Rome after another forty-three years to find + most of them standing in 1951 where they now stand in 1908. Rome was not + built in a day, and it will not be unbuilt or rebuilt within the brief + period that will make me one hundred and fourteen years old. By that time + I shall have outlived most of the medievalists, and I can say to the few + survivors: “There, you see that new Rome never went half so far as you + expected.” + </p> + <p> + But no doubt it will go further than it has yet gone, in the way that is + for the good and comfort of mankind. In one of the newer quarters, of + which the Baths of Diocletian form the imperial centre, my just American + pride was flattered by the sign on a handsome apartment-house going up in + gardened grounds, which advertised that it was to be finished with a lift + and steam-heating. Many of the newer houses are already supplied with + lifts, but central heating is as yet only beginning to spread from the + hotels, where steam has been installed in compliance with the impassioned + American demand to be warm all round when one is in-doors. New Rome is not + going so fast and so far but that it will keep, to whatever end it + reaches, one of the characteristic charms of the old and older Rome. I + shall expect to see when I come back in 1951 the same or the like corners + of garden walls, with the tops of shining foliage peering over them, that + now enchant the passer in the street; from the windows of my + electric-elevatored, steam-heated apartment I shall look down into the + seclusion of gardens, with the golden globes of orange espaliers mellowing + against the walls, and the fountain in the midst of oleanders and of + laurels + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Shaking its loosened silver in the sun.” + </pre> + <p> + Slim cypresses will then as now blacken through the delicate air against + the blue sky, and a stone-pine will spread its umbrella over some + sequestered nook. By that time the craze for the eucalyptus which now + possesses all Italy will be over, and every palm-tree will be cut down, + while the ilex will darken in its place and help the eternal youth of the + marbles to a greener old age of moss and mould in the gloom of its + spreading shade. All these things beautifully abound in Rome now, as they + always have abounded, and there is no reason to fear that they will cease + to abound. + </p> + <p> + Rome grows, and as Italy prospers it will grow more and more, for there + must forever be a great and famous capital where there has always been + one. The place is so perfectly the seat of an eternal city that it might + well seem to have been divinely chosen because of the earth and heaven + which are more in sympathy there than anywhere else in the world. The + climate is beyond praise for a winter which is mild without being weak; + there is a summer of tolerable noonday heat, and of nights deliciously + cool; the spring is scarcely earlier than in our latitudes, but the fall + is a long, slow decline from the temperature of October to the lowest + level of January without the vicissitudes of other autumns. The embrowning + or reddening or yellowing leaves turn sere, but drop or cling to their + parent boughs as they choose, for there is seldom a frost to loosen their + hold, and seldom a storm to tear them away. + </p> + <p> + So it is said by those who profess a more intimate acquaintance with the + Roman meteorology than I can boast, but from the little I know I can + believe anything of it that is of good report. Everywhere the prevalence + of the ilex, the orange, the laurel, the pine, flatters January with an + illusion of June, and under our hotel windows I was witness of the success + of the sycamore leaves in keeping a grip of their native twigs even after + the new buds came to push them away. In the last days of March a plum-tree + hung its robe of white blossoms over the wall of the Capuchin convent from + the garden within; but the almond-trees had been in bloom for six weeks + before, and the deeper pink of the peach had more warmly flushed the + suburbs for fully a fortnight. + </p> + <p> + Still, a mild winter and an endurable summer will not of themselves make a + great capital, and it was probably the Romans themselves who in the past + made Rome the capital of the world, first politically and then + religiously. Whether they will make it so hereafter remains to be seen. In + the sense of all the Italians being Romans, I believe, with my profound + faith in the race, that they are very capable of doing it; and they will + have the help of the whole world in the work, or what is most liberal and + enlightened in the whole world. As it is, Rome has a pull with Occidental + civilization which forever constitutes her its head city. The only + European capitals comparable with her are London, Paris, and Berlin; one + cannot take account of New York, which is merely the commercial metropolis + of America, with a possibility of becoming the business centre of both + hemispheres. Washington is still in its nonage and of a numerical + unimportance in which it must long remain almost ludicrously inferior to + other capitals, not to dwell upon its want of anything like artistic, + literary, scientific, and historical primacy. It is the voluntary + political centre of the greatest republic of any time and of a nation + which is already unrivalled in its claim upon the future. But it is not of + the involuntary and unconscious growth of a capital like London, which is + the centre of a mighty state, deep-rooted in the past, and the capital of + that Anglo-Saxon race of which we are ourselves a condition, and of a + colonial empire without a present equal. Paris is France in the sense of + representing the intense life of a nation unsurpassed in the things which + enlighten and ennoble the human intellect and advance mankind. Berlin is + the concentration of the strong will of a state which has made itself + great out of the weak will of sundry inferior states, homogeneous in their + disunity more than in any positive quality, and which stands for a + political ideal more nearly reactionary, more nearly mediaeval, than any + other modern state. Berlin is not German as Paris is French, and Rome is + not so exclusively Italian. In fact, her greatness, accomplished and + destined, lies in just the fact that she is not and never can be + exclusively Italian. Human interests too universal and imperative for the + control of a single race, even so brilliant and so gifted as the Italian + race, which is naturally and necessarily in possession, centre about her + through history, religion, art, and make every one at home in the city + which is the capital of Christendom. Now and then I saw some shining and + twinkling Japs going about with Baedekers, and I imagined them giving a + modest and unprejudiced mind to Rome without claiming, tacitly or + explicitly, the right to dispute the Italian theory and practice in its + control. But every Occidental stranger (if any one of European blood is a + stranger in the home of Christianity) I knew to be there in a mood more or + less critical, and in a disposition to find fault with the Rome which is + now making, or making over. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0015" id="linkimage-0015"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-15.jpg" alt="15 Glimpse Inside of Imperial Rome " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + We journeyers or sojourners can do this without expense or inconvenience + to ourselves, and we can easily blame the Italian conception of the future + city which, to name but one fact, has made it possible for us to visit her + in comfort at every season and to come away without having come down with + the Roman fever. In spite of the sort of motherly, or at the worst + step-motherly, welcome which she gives to all us closely or distantly + related children of hers; in spite of her immemorial fame and her immortal + beauty; in spite of her admirable housekeeping, in which she rises every + morning at daybreak and sweeps clean every hole and corner of her + dwelling; in spite of her wonderful sky, her life-giving air; in spite of + the level head she keeps in her political affairs, and the miraculous + poise she maintains between the antagonism of State and Church; in spite + of her wise eclecticism in modern improvements; in spite of her admirable + hygiene, which has constituted her one of the healthiest, if not the + healthiest city in Europe; in spite of the solvency which she preserves + amid expenses to which the vast scale of antiquity obliges her in all her + public enterprises (a thing to be hereafter studied), we, the ungracious + offspring of her youth, come from our North and West and censure and + criticise and carp. I have seldom conversed with any fellow-visitor in + Rome who could not improve her in some phase or other, who could not + usefully advise her, who, at the best, did not patronize her. I offer + myself as almost the sole example of a stranger who was contented with her + as she is, or as she is going to be without his help; and I am the more + confident, therefore, in suggesting to Rome an expedient by which she can + repair the finances which her visitors say are so foolishly and wastefully + mismanaged in her civic schemes. A good round tax, such as Carlsbad levies + upon all sojourners, if laid upon the multitudinous tourists joining in + such a chorus of criticism of Rome would give them the indefeasible right + to their opinions and would help to replete a treasury which they believe + is always in danger of being exhausted. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. THE COLOSSEUM AND THE FORUM + </h2> + <p> + As I have told, the first visit I paid to the antique world in Rome was at + the Colosseum the day after our arrival. For some unknown reason I was + going to begin with the Baths of Caracalla, but, as it happened, these + were the very last ruins we visited in Rome; and I do not know just what + accident diverted us to the Colosseum; perhaps we stopped because it was + on the way to the Baths and looked an easier conquest. At any rate, I + shall never regret that we began with it. + </p> + <p> + After twoscore years and three it was all strangely familiar. I do not say + that in 1864 there was a horde of boys at the entrance wishing to sell me + postcards—these are a much later invention of the Enemy—but I + am sure of the men with trays full of mosaic pins and brooches, and + looking, they and their wares, just as they used to look. The Colosseum + itself looked unchanged, though I had read that a minion of the wicked + Italian government had once scraped its flowers and weeds away and cleaned + it up so that it was perfectly spoiled. But it would take a good deal more + than that to spoil the Colosseum, for neither the rapine of the mediaeval + nobles, who quarried their palaces from it, nor the industrial enterprise + of some of the popes, who wished to turn it into workshops, nor the + archeology of United Italy had sufficed to weaken in it that hold upon the + interest proper to the scene of the most stupendous variety shows that the + world has yet witnessed. The terrible stunts in which men fought one + another for the delight of other men in every manner of murder, and wild + beasts tore the limbs of those glad to perish for their faith, can be as + easily imagined there as ever, and the traveller who visits the place has + the assistance of increasing hordes of other tourists in imagining them. + </p> + <p> + I will not be the one to speak slight of that enterprise which marshals + troops of the personally conducted through the place and instructs them in + divers languages concerning it. Save your time and money so, if you have + not too much of either, and be one of an English, French, or German party, + rather than try to puzzle the facts out for yourself, with one contorted + eye on your Baedeker and the other on the object in question. In such + parties a sort of domestic relation seems to grow up through their + associated pleasures in sight-seeing, and they are like family parties, + though politer and patienter among themselves than real family parties. + They are commonly very serious, though they doubtless all have their + moments of gayety; and in the Colosseum I saw a French party grouped for + photography by a young woman of their number, who ran up and down before + them with a kodak and coquettishly hustled them into position with pretty, + bird-like chirpings of appeal and reproach, and much graceful + self-evidencing. I do not censure her behavior, though doubtless there + were ladies among the photographed who thought it overbold; if the reader + had been young and blond and <i>svelte,</i> in a Parisian gown and hat, + with narrow russet shoes, not too high-heeled for good taste, I do not + believe he would have been any better; or, if he would, I should not have + liked him so well. + </p> + <p> + On the earlier day which I began speaking of I found that I was insensibly + attaching myself to an English-hearing party of the personally conducted, + in the dearth of my own recollections of the local history, but I quickly + detached myself for shame and went back and meekly hired the help of a + guide who had already offered his services in English, and whom I had + haughtily spurned in his own tongue. His English, though queer, was + voluminous; but I am not going to drag the reader at our heels laden with + lore which can be applied only on the spot or in the presence of + postal-card views of the Colosseum. It is enough that before my guide + released us we knew where was the box of Caesar, whom those about to die + saluted, and where the box of the Vestals whose fatal thumbs gave the + signal of life or death for the unsuccessful performer; where the wild + beasts were kept, and where the Christians; where were the green-rooms of + the gladiators, who waited chatting for their turn to go on and kill one + another. One must make light of such things or sink under them; and if I + am trying to be a little gay, it is for the readers' sake, whom I would + not have perish of their realization. Our guide spared us nothing, such + was his conscience or his science, and I wish I could remember his name, + for I could commend him as most intelligent, even, when least + intelligible. However, the traveller will know him by the winning smile of + his rosy-faced little son, who follows him round and is doubtless bringing + himself up as the guide of coming generations of tourists. There had been + a full pour of forenoon sunshine on the white dust of the street before + our hotel, but the cold of the early morning, though it had not been too + much for the birds that sang in the garden back of us, had left a skim of + ice in damp spots, and now, in the late gray of the afternoon, the ice was + visible and palpable underfoot in the Colosseum, where crowds of people + wandered severally or collectively about in the half-frozen mud. They + were, indeed, all over the place, up and down, in every variety of costume + and aspect, but none were so picturesque as a little group of monks who + had climbed to a higher tier of the arches and stood looking down into the + depths where we looked up at them, denned against the sky in their black + robes, which opened to show their under robes of white. They were + picturesque, but they were not so monumental as an old, unmistakable + American in high-hat, with long, drooping side-whiskers, not above a + purple suspicion of dye, who sat on a broken column and vainly endeavored + to collect his family for departure. Whenever he had gathered two or three + about him they strayed off as the others came up, and we left him + sardonically patient of their adhesions and defections, which seemed + destined to continue indefinitely, while we struggled out through the + postal-card boys and mosaic-pin men to our carriage. Then we drove away + through the quarter of somewhat jerry-built apartment-houses which + neighbor the Colosseum, and on into the salmon sunset which, after the + gray of the afternoon, we found waiting us at our hotel, with the statues + on the balustrated wall of the villa garden behind it effectively posed in + the tender light, together with the eidolons of those picturesque monks + and that monumental American. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-16.jpg" alt="16 Interior of Colosseum from the South " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + We could safely have stayed longer, for the evening damp no longer brings + danger of Roman fever, which people used to take in the Colosseum, unless + I am thinking of the signal case of Daisy Miller. She, indeed, I believe, + got it there by moonlight; but now people visit the place by moonlight in + safety; and there are even certain nights of the season advertised when + you may see it by the varicolored lights of the fireworks set off in it. + My impression of it was quite vivid enough without that, and the vision of + the Colosseum remained, and still remains, the immense skeleton of the + stupendous form stripped of all integumental charm and broken down half + one side of its vast oval, so that wellnigh a quarter of the structural + bones are gone. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-17.jpg" alt="17 the Sacred Way Through The Forum " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + With its image there persisted and persists the question constantly + recurrent in the presence of all the imperial ruins, whether imperial Rome + was not rather ugly than otherwise. The idea of those world-conquerors was + first immensity and then beauty, as much as could survive consistently + with getting immensity into a given space. The question is most of all + poignant in the Forum, which I let wait a full fortnight before moving + against it in the warm sun of an amiable February morning. On my first + visit to Rome I could hardly wait for day to dawn after my arrival before + rushing to the Cow Field, as it was then called, and seeing the + wide-horned cattle chewing the cud among the broken monuments now so + carefully cherished and, as it were, sedulously cultivated. It is doubtful + whether all that has since been done, and which could not but have been + done, by the eager science as much involuntarily as voluntarily applied to + the task, has resulted in a more potent suggestion of what the Forum was + in the republican or imperial day than what that simple, old, unassuming + Cow Field afforded. There were then as now the beautiful arches; there + were the fragments of the temple porches, with their pillars; there was + the “unknown column with the buried base”; there were all the elements of + emotion and meditation; and it is possible that sentiment has only been + cumbered Avith the riches which archaeology has dug up for it by lowering + the surface of the Cow Field fifteen or twenty feet; by scraping clean the + buried pavements; by identifying the storied points; by multiplying the + fragments of basal or columnar marbles and revealing the plans of temples + and palaces and courts and tracing the Sacred Way on which the + magnificence of the past went to dusty death. After all, the imagination + is very childlike, and it prefers the elements of its pleas-ures simple + and few; if the materials are very abundant or complex, it can make little + out of them; they embarrass it, and it turns critical in self-defence. The + grandeur that was Rome as visioned from the Cow Field becomes in the + mind's eye the kaleidoscopic clutter which the resurrection of the Forum + Romanum must more and more realize. + </p> + <p> + If the visitor would have some rash notion of what the ugliness of the + place was like when it was in its glory, he may go look at the plastic + reconstruction of it, indefinitely reduced, in the modest building across + the way from the official entrance to the Forum. One cannot say but this + is intensely interesting, and it affords the consolation which the humble + (but not too humble) spirit may gather from witness of the past, that the + fashion of this world and the pride of the eyes and all ruthless vainglory + defeated themselves in ancient Rome, as they must everywhere when they can + work their will. If one had thought that in magnitude and multitude some + entire effect of beauty was latent, one had but to look at that huddle of + warring forms, each with beauty in it, but beauty lost in the crazy + agglomeration of temples and basilicas and columns and arches and statues + and palaces, incredibly painted and gilded, and huddled into spaces too + little for the least, and crowding severally upon one another, without + relation or proportion. Their mass is supremely tasteless, almost + senseless; that mob of architectural incongruities was not only without + collective beauty, but it was without that far commoner and cheaper thing + which we call picturesqueness. This has come to it through ruin, and we + must give a new meaning to the word vandalism if we would appreciate what + the barbarians did for Rome in tumbling her tawdry splendor into the heaps + which are now at least paint-able. Imperial Rome as it stood was not + paintable; I doubt if it would have been even photographable to anything + but a picture post-card effect. + </p> + <p> + But as yet I wandered in the Forum safe from the realization of its + ugliness when it was in its glory. I cannot say that even now it is + picturesque, but it is paintable, and certainly it is pathetic. Stumps of + columns, high and low, stand about in the places where they stood in their + unbroken pride, and though it seems a hardship that they should not have + been left lying in the kindly earth or on it instead of being pulled up + and set on end, it must be owned that they are scarcely overworked in + their present postures. More touching are those inarticulate heaps, cairns + of sculptured fragments, piled here and there together and waiting the + knowledge which is some time to assort them and translate them into some + measure of coherent meaning. But it must always be remembered that when + they were coherent they were only beautiful parts of a whole that was + brutally unbeautiful. We have but to use the little common-sense which + Heaven has vouchsafed some of us in order to realize that Rome, either + republican or imperial, was a state for which we can have no genuine + reverence, and that mostly the ruins of her past can stir in us no finer + emotion than wonder. But necessarily, for the sake of knowledge, and of + ascertaining just what quantity and quality of human interest the material + records of Roman antiquity embody, archaeology must devote itself with all + possible piety to their recovery. The removal, handful by handful, of the + earth from the grave of the past which the whole Forum is, tomb upon tomb, + is as dramatic a spectacle as anything one can well witness; for that soil + is richer than any gold-mine in its potentiality of treasure, and it must + be strictly scrutinized, almost by particles, lest some gem of art should + be cast aside with the accumulated rubbish of centuries. Yet this drama, + poignantly suggestive as it always must be, was the least incident of that + morning in the Forum which it was my fortune to pass there with other + better if not older tourists as guest of the Genius Loci. It was not quite + a public event, though the Commendatore Boni is so well known to the + higher journalism, and even to fiction (as the reader of Anatole France's + <i>La Pierre Blanche</i> will not have forgotten), that nothing which he + archaeologically does is without public interest, and this excursion in + the domain of antiquity was expected to result in identifying the site of + the Temple of Jupiter Stator. It was conjectured that the temple vowed to + this specific Jupiter for his public spirit in stopping the flight of a + highly demoralized Roman army would be found where we actually found it. + Archaeology seems to proceed by hypothesis, like other sciences, and to + enjoy a forecast of events before they are actually accomplished. I do not + say that I was very vividly aware of the event in question; I could not go + now and show where the temple stood, but when I read of it in a cablegram + to the American newspapers I almost felt that I had dug it up with my own + hands. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-18.jpg" alt="18 the Roman Forum " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Of many other facts I was at the time vividly aware: of the charm of + finding the archaeologist in an upper room of the mediaeval church which + is turning itself into his study, of listening to his prefatory talk, so + informal and so easy that one did not realize how learned it was, and then + of following him down to the scene of his researches and hearing him speak + wisely, poetically, humorously, even, of what he believed he had reason to + expect to find. We stood with him by the Arch of Titus and saw how the + sculptures had been broken from it in the fragments found at its base, and + how the carved marbles had been burned for lime in the kiln built a few + feet off, so that those who wanted the lime need not have the trouble of + carrying the sculptures away before burning them. A handful of iridescent + glass from a house-drain near by, where it had been thrown by the servants + after breaking it, testified of the continuity of human nature in the + domestics of all ages. A somewhat bewildering suggestion of the depth at + which the different periods of Rome underlie one another spoke from the + mouth of the imperial well or cistern which had been sunk on the top of a + republican well or cistern at another corner of the arch. In a place not + far off, looking like a potter's clay pit, were graves so old that they + seem to have antedated the skill of man to spell any record of himself; + and in the small building which seems the provisional repository of the + archaeologist's finds we saw skeletons of the immemorial dead in the + coffins of split trees still shutting them imperfectly in. Mostly the + bones and bark were of the same indifferent interest, but the eternal + pathos of human grief appealed from what mortal part remained of a little + child, with beads on her tattered tunic and an ivory bracelet on her + withered arm. History in the presence of such world-old atomies seemed an + infant babbling of yesterday, in what it could say of the Rome of the + Popes, the Rome of the Emperors, the Rome of the Republicans, the Rome of + the Kings, the Rome of the Shepherds and Cowherds, through which a shaft + sunk in the Forum would successively pierce in reaching those aboriginals + whose sepulchres alone witnessed that they had ever lived. + </p> + <p> + It is the voluble sorrow common to all the emotional visitors in Rome that + the past of the different generations has not been treated by the present + with due tenderness, and the Colosseum is a case notoriously in point. + But, if it was an Italian archaeologist who destroyed the wilding growths + in the Colosseum and scraped it to a bareness which nature is again trying + to clothe with grass and weeds, it ought to be remembered that it is + another Italian archaeologist who has set laurels all up and down the + slopes of the Forum, and has invited roses and honeysuckles to bloom + wherever they shall not interfere with science, but may best help repair + the wounds he must needs deal the soil in researches which seem no mere + dissections, but feats of a conservative, almost a constructive surgery. + It is said that the German archaeologists objected to those laurels where + the birds sing so sweetly; perhaps they thought them not strictly + scientific; but when the German Kaiser, who always knows so much better + than all the other Germans put together, visited the Forum, he liked them, + and he parted from the Genius Loci with the imperial charge, “Laurels, + laurels, evermore laurels.” After that the emotional tourist must be hard + indeed to please who would begrudge his laurels to Commendatore Boni, or + would not wish him a perpetual crown of them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. THE ANGLO-AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE SPANISH STEPS + </h2> + <p> + It is not every undeserving American who can have the erudition and + divination of the Genius Loci in answer to his unuttered prayer during a + visit to even a small part of the Roman Forum. But failing the company of + the Commendatore Boni, which is without price, there are to be had for a + very little money the guidance and philosophy, and, for all I know, the + friendship of several peripatetic historians who lead people about the + ruins in Rome, and instruct them in the fable, and doubtless in the moral, + of the things they see. If I had profited by their learning, so much + greater, or at least securer, than any the average American has about him, + I should now be tiring the reader with knowledge which I am so willingly + leaving him to imagine in me. If he is like the average American, he has + really once had some nodding acquaintance with the facts, but history is + apt to forsake you on the scene of it, and to come lagging back when it is + too late. In this psychological experience you feel the need of help which + the peripatetic historian supplies to the groups of perhaps rather + oblivious than ignorant tourists of all nations in all languages, but + preferably English. We Anglo-Saxons seem to be the most oblivious or most + ignorant; but I would not slight our occasionally available culture any + more than I would imply that those peripatetic historians are at all like + the cicerones whom they have so largely replaced. I believe they are + instructed and scholarly men; I offer them my respect; and I wish now that + I had been one of their daily disciples, for it is full sixty years since + I read Goldsmith's <i>History of Rome.</i> As I saw them, somewhat beyond + earshot, they and their disciples formed a spectacle which was always + interesting, and, so far as the human desire for information is affecting, + was also affecting. The listeners to the lecturers would carry back to + their respective villages and towns, or the yet simpler circles of our + ordinary city lift, vastly more association with the storied scene than I + had brought to it or should bring away. In fact, there is nothing more + impressive in the floating foreign society of Rome than its zeal for + self-improvement. No one classes himself with his fellow-tourists, though + if he happens to be a traveller he is really one of them; and it is with + difficulty I keep myself from the appearance of patronizing them in these + praises, which are for the most part reverently meant. Their zeal never + seemed to be without knowledge, whatever their age or sex; the intensity + of their application reached to all the historical and actual interests, + to the religious as well as the social, the political as well as the + financial; but, fitly in Rome, it seemed specially turned to the study of + antiquity, in the remoter or the nearer past. There was given last winter + a series of lectures at the American School of Archaeology by the head of + it, which were followed with eager attention by hearers who packed the + room. But these lectures, which were so admirably first in. the means of + intelligent study, seemed only one of the means by which my + fellow-tourists were climbing the different branches of knowledge. All + round my apathy I felt, where I did not see, the energy of the others; + with my mind's ear I heard a rustle as of the turning leaves of Baedekers, + of Murrays, of Hares, and of the many general histories and monographs of + which these intelligent authorities advised the supplementary reading. + </p> + <p> + If I am not so mistaken as I might very well be, however, the local + language is less studied than it was in former times, when far fewer + Italians spoke English. My own Italian was of that date; but, though I + began by using it, I found myself so often helped for a forgotten meaning + that I became subtly demoralized and fell luxuriously into the habit of + speaking English like a native of Rome. Yet tacitly, secretly perhaps, + there may have been many people who were taking up Italian as zealously as + many more were taking up antiquity. One day in the Piazza di Spagna, in a + modest little violet of a tea-room, which was venturing to open in the + face of the old-established and densely thronged parterre opposite, I + noted from my Roman version of a buttered muffin a tall, young + Scandinavian girl, clad in complete corduroy, gray in color to the very + cap surmounting her bandeaux of dark-red hair. She looked like some of + those athletic-minded young women of Ibsen's plays, and the pile of books + on the table beside her tea suggested a student character. When she had + finished her tea she put these books back into a leather bag, which they + filled to a rigid repletion, and, after a few laconic phrases with the + tea-girl, she went out like going off the stage. Her powerful demeanor + somehow implied severe studies; but the tea-girl—a massive, + confident, confiding Roman—said, No, she was studying Italian, and + all those books related to the language, for which she had a passion. She + was a Swede; and here the student being exhausted as a topic, and my own + nationality being ascertained, What steps, the tea-girl asked, should one + take if one wished to go to New York in order to secure a place as cashier + in a restaurant? + </p> + <p> + My facts were not equal to the demand upon them, nor are they equal to + anything like exact knowledge of the intellectual pursuits of the many + studious foreign youth of all ages and sexes whom one meets in Rome. As I + say, our acquaintance with Italian is far less useful, however ornamental, + than it used to be. The Romans are so quick that they understand you when + they speak no English, and take your meaning before you can formulate it + in their own tongue. A classically languaged friend of mine, who was hard + bested in bargaining for rooms, tried his potential landlord in Latin, and + was promptly answered in Latin. It was a charming proof that in the home + of the Church her mother-speech had never ceased to be spoken by some of + her children, but I never heard of any Americans, except my friend, + recurring to their college courses in order to meet the modern Latins in + their ancient parlance. In spite of this instance, and that of the Swedish + votary of Italian, I decided that the studies of most strangers were + archaeological rather than philological, historical rather than literary, + topographical rather than critical. I do not say that I had due + confirmation of my theory from the talk of the fellow-sojourners whom one + is always meeting at teas and lunches and dinners in Rome. Generally the + talk did not get beyond an exchange of enthusiasms for the place, and of + experiences of the morning, in the respective researches of the talkers. + </p> + <p> + Such of us as were staying the winter, of course held aloof from the + hurried passers-through, or looked with kindly tolerance on their + struggles to get more out of Rome in a given moment than she perhaps + yielded with perfect acquiescence. We fancied that she kept something + back; she is very subtle, and has her reserves even with people who pass a + whole winter within her gates. The fact is, there are a great many of her, + though we knew her afar as one mighty personality. There is the antique + Rome, the mediaeval Rome, the modern Rome; but that is only the beginning. + There is the Rome of the State and the Rome of the Church, which divide + between them the Rome of politics and the Rome of fashion; but here is a + field so vast that Ave may not enter it without danger of being promptly + lost in it. There is the Rome of the visiting nationalities, severally and + collectively; there is especially the Anglo-American Rome, which if not so + populous as the German, for instance, is more important to the + Anglo-Saxons. It sees a great deal of itself socially, but not to the + exclusion of the sympathetic Southern temperaments which seem to have a + strange but not unnatural affinity with it. So far as we might guess, it + was a little more Clerical than Liberal in its local politics; if you were + very Liberal, it was well to be careful, for Conversion lurked under many + exteriors which gave no outward sign of it; if the White of the monarchy + and the Black of the papacy divide the best Roman families, of course + foreigners are more intensely one or the other than the natives. But + Anglo-Saxon life was easy for one not self-obliged to be of either opinion + or party; and it was pleasant in most of its conditions. In Rome our + internationalities seemed to have certain quarters largely to themselves. + In spite of our abhorrence of the destruction and construction which have + made modern Rome so wholesome and delightful, most of us had our + habitations in the new quarters; but certain pleasanter of the older + streets, like the Via Sistina, Via del Babuino, Via Capo le Case, Via + Gregoriana, were our sojourn or our resort. Especially in the two first + our language filled the outer air to the exclusion of other conversation, + and within doors the shopmen spoke it at least as well as the English + think the Americans speak it. It was pleasant to meet the honest English + faces, to recognize the English fashions, to note the English walk; and if + these were oftener present than their American counterparts, it was not + from our habitual minority, but from our occasional sparsity through the + panic that had frightened us into a homekeeping foreign to our natures. + </p> + <p> + In like manner our hyphenated nationalities have the Piazza di Spagna for + their own. There are the two English book-stores and the circulating + libraries, in each of which the books are so torn and dirty that you think + they cannot be quite so bad in the other till you try it; there seems + nothing for it, then, but to wash and iron the different Tauchnitz + authors, and afterward darn and mend them. The books on sale are, of + course, not so bad; they are even quite clean; and except for giving out + on the points of interest where you could most wish them to abound, there + is nothing in them to complain of. There is less than nothing to complain + of in the tea-room which enjoys our international favor except that at the + most psychological moment of the afternoon you cannot get a table, in + spite of the teas going on in the fashionable hotels and the friendly + houses everywhere. The toast is exceptional; the muffins so far from home + are at least reminiscent of their native island; the tea and butter are + alike blameless. The company, to the eye of the friend of man, is still + more acceptable, for, if the Americans have dwindled, the English have + increased; and there is nothing more endearing than the sight of a roomful + of English people at their afternoon tea in a strange land. No type seems + to predominate; there are bohemians as obvious as clerics; there are old + ladies and young, alike freshly fair; there are the white beards of age + and the clean-shaven cheeks of youth among the men; some are fashionable + and some outrageously not; peculiarities of all kinds abound without + conflicting. Some talk, frankly audible, and others are frankly silent, + but a deep, wide purr, tacit or explicit, close upon a muted hymn of + thanksgiving, in that assemblage of mutually repellent personalities, for + the nonce united, would best denote the universal content. + </p> + <p> + Hard by this tea-room there is a public elevator by which the reader will + no doubt rather ascend with me than, climb the Spanish Steps without me; + after the first time, I never climbed them. The elevator costs but ten + centimes, and I will pay for both; there is sometimes drama thrown in that + is worth twice the money; for there is war, more or less roaring, set + between the old man who works the elevator and the young man who sells the + tickets to it. The law is that the elevator will hold only eight persons, + but one memorable afternoon the ticket-seller insisted upon giving a + ticket to a tall, young English girl who formed an unlawful ninth. The + elevator-man, a precisian of the old school, expelled her; the + ticket-seller came forward and reinstated her; again the elder stood upon + the letter of the law; again the younger demanded its violation. The + Tuscan tongue in their Roman mouths flew into unintelligibility, while the + poor girl was put into the elevator and out of it; and the respective + parties to the quarrel were enjoying it so much that it might never have + ended if she had not taken the affair into her own hands. She finally + followed the ticket-seller back to his desk, to which he retired after + each act of the melodrama, and threw her ticket violently down. “Here is + your ticket!” she said in English so severe that he could not help + understanding and cowering before it. “Give me back my money!” He was too + much stupefied by her decision of character to speak; and he returned her + centimes in silence while we got into our cage and mounted to the top, and + the elevator-man furiously repeated to himself his side of the recent + argument all the way up. This did not prevent his touching his hat to each + of us in parting, and assuring us that he revered us; a thing that only + old-fashioned Romans seem to do nowadays, in the supposed decay of manners + which the comfortable classes everywhere like to note in the + uncomfortable. Then some ladies of our number went off on a platform + across the house-tops to which the elevator had brought us, as if they + expected to go down the chimneys to their apartments; and the rest of us + expanded into the Piazza Trinita de' Monti; and I stopped to lounge + against the uppermost balustrade of the Spanish Steps. + </p> + <p> + It is notable, but not surprising, how soon one forms the habit of this, + for, seen from above, the Spanish Steps are only less enchanting than the + Spanish Steps seen from below, whence they are absolutely the most + charming sight in the world. The reader, if he has nothing better than a + post-card (which I could have bought him on the spot for fifty a franc), + knows how the successive stairways part and flow downward to right and + left, like the parted waters of a cascade, and lose themselves at the + bottom in banks of flowers. No lovelier architectural effect was ever + realized from a happy fancy; but, of course, the pictorial effect is + richer from below, especially from the Via dei Condotti, where it opens + into the Piazza di Spagna. I suppose there must be hours of the day, and + certainly there are hours of the night, when in this prospect the Steps + have not the sunset on them. But most of the time they have the sunset on + them, warm, tender; a sunset that begins with the banks of daffodils and + lilies and anemones and carnations and roses and almond blossoms, keeping + the downpour of the marble cascades from flooding the piazza, and mounts, + mellowing and yellowing, up their gray stone, until it reaches the Church + of Trinita de' Monti at the top. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-19.jpg" alt="19 Spanish Steps " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + There it lingers, I should say, till dawn, bathing the golden-brown facade + in an effulgence that lifelong absence cannot eclipse when once it has + blessed your sight. It is beauty that rather makes the heart ache, and the + charm of the Steps from above is something that you can bear better if you + are very, very worthy, or have the conceit of feeling yourself so. It is a + charm that imparts itself more in detail and is less exclusively the + effect of perpetual sunset. From the parapet against which you lean you + have a perfecter conception of the architectural form than you get from + below, and you are never tired of seeing the successive falls of the Steps + dividing themselves and then coming together on the broad landings and + again parting and coming together. + </p> + <p> + If there were once many models, male, female, and infant, brigands, + peasants, sages, and martyrs, lounging on the Spanish Steps, as it seems + to me there used to be, and as every one has heard say, waiting there for + the artists to come and carry them off to their studios and transfer them + to their canvases, they are now no longer there in noticeable number. I + saw some small boys in steeple-crowned soft hats and short jackets, with + their little legs wound round with the favorite bandaging of brigands; and + some mothers suitable for Madonnas, perhaps, with babes at the breast; + there was a patriarchal old man or two, ready no doubt to pose for the + prophets, or, at a pinch, for yet more celestial persons; but for the rest + the Steps were rather given up to flower-girls, fruit-peddlers, and + beggars pure and simple, on levels distinctly below those infested by the + post-card peddlers. The whole neighborhood abounds in opportunities for + charity, and at the corner of the Via Sistina there is a one-legged beggar + who professes to black shoes in the intervals of alms-taking, and who + early made me his prey. If sometimes I fancied escaping by him to my + lounge against the parapet of the steps, he joyously overtook me with a + swiftness of which few two-legged men are capable; he wore a soldier's + cap, and I hoped, for the credit of our species, that he had lost his leg + in battle, but I do not know. + </p> + <p> + On a Sunday evening I once hung there a long time, watching with one eye + the people who were coming back from their promenade on the Pincian Hill, + and with the other the groups descending and ascending the Steps. On the + first landing below me there was a boy who gratified me, I dare say + unconsciously, by trying to stand on his hands; and a little dramatic + spectacle added itself to this feat of the circus. Two pretty girls, + smartly dressed in hats and gowns exactly alike, and doubtless sisters, if + not twins, passed down to the same level. One was with a handsome young + officer, and walked staidly beside him, as if content with her quality of + captive or captor. The other was with a civilian, of whom she was + apparently not sure. Suddenly she ran away from him to the verge of the + next fall of steps, possibly to show him how charmingly she was dressed, + possibly to tempt him by her grace in flight to follow her madly. But he + followed sanely and slowly, and she waited for him to come up, in a + capricious quiet, as if she had not done anything or meant anything. That + was all; but I am not hard to suit; and it was richly enough for me. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-20.jpg" alt="20 Toward the Pincian Hill " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Her little comedy came to its denouement just under the shoulder of the + rose-roofed terrace jutting from a lowish, plainish house on the left, + beyond certain palms and eucalyptus-trees. It is one of the most sacred + shrines in Rome, for it was in this house that the “young English poet + whose name was writ in water” died to deathless fame three or fourscore + years ago. It is the Keats house, which when he lived in it was the house + of Severn the painter, his host and friend. I had visited it for the kind + sake of the one and the dear sake of the others when I first visited Rome + in 1864; and it was one of the earliest stations of my second pilgrimage. + It is now in form for any and all visitors, but the day I went it had not + yet been put in its present simple and tasteful keeping. A somewhat shrill + and scraping-voiced matron inquired my pleasure when she followed me into + the ground-floor entrance from somewhere without, and then, understanding, + called hor young daughter, who led me up to the room where Keats mused his + last verse and breathed his last sigh. It is a very little room, looking + down over the Spanish Steps, with their dike of bloom, across the piazza + to the narrow stretch of the Via del Babuino. I must have stood in it with + Severn and heard him talk of Keats and his ultimate days and hours; for I + remember some such talk, but not the details of it. He was a very gentle + old man and fondly proud of his goodness to the poor dying poet, as he + well might be, and I was glad to be one of the many Americans who, he + said, came to grieve with him for the dead poet. + </p> + <p> + Now, on my later visit, it was a cold, rainy day, and it was chill within + the house and without, and I imputed my weather to the time of Keats's + sojourn, and thought of him sitting by his table there in that bare, + narrow, stony room and coughing at the dismal outlook. Afterward I saw the + whole place put in order and warmed by a generous stove, for people who + came to see the Keats and Shelley collections of books and pictures; but + still the sense of that day remains. The young girl sympathized with my + sympathy, and wished to find a rose for me in the trellis through which + the rain dripped. She could not, and I suggested that there would be roses + in the spring. “No,” she persisted, “sometimes it makes them in the + winter,” but I had to come away through the reeking streets without one. + </p> + <p> + When it rains, it rains easily in Rome. But the weather was divine the + evening I looked one of my latest looks down on the Spanish Steps. The sun + had sunk rather wanly beyond the city, but a cheerful light of electrics + shone up at me from the Via dei Condotti. I stood and thought of as much + as I could summon from the past, and I was strongest, I do not know why, + with the persecutions of the early Christians. Presently a smell of dinner + came from the hotels around and the houses below, and I was reminded to go + home to my own <i>table d'hote.</i> My one-legged beggar seemed to have + gone to his, and I escaped him; but I was intercepted by the sight of an + old woman asleep over her store of matches. She was not wakened by the + fall of my ten-centime piece in her tray, but the boy drowsing beside her + roused himself, and roused her to the dreamy expression of a gratitude + quite out of scale with my alms. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. AN EFFORT TO BE HONEST WITH ANTIQUITY + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-21.jpg" alt="21 Sepulchre of Romulus, Forum " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + My visit to the Roman Forum when the Genius Loci verified to my ignorance + and the intelligence of my companions the well-conjectured site of the + Temple of Jupiter Stator was not the first nor yet the second visit I had + paid the place. There had been intermediate mornings when I met two + friends there, indefinitely more instructed, with whom I sauntered from + point to point, preying upon their knowledge for my emotion concerning + each. Information is an excellent thing—in others; and but for these + friends I should not now be able to say that this mouldering heap of + brickwork, rather than that, was Julius Caesar's house; or just where it + was that Antony made his oration over the waxen effigy which served him + for Caesar's body. They helped me realize how the business life and + largely the social life of Rome centred in the Forum, but spared me so + much detail that my fancy could play about among its vanished edifices + without inconvenience from the clutter of shops and courts and monuments + which were ultimately to hem it in and finally to stifle it. They knew + their Forum so well that they could not only gratify any curiosity I had, + but could supply me with curiosity when I had none. For the moment I was + aware that this spot or that, though it looked so improbable, was the + scene of deeds which will reverberate forever; they taught me to be + tolerant of what I had too lightly supposed fables as serious traditions + closely verging on facts. I learned to believe again that the wolf suckled + Romulus and Remus, because she had her den no great way off on the + Palatine, and that Romulus himself had really lived, since he had died and + was buried in the Forum, where they showed me his tomb, or as much of it + as I could imagine in the sullen little cellar so called. They also showed + me the rostrum where the Roman orators addressed the mass-meetings of the + republican times, and they showed me the lake, or the puddle left of it, + into which Curtius (or one of three heroes of the name) leaped at an + earlier day as a specific for the pestilence which the medical science of + the period had failed to control. In our stroll about the place we were + joined by one of the several cats living in the Forum, which offered us + collectively its acquaintance, as if wishing to make us feel at home. It + joined us and it quitted us from time to time, as the whim took it, but it + did not abandon us wholly till we showed a disposition to believe in that + lake of Curtius, so called after those three public-spirited heroes, the + first being a foreigner. Then the cat, which had more than once stretched + itself as if bored, turned from us in contempt and went and lay down in a + sunny corner near the tomb of Romulus, and fell asleep. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-22.jpg" alt="22 Trajan's Forum and Column " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + It is quite possible that my reader does not know, as lately I did not, + that the Roman Forum is but one of several forums connected with it by + ways long centuries since buried fathoms deep and built upon many stories + high. But I am now able to assure him that in the whole region between the + Roman Forum and the Forum of Trajan, which were formerly opened into each + other by the removal of a hill as tall as the top of Trajan's Column, you + pass over other forums hidden beneath your feet or wheels. You cannot be + stayed there, however, by the wonders which archaeology will yet reveal in + them (for archaeology has its relentless eye upon every inch of the ground + above them), but you will certainly pause at the Forum of Trajan, where + archaeology, as it is in Commendatore Boni, has had its way already. In + fact, until his work in the Roman Forum is finished, the Forum of Trajan + must remain his greatest achievement, and the sculptured column of the + great emperor must serve equally as the archaeologist's monument. I do not + remember why in the old time I should have kept coming to look at that + column and study the sculptured history of Trajan's campaigns, toiling + around it to its top. I think one could then get close to its base, as now + one cannot, what with the deepening of the Forum to its antique level and + the enclosure of the whole space with an iron rail. The area below is free + only to a large company of those cats which seem to have their dwelling + among all the ruins and restorations of ancient Rome. People come to feed + the Trajan cats with the fish sold near by for the purpose, and one + morning, in pausing to view his column from the respectful distance I had + to keep, I counted no less than thirteen of his cats in his forum. They + were of every age and color, but much more respectable in appearance than + the cats of the Pantheon, which have no such sunny expanse as that forum + for their quarters, but only a very damp corner beside the temple, and + seem to have suffered in their looks and health from the situation. It was + afterward with dismay that I realized the fatal number of the Trajan cats + coming to their breakfast that morning so unconscious of evil omen in the + figure; but as there are probably no statistics of mortality among the + cats of Rome, I shall never know whether any of the thirteen has rendered + up one of their hundred and seventeen lives. + </p> + <p> + However, if I allowed myself to go on about the cats of Rome, either + ancient or modern, there would be no end. For instance, in a statuary's + shop in the Via Sistina there is a large yellow cat, which I one day saw + dressing the hair of the statuary's boy. It performed this office with a + very motherly anxiety, seated on the top of a high rotary table where + ordinarily the statuary worked at his carving, and pausing from time to + time, as it licked the boy's thick, black locks, to get the effect of its + labors. On other days or at other hours it slept under the table-top, + unvexed by the hammering that went on over its head. Even in Rome, where + cats are so abundant, it was a notable cat. + </p> + <p> + If you visit the Roman Forum in the morning you are only too apt to be + hurried home by remembrance of the lunch-hour. That, at any rate, was my + case, but I was not so hungry that I would not pause on my way hotelward + at what used to be the Temple of Vesta in my earlier time, but which, is + now superseded by the more authentic temple in the Forum. I had long + revered the first in its former quality, and I now paid it the tribute of + unwilling renunciation. It is so nearly a perfect relic of ancient Rome + and so much more impressive, in its all but unbroken peristyle, than the + later but recumbent claimant to its identity that I am sure the owners of + the little bronze or alabaster copies of it scattered over the world must + share my pious reluctance. The custodian is still very proud of it, and + would have lectured me upon it much longer than I let him; as it was, he + kept me while he could cast a blazing copy of the <i>Popolo Romano</i> + into the cavernous crypt under it, apparently to show me how deep it was. + He may have had other reasons; but in any case I urge the traveller to + allow him to do it, for it costs no additional fee, and it seems to do him + so much good. If it is not very near lunch-time, let the traveller look + well about him in the dusty little piazza there, for the Temple of + Fortune, with its bruised but beautiful facade, is hard by, as much in the + form that Servius Tullius gave it as could well be expected after all this + time. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps the Circus of Marcellus is on the traveller's way home to lunch; + but he will always be passing the segment of its arcaded wall, filled in + with mediaeval masonry; and he need not stop, especially if he has his cab + by the hour, for there is nothing more to be seen of the circus. A + glimpse, through overhanging foliage, of the steps to the Campidoglio, + with Castor and Pollux beside their horses at top, may be a fortunate + accident of his course. If this happens it will help to rehabilitate for + him the Rome of the paganism to which these divinities remained true + through all temptations to Judaize during the unnumbered centuries of + their sojourn, forgotten, in the Ghetto. It is hardly possible that his + glimpse will include even the top of Marcus Aurelius's head where he sits + his bronze charger—an extremely fat one—so majestically in the + piazza beyond those brothers, as if conscious of being the most noble + equestrian statue which has ridden down to us from antiquity. + </p> + <p> + A more purposed sight of all this will, of course, supply any defects of + chance, though I myself always liked chance encounters with the monuments + of the past. I had constantly cherished a remembrance of the nobly + beautiful facade which is all that is left of the Temple of Neptune, and I + meant deliberately to revisit it if I could find out where it was. A kind + fortuity befriended me when one day, driving through the little piazza + where it lurks behind the Piazza Co-lonna, I looked up, and there, in + awe-striking procession, stood the mighty antique columns sustaining the + entablature of mediaeval stucco with their fluted marble. I could not say + why their poor, defaced, immortal grandeur should have always so affected + me, for I do not know that my veneration was due it more than many other + fragments of the past; but no arch or pillar of them all seems so + impressive, so pathetic. To make the reader the greatest possible + confidence, I will own that I passed five times through the Piazza Colonna + to my tailor's in the next piazza (at Rome your tailor wishes you to try + on till you have almost worn your new clothes out in the ordeal) before I + realized that the Column of Marcus Aurelius was not the more famous Column + of Trajan. There is, in fact, a strong family likeness between these + columns, both being bandaged round from bottom to top with the tale of the + imperial achievements and having a general effect in common; but there is + no brother or cousin to the dignity of that melancholy yet vigorous ruin + of the Temple of Neptune, or anything that resembles it in the whole of + ancient Rome. It survives having been a custom-house and being a + stock-exchange without apparent ignominy, while one feels an incongruity, + to say the least, in the Column of Marcus Aurelius looking down on the + sign of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. Whether this is + worse than for the Palazzo di Venezia to confront the American Express + Company where it is housed on the other side of the piazza I cannot say. + What I can say is that I believe the Temple of Neptune would have been + superior to either fate; though I may be mistaken. + </p> + <p> + Ruin, nearly everywhere in Rome, has to be very patient of the + environment; and even the monuments of the past which are in comparatively + good repair have not always the keeping that the past would probably have + chosen for them. One that suffers as little as any, if not the very least, + is the Pantheon, on whose glorious porch you are apt to come suddenly, + either from a narrow street beside it or across its piazza, beyond the + fountain fringed with post-card boys and their bargains. In spite of them, + the sight of the temple does mightily lift the heart; and though you may + have had, as I had, forty-odd years to believe in it, you must waver in + doubt of its reality whenever you see it. It seems too great to be true, + standing there in its immortal sublimity, the temple of all the gods by + pagan creation, and all the saints by Christian consecration, and + challenging your veneration equally as classic or catholic. It is worthy + the honor ascribed to it in the very latest edition of Murray's <i>Handbook</i> + as “the best-preserved monument of ancient Rome”; worthy the praise of the + fastidious and difficult Hare as “the most perfect pagan building in the + city”; worthy whatever higher laud my unconsulted Baedeker bestows upon + it. But I speak of the outside; and let not the traveller grieve if he + comes upon it at the noon hour, as I did last, and finds its vast bronze + doors closing against him until three o'clock; there are many sadder + things in life than not seeing the interior of the Pantheon. The gods are + all gone, and the saints are gone or going, for the State has taken the + Pantheon from the Church and is making it a national mausoleum. Victor + Emmanuel the Great and Umberto the Kind already lie there; but otherwise + the wide Cyclopean eye of the opening in the roof of the rotunda looks + down upon a vacancy which even your own name, as written in the visitors' + book, in the keeping of a solemn beadle, does not suffice to fill, and + which the lingering side altars scarcely relieve. + </p> + <p> + I proved the fact by successive visits; but, after all my content with the + outside of the Pantheon, I came to think that what you want in Rome is not + the best-preserved monument, not the most perfect pagan building, but the + most ruinous ruin you can get. I am not sure that you get this in the + mouldering memorials of the past on the Palatine Hill, but you get + something more nearly like it than anything I can think of at the moment. + In that imperial and patrician and plutocratic residential quarter you + see, if you are of the moderately moneyed middle class, what the pride of + life must always come to when it has its way; and your consolation is full + if you pause to reflect how some day Fifth Avenue and the two millionaire + blocks eastward will be as the Palatine now is. + </p> + <p> + Riches and power are of the same make in every time, though they may wear + different faces from age to age; and it will be well for the very wealthy + members of our smart set to keep this fact in mind when they visit that + huge sepulchre of human vainglory. + </p> + <p> + But I will not pretend that I did so myself that matchless April morning + when I climbed over the ruins of the Palatine and found the sun rather + sickeningly hot there. That is to say, it was so in the open spaces which + were respectively called the house of this emperor and that, the temple of + this deity or that, whose divine honors half the Caesars shared; in the + Stadium, beside the Lupercal, and the like. The Lupercal was really + imaginable as the home of the patroness wolf of Rome, being a wild knot of + hill fitly overgrown with brambles and bushes, and looking very probably + the spot where Caesar would thrice have refused the crown that Antony + offered him. But for the rest, one ruin might very well pass for another; + a temple with a broken statue and the stumps of a few columns could very + easily deceive any one but an archaeologist. Fortunately we had the + charming companionship of one of the most amiable of archaeologists, who + was none the less learned for being a woman; and she made even me dimly + aware of identities which would else have been lost upon me. To be sure, I + think that without help I should have known the Stadium when I came to it, + because it seemed studied from that in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and, + though it was indefinitely more dilapidated, was so obviously meant for + the same sorts of games and races. I do not know but it was larger than + the Cambridge Stadium, though I will not speak so confidently of its size + as of that deathly cold in the vaults and subterranean passages by which + we found our way to the burning upper air out of the foundations and + basements of palaces and temples and libraries and theatres that had + ceased to be. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-23.jpg" alt="23 the Rostra in The Forum " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + One of the most comfortable of these galleries was that in which Caligula + was justly done to death, or, if not Caligula, it was some other tyrant + who deserved as little to live. But for our guide I should not have + remembered his slaughter there, and how much satisfaction it had given me + when I first read of it in Goldsmith's <i>History of Rome;</i> and really + you must not acquaint yourself too early with such facts, for you forget + them just when you could turn them to account. History is apt to forsake + you in the scene of it and come lagging hack afterward; and you cannot + hope always to have an archaeologist at your elbow to remind you of things + you have forgotten or possibly have not known. Suetonius, Plutarch, De + Quincey, Gibbon, these are no bad preparations for a visit to the + Palatine, but it is better to have read them yesterday than the day before + if you wish to draw suddenly upon them for associations with any specific + spot. If I were to go again to the Palatine, I would take care to fortify + myself with such structural facts from Hare's <i>Walks in Rome,</i> or + from Murray, or even from Baedeker, as that it was the home of Augustus + and Tiberius, Domitian and Nero and Caligula and Septimius Severus and + Germanicus, and a very few of their next friends, and that it radically + differed from the Forum in being exclusively private and personal to the + residents, while that was inclusively public and common to the whole + world. I strongly urge the reader to fortify himself on this point, for + otherwise he will miss such significance as the place may possibly have + for him. Let him not trust to his impressions from his general reading; + there is nothing so treacherous; he may have general reading enough to + sink a ship, but unless he has a cargo taken newly on board he will find + himself tossing without ballast on those billowy slopes of the Palatine, + where he will vainly try for definite anchorage. + </p> + <p> + The billowy effect of the Palatine, inconvenient to the explorer, is its + greatest charm from afar, in whatever morning or evening light, or sun or + rain, you get its soft, brownish, greenish, velvety masses. Distance on it + is best, and distance in time as well as space. If you can believe the + stucco reconstruction opposite the Forum gate, ruin has been even kinder + to the Palatine than to the Forum, with which it was equally ugly when in + repair, if taken in the altogether, however beautiful in detail. As you + see it in that reproduction, it is a horror, and a very vulgar horror, + such a horror as only unlimited wealth and uncontrolled power can produce. + If you will think of individualism gone mad, and each successive + personality crushing out and oversloughing some other, without that regard + for proportion and propriety which only the sense of a superior collective + right can inspire, you will imagine the Palatine. Mount Morris, at One + Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, if unscrupulously built upon by the + multimillionaires thronging to New York and seeking to house themselves + each more splendidly and spaciously than the other, would offer a + suggestion in miniature of what the Palatine seems to have been like in + its glory. But the ruined Mount Morris, even allowing for the natural + growth of the landscape in two thousand years, could show no such prospect + twenty centuries hence as we got that morning from a bit of wilding garden + near the Convent of San Bonaventura, on the brow of the Palatine. Some + snowy tops pillowed themselves on the utmost horizon, and across the + Campagna the broken aqueducts stalked and fell down and stumbled to their + legs again. The Baths of Caracalla bulked up in rugged, monstrous + fragments, and then in the foreground, filling the whole eye, the + Colosseum rose and stood, and all Rome sank round it. The Forum lay deep + under us, vainly struggling with the broken syllables of its demolition to + impart a sense of its past, and at our feet in that bit of garden where + the roses were blooming and the plum-trees were blowing and the birds were + singing, there stretched itself in the grass a fallen pillar wreathed with + the folds of a marble serpent, the emblem of the oldest worship under the + sun, as I was proud to remember without present help. It was the same + immemorial, universal faith which the Mound Builders of our own West + symbolized in the huge earthen serpents they shaped uncounted ages before + the red savages came to wonder at them, and doubtless it had been welcomed + by Rome in her large, loose, cynical toleration, together with cults + which, like that of Isis and Osiris, were fads of yesterday beside it. + Somehow it gave the humanest touch in the complex impression of the + overhistoried scene. It made one feel very old, yet very young—old + with the age and young with the youth of the world—and very much at + home. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. PERSONAL RELATIONS WITH THE PAST + </h2> + <p> + I was myself part of the antiquity with which I have been trying to be + honest; and, though my date was no earlier than the seventh decade of the + nineteenth century, still so many and such cataclysmal changes had passed + over Rome since my time that I was, as far as concerned my own + consciousness, practically of the period of the Pantheon, say. The + Pantheon, in fact, was among my first associations with Rome. I lodged + very near it, in the next piazza, so that, if we were not contemporaries, + we were companions, and I could not go out of my hotel to look up a more + permanent sojourn without passing by it. Perhaps I wished to pass by it, + and might really have found my way to the Corso without the Pantheon's + help. + </p> + <p> + I have no longer a definite idea why I should have made my sojourn in the + very simple and modest little street called Via del Gambero, which runs + along behind the Corso apparently till it gets tired and then stops. But + very possibly it was because the Via del Gambero was so simple and modest + that I chose it as the measure of my means; or possibly I may have heard + of the apartment I took in it from wayfarers passing through Venice, where + I then lived, and able to commend it from their own experience of it; + people in that kind day used to do such things. However it was, I took the + apartment, and found it, though small, apt for me, as Ariosto said of his + house, and I dwelt in it with my family a month or more in great comfort + and content. In fact, it seemed to us the pleasantest apartment in Rome, + where the apartments of passing strangers were not so proud under Pius IX. + as they are under Victor Emmanuel III. I do not know why it should have + been called the Street of the Lobster, but it may have been in an obscure + play of the fancy with the notion of a backward gait in it that I came to + believe that, in the many improvements which had befallen Rome, Via del + Gambero had disappeared. Destroyed, some traveller from antique lands had + told me, I dare say; obliterated, wiped out by the march of municipal + progress. At any rate, I had so long resigned the hope of revisiting the + quiet scene that when I revisited Rome last winter, after the flight of + ages, and one day found myself in a shop on the Corso, it was from + something like a hardy irony that I asked the shopman if a street called + Via del Gambero still existed in that neighborhood. I said that I had once + lodged in it forty-odd years before; but I believed it had been + demolished. Not at all, the shopman said; it was just behind his place; + and what was the number of the house? I told him, and he laughed for joy + in being able to do me a pleasure; me, a stranger from the strange land of + sky-scratchers <i>(grattacieli),</i> as the Italians not inadequately + translate sky-scrapers. If I would favor him through his back shop he + would show me how close I was upon it; and from his threshold he pointed + to the corner twenty yards off, which, when I had turned it, left me + almost at my own door. + </p> + <p> + In that transmuted Rome Via del Gambero, at least, was wholly unchanged, + and there was not a wrinkle in the front of the house where we had + sojourned so comfortably, so contentedly, in our incredible youth. I had + not quite the courage to ring and ask if we were at home; but, standing + across the way and looking up at the window, it seemed to me that I might + have seen my own young face peering out in a somewhat suspicious question + of the old eyes staring up so fixedly at it. Who was I, and what was I + doing there? Was I waiting, hanging idly about, to see the Armenian + archbishop coming to carry my other self in his red coach to the Sistine + Chapel, where we were to hear Pius IX. say mass? There was no harm in my + hanging about, but the street was narrow and there was a chance of my + being ground up by some passing cart against the wall there behind me if I + was not careful. I could not tell my proud young double that we were one, + and that I was going in the archbishop's red coach as well; he would never + have believed it of my gray hairs and sunken figure. I could not even ask + him what had become of the grocer near by, whom I used to get some homely + supplies of, perhaps eggs or oranges, or the like, when I came out in the + December mornings, and who, when I said that it was very cold, would own + that it was <i>un poco rigidetto,</i> or a little bit stiffish. The ice on + the pavement, not clean-swept as now, but slopped and frozen, had been + witness of that; the ice was gone and the grocer with it; and where really + was I? At the window up there, or leaning against the apse of the church + opposite? What church was it, anyway? I never knew; I never asked. Why + should I insist upon a common identity with a man of twenty-seven to whom + my threescore and ten could only bring perplexity, to say the least, and + very likely vexation? I went away from Via del Gambero, where the piety of + the reader will seek either of myselves in vain. In my earlier date one + used to see the red legs of the French soldiers about the Roman streets, + and the fierce faces of the French officers, fierce as if they felt + themselves wrongfully there and were braving it out against their + consciences. Very likely they had no conscience about it; they had come + there over the dead body of the Roman Republic at the will of their rascal + president, and they were staying there by the will of their rascal + emperor, to keep on his throne the pope from whom the Italians had hoped + for unity and liberty. No one is very much to blame for anything, I + suppose, and very likely Pius IX. had not voluntarily disappointed his + countrymen, who may have expected too much. But then the French had been + there fifteen years, and were to be there another fifteen years yet. Now + they are gone, with the archbishop's red coach, and the complaisant + grocer, and the young man of twenty-seven in Via del Gambero, and the rest + of the things that the sun looked on and will look on the like of again, + no doubt, in our monotonous round of him. + </p> + <p> + To-day, instead of the red legs of the French soldiers, you see the blue + legs of the Italian soldiers, and instead of the fierce faces of their + officers, the serious, intelligent, mostly spectacled faces of the Italian + officers, in sweeping cloaks of tender blue verging on lavender. They are + soldierly men none the less for their gentler aspect, and perhaps + something the more; and a better thing yet is that there are comparatively + few of them. There are few of the privates also, far fewer than the + priests and the students of the ecclesiastical schools, who dress like + priests and go dashing through the streets in files and troops. + </p> + <p> + I have an impression that one sees about the proportion of Italian + soldiers in Rome that one sees of American soldiers in Washington, or, at + least, not many more. The barracks are apparently outside the walls; there + you meet cavalry going and coming, and detachments of <i>bersaglieri;</i> + or riflemen, pushing on at their quick trot, or plainer infantry trudging + wearily. Certainly, in a capital where the Church holds itself prisoner, + there is no show of force on the part of its captors; and this is pleasant + to the friend of man and the lover of Italy for other reasons. In the + absence of the military you can imagine that not only does the state not + wish to boast its political supremacy in the ancient capital of the + Church, but it does not desire to show the potentiality of holding its own + against the republic which is instinct there. The monarchy is the + consensus of all the differing wills in Italy, which naturally would not + for the most part have chosen a monarchy. But never was a monarchy so + mild-mannered or seated so firmly, for the present at least, in the + affection and reason of its people. + </p> + <p> + This is not the place (as writers say who have not prepared themselves + with the requisite ideas at a given point) to speak of the situation in + Rome; and I meant only to note that there are more ecclesiastics than + conscripts to be seen there. Of all the varying costumes of the varying + schools, none is so pleasing, so vivid, as that of the German students as + they rush swiftly by in their flying robes of scarlet. The red matches the + ruddy health in their cheeks, and there is a sort of gladness in their + fling that wins the liking as well as the looking; so that almost one + would not mind being a German student of theology one's self. There are + other-costumes running in color from violet, and blue with orange sashes, + to unrelieved black and black trimmed with red; but I cannot remember + which nationality wears which. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0024" id="linkimage-0024"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-24.jpg" alt="24 the Mosaics Under The Capuchin Church " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + I am not sure but one sees as many priests in Rome now as in the times + when they ruled it; and I am no such Protestant that I will pretend I do + not like a monsignore when I meet him, either in the street or at + afternoon tea, as one sometimes may. I have no grudge against priests of + any rank; but I did not seek to see them at the functions, as I used in + the old days to do. Shall I say that I now rather tolerated than welcomed + myself there through the hospitality which so freely opens the churches of + the Church to all comers of whatever creed? What right had I, a heretic + and recusant, to come staring and standing round where the faithful were + kneeling and praying? If we could conceive of our fast-locked conventicles + being thrown as freely open, could we conceive of Catholics wandering up + and down their naves and aisles while the hymning or preaching went on? + After being so high-minded in the matter, shall I confess that I was a + good deal kept out of the churches by the cold in them? It was a sort of + stored cold, much greater than that outside, though there was something + warming to the fancy, at least, in the smoke and smell of the incense. + </p> + <p> + Even with the Church of the Capuchins, which we lived opposite, I was + dilatory, though in my mediaeval days it had been one of the first places + to which I hurried. In those days everybody said you must be sure and go + to the Capuchins', because Guide's “St. Michael and the Enemy” was there, + and still more because the wonderful bone mosaics in the cemetery under + the church were not on any account to be missed. I suspect that in both + these matters I had then a very crude taste, but it was not from my + greater refinement that I now let the Capuchin church go on long + un-revisited. It was, for one thing, too instantly and constantly + accessible across the street there; and it is well known human nature is + such that it will not seek the line of the least resistance as long as it + can help. Besides, I could hardly believe that it was really the Capuchin + church which I had once so hastened to see, and I neglected it almost two + months, contenting myself with the display of those hand-bills on the + convent walls, spreading largely and glaringly incongruous over it. When I + did go I found the Guido ridiculous, of course, in the painter's + imagination of the archangel as a sort of dancing figure in a <i>tableau + vivant,</i> and yet of a sublime authority in the execution. To be more + honest, I had little feeling about it and less knowledge. + </p> + <p> + It was not so cold in the church as I had expected; and in the succession + of side chapels, beginning with the St. Michael's and opening into one + another, we found a kind of domesticity close upon cosiness, which we were + enjoying for its own sake, when we were aware of a pale, gentle young girl + who seemed to be alone there. She asked, in our unmistakable native + accents, if we were going to see the Capuchin mosaics in their place + below; and one of us said, promptly, No, indeed; but relented at the + shadow of disappointment that came over the girl's face, and asked, Was + she going? The girl said, Oh, she guessed she could see them some other + time; and then she who had spoken ordered him who had not spoken to go + with her. I do not know what question of propriety engaged them with + reference to her going alone with the handsome young monk waiting to + accompany her; but he was certainly too handsome for a monk of any age. We + followed him, however, and I had my usual nausea on viewing the decoration + of the ceilings and walls of the place below; it always makes me sick to + go into that place; between realizing that I am of the same make as the + brothers composing those mosaics, and trying to imagine what the intricate + patterns will do at the Resurrection Day, I cannot command myself. Neither + am I supported by the sight of some skeletons, the raw material of that + grewsome artistry, deposited whole in their coffins in the niches next the + ground, though their skulls smile so reassuringly from their cowls; their + cheeriness cannot make me like them. But my companion seemed to be merely + interested; and I fancied her deciding that it all quite came up to her + expectations, while I translated for her from the monk that the dead used + to be left in the hallowed earth from Jerusalem covering the ground before + they were taken up and decoratively employed, but that since the Italian + occupation of Rome the art had fallen into abeyance. She said nothing, but + when we came out she stood a moment on the pavement beside our cab and + confessed herself a New England girl, from an inland town, who was + travelling with relatives. She had been sick, and she had come alone, as + soon as she could get out, to see the wonders of the Capuchin church, + because she had heard so much of them. We said we hoped she had been + pleased, and she said, “Oh yes, indeed,” and then she said, “Well, + good-bye,” and gently tilted away, leaving us glad that there could still + be in an old, spoiled world such sweetness and innocence and easily + gratified love of the beautiful. + </p> + <p> + Taking Rome so easily, so provisionally, while waiting the eventualities + of the colds which mild climates are sure to give their frequenters from + the winterlands, I became aware of a latent anxiety respecting St. + Peter's. I did not feel that the church would really get away without our + meeting, but I felt that it was somehow culpably hazardous in me to be + taking chances with it. As a family, we might never collectively visit it, + and, in fact, we never did; but one day I drove boldly (if secretly) off + alone and renewed my acquaintance with this contemporary of mine; for, if + you have been in Rome a generation and a half ago, you find that you are + coeval not only with the regal, the republican, and the imperial Rome, but + with each Rome of the successive popes, down, at least, to that of Pius + IX. St. Peter's will not be, by any means, your oldest friend, but it will + be an acquaintance of such long standing that you may not wish to use it + with all the frankness which its faults invite. If you say, when you drive + into its piazza between the sublime colonnades which stretch forth their + mighty embrace as if to take the whole world to the church's heart, that + here is the best of St. Peter's, you will not be wrong. If you say that + here is grandeur, and that there where the temple fronts you grandiosity + begins, you will be rhetorical, but, again, you will not be wrong. The day + of my furtive visit was sober and already waning, with a breeze in which + the fountains streamed flaglike, and with a gentle sky on which the + population of statues above the colonnades defined themselves in leisure + attitudes, so recognizable all that I am sure if they had come down and + taken me by the hand we could have called one another by name without a + moment's hesitation. Every detail of a prospect which is without its peer + on earth, but may very possibly be matched in Paradise, had been so deeply + stamped in my remembrance that I smiled for pleasure in finding myself in + an environment far more familiar than any other I could think of at the + time. It was measurably the same within the church, but it was not quite + the same in the reserves I was obliged to make, the reefs I was obliged to + take in my rapture. The fact is, that unless you delight in a hugeness + whose bareness no ornamentation can, or does at least, conceal, you do not + find the interior of St. Peter's adequate to the exterior. In the mere + article of hugeness, even, it fails through the interposition of the + baldachin midway of the vast nave, and each detail seems to fail of the + office of beauty more lamentably than another. + </p> + <p> + I had known, I had never forgotten, that St. Peter's was very, very + baroque, but I had not known, I had not remembered how baroque it was. It + is not so badly baroque as the Church of the Jesuits either in Rome or in + Venice, or as the Cathedral at Wuerzburg; but still it is badly baroque, + though, again, not so baroque in the architecture as in the sculpture. In + the statues of most of the saints and popes it could not be more baroque; + they swagger in their niches or over their tombs in an excess of decadent + taste for which the most bigoted agnostic, however Protestant he may be, + must generously grieve. It is not conceivably the taste of the church or + the faith; it is the taste of the wicked world, now withered and wasted to + powerlessness, which overruled both for evil in art from its evil life. + The saints and the popes are, aesthetically, lamentable enough; but the + allegories in bronze or marble, which are mostly the sixteenth-century + notions of the Virtues, are inexpressible—some of these creatures + ought really to be put out of the place; but I suppose their friends would + say they ought to be left as typical of the period. In the case of that + merciless miscreant, Queen Christina of Sweden, who has her monument in + St. Peter's, there would be people to say she must have her monument in + some place; but, all the same, remembering Monaldeschi—how he was + stabbed to death by her command, the kinder assassins staying their hands + from time to time, while his confessor went vainly to implore her pardon—it + is shocking to find her tomb in the prime church in Christendom. At first + it offends one to see certain pontiffs with mustaches and imperials and + goatees; but, if one reflects that so they wore them in life, one + perceives right in it; only when one comes to earlier or later popes, + bearded in medieval majority or shaven in the decent modern fashion, one + can endure those others only as part of the prevailing baroque of the + church. Canova was not so Greek or even so classic as one used to think + him, but one hardly has a moment of repose in St. Peter's till one comes + to a monument by him and rests in its quiet. It is tame, it is even weak, + if you like; but compared with the frantic agglomeration of gilt clouds + and sunbursts, and marble and bronze figures in the high-altar, it is + heavenly serene and lovely. + </p> + <p> + There were not many people in St. Peter's that afternoon, so that I could + give undisturbed attention to the workman repairing the pavement at one + point and grinding the marble smooth with a slow, secular movement, as if + he were part of its age-Ions: waste and repair. Another day, the last day + I came, there were companies of the personally conducted, following their + leaders about and listening to the lectures in several languages, which no + more stirred the immense tranquillity than they themselves qualified the + spacious vacancy of the temple: you were vaguely sensible of the one and + of the other like things heard and seen in a drowse. It was a pleasant + vagueness in which all angularities of feeling were lost, and you were + disposed to a tolerance of the things that had hurt or offended you + before. As a contemporary of the edifice, throughout its growth, you could + account for them more and more as of their periods. Perhaps through your + genial reconciliation there came, however dimly, a suggestion of something + unnatural and alien in your presence there as a mere sightseer, or, at + best, a connoisseur much or little instructed. If you had been there, say, + as a worshipper, would you have been afflicted by the incongruities of the + sculptures or by the whole baroque keeping? Possibly this consideration + made you go away much modester than you came. “After all,” you may have + said, “it is not a gallery; it is not a museum. It is a house of prayer,” + and you emerged, let us hope, humbled, and in so far fitted for renewed + joy in the beauty, the glory of the sublime colonnades. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. CHANCES IN CHURCHES + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0025" id="linkimage-0025"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-25.jpg" alt="25 Santa Maria Sopra Minerva " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + If any one were to ask me which was the most beautiful church in Rome I + should temporize, and perhaps I should end by saying that there was none. + Ecclesiastical Rome seems to have inherited the instinct of imperial Rome + for ugliness; only, where imperial Rome used the instinct collectively, + ecclesiastical Rome has used it distributively in the innumerable + churches, each less lovely than the other. This position will do to hedge + from; it is a bold outpost from which I may be driven in, especially by + travellers who have seen the churches I did not see. I took my chances, + they theirs; for nobody can singly see all the churches in Rome; that + would need a syndicate. + </p> + <p> + If imperial Rome was beautiful in detail because it had the Greeks to + imagine the things it so hideously grouped, ecclesiastical Rome may be + unbeautiful in detail because it had not the Goths to realize the beauty + of its religious aspiration—that is, if it was the Goths who + invented Gothic architecture; I do not suppose it was. Anyway, there is + said to be but one Gothic church in Rome, and this I did not visit, + perhaps because I felt that I must inure myself to the prevalent baroque, + or perhaps from mere perversity. I can merely say in self-defence that, on + the outside, Santa Maria sopra Minerva no more promised an inner beauty + than Il Gesu, which is the most baroque church in Rome, without the power + of coming together for a unity of effect which baroque churches sometimes + have. It is a tumult of virtuosity in painting, in sculpture, in + architecture. Statues sprawl into frescoed figures at points in the roof, + and frescoed figures emerge in marble at others. Marvels of riches are + lavished upon chapels and altars, which again are so burdened with bronze + gilded or silver plated, and precious stones wrought and unwrought, that + the soul, or if not the soul the taste, shrinks dismayed from them. + Execution in default of inspiration has had its way to the last excess; + there is nothing that it has not done to show what it can do; and all that + it has done is a triumph of misguided skill and power. But it would be a + mistake for the spectator to imagine that anything has been done from the + spirit in which he receives it; everything is the expression of devoted + faith in the forms that the art of the time offered. + </p> + <p> + In the monstrous marble tableau, say, of “Religion Triumphing Over + Heresy,” he may be very sure that the artist was not winking an ironical + eye where he made Faith spurning Schism with her foot look very much like + a lady of imperfect breeding who has lost her temper; he was most devoutly + in earnest, or at least those were so, both cleric and laic, for whom he + wrought his prodigy. We others, pagans or Protestants, had better + understand that the children of the Church, and especially the poor + children, were serious through all the shows that seem to us preposterous; + they had not renounced something for nothing; if they bowed that very + fallible thing, Reason, to Dogma, they got faith for their reward and + could gladly accept whatever symbol of it was offered them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0026" id="linkimage-0026"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-26.jpg" alt="26 Church Op Ara Coeli " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + No matter how baroque any church was, it could express something of this + sincerity, and in their way the worshippers seemed always simply at home + in it. In San Lorenzo in Lucina, where I went to see the truly sublime + “Crucifixion” by Guido (there is also a bar of St. Lawrence's gridiron to + be seen, but I did not know it at the time) I liked the unconsciousness of + the girl kneeling before the high altar and provisionally gossiping with + the young sacristan before she began her devotions. She gave her mind to + them when he asked me if I wished to see the Guido, for I could see her + lips moving while she shared my veneration of that most affecting + masterpiece; the more genuinely affecting because it expresses the rapture + and not the anguish of the Passion. I have no doubt she was grateful when + the sacristan proposed my having the electric light turned on it, and + when, though that I knew it would cost me something more, I assented. + </p> + <p> + They have the electric light now in all the holy places, and notably in + the dungeon where St. Peter was imprisoned, and where the custodian was so + proud of it, as the latest improvement, and as far more satisfactory than + candles. The shrine of the miraculous Bambino in the Church of Ara Coeli + is also lighted by electricity, which spares no detail of the child's + apparel and appearance. To other eyes than those of faith it has the + effect of a life-size but not life-like doll, piously bedizened and + jewelled over, but rather ill-humored looking, or, if not that, proud + looking or severe looking. To the eyes in which its sickbed visits have + dried the tears it must wear an aspect of heavenly pity and beauty; and I + am very willing to believe that these are the eyes which see it aright. As + it was, and taking it literally, it seemed far less mechanical and + unfeeling than the monk who pulled it out and pushed it back on its + wheeled platform. But he must get tired of showing it to the unbelievers + who come out of curiosity, and very likely I should, if I were in his + place, as nonchalantly wipe across the glass front of the shrine the card + with the Bambino's legend printed in various languages on it, which you + may then buy with the blessing from the glass for whatever you choose to + give. + </p> + <p> + Where art and antiquity are so abundant as in Rome, the Bambino incident + is probably what the reader, when he has visited the Church of Ara Coeli + will chiefly remember, and I will not pretend to be any better than the + reader, though I will say that I have a persistent sense of something + important about the roof; and there are the Pinturrichio frescos, which an + old Sienese like me must have the taste for. The not easily praiseful Hare + says it is “one of the most interesting of Christian churches,” and + without allowing that there are any other sorts of churches I may allow + that this is one of the least unlovely in Rome. Trinita de' Monti seemed + to be another, but only, I dare say, subjectively, because of the + exquisite pleasure we had one afternoon in March when we went into it for + the nuns' singing of the Benediction. That, we had been told, was + something which no one coming to Rome should miss; and we were so anxious + not to miss it that on our way to the Pincian Hill we stopped at the foot + of the church-steps, and reassured ourselves of the hour through the + kindness of an English-speaking nurse-maid at the bottom and of a gentle + nun at the top, who both told us the hour would be exactly five. + </p> + <p> + When we came back at that time and bought our way into the church by + rightful payment to the two blind beggars who guarded its doors, we found + it packed with people who bad been more literally punctual. They were of + all nations, but a large part were Anglo-Americans, and a young girl of + this race rose and gave her seat, with a sweet insistence that would not + be denied, to that one of us who deserved it most. He who was left leaning + against the soft side of a pillar hesitated whether to make some young + priests spreading over undue space on one of the benches push up, and he + enjoyed a rich moment of self-satisfaction in his forbearance. He was + there, to be sure, an alien and a heretic, out of mere curiosity, and they + were there probably so rapt in their devout attention that they did not + notice their errant step-brother, and so did not think to offer him the + hospitality of their mother church's house. But he would not make any such + allowance; he condemned them with the unsparing severity of the + strap-hanger in a trolley-car, who blushes with shame for the serried rows + of men sitting behind their newspapers. When he was at his wit's end to + find excuse for them a priest on another bench made room, and he sank down + glad to forgive and forget; but now he would not have yielded his place to + any other Protestant in Christendom. + </p> + <p> + In the collective curiosity he lost the sense of self-reproach for his + own, and eagerly bent his gaze on the group of officiating priests at the + high altar beyond the grille of the choir. The altar was all a blaze of + electric lights, and there was a novel effect in their composition in the + crosses resting diagonally on either side of it. Next the grille showed + the feathers and fashions of the mothers and sisters of the young girls + from the school of the adjoining Convent of the Sacred Heart, and midway + between these visitors, like a flock of white birds stooping on some + heavenly plain, the white veils of the girls stretched in lovely levels to + left and right. Nothing could have attuned the spirit for the surprise + awaiting it like this angelic sight; and when the voices of the nuns fell + suddenly from the organ gallery, behind all the people, like the singing + of the morning stars molten in one adoring music and falling from the + zenith down, whatever moments of innocent joy life might have had it could + have had none surpassing that. + </p> + <p> + But when we came out the self-mockery with which life is apt to recover + itself from any exaltation began. In returning from the Pincio the only + cab we had been able to get was the last left of the very worst cabs in + Rome, and we had bidden the driver wait for us at the church-steps, not + without some hope that he would play us false. But there he was, true to + his word, with such disciplined fidelity as that of the Roman sentinels + who used to die at their posts; and we mounted to ours with the muted + prayer that we, at least, might reach home alive. This did not seem + probable when the driver whipped up his horse. It appeared to have aged + and sickened while we were in the church, though we had thought it looked + as bad as could be before, and it lurched alarmingly from side to side, + recovering itself with a plunge of its heavy head away from the side in + which its body was sinking. The driver swayed on his box, having fallen + equally decrepit in spite of the restoratives he seemed to have applied + for his years and infirmities. His clothes had put on some such effect of + extreme decay as those of Rip Van Winkle in the third act; there was + danger that he would fall on top of his falling horse, and that their + raiment would mingle in one scandalous ruin. Via Sistina had never been so + full of people before; never before had it been so long to that point + where we were to turn out of it into the friendly obscurity of the little + cross street which would bring us to our hotel. We could not consent to + arrive in that form; we made the driver stop, and we got out and began + overpaying him to release us. But the more generously we overpaid him the + more nobly he insisted upon serving us to our door. At last, by such a + lavish expenditure as ought richly to provide for the few remaining years + of himself and his horse, we prevailed with him to let us go, and reached + our hotel glad, almost proud, to arrive on foot. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0027" id="linkimage-0027"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-27.jpg" alt="27 Church of Santa Maggiore " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Hare tells me, now it is too late, that I may reach the Church of Santa + Maggiore by keeping straight on through the long, long straightness of the + Via Sistina. I reached that church by quite another way after many + postponements; for I thought I remembered all about it from my visit in + 1864. But really nothing had remained to me save a sense of the + exceptional dignity of the church, and the sole fact that the roof of its + most noble nave is thickly plated with the first gold mined in South + America, which Ferdinand and Isabella gave that least estimable of the + popes, Alexander VI. Now I know that it is far richer than any gold could + make it in the treasures of history and legend, which fairly encrust it in + every part. Doubtless some portion of this wealth my fellow-sightseers + were striving to store up out of the guide-books which they bore in their + hands and from which they strained their eyes to the memorable points as + they slowly paced through the temple. Some were reading one to another in + bated voices, and I thought them ridiculous; but perhaps they were wise, + and rather he was ridiculous who marched by them and contented himself + with a general sense of the grandeur, the splendor. More than any other + church except that of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Santa Maria Maggiore + imparts this sense, for, as I have already pretended, St. Peter's fails of + it. Without as well as within the church is spacious and impressive from + its spaciousness; but it seems more densely fringed than most others with + peddlers of post-cards and mosaic pins. On going in you can plunge through + their ranks, but in coming out you do not so easily escape. One boy + pursued me quite to my cab, in spite of my denials of hand and tongue. + There he stayed the driver while he made a last, a humorous appeal. + “Skiddoo?” he asked in my native speech. “Yes,” I sullenly replied, + “skiddoo!” But it is now one of the regrets which I shall always feel for + my wasted opportunities in Rome that I did not buy all his post-cards. + Patient gayety like his merited as much. + </p> + <p> + As it was, I drove callously away from Santa Maria Maggiore to San Pietro + in Vincoli, where I expected to renew my veneration for Michelangelo's + Moses. That famous figure is no longer so much in the minds of men as it + used to be, I think; and, if one were to be quite honest with one's self + as to the why and wherefore of one's earlier veneration, one might not get + a very distinct or convincing reply. Do sculptors and painters suffer + periods of slight as authors do? Are Raphael and Michelangelo only + provisionally eclipsed by Botticelli and by Donatello and Mino da Fiesole, + or are they remanded to a lasting limbo? I find I have said in my notes + that the Moses is improbable and unimpressive, and I pretended a more + genuine joy in the heads of the two Pollajuolo brothers which startle you + from their tomb as you enter the church. Is the true, then, better than + the ideal, or is it only my grovelling spirit which prefers it? What I + scarcely venture to say is that those two men evidently lived and still + live, and that Michelangelo's prophet never lived; I scarcely venture, + because I remember with tenderness how certain clear and sweet spirits + used to bow their reason before the Moses as before a dogma of art which + must be implicitly accepted. Do they still do so, those clear and sweet + spirits? + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0028" id="linkimage-0028"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-28.jpg" + alt="28 Michelangelo's 'moses' in San Pietro In Vincoli " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + The archaeologist who was driving my cab that morning had pointed out to + me on the way to this church the tower on which Nero stood fiddling while + Rome was burning. It is a strong, square, mediaeval structure which will + serve the purpose of legend yet many centuries, if progress does not pull + it down; but the fiddle no longer exists, apparently, and Nero himself is + dead. When I came out and mounted into my cab, my driver showed me with + his whip, beyond a garden wall, a second tower, very beautiful against the + blue sky, above the slim cypresses, which he said was the scene of the + wicked revels of Lucrezia Borgia. I do not know why it has been chosen for + this distinction above other towers; but it was a great satisfaction to + have it identified. Very possibly I had seen both of these memorable + towers in my former Roman sojourn, but I did not remember them, whereas I + renewed my old impressions of San Paolo fuori le Mura in almost every + detail. + </p> + <p> + That is the most majestic church in Rome, I think, and I suppose it is, + for a cold splendor, unequalled anywhere. Somehow, from its form and from + the great propriety of its decoration, it far surpasses St. Peter's. The + antic touch of the baroque is scarcely present in it, for, being newly + rebuilt after the fire which destroyed the fourth-century basilica in + 1823, its faults are not those of sixteenth-century excess. It would be a + very bold or a very young connoisseur who should venture to appraise its + merits beyond this negative valuation; and timid age can affirm no more + than that it came away with its sensibilities unwounded. Tradition and + history combine with the stately architecture, which reverently includes + every possible relic of the original fabric, to render the immense temple + venerable; and as it is still in process of construction, with a + colonnaded porch in scale and keeping with the body of the basilica, it + offers to the eye of wonder the actual spectacle of that unstinted outlay + of riches which has filled Rome with its multitudes of pious monuments—monuments + mainly ugly, but potent with the imagination even in their ugliness + through the piety of their origin. Where did all that riches come from? + </p> + <p> + Out of what unfathomable opulence, out of what pitiable penury, out of + what fear, out of what love? One fancies the dying hands of wealth that + released their gift to the sacred use, the knotted hands of work that + spared it from their need. The giving continues in this latest Christian + age as in the earliest, and Rome is increasingly Rome in a world which its + thinkers think no longer believes. + </p> + <p> + From San Paolo we were going to another shrine, more hallowed to our + literary sense, and we drove through the sweet morning sunshine and + bird-singing, past pale-pink clouds of almond bloom on the garden slopes, + with snowy heights far beyond, to the simple graveyard where Keats and + Shelley lie. Our way to the Protestant cemetery held by some shabby + apartment-houses of that very modern Rome which was largely so + jerry-built, and which I would not leave out of the landscape if I could, + for I think their shabbiness rather heightens your sense of the peaceful + loveliness to which you come under the cypresses, among the damp aisles, + so thickly studded with the stones recording the death in exile of the + English strangers lying there far from home. In a faulty perspective of + memory, I had always seen the graves of the two poets side by side; but + the heart of Shelley rests in a prouder part of the cemetery, where the + paths between the finer tombs are carefully kept; and the dust of Keats + lies in an old, plain, almost neglected corner, well off beyond a dividing + trench. It seems an ungracious chance which has so parted the two poets so + inextricably united in their fame; it is as if here, too, the world would + have its way; but, of course, it is only at the worst an ungracious + chance. Keats, at least, has the companionship of the painter Severn, the + friend on whose “fond breast his parting soul relied,” and who has here + followed him into the dust. + </p> + <p> + A few withered daisies had been scattered in the thin grass over the poet, + and one hardly dared lift one's eyes from them to the heartbreaking + epitaph which one could not spell for tears. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. A FEW VILLAS + </h2> + <p> + It was but a few minutes' walk from the hotel to the Porta Pinciana, and, + if you took this short walk, you found yourself almost before you knew it + in the Villa Borghese. You might then, on your first Sunday in Rome, have + fancied yourself in Central Park, for all difference in the easily + satisfied Sunday-afternoon crowd. But with me a difference began in the + grove of stone-pines, and their desultory stretch toward the Casino, where + in the simple young times which are now the old we had hurried, with our + Kugler in our hands and other reading in our heads, to see Titian's Sacred + and Profane Love (it has got another name now) and Canova's Pauline + Bonaparte, who was also the Princess Borghese, and all the rest of the + precious gallery. However, if I had any purpose of visiting the Casino + now, I put it aside, and contented myself with the gentle sun, the gentle + shade, and the sweet air, which might have had less dust in it, breathing + over grass as green in late January as in early June. I did not care so + much for a mounted corporal who was jumping his horse over a two-foot + barrier in the circular path rounding between the Villa Borghese and the + Pincian Hill, though his admirers hung in rows on the rail beside it so + thickly that I could hardly have got a place to see him if I had tried. + But there was room enough to the fathers and mothers who had brought their + children, and young lovers who had brought each other for the afternoon's + outing, just as the people in Central Park do, and, no doubt, just as any + Sunday crowd must do in the planet Mars, if the inhabitants are human. + There was a <i>vacherie</i> nearby where not many persons were drinking + milk or even coffee; it is never the notion of the Italians that amusement + can be had only through the purchase of refreshments. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0029" id="linkimage-0029"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-29.jpg" alt="29 the Little Stadium With Its Gradines " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + I did not get as far as the Casino till the last Sunday of our Roman stay, + though we came again and again to the park (as we should call it, rather + than villa), sometimes to walk, sometimes to drive, and always to rejoice + in its loveliness. It was not now a very guarded, if once a very studied, + loveliness; not quite neglect, but a forgottenness to which it took + kindly, had fallen upon it; the drives seemed largely left to take care of + themselves, the walks were such as the frequenters chose to make over the + grass or through the woods; the buildings—the aviary, the + conservatory, the dairy, the stables—which formed part of the old + pleasance, stood about, as if in an absent-minded indifference to their + various roles. The weather had grown a little more wintry, or, at least, + autumnal, as the season advanced toward spring, and one day at the end of + February, when we were passing a woody hollow, the fallen leaves stirred + crisply with a sound like that of late October at home. We had been at + some pains and expense to put home four thousand miles away, but this + sound was the sweetest and dearest we had heard in Rome, and it strangely + attuned our spirits to the enjoyment of the fake antiquities, the broken + arches, pediments, columns, statues, which, in a region glutted with ruin, + the landscape architect of the Villa Borghese had fancied putting about in + pleasing stages of artificial dilapidation. But there was nothing faked in + the dishevelled grass of the little stadium, with its gradines around the + sides, and the game of tennis which some young girls were playing in it. + Neither was there anything ungenuine in the rapture of the boy whom we saw + racing through the dead leaves of that woody hollow in chase of the wild + fancies that fly before boyhood; and I hope that the charm of the plinths + and statues in the careless grounds behind the soft, old, yellow Casino + was a real charm. At any rate, these things all consoled, and the turf + under the pines, now thickly starred with daisies, gave every assurance of + being original. + </p> + <p> + When we came last the daisies were mingled with clustering anemones, which + seem a greatly overrated sort of flower, crude and harsh in color, like + cheap calico. If it were not for their pretty name I do not see how people + could like them; yet the children that day were pouncing upon them and + pulling them by handfuls; for the Villa Borghese is now state property and + is free to the children of the people in a measure quite beyond Central + Park. They can apparently pull anything they want, except mushrooms; there + are signs advising people that the state draws the line at mushrooms. + </p> + <p> + It was once more a Sunday, and it was a free day in the Casino. The + trodden earth sent up its homely, kindly smell from many feet on their way + to the galleries, which we found full of people looking greater + intelligence than the frequenters of such places commonly betray. They + might have been such more cultivated sight-seers as could not afford to + come on the paydays, and, if they had not crowded the room so, one might + have been glad as well as proud to be of their number. They did not really + keep one from older friends, from the statues and the pictures which were + as familiarly there in 1908 as in 1864. In a world of vicissitudes such + things do not change; the Sacred and Profane Love of Titian, though it had + changed its name, had not changed its nature, and was as divinely serene, + as richly beautiful as before. The Veroneses still glowed from the walls, + dimming with their Venetian effulgence all the other pictures but the + Botticellis and the Francias, and comforting one with the hope that, if + one had always felt their beauty so much, one might, without suspecting + it, have always had some little sense of art. But it was probably only a + literary sense of art, such as moves the observer when he finds himself + again in the presence of Canova's Pauline Borghese. That is there, on the + terms which were those no less of her character than of her time, in the + lasting enjoyment of a publicity which her husband denied it in his + lifetime; but it had no more to say now than it had so many, many years + ago. As, a piece of personal history it is amusing enough, and as a sermon + in stone it preaches whatever moral you choose to read into it. But as the + masterpiece of the sculptor it testifies to an ideal of his art for which + the world has reason to be grateful. Criticism does not now put Canova on + the height where we once looked up to him; but criticism is a fickle + thing, especially in its final judgments; and one cannot remember the + behavior of the Virtues in some of the baroque churches without paying + homage to the portrait of a lady who, whatever she was, was not a Virtue, + but who yet helped the sculptor to realize in her statue a Venus of + exceptional propriety. Tame, yes, we may now safely declare Canova to have + been, but sane we must allow; and we must never forget that he has been + the inspiration in modern sculpture of the eternal Greek truth of repose + from which the art had so wildly wandered, He, more than any other, stayed + it in the mad career on which Michelangelo, however remotely, had started + it; and we owe it to him that the best marbles now no longer strut or + swagger or bully. + </p> + <p> + It was by one of those accidents which are the best fortunes of travel + that I visited the Villa Papa Giulio, when I thought I was merely going to + the Piazza del Popolo, to which one cannot go too often. A chance look at + my guide-book beguiled me with the notion that the villa was just outside + the gate; but it was a deceit which I should be glad to have practised on + me every February 17th of my life. If the villa was farther off than I + thought, the way to it lay for a while through a tramwayed suburban street + delightfully encumbered with wide-horned oxen drawing heavy wagon-loads of + grain, donkeys pulling carts laden with vegetables, and children and hens + and dogs playing their several parts in a perspective through which one + would like to continue indefinitely. But after awhile a dim, cool, curving + lane leaves this street and irresistibly invites your cab to follow it; + and sooner than you could ask you get to the villa gate. There a + gatekeeper tacitly wonders at your arriving before he is well awake, and + will keep you a good five minutes while he parleys with another custodian + before he can bring himself to sell you a ticket and let you into the + beautiful, old, orange-gray cloistered court, where there is a young + architect with the T-square of his calling sketching some point of it, and + a gardener gently hacking off from the parent stems such palm-leaves as + have survived their usefulness. Beyond is the famous fountained court, and + a classic temple to the right, and other structures responsive to the + impulses of the good Pope Julius III., who was never tired of adding to + this pleasure palace of his. It was his favorite resort, with all his + court, from the Vatican, and his favorite amusement in it was the somewhat + academic diversion of proverbs, which Ranke says sometimes “mingled + blushes with the smiles of his guests.” + </p> + <p> + Lest the reader should think I have gone direct to Ranke for this + knowledge, I will own that I got it at second-hand out of Hare's <i>Walks + in Rome,</i> where he tells us also that the pope used to come to his + villa every day by water, and that “the richly decorated barge, filled + with venerable ecclesiastics, gliding through the osier-fringed banks of + the Tiber,... would make a fine subject for a picture.” No doubt, and if I + owned such a picture I would lose no time in public-spiritedly bestowing + it on the first needy gallery. Our author is, as usual, terribly severe on + the Italian government for some wrong done the villa, I could not well + make out what. But it seems to involve the present disposition of the + Etruscan antiquities in the upper rooms of the casino, where these, the + most precious witnesses of that rather inarticulate civilization, must in + any arrangement exhaust the most instructed interest. Just when the + amateur archaeologist, however, is sinking under his learning, the + custodian opens a window and lets him look out on a beautiful hill beyond + certain gardens, where a bird is singing angelically. I suppose it is the + same bird which sings all through these papers, and I am sorry I do not + know its name. But we will call it a blackcap: blackcap has a sweet, saucy + sound like its own note, and is the pretty translation of <i>caponero,</i> + a name which the bird might gladly know itself by. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0030" id="linkimage-0030"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-30.jpg" alt="30 Casino of the Villa Doria and Gardens " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Villa Papa Giulio is but a little place compared with something on the + scale of the Villa Pamfili Doria though from its casino it has a charm far + beyond that. What it may once have been as to grounds and gardens there is + little to show now, and the Pamfili Doria itself had not much to show in + gardens, though it had grounds, and to spare. It is, in fact, a large + park, though whether larger than the Villa Borghese I cannot say. But it + has not been taken by the state, and it is so far off on its hills that it + is safe from the overrunning of city feet. It is safe even from city + wheels, unless they are those of livery carriages, for numbered cabs are + not suffered in its proud precincts. You partake of this pride when you + come in your rubber-tired <i>remise,</i> and have the consolation of being + part of the beautiful exclusiveness. It costs you fifteen francs, but one + must suffer for being patrician, even for a single afternoon. Outside we + had the satisfaction of seeing innumerable numbered cabs drawn up, and + within the villa gates of meeting or passing the plebeians who had come in + them, and were now walking while we were smoothly rolling in our victoria. + The day was everything we could ask, very warm and bright below the + Janiculum, on which we had mounted, and here on the summit delicious with + cool currents of air. There had been beggars, on the way up, at every + point where our horses must be walked, and we had paid our way handsomely, + so that when we went back they bowed without asking again; this is a + convention at Rome which no self-respecting beggar will violate; they all + touch their hats in recognition of it. + </p> + <p> + The beautiful prospect from a certain curve of the drive after you have + passed the formal sunken garden, at which you pause, is the greatest + beauty of the Villa Pamfili Doria. You stop to look at it by the impulse + of your coachman, and then you keep on driving round, in the long ellipse + which the road describes, through grassy and woody slopes and levels, + watered by a pleasant stream, and through long aisles of pine and ilex. We + thought twice round was enough, and told the driver so, to his evident + surprise and to our own regret, so far as the long aisle of ilex was + concerned, for I do not suppose there is a more perfect thing of its kind + in the world. The shade under the thick sun-proof roofing of horizontal + boughs was practically as old as night, and on our second passage of its + dim length it had some Capuchin monks walking down it, who formed the + fittest possible human interest in the perspective. Off on the grass at + one side some Ursuline nuns were sitting with their pupils, laughing and + talking, and one nun was playing ball with the smaller girls, and mingling + with their shouts her own gay, innocent cries of joy as she romped among + them. Nothing could have been prettier, sweeter, or better suited to the + place; all was very simple, and apparently the whole place was hospitably + free to the poor women who ranged over it, digging chiccory for salad out + of the meadows. The daisies were thick as white clover, and the harsh + purple of the anemones showed everywhere. + </p> + <p> + The casino is plainer than the casino of the Villa Borghese, and is not + public like that; its sculptures have been taken to the Doria palace in + the city; and there is no longer any excuse for curiosity even to try + penetrating it. It stands on the left of the road by which you leave the + villa, and to the right on the grassy incline in full view of the casino + was something that puzzled us at first. It did not seem probable that the + gigantic capital letters grown in box should be spelling the English name + Mary, but it proved that they were, and later it proved that this was the + name of the noble English lady whom the late Prince Pamfili Doria had + married. Whether they marked her grave or merely commemorated her, it was + easy to impute a pathos to the fancy of having them there, which it might + not have been so easy to verify. You cannot attempt to pass over any + ground in Rome without danger of sinking into historical depths from which + it will be hard to extricate yourself, and it is best to heed one's steps + and keep them to the day's activities. But one could not well visit the + Villa Pamfili Doria without at least wishing to remember that in 1849 + Garibaldi held it for weeks against the whole French army, in his defence + of republican Rome. A votive temple within the villa grounds commemorates + the invaders who fell in this struggle; on a neighboring height the + Italian leader triumphs in the monument his adoring country has raised to + him. + </p> + <p> + If we are to believe the censorious Hare, the love of the hero's + countrymen went rather far when the Roman municipality, to please him, + tried to change the course of the Tiber in conformity with a scheme of + his, and so spoiled the beauty of the Farnesina garden without effecting a + too-difficult piece of engineering. The less passionate Murray says merely + that “a large slice of this garden was cut off to widen the river for the + Tiber embankment,” and let us hope that it was no worse. I suppose we must + have seen the villa in its glory when we went, in 1864, to see the Raphael + frescos in the casino there, but in the touching melancholy of the wasted + and neglected grounds we easily accepted the present as an image of the + past. For all we remembered, the weed-grown, green-mossed gravel-paths of + the sort of bewildered garden that remained, with its quenched fountain, + its vases of dead or dying plants, and its dishevelled shrubbery, were + what had always been; and it was of such a charm that we were gratefully + content with it. The truth is, one cannot do much with beauty in perfect + repair; the splendor that belongs to somebody else, unless it belongs also + to everybody else, wounds one's vulgar pride and inspires envious doubts + of the owner's rightful possession. But when the blight of ruin has fallen + upon it, when dilapidation and disintegration have begun their work of + atonement and exculpation, then our hearts melt in compassion of the + waning magnificence and in a soft pity for the expropriated possessor, to + whom we attribute every fine and endearing quality. It is this which makes + us such friends of the past and such critics of the present, and enables + us to enjoy the adversity of others without a pang of the jealousy which + their prosperity excites. + </p> + <p> + There was much to please a somewhat peculiar taste in our visit to the + Farnesina. The gateman, being an Italian official, had not been at the + gate when we arrived, but came running and smiling from his gossip with + the door-keeper of the casino, and this was a good deal in itself; but the + door-keeper, amiably obese, was better still in her acceptance of the joke + with which the hand-mirror for the easier study of the roof frescos was + accepted. “It is more convenient,” she suggested, and at the + counter-suggestion, “Yes, especially for people with short necks,” she + shook with gelatinous laughter, and burst into the generous cry, “Oh, how + delightful!” Perhaps this was because she, too, had experienced the + advantage of perusing the frescos in the hand-mirror's reversal. At any + rate, she would not be satisfied till she had returned a Roland for that + easy Oliver. Her chance came in showing a Rubens in one of the rooms, with + the master's usual assortment of billowy beauties, when she could say—and + she ought to have known—that they had eaten too much macaroni. It + was not much of a joke; but one hears so few jokes in Rome. + </p> + <p> + Do I linger in this study of simple character because I feel myself + unequal to the ecstasies which the frescos of Raphael and his school in + that pleasure dome demanded of me? Something like that, I suppose, but I + do not pride myself on my inability. It seemed to me that the coloring of + the frescos had lost whatever tenderness it once had; and that what was + never meant to be matter of conscious perception, but only of the vague + sense which it is the office of decoration to impart, had grown less + pleasing with the passage of time. There in the first hall was the story + of Cupid and Psyche in the literal illustration of Apuleius, and there in + another hall was Galatea on her shell with her Nymphs and Tritons and + Amorini; and there were Perseus and Medusa and Icarus and Phaeton and the + rest of them. But, if I gave way to all the frankness of my nature, I + should own the subjects fallen silly through the old age of an outworn + life and redeemed only by the wonderful skill with which they are + rendered. At the same time, I will say in self-defence that, if I had a + very long summer in which to keep coming and dwelling long hours in the + company of these frescos, I think I might live back into the spirit which + invented the fables, and enjoy even more the amusing taste that was never + tired of their repetition. Masterly conception and incomparable execution + are there in histories which are the dreams of worlds almost as extinct as + the dead planets whose last rays still reach us and in whose death-glimmer + we can fancy, if we will, a unity of life with our own not impossible nor + improbable. But more than some such appeal the Raphaels and the Giulio + Romanos of the Farnesina hardly make to the eye untrained in the art which + created them, or unversed in the technique by which they will live till + the last line moulders and the last tint fades. + </p> + <p> + We came out and stood a long time looking up in the pale afternoon light + at the beautiful face of the tenderly aging but not yet decrepit casino. + It was utterly charming, and it prompted many vagaries which I might + easily have mistaken for ideas. This is perhaps the best of such + experiences, and, after you have been with famous works of art and have + got them well over and done with, it is natural and it is not unjust that + you should wish to make them some return, if not in kind, then in + quantity. You will try to believe that you have thought about them, and + you should not too strictly inquire as to the fact. It is some such + forbearance that accounts for a good deal of the appreciation and even the + criticism of works of art. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX. DRAMATIC INCIDENTS + </h2> + <p> + If the joke of the door-keeper at the Farnesina was not so delicate in any + sense as some other jokes, it had, at least, the merit of being voluntary. + In fact, it is the only voluntary joke which I remember hearing in the + Tuscan tongue from the Roman mouth during a stay of three months in the + Eternal City. This was very disappointing, for I had always thought of the + Italians as gay and as liking to laugh and to make laugh. In Venice, where + I used to live, the gondoliers were full of jokes, good, bad, and + indifferent, and an infection of humor seemed to spread from them to all + the lower classes, who were as ready to joke as the lower classes of + Irish, and who otherwise often reminded one of them. The joking habit + extended as far down as Florence, even as Siena, and at Naples I had found + cabmen who tempered their predacity with <i>bonhomie.</i> But the Romans + were preferably serious, at least with the average American, though, if I + had tried them in their English instead of my Italian, it might have been + different. At times I thought, they felt the weight of being Romans, as it + had descended to them from antiquity, and that the strain of supporting it + had sobered them. In any case, though there was shouting by night, and + some singing of not at all the Neapolitan quality and still less the + Neapolitan quantity, there was no laughing, or, as far as I could see, + smiling by day. + </p> + <p> + Yet one day there was a tragedy in front of the hotel next ours which + would have made a dog laugh, as the saying is, unless it was a Roman dog. + It was a quarrel, more or less murderous, between a fat, elderly man and + an agile stripling of not half his age or girth, of whom the tumult about + them permitted only fleeting glimpses. By these the elder seemed to be + laboriously laying about him with a five-foot club and the younger to be + making wild dashes at him and then escaping to the skirts of the cabmen, + mounted and dismounted, who surrounded them. Now and then a cabman drove + out of the mellee very excitedly, and then turned and drove excitedly back + into the thick of it. All the while the dismounted cabmen pressed about + the combatants with their hands on one another's backs and their heads + peering carefully over one another's shoulders. On the very outermost rim + of these, more careful than any, was one of those strange images whom you + see about Italian towns in couples, with red-braided swallowtail coats and + cocked hats, those carabinieres —namely, who are soldiers in war and + policemen in times of peace. Any spectator from a foreign land would have + thought it the business of such an officer of the law to press in and stop + the fighting; but he did not so interpret his duty. He gingerly touched + the shoulders next him with the tips of his fingers, and now and then + lifted himself on the tips of his toes to look if the fight had stopped of + itself or not. + </p> + <p> + At last the fat, elderly man, whom his friends—and all the throng + except that one wicked youth seemed his friends—were caressing in + untimely embraces and coaxing in tones of tender entreaty, burst from + them, and, aiming at the head of his enemy, flung his club, to the + imminent peril of all the bystanders, and missed him. Then he frankly put + himself in the hands of his friends, who lifted him into a cab, where one + of them mounted with him and stayed him on the seat, while the cabman + drove rapidly away. The wicked youth had vanished in unknown space; but + the carabiniere, attended by a group of admirers, marched boldly up the + middle of the street, and the crowd, with whatever reluctance, persuaded + itself to disperse, though the cabmen, to the number of ten or twenty, + continued to drive around in concentric circles and irregular ellipses. In + five minutes not an eye-witness of the fray remained, such being the fear + of the law, not so much in those who break it as in those who see it + broken, and who dread incurring the vengeance of the culprit, if he is + acquitted, or of his family if he is convicted on their testimony. The + quarrel had gone on a full quarter of an hour, but the concierge of the + hotel in front of which it had raged professed to have known nothing of + it, having, he said, been in-doors all the time. A cabman whom we + eliminated from the hysterical company of his fellows and persuaded to + drive us away to see a church attempted to ignore the whole affair when + asked about it. With difficulty he could be made to recollect it, and then + he dismissed it as a trifle. “Oh,” he said, “chiacchiere di donnicciuole,” + which is something like “Clatter of little old women,” a thing not worth + noticing. He had, if we could believe him, not cared to know how it began + or ended, and he would not talk about it. + </p> + <p> + Later, still interested by the action of the carabiniere in guarding the + public security in his own person, I asked an Italian gentleman, who owned + to have seen the affair, why the officer did not break through the crowd + and arrest the fighters. “They had knives,” he explained, and it seemed a + good reason for the carabiniere's forbearance, as far as it went; but I + thought of the short work the brute locust of an Irish policeman at home + would have made of the knives. My friend said he had himself gone to one + of the municipal police who was looking on at a pleasant remove and said, + “Those fellows have knives; they will kill each other,” and the municipal + policeman had answered, with the calm of an antique Roman sentinel on duty + in time of earthquake, “Let them kill.” + </p> + <p> + I could not approve of so much impartiality, but afterward it seemed to me + I had little to be proud of in the shorter and easier method of our own + police, as contrasted with the caution of that Roman carabiniere who left + the combatants to the mild might of their friends' moral suasion. It was + better that the youth should escape, if he did, without a vexatious + criminal trial; he may have been no more to blame than the other, who, I + learned, had been carried off, in the honorable manner I saw, to a doctor + and had his stab looked to. It was not dangerous, and the whole affair + ended so. Besides, as I learned, still longer afterward, when it was quite + safe for a cabman from the same stand to speak, the combatants were not + Romans, but peasants from the Campagna, who had come in with their + market-carts and had become heated with the bad spirits which the peasants + have the habit of drinking five or six glasses of when they visit Rome. + “What we call benzine,” my cabman explained. “We Romans,” he added from a + moral height, “drink only a glass or two of wine, and we never carry + knives.” + </p> + <p> + He may have been right concerning the peacefulness of the Romans and their + sobriety, and I am bound to say that I never saw any other violent scene + during my stay. Sometimes I heard loud quarrelling among our cabmen, and + sometimes I was the subject of it, when one driver snatched me, an + impartial prey, from another. But the bad feeling, if there was really + any, quickly passed, and some other day I fell to the cabman who had been + wronged of me. I had not always the fine sense of being booty which I had + one day on coming out of a church and blundering toward the wrong cab. + Then the driver whom I had left waiting at the door seized me from the + very cab of an unjust rival with the indignant cry, “E roba mia!” (He's my + stuff!). It was not quite the phrase I would have chosen, but I had no + quarrel, generally speaking, with the cabmen of Rome. To be sure, they + have not a rubber tire among them, and their dress leaves much to be + desired in professional uniformity. Not one of them looks like a cabman, + but many of them in picturesqueness of hats and coats look like brigands. + I think they would each prefer to have a fur-lined overcoat, which the + Roman of any class likes to wear well into the spring; but they mostly + content themselves with an Astrakhan collar, more or less mangy. For the + rest, some of them will point out the objects of interest as you pass, and + they are proud to do so; they are not extortionate, and, if you overpay + them ever so little (which is quite worth while), they will not stand upon + a matter of lawful fare. A two-cent tip contents them, one of four cents + makes them your friends for life; as for a five-cent tip, I do not know + what it does, but I advise the reader when he goes to Rome to try it and + see. + </p> + <p> + One fine thing is that the cabmen are in great superabundance in Rome, and + the number of barrel-ribbed, ewe-necked, and broken-kneed horses is in no + greater proportion than in Paris. Still, the average is large, though, if + you will go to the stand, you may select any horse you please without + offence. It was a cheerful sight, verging upon gayety, to see every + morning the crowd of cabs at our stand and to hear the drivers' talk, + sometimes rising into protest and mutual upbraiding. But one Thursday + morning, the brightest of the spring, a Sunday silence had fallen on the + place, and a Sabbath solitude deepened to the eye the mystery that had + first addressed itself to the ear. Then, suddenly, we knew that we were in + the presence of that Italian conception of a general strike which + interprets itself as a <i>sciopero.</i> It is saying very little of that + two days' strike to say that it was far the most impressive experience of + our Roman winter; in some sort it was the most impressive experience of my + life, for I beheld in it a reduced and imperfect image of what labor could + do if it universally chose to do nothing. The dream of William Morris was + that a world which we know is pretty much wrong could be put right by this + simple process. The trouble has always been to get all sorts of labor to + join in the universal strike, but in the Italian <i>sciopero</i> of four + years ago the miracle was wrought from one end of the peninsula to the + other. + </p> + <p> + In the Roman strike of last April a partial miracle of the same nature was + illustratively wrought, with the same alarming effect on the imagination. + </p> + <p> + As with the national strike, the inspiration of the Roman strike came from + the government's violent dealing with a popular manifestation which only + threatened to be mischievous. A stone-mason was killed by falling from a + scaffolding, and his funeral was attended by so many hundreds, amounting + to thousands, of workmen that the police conceived, not quite + unjustifiably, that it was to be made the occasion of a demonstration, + especially as the proposed route of the procession lay through the Piazza + di Venezia, under the windows of the Austrian Embassy, Austria being + always a red rag to the Italian bull and peculiarly irritating through the + reservation of the Palazzo Venezia to the ancient enemy at the cession of + Venice to Italy. The mourners were therefore forbidden to pass that way, + and the police forces were drawn up in the Piazza Gesu, before the Jesuit + church, with a strong detachment of troops to support them. Their wisdom + in all this was very questionable after what followed, for the mourners + insisted on their rights and would go no way but through the Piazza di + Venezia. When the dispute was at its height two wagons laden with bricks + appeared on the scene. The mourners swarmed upon them, broke the bricks + into bats, and hurled them at the police. They had apparently the + simple-hearted expectation that the police would stand this indefinitely, + but the brickbats hurt, and in their paroxysms of pain the sufferers began + firing their revolvers at the mourners. Four persons were killed, with the + usual proportion of innocent spectators. At night the labor unions met, + and the <i>sciopero</i> was proclaimed as an expression of the popular + indignation; but the police had been left with the victory. Whether it was + not in some sort a defeat I do not know, but a retired English officer, + whom I had no reason to think a radical, said to me that he thought it a + great mistake to have let the police oppose the people with firearms. + Soldiers should alone be used for such work; they alone knew when to fire + and when to stop, and they never acted without orders. In fact, the troops + supporting the police took no part in the fray, as the workmen's press + recognized with patriotic rejoicing. + </p> + <p> + The next morning a signal silence prevailed throughout the city, where not + a wheel stirred or the sound of a hoof broke the hush of the streets. We + had noted already that there were seven Sundays every week in Rome, as was + fit in the capital of the Christian religion, but this Thursday was of an + intenser Sabbath stillness than any first day of the week that we had yet + known. There was the clack of passing feet in the street under our + windows, but we looked out upon a yawning void where the busy cabs had + clustered, and the cabmen had socially chaffed and quarrelled, and + entreated the stranger in the cabman's superstition that a stranger never + knows when he wants a cab. Now he could have walked all over Rome without + being once invited to drive. Except for here and there a private carriage, + or the coupe evidently of a doctor, the streets were empty, and the + tourists had to join the citizens in their pedestrian exercise. + </p> + <p> + The shopkeepers had been notified to close their places of business on the + tacit condition of having their windows broken for non-compliance, but in + the early forenoon they were still slowly and partially putting up their + shutters. You could get in through the darkened doors up till noon; after + that it was more and more difficult. But it would be hard to say how far + and how deep the <i>sciopero</i> went. In our hotel we knew of it only the + second day through the failure of the morning rolls, for there had been no + baking overnight. Most of the in-door service was of Swiss or other + foreign extraction, and the mechanism of our comfort, our luxury, was + operated as usual. Our floor <i>facchino,</i> or porter, went to the + meeting of the unions in the evening, being an Italian. Otherwise the + strike fell especially on the helpless and guiltless foreigner, who might + be, and very often was, in sympathy with the strikers. He had to walk to + the ruins, the galleries, the gardens, the churches, if he wanted anything + of them; he could not get a carriage even from a stable. + </p> + <p> + Between the hotels and the station the omnibus traffic was suspended. The + railroads being national, push-carts manned by the government employes + carried the baggage to and fro, but if one wanted to arrive or depart one + had to do it on foot. Tragical scenes presented themselves in relation to + this fact. In the afternoon, as I walked up the street toward the great + railroad station, I saw coming down the middle of it a strange procession + of ladies and gentlemen of every age, gray-haired elders and children of + tender years, mixed with porters and push-carts, footing it into the + region of the fashionable hotels. They were all laden according to their + strength, and people who had never done a stroke of work in their lives + were actually carrying their own hand-bags, rugs, and umbrella-cases. It + was terrible. + </p> + <p> + It was terrible for what it was, and terrible for what it suggested, if + ever that poor dull beast of labor took the bit permanently into its + teeth, or, worse yet, hung back in the breeching and inexorably balked. + What would then become of us others, us ladies and gentlemen who had never + done a stroke of work and never wished to do one? Should we be forced to + the hard necessity of beginning? Could we remain in the comfortable belief + that we gave work, or must we be made to own distastefully that it had + always been given to us? Should we be able to flatter ourselves with the + notion that we had once had dependents because we had money, or should we + realize that we had always been dependents because of our having money? + </p> + <p> + These were the hateful doubts which the Roman strike suggested to the + witness, or, at least, one of the witnesses, who has here the pleasure of + unburdening himself upon the reader. Yet there was something amusing in + the situation; there was a joke—that rarest of all things in Rome—latent + in it, which one suspected only from the amiable, the all-but-smiling + behavior of the strikers. There was not the slightest disorder during the + two days that the strike lasted. When it was called off at a meeting of + the unions on Saturday night, one of the seven Sundays of the Roman week + dawned upon an activity at the neighboring cab-stand no peacefuller and + not much gayer than the silence and solitude of the mornings previous. As + for the general effect in the city, you would hardly have known that + particular Sunday from those which had gone by the names of Friday and + Saturday. Throughout Italy there is now a Sunday-closing law whose effect + in a land once of joyous Sabbaths strikes some such chill to the heart as + pierces it in Boston on that day, or in the farther eastern or western + avenues of New York, when the Family Entrances are religiously locked. + </p> + <p> + The Italian state has, in fact, so far taken the matter in charge as to + have established a secular holiday, coming once a week, which has almost + disestablished the holidays of the Church, formerly of much more frequent + occurrence. This secular holiday, which every workman has a right to, he + may neither give nor sell to his master. He may not even loaf it away in + the place where he works, lest he should be clandestinely employed. He + must go out of the shop or house or factory or foundry, and spend his ten + hours where he cannot be suspected of employing them in productive + industry for hire. This law has been enacted in accordance with the will + of the unions and no doubt in correction of great abuses. Neither masters + nor men now recognize the old-fashioned <i>festa</i> as they once did. + Whether the men like the new holiday so well, I did not get any of them + explicitly to say. Of course, they cannot all take it at once; they must + take it turn about, and they may not find their enforced leisure so lively + as the old voluntary saints' days, when their comrades were resting, too. + As for the masters, one of the employers of labor, whom I found filling + his man's place, would merely say: “It is the new law. No doubt we shall + adjust ourselves to it.” He did not complain. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X. SEEING ROME AS ROMANS SEE US + </h2> + <p> + Shortly after our settlement in the Eternal City, which has so much more + time to be seen than the so-journer has to see it, I pleased myself with + the notion of surprising it by visiting in a studied succession the many + different piazzas. This, I thought, would acquaint me with the different + churches, and on the way to them I should make friends with the various + quarters. Everything, old or new, would have the charm of the unexpected; + no lurking ruin would escape me; no monument, whether column or obelisk, + statue, “storied urn or animated bust” or mere tablet, would be safe from + my indirect research. Before I knew it, I should know Rome by heart, and + this would be something to boast of long after I had forgotten it. + </p> + <p> + I could not say what suggested so admirable a notion, but it may have been + coming by chance one day on the statue of Giordano Bruno, and realizing + that it stood in the Campo di Fieri, on the spot where he was burned three + hundred years ago for abetting Copernicus in his sacrilegious system of + astronomy, and for divers other heresies, as well as the violation of his + monastic vows. I saw it with the thrill which the solemn figure, heavily + draped, deeply hooded, must impart as mere mystery, and I made haste to + come again in the knowledge of what it was that had moved me so. Naturally + I was not moved in the same measure a second time. It was not that the + environment was, to my mind, unworthy the martyr, though I found the + market at the foot of the statue given over, not to flowers, as the name + of the place might imply, but to such homely fruits of the earth as + potatoes, carrots, cabbages, and, above all, onions. There was a placidity + in the simple scene that pleased me: I liked the quiet gossiping of the + old market-women over their baskets of vegetables; the confidential + fashion in which a gentle crone came to my elbow and begged of me in + undertone, as if she meant the matter to go no further, was even + mattering. But the solemnity of the face that looked down on the scene was + spoiled by the ribbon drawn across it to fasten a wreath on the head, in + the effort of some mistaken zealot of free thought to enhance its majesty + by decoration. It was the moment when the society calling itself by + Giordano Bruno's name was making an effort for the suppression of + ecclesiastical instruction in the public schools; and on the anniversary + of his martyrdom his effigy had suffered this unmeant hurt. In all the + churches there had been printed appeals to parents against the agnostic + attack on the altar and the home, and there had been some of the open + tumults which seem in Rome to express every social emotion. But the + clericals had triumphed, and an observer more anxious than I to give a + mystical meaning to accident might have interpreted the disfiguring ribbon + over Bruno's bronze lips as a new silencing of the heretic. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0031" id="linkimage-0031"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-31.jpg" alt="31 the Carnival (as It Once Was) " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + I certainly did not construe it so, and, if my notion of serially visiting + the piazzas of Rome was not prompted by my chance glimpse of the Campo di + Fiori, it was certainly not relinquished because of any mischance in my + meditated vision of it. I had merely reflected that I could not hope to + carry out my scheme without greater expense both in time and money than I + could well afford, for, though cabs in Rome are swift and cheap, yet the + piazzas are many and widely distributed; and I finally decided to indulge + myself in a novelty of adventure verging close upon originality. It had + always seemed to me that the happy strangers mounted on the tiers of seats + that rise from front to back on the motor-chariots for seeing New York and + looking down, even from the lowest place, on the life of our streets had a + peculiar, almost a bird's-eye view of it which I might well find the means + of a fresh impression. But I never had the courage, for reasons which I + have not the courage to give, though the reader can perhaps imagine them. + In Rome I did not feel that the like reasons held; of all the unknown, I + was one of the most unknown; by me nobody would be put to the shame of + recognizing an acquaintance on the benches of the like chariot, or forced + to the cruelty of cutting him in my person. When once I had fully realized + this, it was only a question of the time when I should yield to the + temptation which renewed itself as often as I saw the stately automobile + passing through the storied streets, with its English legend of “Touring + Rome” inscribed on the back of the rear seat. There remained the question + whether I should go alone or whether I should ask the countenance of + friends in so bold an enterprise. When I suggested it to some persons of + the more courageous sex, they did not wait to be asked to go with me; they + instantly entreated to be allowed to go; they said they had always wished + to see Rome in that way; and we only waited to be chosen by the raw and + blustery afternoon which made us its own for the occasion. + </p> + <p> + It was the eve of the last sad day of such shrunken and faded carnival as + is still left to Rome, and there were signs of it in the straggling groups + of children in holiday costume, and in here and there a pair of young + girls in a cab, safely masked against identification and venting, in the + sense of wild escape, the joyous spirits kept in restraint all the rest of + the year. Already in the Corso, where our touring-car waited for us at the + first corner, a great cafe was turning itself inside out with a spread of + chairs and tables over the sidewalk, which we found thronged on our return + with spectators far outnumbering the merrymakers of the carnival. Our car + was not nearly so packed, and when we mounted to the benches we found that + the last and highest of them was left to the sole occupancy of a young + man, well enough dressed (his yellow gloves may have been more than well + enough) and well-mannered enough, who continued enigmatical to the last. + There was a German couple and there were some French-speaking people; the + rest of us were bound in the tie of our common English. The agent of the + enterprise accompanied us, an international of undetermined race, and + beside the chauffeur sat the middle-aged, anxious-looking Italian who + presently arose when we made our first stop in the Piazza Colonna and + harangued us in three languages—successively, of course—concerning + the Column of Marcus Aurelius. He did not use the megaphone of his + American confrere; and from the shudder which the first sound of his voice + must have sent through a less fastidious substance than mine I perceived + that an address by megaphone I could not have borne; to that extreme of + excess even my modernism could not go. As it was, there was an instant + when I could have wished to be on foot, or even in a cab, with a red + Baedeker in my hand; and yet, as the orator went on, I had to own that he + was giving me a better account of the column than I could have got for + myself out of the guide-book. He spoke first in French, with an Italian + accent and occasionally an Italian idiom; then he spoke in English, and + then in a German which suffered from his knowledge of English. + </p> + <p> + He sat down, looking rather spent with his effort, and on the way to our + next stop, at the Temple of Neptune, the agent examined us upon our + necessities in the article of language. He himself spoke such good English + that we could not do otherwise than declare that we could get on perfectly + with an address in French. The German pair, perhaps from patriotic grudge, + denied a working knowledge of the unfriendly tongue. The solitary on the + back seat, being asked in his turn, graciously answered, “Toutes les + langues me sont egales,” and thereafter we suffered with the orator only + through French and German. + </p> + <p> + The reply which decided the matter launched us upon yet wider conjecture + regarding the unknown: was he a retired courier, a concierge out of place, + a professor of languages on his holiday, or merely an amateur of + philological studies? His declared proficiency was manifested in + unexpected measure as we drove away from the Temple of Neptune on through + the narrow street leading to it. Every motor has its peculiar note, and + our car had something like the scream of a wild animal in pain, such as + might have justly alarmed a stouter spirit than that of the poor little + cab-horse which we encountered at the corner of this street. It reared, it + plunged; when our chauffeur held us in it still backed and filled so + dangerously that the mother and children overflowing the cab followed the + example of the driver in spilling to the ground. Then our good + international, the agent, jumped down and, mounting to the coachman's + seat, took the reins and urged the horse forward, while its driver pulled + it by the bridle. All was of no effect till the solitary of the back seat + rose in his place and shouted to the frightened creature in choice + American: “What d' you mean, there? Come on! Come on, you fool!” Then, as + if it had been an “impenitent mule” in some far-distant Far-Western + incarnation, this Eoman cab-horse recognized the voice of authority; it + nerved itself against the imaginary danger, and came steadily forward; our + agent regained his place, and we moved shriekingly on to the next object + of interest. It was not quite the note blown from level tubes of brass in + the progress of a conqueror, but we did not lack the cheers of a + disinterested populace, which at several points impartially applauded our + orator's French and German versions of his not always tacit Italian. + </p> + <p> + Our height above the cheers helped preserve us from the sense of anything + ironical in them, and there was an advantage in the outlook from our + elevation which the wayfarer in cab or on foot can only imagine. No such + wayfarer can realize the vast scope and compass of our excursion, which + was but one of two excursions made on alternate afternoons by the + Touring-Rome wagons. It included, perhaps not quite in the following + order, after the Temple of Neptune, such objects of prime importance as + the Palazzo Madama, where Catharine de' Medici once dwelt and where the + Italian Senate now holds its sessions; the Fountain of Trevi, the + Pantheon, the Piazza Navona, the new Palace of Justice and the Cavour + monument beyond the Tiber, the Castle of Sant' Angelo, the Vatican and St. + Peter's, the Janiculum and the Garibaldi monument on it, and the + stupendous prospect of the city from that supreme top, the bridge that + Horatius held in Macaulay's ballad, the island in the Tiber formed after + the expulsion of the Tarquins by the river sand and drift catching on the + seed-corn thrown into the stream from the fields consecrated to Mars, the + Temple of Fortune, the once-supposed House of Rienzi, and the former + Temple of Vesta; the Palatine Hill and the Aventine Hill, the Circus + Maximus, the Colosseum, the Campidoglio, the Theatre of Marcellus, the + worst slum in Rome, where the worst boy in Rome, flown with Carnival, will + try to board your passing car; back to Piazza Colonna through Piazza Monte + Citerio, where the Italian House of Deputies meets in the plain old palace + of the same name. + </p> + <p> + The mere mention of these storied places will kindle in the reader's fancy + a fire which he will feel all the need of if ever he verifies my account + of them in touring Rome on so cold an afternoon as that of our excursion. + The wind rose with our ascent of every elevation, if it did not fall with + our return to a lower level; on the Janiculum it blew a blizzard in which + the incongruous ilexes and laurels bowed and writhed, and some groups of + almond-trees in their pale bloom on a distant upland mocked us with a + derisive image of spring. At the foot of the steps to the Campidoglio, + where some of our party dismounted to go up and view the statue of Marcus + Aurelius, it was so cold that nothing but the sense of a strong common + interest prevented those who remained from persuading the chauffeur to go + on without the sight-seers. But we forbore, both because we knew we were + then very near the end of our tour, and because we felt it would have been + cruel to abandon the lady who had got out of the car only by turning + herself sidewise and could not have made her way home on foot without + sufferings which would justly have brought us to shame. Certain idle + particulars will always cling to the memory which lets so many ennobling + facts slip from it; and I find myself helpless against the recollection of + this poor lady's wearing a thick motoring-veil which no curiosity could + pierce, but which, when she lifted it, revealed a complexion of heated + copper and a gray mustache such as nature vouchsafes to few women. + </p> + <p> + The crowd, which thickened most in the Piazza di Venezia, had grown more + and more carnivalesque in attire and behavior. We had been obliged to + avoid the more densely peopled streets because, as our international + explained, if the car had slowed at any point the revellers would have + joined our excursion of their own initiative and accompanied us to the end + in overwhelming numbers. They wellnigh blocked the entrance of the Corso + when we got back to it, and the cafe where we had agreed to have tea was + so packed that our gay escapade began to look rather gloomy in the + retrospect. But suddenly a table was vacated; a waiter was caught, in the + vain attempt to ignore us, and given such a comprehensive order that we + could see respect kindling in his eyes, and before we could reasonably + have hoped it be spread before us tea and bread and butter and tarts and + little cakes, while scores of hungry spectators stood round and + flatteringly envied us. In this happy climax our adventure showed as a + royal progress throughout. We counted up the wonders of our three hours' + course in an absolutely novel light; and we said that touring Rome was a + thing not only not to be despised, but to be forever proud of. + </p> + <p> + For myself, I decided that if I were some poor hurried fellow-countryman + of mine, doing Europe in a month and obliged to scamp Rome with a couple + of days, I would not fail to spend two of them in what I must always think + of as a triumphal chariot. I resolved to take the second excursion, not + the next day perhaps, but certainly the day after the next, and complete + the most compendious impression of ancient, mediaeval, and modern Rome + that one can have; but the firmest resolution sometimes has not force to + hold one to it. The second excursion remains for a second sojourn, when + perhaps I may be able to solve the question whether I was moved by a fine + instinct of proportion or by mere innate meanness in giving our orator at + parting just two francs in recognition of his eloquence. No one else, + indeed, gave him anything, and he seemed rather surprised by my tempered + munificence. It might have been mystically adjusted to the number of + languages he used in addressing us; if he had held to three languages I + might have made it three francs; but now I shall never be certain till I + take the second excursion with a company which imperatively requires + English as well as French and German, and with no solitary in yellow + gloves to whom all languages are alike. + </p> + <p> + To this end I ought to have thrown a copper coin into the Fountain of + Trevi as we passed it. You may return to Rome without doing this, but it + is well known that if you do it you are sure to come back. The Fountain of + Trevi is alone worth coming back for, and I could not see that it poured + scanter streams than it formerly poured over brimming brinks or from the + clefts of the artificial rocks that spread in fine disorder about the feet + of its sea-gods and sea-horses; but they who mourn the old papal rule + accuse the present Italian government of stinting the supply of water. To + me there seemed no stint of water in any of the fountains of Rome. In some + a mere wasteful spilth seems the sole design of the artist, as in the + Fontana Paolina on the Janiculum, where the cold wash of its deluge seemed + to add a piercing chill to our windy afternoon. The other fountains have + each a quaint grace or absolute charm or pleasing absurdity, whether the + waters shower over groups of more or less irrelevant statuary in their + basins or spout into the air in columns unfurling flags of spray and + keeping the pavement about them green with tender mould. The most + sympathetic is the Fountain of the Triton, who blows the water through his + wreathed horn and on the coldest day seems not to mind its refluent splash + on his mossy back; in fact, he seems rather to like it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0032" id="linkimage-0032"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-32.jpg" alt="32 the Fountain of Trevi " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + He is one of many tritons, rivers, sea-gods, and aqueous allegories + similarly employed in Rome and similarly indifferent to what flesh and + blood might find the hardship of their calling. I had rashly said to + myself that their respective fountains needed the sun on them to be just + what one could wish, but the first gray days taught me better. Then the + thinly clouded sky dropped a softened light over their glitter and sparkle + and gave them a spirituality as much removed from the suggestion of + physical cold as any diaphanous apparition would suggest. Then they seemed + rapt into a finer beauty than that of earth, though I will not pretend + that they were alike beautiful. No fountain can be quite ugly, but some + fountains can be quite stupid, like, for instance, those which give its + pretty name to the Street of the Four Fountains and which consist of two + extremely plain Virtues and two very dull old Rivers, diagonally dozing at + each other over their urns in niches of the four converging edifices. They + are not quite so idiotic under their disproportionate foliage as the + conventional Egyptian lions of the Fountain of Moses, with manes like the + wigs of so many lord chancellors, and with thin streams of water drooling + from the tubes between their lips. But these are the exceptional + fountains; there are few sculptured or architectural designs which the + showering or spouting water does not retrieve from error; and in Rome the + water (deliciously potable) is so abundant that it has force to do almost + anything for beauty, even where, as in the Fontana Paolina, it is merely a + torrent tumbling over a facade. It is lavished everywhere; in the Piazza + Navona alone there are three fountains, but then the Piazza Navona is very + long, and three fountains are few enough for it, even though one is that + famous Fountain of Bernini, in which he has made one of the usual rivers—the + Nile, I believe—holding his hand before his eyes in mock terror of + the ungainly facade of a rival architect's church opposite, lest it shall + fall and crush him. That, however, is the least merit of the fountain; and + without any fountain the Piazza Navona would be charming; it is such a + vast lake of sunshine and is so wide as well as long, and is so mellowed + with such rich browns and golden grays in the noble edifices. + </p> + <p> + I do not know, now, what all the edifices are, but there are churches, + more than one, and palaces, and the reader can find their names in any of + the guidebooks. If I were buying piazzas in Rome I should begin with the + Navona, but there are enough to suit all purses and tastes. The fountains + would be thrown in, I suppose, along with the churches and palaces; but I + really never inquired, and, in fact, not having carried out my plan of + visiting them all, I am in no position to advise intending purchasers. + What I can say is that if you are in a hurry to inspect, that kind of + property, and in immediate need of a piazza, you cannot do better than + take the wagon for touring Rome. In two days you can visit every piazza + worth having, including the Piazza di Spagna, where there is a fountain in + the form of a marble galley in which you can embark for any fairyland you + like, through the Via del Babuino and the Piazza del Popolo. Come to think + of it, I am not so sure but I would as soon have the Piazza del Popolo as + the Piazza Navona. If the fountains are not so fine, they are still very + fine, and the Pincian Hill overtops one side of the place, with foliaged + drives and gardened walks descending into it. + </p> + <p> + Everything of importance that did not happen elsewhere in Rome seems to + have happened in the Piazza del Popolo, and I may name as a few of its + attractions for investors the facts that it was here Sulla's funeral pyre + was kindled; that Nero was buried on the left side of it, and out of his + tomb grew a huge walnut-tree, the haunt of demoniacal crows till the + Madonna appeared to Paschal II. and bade him cut it down; that the + arch-heretic Luther sojourned in the Augustinian convent here while in + Rome; that the dignitaries of Church and State received Christina of + Sweden here when, after her conversion, she visited the city; that + Lucrezia Borgia celebrated her betrothal in one of the churches; that it + used to be a favorite place for executing brigands, whose wives then + became artists' models, and whose sons, if they were like Cardinal + Antonelli, became princes of the Church. So I learn from Hare in his <i>Walks + in Rome,</i> and, if he enables me to boast the rivalry of the Piazza + Navona in no such array of merits, still I will not deny my love for it. + Certainly it was not a favorite place for executing brigands, but the + miracle which saved St. Agnes from, cruel shame was wrought in the vaulted + chambers under the church of her name there, and that is something beyond + all the wonders of the Piazza del Popolo for its pathos and for its + poetry. But, if the Piazza Navona had no other claim on me, I should find + a peculiar pleasure in the old custom of stopping the escapes from its + fountains and flooding with water the place I saw flooded with sun, for + the patricians to wade and drive about in during the very hot weather and + eat ices and drink coffee, while the plebeians looked sumptuously down on + them from the galleries built around the lake. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI. IN AND ABOUT THE VATICAN + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0033" id="linkimage-0033"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-33.jpg" alt="33 Colonnade and Fountain at St. Peter's " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + It would be a very bold or very incompetent observer of the Roman + situation who should venture upon a decided opinion of the relations of + the monarchy and the papacy. You hear it said with intimations of special + authority in the matter, that both king and pope are well content with the + situation, and it is clearly explained how and why they are so; but I did + not understand how or why at the moment of the explanation, or else I have + now forgotten whatever was clear in it. I believe, however, it was to the + effect that the pope willingly remained self-prisoned in the Vatican + because, if he came out, he might not only invalidate a future claim upon + the sovereign dignity which the Italian occupation had invaded, but he + might incur risks from the more unfriendly extremists which would at least + be very offensive. On his part, it was said that the king used the + embarrassment occasioned by the pope's attitude as his own defence against + the anti-Clericals, who otherwise would have urged him to far more hostile + measures with the Church. The king and the pope were therefore not very + real enemies, it was said by those who tried to believe themselves better + informed than others. + </p> + <p> + To the passing or tarrying stranger the situation does not offer many + dramatic aspects. When you are going to St. Peter's, if you will look up + at the plain wall of the Vatican palace you will see two windows with + their shutters open, and these are the windows of the rooms where Pius X. + lives, a voluntary captive; the closed blinds are those of the rooms where + Leo XIII. died, a voluntary captive. Whatever we think of the wisdom or + the reason of the papal protest against the occupation of the States of + the Church by the Italian people, these windows have their pathos. The + pope immures himself in the Vatican and takes his walks in the Vatican + gardens, whose beauty I could have envied him, if he had not been a + prisoner, when I caught a glimpse of them one morning, with the high walls + of their privet and laurel alleys blackening in the sun. + </p> + <p> + But otherwise the severest Protestant could not cherish so unkind a + feeling toward the gentle priest whom all men speak well of for his piety + and humility. It is a touching fact of his private life that his three + maiden sisters, who wish to be as near him as they can, have their simple + lodging over a shop for the sale of holy images in a street opening into + the Piazza of St. Peter's. We all know that they are of a Venetian family + neither rich nor great; their pride and joy is solely in him, as it well + might be, and it is said that when they come to hear him in some high + function at the Sistine Chapel their rapture of affection and devotion is + as evident as it is sweet and touching. + </p> + <p> + Their relation to him is the supremely poetic fact of a situation which + even one who knows of it merely by hearsay cannot refuse to feel. The + tragical effect of the situation is in the straining and sundering of + family ties among those who take one side or the other in the difference + of the monarchy and papacy. I do not know how equally Roman society, in + the large or the small sense, is divided into the Black of the Papists and + the White of the Monarchists (for the mediaeval names of Neri and Bianchi + are revived in the modern differences), but one cannot help hearing of + instances in which their political and religious opinions part fathers and + sons and mothers and daughters. These are promptly noted to the + least-inquiring foreigner, and his imagination is kindled by the + attribution of like variances to the members of the reigning family, who + are reported respectively blacker and whiter if they are not as positively + black or white as the nobles. Some of these are said to meet one another + only in secret across the gulf that divides them openly; but how far the + cleavage may descend among other classes I cannot venture to conjecture; I + can only testify to some expressions of priest-hatred which might have + shocked a hardier heretical substance than mine. + </p> + <p> + One Sunday we went to the wonderful old Church of San Clemente, which is + built three deep into the earth or high into the air, one story above or + below the other, in the three successive periods of imperial, mediaeval, + and modern Rome. It was the day when the church is illuminated, and the + visitors come with their Baedekers and Hares and Murrays to identify its + antiquities of architecture and fresco; it was full of people, and, if I + fancied an unusual proportion of English-speaking converts among them, + that might well have been, since the adjoining convent belongs to the + Irish Dominicans. But I carried with me through all the historic and + artistic interest of the place the sensation left by two inscriptions + daubed in black on the white convent wall next the church. One of these + read: <i>“VV. la Repubblica”</i> (Long live the Republic), and the other: + <i>“M. ai Preti”</i> (Death to the Priests). No attempt had been made to + efface them, and as they expressed an equal hatred for the monarchy and + the papacy, neither laity nor clergy may have felt obliged to interfere. + Perhaps, however, it was rightly inferred that the ferocity of one + inscription might be best left to counteract the influence of the other. I + know that with regard to the priests you experience some such effect from + the atrocious attacks in the chief satirical paper of Rome, The name of + this paper was given me, with a deprecation not unmixed with recognition + of its cleverness, by an Italian friend whom I was making my creditor for + some knowledge of Roman journalism; and the sole copy of it which I bought + was handed to me with a sort of smiling abhorrence by the kindly old kiosk + woman whom I liked best to buy my daily papers of. When I came to look it + through, I made more and more haste, for its satire of the priests was of + an indecency so rank that it seemed to offend the nose as well as the eye. + To turn from the paper was easy, but from the fact of its popularity a + painful impression remained. It was not a question of whether the priests + were so bad as all that, but whether its many readers believed them so, or + believed them bad short of it, in the kind of wickedness they were accused + of. + </p> + <p> + There can be no doubt of the constant rancor between the Clericals and the + Radicals in their different phases throughout Italy. There can be almost + no doubt that the Radicals will have their way increasingly, and that if, + for instance, the catechism is kept in the public schools this year, it + will be cast out some other year not far hence. Much, of course, depends + upon whether the status can maintain itself. It is, like the status + everywhere and always, very anomalous; but it is difficult to imagine + either the monarchy or the papacy yielding at any point. Apparently the + State is the more self-assertive of the two, but this is through the + patriotism which is the political life of the people. It must always be + remembered that when the Italians entered Rome and made it the capital of + their kingdom they did not drive out the French troops, which had already + been withdrawn; they drove out the papal troops, the picturesque and + inefficient foreign volunteers who remained behind. Every memorial of that + event, therefore, is a blow at the Church, so far as the Church is + identified with the lost temporal power. One of the chief avenues is named + Twenty-second September Street because the national troops entered Rome on + that date; the tablets on the Porta Pia where they entered, the monument + on the Pincio to the Cairoli brothers, who died for Italy; the statues of + Garibaldi, of Cavour, of Victor Emmanuel everywhere painfully remind the + papacy of its lost sovereignty. But the national feeling has gone in its + expression beyond and behind the patriotic occupation of Rome; and no one + who suffered conspicuously, at any time in the past, for freedom of + thought through the piety of the fallen power is suffered to be forgotten. + On its side the Church enters its perpetual protest in the + self-imprisonment of the pope; and here and there, according to its + opportunity, it makes record of what it has suffered from the State. For + instance, at St. John Lateran, which theoretically forms part of the + Leonine City of the Popes and is therefore extraterritorial to Italy, a + stretch of wall is suffered to remain scarred by the cannon-shot which the + monarchy fired when it took Rome from the papacy. + </p> + <p> + Doubtless there are other monuments of the kind, but their enumeration + would not throw greater light on a situation which endures with no + apparent promise of change. The patience of the Church is infinite; it + lives and it outlives. Remembering that Arianism was older than + Protestantism when Catholicism finally survived it, we must not be + surprised if the Roman Church shall hold out against the Italian State not + merely decades, but centuries. In the meanwhile to its children from other + lands it means Rome above all the other Romes; and on us, its + step-children of different faiths or unfaiths, its prison-house—if + we choose so to think of the Vatican—has a supreme claim, if we love + the sculpture of pagan Rome or the painting of Christian Rome. + </p> + <p> + We swarm to its galleries in every variety of nationality, with + guide-books in every tongue, and we are very queer, for the most part, to + any one of our number who can sufficiently exteriorate himself to get the + rest of us in perspective. It is probably well that most of us do not + stagger under any great knowledge of the crushing history of the place, + which has been the scene of the most terrible experiences of the race, the + most touching, the most august. Provisionally ignorant, at least, we begin + to appear at the earliest practicable hour before the outermost stairway + of the Vatican, and, while the Swiss Guards still have on their long, blue + cloaks to keep their black and yellow legs warm, mount to the Sistine + Chapel. Here we help instruct one another, as we stand about or sit about + in twos and threes or larger groups, reading aloud from our polyglot + Baedekers while we join in identifying the different facts. Here, + stupendously familiar, whether we have seen it before or not, is Michelangelo's + giant fresco of the Judgment, as prodigious as we imagined or remembered + it; here are his mighty Prophets and his mighty Sibyls; and here below + them, in incomparably greater charm, are the frescos of Botticelli, with + the grace of his Primavera playing through them all like a strain of music + and taking the soul with joy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0034" id="linkimage-0034"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-34.jpg" alt="34 Sistine Chapel, Vatican Palace " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + It is the same crowd in the Raphael Stanze, but rather silenter, for by + now we have taught ourselves enough from our Baedekers at least to read + them under our breaths, and we talk low before the frescos and the + canvases. Some of us are even mute in the presence of the School of + Athens, whatever reserves we may utter concerning the Transfiguration. If + we are honest, we more or less own what our impressions really are from + those other famous works, concerning which our impressions are otherwise + altogether and inexpressibly unimportant; it is a question of ethics and + not aesthetics, as most of our simple-hearted company suppose it to be; + and, if we are dishonest, we pretend to have felt and thought things at + first-hand from them which we have learned at second-hand from our + reading. I will confess, for my small part, that I had more pleasure in + the coloring and feeling of some of the older canvases and in here and + there a Titian than in all the Raphaels in the Stanze of his name. + </p> + <p> + I was not knowing his works for the first time; no one perhaps does that, + such is the multiplicity of the copies of them; and I vividly remembered + them from my acquaintance with the originals four decades before, as I had + remembered the Michelangelos; but in their presence and in the presence of + so many other masterpieces in the different rooms, with their horrible + miracles and atrocious martyrdoms, I realized as for the first time what a + bloody religion ours was. It was such relief, such rest, to go from those + broilings and beheadings and crucifixions and Sayings and stabbings into + the long, tranquil aisles of the museum where the marble men and women, + created for earthly immortality by Greek art, welcomed me to their + serenity and sanity. The earlier gods might have been the devils which the + early Christians fancied them, but they did not look it; they did not look + as if it was they that had loosed the terrors upon mankind out of which + the true faith has but barely struggled at last, now when its relaxing + grasp seems slipping from the human mind. I remembered those peaceful + pagans so perfectly that I could have gone confidently to this or that and + hailed him friend; and though I might not have liked to claim the + acquaintance of all of them in the flesh, in the marble I fled to it as + refuge from the cruel visions of Christian art. If this is perhaps saying + too much, I wish also to hedge from the wholesale censure of my + fellow-sight-seers which I may have seemed to imply. They did not prevail + so clutteringly in the sculpture galleries as in the Sistine Chapel and + the Stanze. One could have the statues as much to one's self as one liked; + there were courts with murmuring fountains in them; and there was a view + of Rome from a certain window, where no fellow-tourist intruded between + one and the innumerable roofs and domes and towers, and the heights beyond + whose snows there was nothing but blue sky. It was a beautiful morning, + with a sun mild as English summer, which did not prevent the afternoon + from turning cold with wind and raining and hailing and snowing. This in + turn did not keep off a fine red sunset, with an evening star of + glittering silver that brightened as the sunset faded. At Rome the weather + can be of as many minds in March as in April at New York. + </p> + <p> + But through all one's remembrance of the Roman winter a sentiment of + spring plays enchantingly, like that grace of Botticelli's Primavera in + his Sistine frescos. It is not a sentiment of summer, though it is + sometimes a summer warmth which you feel, and except in the steam-heated + hotels it does not penetrate to the interiors. In the galleries and the + churches you must blow your nails if you wish to thaw your fingers, but, + if you go out-of-doors, there is a radiant imitation of May awaiting you. + She takes you by your thick glove and leads you in your fur-lined overcoat + through sullen streets that open upon sunny squares, with fountains + streaming into the crystal air, and makes you own that this is the Italian + winter as advertised—that is, if you are a wanderer and a stranger; + if you are an Italian and at home you keep in the out-door warmth, but + shun the sun, and in-doors you wrap up more thickly than ever, or you go + to bed if you have a more luxurious prejudice against shivering. If you + are a beggar, as you very well may be in Rome, you impart your personal + heat to a specific curbstone or the spot which you select as being most in + the path of charity, and cling to it from dawn till dark. Or you acquire + somehow the rights of a chair just within the padded curtain of a church, + and do not leave it till the hour for closing. The Roman beggars are of + all claims upon pity, but preferably I should say they were blind, and + some of these are quite young girls, and mostly rather cheerful. But the + very gayest beggar I remember was a legless man at the gate of the Vatican + Museum; the saddest was a sullen dwarf on the way to this cripple, whose + gloom a donative even of twenty-five centessimi did not suffice to abate. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII. SUPERFICIAL OBSERVATIONS AND CONJECTURES + </h2> + <p> + It had seemed to me that in the afternoons of the old papal times, so dear + to foreigners who never knew them, I used to see a series of patrician + ladies driving round and round on the Pincio, reclining in their landaus + and shielding their complexions from the November suns of the year 1864 + with the fringed parasols of the period. In the doubt which attends all + recollections of the past, after age renders us uncertain of the present, + I hastened on my second Sunday at Rome in February, 1908, to enjoy this + vision, if possible. I found the Pincio unexpectedly near; I found the + sunshine; I found the familiar winter warmth which in Southern climates is + so unlike the summer warmth in ours; but the drive which I had remembered + as a long ellipse had narrowed to a little circle, where one could not + have driven round faster than a slow trot without danger of vertigo. I did + not find that series of apparent principessas or imaginable marchesas + leaning at their lovely lengths in their landaus. I found in overwhelming + majority the numbered victorias, which pass for cabs in Rome, full of + decent tourists, together with a great variety of people on foot, but not + much fashion and no swells that my snobbish soul could be sure of. There + was, indeed, one fine moment when, at a retired point of the drive, I saw + two private carriages drawn up side by side in their encounter, with two + stout old ladies, whom I decided to be dowager countesses at the least, + partially projected from their opposing windows and lost in a delightful + exchange, as I hoped, of scandal. But the only other impressive + personality was that of an elderly, obviously American gentleman, in the + solitary silk hat and long frock-coat of the scene. There were other + Americans, but none so formal; the English were in all degrees of + informality down to tan shoes and at least one travelling-cap. The women's + dress, whether they were on foot or in cabs, was not striking, though more + than half of them were foreigners and could easily have afforded to + outdress the Italians, especially the work people, though these were there + in their best. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0035" id="linkimage-0035"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-35.jpg" + alt="35 Piazza Del Popolo from the Pincian Hill " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + There was a band-stand in the space first reached by the promenaders, and + there ought clearly to have been a band, but I was convinced that there + was to be none by a brief colloquy between one of the cab-drivers + (doubtless goaded to it by his fair freight) and the gentlest of Roman + policemen, whose response was given in accents of hopeful compassion: + </p> + <p> + CABMAN: <i>“Musica, no?”</i> (No music?) + </p> + <p> + POLICEMAN: “<i>Forse l' avremo oramai”</i> (Perhaps we shall have it + presently.) + </p> + <p> + We did not have it at all that Sunday, possibly because it was the day + after the assassination of the King of Portugal, and the flags were at + half-mast everywhere. So we went, such of us as liked, to the parapet + overlooking the Piazza del Popolo, and commanding one of those prospects + of Rome which are equally incomparable from every elevation. I, for my + part, made the dizzying circuit of the brief drive on foot in the dark + shadows of the roofing ilexes (if they are ilexes), and then strolled back + and forth on the paths set thick with plinths bearing the heads of the + innumerable national great—the poets, historians, artists, + scientists, politicians, heroes—from the ancient Roman to the modern + Italian times. I particularly looked up the poets of the last hundred + years, because I had written about them in one of my many forgotten books, + till I fancied a growing consciousness in them at this encounter with an + admirer; they, at least, seemed to remember my book. Then I went off to + the cafe overlooking them in their different alleys, and had tea next a + man who was taking lemon instead of milk in his. Here I was beset with an + impassioned longing to know whether he was a Russian or American, since + the English always take milk in their tea, but I could not ask, and when I + had suffered my question as long as I could in his presence I escaped from + it, if you can call it escaping, to the more poignant question of what it + would be like to come, Sunday after Sunday, to the Pincio, in the + life-long voluntary exile of some Americans I knew, who meant to spend the + rest of their years under the spell of Rome. I thought, upon the whole, + that it would be a dull, sad fate, for somehow we seem born in a certain + country in order to die in it, and I went home, to come again other + Sundays to the Pincio, but not all the Sundays I promised myself. + </p> + <p> + On one of these Sundays I found Roman boys playing an inscrutable game + among the busts of their storied compatriots, a sort of “I spy” or “Hide + and go whoop,” counting who should be “It” in an Italian version of + “Oneary, ory, ickory, an,” and then scattering in every direction behind + the plinths and bushes. They were not more molestive than boys always are + in a world which ought to be left entirely to old people, and I could not + see that they did any harm. But somebody must have done harm, for not only + was a bust here and there scribbled over in pencil, but the bust of + Machiavelli had its nose freshly broken off in a jagged fracture that was + very hurting to look at. This may have been done by some mistaken + moralist, who saw in the old republican adviser of princes that enemy of + mankind which he was once reputed to be. At any rate, I will not attribute + the mutilation to the boys of Rome, whom I saw at other times foregoing so + many opportunities of mischief in the Villa Bor-ghese. One of them even + refused money from me there when I misunderstood his application for + matches and offered him some coppers. He put my tip aside with a dignified + wave of his hand and a proud backward step; and, indeed, I ought to have + seen from the flat, broad cap he wore that he was a school-boy of civil + condition. The Romans are not nearly so dramatic as the Neapolitans or + Venetians or even as the Tuscans; but once in the same pleasance I saw a + controversy between school-boys which was carried on with an animation + full of beauty and finish. They argued back and forth, not violently, but + vividly, and one whom I admired most enforced his reasons with charming + gesticulations, whirling from his opponents with quick turns of his body + and many a renunciatory retirement, and then facing about and advancing + again upon the unconvinced. I decided that his admirable drama had been + studied from the histrionics of his mother in domestic scenes; and, if I + had been one of those other boys, I should have come over to his side + instantly. + </p> + <p> + The Roman manners vary from Roman to Roman, just as our own manners, if we + had any, would vary from New-Yorker to New-Yorker. Zola thinks the whole + population is more or less spoiled with the conceit of Rome's ancient + greatness, and shows it. One could hardly blame them if this were so; but + I did not see any strong proof of it, though I could have imagined it on + occasion. I should say rather that they had a republican simplicity of + manner, and I liked this better in the shop people and work people than + the civility overflowing into servility which one finds among the like + folk, for instance, in England. I heard complaints from foreigners that + the old-time deference of the lower classes was gone, but I did not miss + it. Once in a cafe, indeed, the waiter spoke to me in <i>Voi</i> (you) + instead of <i>Lei</i> (lordship), but the Neapolitans often do this, and I + took it for a friendly effort to put me at my ease in a strange tongue + with a more accustomed form. We were trying to come together on the kind + of tea I wanted, but we failed, if I wanted it strong, for I got it very + weak and tepid. I thought another day that it would be stronger if I could + get it brought hotter, but it was not, and so I went no more to a place + where I was liable to be called You instead of Lordship and still get weak + tea. I think this was a mistake of mine and a loss, for at that cafe I saw + some old-fashioned Italian types drinking their black coffee at afternoon + tea-time out of tumblers, and others calling for pen and ink and writing + letters, and ladies sweetly asking for newspapers and reading them there; + and I ought to have continued coming to study them. + </p> + <p> + As to my conjectures of republican quality in the Romans, I had explicit + confirmation from a very intelligent Italian who said of the anomalous + social and political situation in Rome: “We Italians are naturally + republicans, and, if it were a question of any other reigning family, we + should have the republic. But we feel that we owe everything, the very + existence of the nation, to the house of Savoy, and we are loyal to it in + our gratitude. Especially we are true to the present king.” It is known, + of course, that Menotti Garibaldi continues the republican that his father + always was, but I heard of his saying that, if a republic were + established, Victor Emmanuel III. would be overwhelmingly chosen the first + president. It is the Socialists who hold off unrelentingly from the + monarchy, and not the republicans, as they can be differenced from them. + One of the well-known Roman anomalies is that some members of the oldest + families are or have been Socialists; and such a noble was reproached + because he would not go to thank the king in recognition of some signal + proof of his public spirit and unselfish patriotism. He owned the + generosity of the king's behavior and his claim upon popular + acknowledgment, but he said that he had taught the young men of his party + the duty of ignoring the monarchy, and he could not go counter to the + doctrine he had preached. + </p> + <p> + If I venture to speak now of a very extraordinary trait of the municipal + situation at Rome, it must be without the least pretence to authority or + to more than such superficial knowledge as the most incurious visitor to + Rome can hardly help having. In the capital of Christendom, where the head + of the Church dwells in a tradition of supremacy hardly less Italian than + Christian, the syndic, or mayor, is a Jew, and not merely a Jew, but an + alien Jew, English by birth and education, a Londoner and an Oxford man. + More yet, he is a Freemason, which in Italy means things anathema to the + Church, and he is a very prominent Freemason. With reference to the State, + his official existence, though not inimical, is through the fusion of the + political parties which elected him hardly less anomalous. This + combination overthrew the late Clerical city government, and it included + Liberals, Republicans, Socialists, and all the other anti-Clericals. + Whatever liberalism or republicanism means, socialism cannot mean less + than the economic solution of regality and aristocracy in Europe, and in + Italy as elsewhere. It does not mean the old-fashioned revolution; it + means simply the effacement of all social differences by equal industrial + obligations. So far as the Socialists can characterize it, therefore, the + actual municipal government of Rome is as antimonarchical as it is + antipapal. But the syndic of Rome is a man of education, of culture, of + intelligence, and he is evidently a man of consummate tact. He has known + how to reconcile the warring elements, which made peace in his election, + to one another and to their outside antagonists, to the Church and to the + State, as well as to himself, in the course he holds over a very rugged + way. His opportunities of downfall are pretty constant, it will be seen, + when it is explained that if a measure with which he is identified fails + in the city council it becomes his duty to resign, like the prime-minister + of England in the like case with Parliament, But Mr. Nathan, who is as + alien in his name as in his race and religion, and is known orally to the + Romans as Signor Nahtahn, has not yet been obliged to resign. He has felt + his way through every difficulty, and has not yet been identified with any + fatally compromising measure. In such an extremely embarrassing + predicament as that created by the conflict between the labor unions and + the police early in April, and eventuating in the two days' strike, he + knew how to do the wise thing and the right thing. As to the incident, he + held his hand and he held his tongue, but he went to visit the wounded + workmen in the hospital, and he condoled with their families. He was + somewhat blamed for that, but his action kept for him the confidence of + that large body of his supporters who earn their living with their hands. + </p> + <p> + It is said that the common Romans do not willingly earn their living with + their hands; that they like better being idle and, so far as they can, + ornamental. In this they would not differ from the uncommon Romans, the + moneyed, the leisured, the pedigreed classes, who reproach them for their + indolence; but I do not know whether they are so indolent as all that or + not. I heard it said that they no longer want work, and that when they get + it they do not do it well—a supposed effect of the socialism which + is supposed to have spoiled their manners. I heard it said more + intelligently, as I thought, that they are not easily disciplined, and + that they cannot be successfully associated in the industries requiring + workmen to toil in large bodies together; they will not stand that. Also I + heard it said, as I thought again rather intelligently, that where work is + given them to do after a certain model, they will conform perfectly for + the first three or four times; then their fatal creativeness comes into + play, and they begin to better their instruction by trying to improve upon + the patterns—that is, they are artists, not artisans. They must + please their fancy in their work or they cannot do it well. From my own + experience I cannot say whether this is generally or only sometimes true, + but I can affirm that where they delayed or erred in their work they took + their failure very amiably. I never saw sweeter patience than that of the + Roman matron who had undertaken a small job of getting spots out of a + garment, and who quite surpassed me in self-control when she announced, + day after appointed day, that the work was not done yet or not done + perfectly; she was politeness itself. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, some young ladies at a fashionable concert which the + queen-mother honored with her presence did not seem very polite. They kept + on their immense hats, as women still do in all public places on the + European continent, and they seized as many chairs as they could for + friends who did not come, and at supreme moments they stood up on their + chairs and spoiled such poor chance of seeing the queen-mother as the + stranger might have had. While the good King Umberto lived the stranger + would have had many other chances, for it is said that the queen showed + herself with him to the people at the windows of their palace every + afternoon; but in her widowhood she lives retired, though now and then her + carriage may be seen passing through the streets, with four special + policemen on bicycles following it. These waited about the doorway of the + concert-hall that afternoon and formed a very simple, if effective, guard. + In fact, it might be said that in its relations with the popular life the + reigning family could hardly be simpler. The present king and queen are + not so much seen in public as King Umberto and Queen Margherita were, but + it is known from many words and deeds that King Victor Emmanuel wishes to + be the friend, if not the acquaintance, of his people. When it was + proposed to push the present tunnel, with its walks and drives and + trolley-lines, under the Quirinal Palace and gardens, so as to connect the + two principal business quarters of the city, the king was notified that + the noise and jar of the traffic in it might interfere with his comfort. + He asked if the tunnel would be for the general advantage, and, when this + could not be denied, he gave his consent in words to some such effect as + “That settles it.” When the German Emperor last visited Rome he is said to + have had some state question as to whether he should drive on a certain + occasion to the Palatine with the king's horses or the pope's. He who told + the story did not remember how the question was solved by the emperor, but + he said, “Our king walked.” + </p> + <p> + All this does not mean republican simplicity in the king; a citizen king + is doubtless a contradiction in terms anywhere out of France, and even + there Louis Philippe found the part difficult. But there is no doubt that + the King of Italy means to be the best sort of constituional king, and, as + he is in every way an uncommon man, he will probably succeed. One may + fancy in him, if one likes, something of that almost touching anxiety of + thoughtful Italians to be and to do all that they can for Italy, in a + patriotism that seems as enlightened as it is devoted. If I had any + criticism to make of such Italians it would be that they expected, or that + they asked, too much of themselves. To be sure, they have a right to + expect much, for they have done wonders with a country which, without + great natural resources except of heart and brain, entered bankrupt into + its national existence, and has now grown financially to the dimensions of + its vast treasury building, with a paper currency at par and of equal + validity with French and English money. If the industrial conditions in + Italy were so bad as we compassionate outsiders have been taught to + suppose, this financial change is one of the most important events + accomplished in Europe since the great era of the racial unifications + began. No one will pretend that there have not been great errors of + administration in Italy, but apparently the Italians have known how to + learn wisdom from their folly. There has been a great deal of industrial + adversity; the cost of living has advanced; the taxes are very heavy, and + the burdens are unequally adjusted; many speculators have been ruined, and + much honestly invested money has been lost. But wages have increased with + the prices and rents and taxes, and in a country where every ounce of coal + that drives a wheel of production or transportation has to be brought a + thousand miles manufactures and railroads have been multiplied. + </p> + <p> + The state has now taken over the roads and has added their cost to that of + its expensive army and navy, but no reasonable witness can doubt that the + Italians will be equal to this as well as their other national + undertakings. These in Rome are peculiarly difficult and onerous, because + they must be commensurate with the scale of antiquity. In a city surviving + amid the colossal ruins of the past it would be grotesque to build + anything of the modest modern dimensions such as would satisfy the eye in + other capitals. The Palace of Finance, at a time when Italian paper was at + a discount almost equal to that of American paper during the Civil War, + had to be prophetic of the present solvency in size. The yet-unfinished + Palace of Justice (one dare not recognize its beauty above one's breath) + must be planned so huge that the highest story had to be left off if the + foundations were to support the superstructure; the memorial of Victor + Emmanuel II. must be of a vastness in keeping with the monuments of + imperial Rome, some of which it will partly obscure. Yet as the nation has + grown in strength under burdens and duties, it will doubtless prove + adequate to the colossal architectural enterprises of its capital. Private + speculation in Rome brought disaster twenty-five years ago, but now the + city has overflowed with new life the edifices that long stood like empty + sepulchres, and public enterprises cannot finally fail; otherwise we + should not be digging the Panama Canal or be trying to keep the New York + streets in repair. We may confide in the ability of the Italians to carry + out their undertakings and to pay the cost out of their own pockets. It is + easy to criticise them, but we cannot criticise them more severely than + they criticise themselves; and perhaps, as our censure cannot profit them, + we might with advantage to ourselves, now and then, convert it into + recognition of the great things they have accomplished. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII. CASUAL IMPRESSIONS + </h2> + <p> + The day that we arrived in Rome the unclouded sun was yellow on the white + dust of the streets, which is never laid by a municipal watering-cart, + though sometimes it is sprinkled into mire from the garden-hose of the + abutting hotels; and in my rashness I said that for Rome you want sun and + you want youth. Yet there followed many gray days when my age found Rome + very well indeed, and I would not have the septuagenarian keep away + because he is no longer in the sunny sixties. He may see through his + glasses some things hidden even from the eyes of the early forties. If he + drives out beyond the Porta Pia, say, some bright afternoon, and notes how + the avenue between the beautiful old villas is also bordered by many + vacant lots advertised for sale as well as built up with pleasant new + houses, he will be able to carry away with him the significant fact that a + convenient and public-spirited trolley-line has the same suburban effect + in Rome, Italy, as in Rome, New York. If he meets some squadrons of + cavalry or some regiments of foot, in that military necessity of constant + movement which the civilian can never understand, he may make the useful + reflection that it is much better to have the troops out of the city than + in it, and he can praise the wisdom of the Italian government accordingly. + On the neighboring mountains the presence or absence of snow forms the + difference between summer and winter in Rome, and will suggest the + question whether, after all, our one continental weather is better than + the many local weathers of Europe; and perhaps he will acquire national + modesty in owning that there is something more picturesque in the + indications of those azure or silvery tops than in his morning paper's + announcement that there is or is not a lower pressure in the region of the + lakes. + </p> + <p> + At any rate, I would not have him note the intimations of such a drive at + less worth than those of any more conventional fact of his Roman sojourn. + If one is quite honest, or merely as honest as one may be with safety, one + will often own to one's self that something merely incidental to one's + purpose, in visiting this memorable place or that, was of greater charm + and greater value than the fulfilment of a direct purpose. One happy + morning I went, being in the vicinity, to renew the acquaintance with the + Tarpeian Rock, which I had hastened to make on my first visit to Rome. I + had then found it so far from such a frightfully precipitous height as I + had led myself to expect that I came away and rather mocked it in print. + But now, possibly because the years had moderated all my expectations in + life, I thought the Tarpeian Rock very respectably steep and quite + impressively lofty; either the houses at its foot had sunk with their + chimneys and balconies, or the rock had risen, so that one could no longer + be hurled from it with impunity. We looked at it from an arbor of the + lovely little garden which we were let into beyond the top of the rock, + and which was the pleasance of some sort of hospital. I think there were + probably flowers there, since it was a garden, but what was best was the + almond-tree covering the whole space with a roof of bloom, and in this + roof a score of birds that sang divinely. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0036" id="linkimage-0036"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-36.jpg" alt="36 the Baths of Diocletian " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + I am aware of bringing a great many birds into these papers; but really + Rome would not be Rome without them; and I could not exaggerate their + number or the sweetness of their song. They particularly abounded in the + cloistered and gardened close of the Cistercian Convent, which three + hundred years ago ensconsed itself within the ruinous Baths of Diocletian. + I have no fable at hand to explain what seems the special preference of + the birds for this garden; it is possibly an idiosyncrasy, something like + that of the cats which make Trajan's Forum their favorite resort. All that + I can positively say is that if I were a bird I would ask nothing better + than to frequent the cypresses of that garden and tune my numbers for the + entertainment of the audience of extraordinary monsters in the aisles + below, which bea'in plinths of clipped privet and end marble heads of + horses, bulls, elephants, rhinoceroses, and their like. I do not pretend + to be exact in their nomination; they may be other animals; but I am sure + of their attention to the birds. I am not quite so sure of the attention + of the antique shapes in the rooms of the Ludovisi collection looking into + the close. I fancy them preoccupied with the in-doors cold, so great in + all Italian galleries, and scarcely tempered for them by the remote and + solitary brazier over which the custodians take turns in stifling + themselves. They cannot come down into the sun and song of the garden, to + which the American tourist may return from visiting them, to thaw out his + love of the beautiful. + </p> + <p> + They are not so many or so famous as their marble brothers and sisters in + the Vatican Museum, but the tourist should not miss seeing them. Neither + should he miss any accessible detail of the environing ruins of the + Diocletian Baths. Let him not think because they are so handy, and so next + door, as it were, to the railway station where he arrives, and to Cook's + office where he goes for his letters next morning, that they are of less + merit than other monuments of imperial Rome. They are not only colossally + vast, but they are singularly noble, as well as so admirably convenient. + Because they are so convenient, the modern Romans have turned their + cavernous immensity to account in the trades and industries, and have + built them up in carpenters' and blacksmiths' and plumbers' shops, where + there is a cheerful hammering and banging much better than the sullen + silence of more remote and difficult ruins. In color they are a very + agreeable reddish brown, though not so soft to the eye as the velvety + masses of the Palatine, which at any distance great enough to obscure + their excavation have a beauty like that of primitive nature. I do not + know but you see these best from the glazed terrace of that restaurant on + the Aventine which is the resort of the well-advised Romans and visitors, + and from which you look across to the mount of fallen and buried grandeur + over a champaign of gardens and orchards. All round is a landscape which I + was not able to think of as less than tremendous, with the whole of Rome + in it, and the snow-topped hills about it—a scene to which you may + well give more than a moment from the varied company at the other tables, + where English, German, French, and Americans, as well as Italians, are + returning to the simple life in their enjoyment of the local dishes, + washed down with golden draughts of local wine, served ciderwise in + generous jugs. + </p> + <p> + If your mind is, as ours was in that place, to drive farther and see the + chapter-house of the Knights of Malta, clinging to the height over the + Tiber, and looking up and down its yellow torrent and the black boats + along the shore, with universal Rome melting into the distance, you must + not fail to stop at the old, old Church of St. Sabina. You will naturally + want to see this, not only because there in the cloister (as the ladies + can ascertain at the window let into the wall for their dangerous eyes to + peer through from the outside) is the successor of the orange-tree + transplanted from the Holy Land by St. Dominic six or seven hundred years + ago; not only because one of the doors of the church, covered with Bible + stories, is thought the oldest wood-carving in the world, but also because + there will be sitting in his white robes on a bench beside the nave an + aged Dominican monk reading some holy book, with his spectacles fallen + forward on his nose and his cowl fallen back on his neck, and his wide + tonsure gleaming glacially in the pale light, whom nothing in the church + or its visitors can distract from his devotions. + </p> + <p> + It is very, very cold in there, but he probably would not, if he could, + follow you into the warm outer world and on into the garden of the + Knights, who came here after they had misruled Malta for centuries and + finally rendered a facile submission to General Bonaparte of the French + Republican army in 1798. Their fixing here cannot be called anything so + vigorous as their last stand; but, without specific reference to the + easy-chairs in their chapter-house, it may be fitly called their last + seat; and, if it is true that none of plebeian blood may enjoy the order's + privileges, the place will afford another of those satisfactions which the + best of all possible worlds is always offering its admirers. Even if one + were disposed to moralize the comfortable end of the poor Knights harshly, + one must admit that their view of Rome is one of the unrivalled views, and + that the glimpse of St. Peter's through the key-hole of their garden-gate + is little short of tin-rivalled. I could not manage the glimpse myself, + but I can testify to the unique character of the avenue of clipped box and + laurel which the key-hole also commands. Lovers of the supernatural, of + which I am the first, will like to be reminded, or perhaps instructed, + that the Church of the Priory stands on the spot where Remus had a seance + with the spiritual authorities and was advised against building Rome where + he proposed, being shown only six vultures as against twelve that Romulus + saw in favor of his chosen site. The fact gave the Aventine Hill the fame + of bad luck, but any one may safely visit it now, after the long time that + has passed. + </p> + <p> + I do not, however, advise visiting it above any other place in Rome. What + I always say is, take your chances with any or every time or place; you + cannot fail of some impression which you will always like recurring to as + characteristically delightful. For instance, I once walked home from the + Piazza di Spagna with some carnival masks frolicking about me through the + sun-shotten golden dust of the delicious evening air, and I had a pleasure + from the experience which I shall never forget. It was as rich as that I + got from the rosy twilight in which I wandered homeward another time from + the Piazza di Venezia and found myself passing the Fountain of Trevi, and + lingered long there and would not throw my penny into its waters because I + knew I could not help coming back to Rome anyhow. Yet another time I was + driving through a certain piazza where the peasants stand night long + waiting to be hired by the proprietors who come to find them there, and + suddenly the piety of the Middle Ages stood before me in the figure of the + Brotherhood of the Misericordia, draped to the foot and hooded in their + gray, unbleached linen. The brothers were ranged in a file at the doors of + the church ready to visit the house of sickness or of mourning, + barefooted, with their eyes showing spectrally through their masks and + their hands coming soft and white out of their sleeves and betraying the + lily class that neither toils nor spins and yet is bound, as in the past, + to the poorest and humblest through the only Church that knows how to + unite them in the offering and acceptance of reciprocal religious duties. + </p> + <p> + In Rome, as elsewhere in Catholic countries, it seemed to me that the + worshippers were mostly of the poorer classes and were mostly old women, + but in the Church of the Jesuits I saw worshippers almost as well dressed + as the average of our Christian Scientists, and in that church, whose name + I forget, but which is in the wide street or narrow piazza below the + windows of the palace where the last Stuarts lived and died, my + ineradicable love of gentility was flattered and my faith in the final + sanctification of good society restored by the sight of gentlemen coming + to and going from prayer with their silk hats in their hands. + </p> + <p> + The performance of ritual implies a certain measure of mechanism, and the + wonder is that in the Catholic churches it is not more mechanical than it + actually is. I was no great frequenter of functions, and I cannot claim + that my superior spirituality was ever deeply wounded; sometimes it was + even supported and consoled. I noted, without offence, in the Church of + San Giuseppe how the young monk, who preached an eloquent sermon on the + saint's life and character, exhausted himself before he exhausted his + topic, and sat down between the successive heads of his discourse and took + a good rest. It was the saint's day, which seemed more generally observed + than any other saint's day in Rome, and his baroque church in Via Capo le + Case was thronged with people, mostly poor and largely peasants, who were + apparently not so fatigued by the preacher's shrill, hard delivery as he + was himself. There were many children, whom their elders held up to see, + and there was one young girl in a hat as wide as a barrel-head standing up + where others sat, and blotting out the prospect of half the church with + her flaring brim and flaunting feathers. The worshippers came and went, + and while the monk preached and reposed a man crept dizzyingly round the + cornice with a taper at the end of a long pole lighting the chandeliers, + while two other men on the floor kindled the candles before the altars. As + soon as their work was completed, the monk, as if he had been preaching + against time, sat definitely down and left us to the rapture of the + perfected splendor. The high-altar was canopied and curtained in crimson, + fringed with gold, and against this the candle-flames floated like yellow + flowers. Suddenly, amid the hush and expectance, a tenor voice pealed from + the organ-loft, and a train of priests issued from the sacristy and + elbowed and shouldered their way through the crowd to the high-altar, + where their intoning, like so many + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Silver snarling trumpets 'gan to glide,” + </pre> + <p> + and those flower-like flames and that tenor voice seemed to sing together, + and all sense of mortal agency in the effect was lost. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0037" id="linkimage-0037"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-37.jpg" + alt="37 Church of St. John Lateran and Lateran Palace " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + How much our pale Northern faith has suffered from the elimination of the + drama which is so large an element in the worship of the South could not + be conjectured without offence to both. Drama I have said, but, if I had + said opera, it would have been equally with the will merely to recognize + the fact and not to censure it. Many have imagined a concert of praise in + heaven, and portrayed it as a spectacle of which the elder Christian + worship seems emulous. Go, therefore, to Rome, dear fellow-Protestant, + with any measure of ignorance short of mine, but leave as much of your + prejudice behind you as you can. You are not more likely to become a + convert because of your tolerance; in fact, you may be the safer for it; + and it will prepare you for a gentler pleasure than you would otherwise + enjoy in the rites and ceremonies which seem exotic in our wintrier world, + but which are here native to the climate, or, at least, could not have had + their origin under any but oriental or meridional skies. The kindlier mood + will help you to a truer appreciation of that peculiar keeping of the + churches which the stranger is apt to encounter in his approach. Be tender + of the hapless mendicants at the door; they are not there for their + pleasure, those blind and halt and old. Be modestly receptive of the good + office of the whole tribe of cicerones, of custodians, of sacristans; they + can save you time, which, though it is not quite the same as money, even + in Rome is worth saving, and are the repository of many rejected fables + waiting to be recognized as facts again. I, for instance, committed the + potential error of wholly rejecting with scorn the services of an + authorized guide to the Church of St. John Lateran because he said the + tariff was three francs. But after wandering, the helpless prey of my own + Baedeker, up and down the huge temple, I was glad to find him waiting my + emergence where I had left him, in the church porch, one of the most + pathetic figures that ever wrung the remorseful heart. + </p> + <p> + His poor black clothes showed the lustre of inveterate wear; his waistcoat + would have been the better for a whole bottle of benzine; his shoes, if + they did not share the polish of those threadbare textures, reciprocated + the effect of his broken-spirited cuffs and collar, and the forlorn + gentility of his hat. His beard had not been shaved for three days; I do + not know why, but doubtless for as good a reason as that his shirt had not + been washed for seven. It was with something like a cry for pardon of my + previous brutality that I now closed with his unabated demand of a + three-franc fee, and we went with him wherever he would, from one holy + edifice to another of those that constitute the church; but I will not ask + the reader to follow us in the cab which he mounted into with us, but + which would not conveniently hold four. Let him look it all up in the + admirably compendious pages of Hare and Murray, and believe, if he can, + that I missed nothing of that history and mystery. If I speak merely of + the marvellous baptistery, it is doubtless not because the other parts + were not equally worthy of my wonder, but because I would not have even an + enemy miss the music of the singing doors, mighty valves of bronze which, + when they turn upon their hinges, emit a murmur of grief or a moan of + remorse for whatever heathen uses they once served the wicked Caracalla at + his baths. Not to have heard their rich harmony would be like not having + heard the echo in the baptistery of Pisa, a life-long loss. + </p> + <p> + Heaven knows how punctiliously our guide would have acquainted us with + every particular of the Lateran group, which for a thousand years before + the Vatican was the home of the popes. We begged off from this and that, + but even indolence like mine would not spare itself the sight of the Scala + Santa. That was another of the things which I distinctly remembered from + the year 1864, and I did not find the spectacle of the modern penitents + covering the holy steps different in 1908. Now, as then, there was + something incongruous in their fashions and aspirations, but one could not + doubt that it was a genuine piety that nerved them to climb up and down + the hard ascent on their knees, or, at the worst, that it was good + exercise. Still, I would rather leave my reader the sense of that most + noble facade of the church, with its lofty balustraded entablature, where + the gigantic Christ and ten of his saints look out forever to the Alban + hills. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIV. TIVOLI AND FRASCATI + </h2> + <p> + One of the most agreeable illusions of travel is a sort of expectation + that if you will give objects of interest time enough they will present + themselves to you, and, if they will not actually come to you in your + hotel, will happen in your way when you go out. This was my notion of the + right way of seeing Rome, but, as the days of my winter passed, so many + memorable monuments failed not merely to seek me out, but stiffly held + aloof from me in my walks abroad, that I began to feel anxious lest I + should miss them altogether. I had, for instance, always had the + friendliest curiosity concerning Tivoli and Frascati as the two most + amiable Roman neighborhoods, and hoped to see both of them in some + informal and casual sort; but they persisted so long in keeping off on * + their respective hills that I saw something positive on my part must be + done. Clearly I must make the advances; and so when, one morning of + mid-March, a friend sent to ask if we would not motor out to Tivoli with + him and his family, I closed eagerly with the chance of a compromise which + would save feeling all round. My friend has never yet known how he was + bringing Tivoli and me together after a mutual diffidence, but, as he was + a poet, I am sure he will be glad to know now. + </p> + <p> + Our road across the Campagna lay the greater part of the distance beside + the tram-line, but at other points parted with it and stretched rough, if + lately mended, and smooth, if long neglected, between the wide, lonely + pastures and narrow drill-sown fields of wheat. The Campagna is said to be + ploughed only once in five years by the peasants for the proprietors, who + have philosophized its fertility as something that can be better restored + by the activities of nature in that time than by phosphates in less. As + they are mostly Roman patricians, they have always felt able to wait; but + now it is said that northern Italian capital and enterprise are coming in, + and the Campagna will soon be cropped every season, though as yet its + chief yield seemed to be the two-year-old colts we saw browsing about. For + some distance we had the company of the different aqueducts, but their + broken stretches presently ceased altogether, and then for other human + association we had, besides the fencings of the meadows, only the huts and + shelters scattered among the grassy humps and hollows. There were more + humps than I had remembered of the Campagna, and probably they were the + rounded and turfed-over chunks of antiquity which otherwhere showed their + naked masonry unsoft-ened and unfriended by the passing centuries. At + times a dusty hamlet, that seemed to crop up from the roadside ditches, + followed us a little way with children that shouted for joy in our motor + and dogs that barked for pleasure in their joy. Women with the square + linen head-dress of the Roman peasants stood and stared, and sallow men, + each with his jacket hanging from one of his shoulders, seemed stalking + backward from us as we whirled by. Here and there we scared a horse or a + mule, but we did not so much as run over a hen; and both man and beast are + becoming here, as elsewhere, reconciled to the automobile. Now and then a + carter would set his team slantwise in our course and stay us out of + good-humored deviltry, and when he let us pass would fling some chaff to + the fresh-faced English youngster who was our chauffeur. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you don't always understand what those fellows say,” I + suggested from my seat beside him. + </p> + <p> + “No, sir,” he confessed. “But I give it to 'em back in English,” he added, + joyously. + </p> + <p> + He rather liked these encounters, apparently, but not the beds of sharp, + broken stone with which the road was repaired. It was his belief that + there was not a steam-roller in all Italy, and he seemed to reserve an + opinion of the government's motives in the matter with respect to motors, + as if he thought them bad. + </p> + <p> + The scenery of the Campagna was not varied. Once we came to a battlemented + tomb, of mighty girth and height, as perdurable in its masonry as the + naked, stony hills that in the distance propped the mountains fainting + along the horizon under their burden of snow. But as we drew nearer Tivoli + the hills drew nearer us, and now they were no longer naked, but densely + covered with the gray, interminable stretch of the olive forests. The + olive is the tree which, of all others, is the friend of civilized man; it + is older and kinder even than the apple, which is its next rival in + beneficence; but these two kinds are so like each other, in the mass, that + this boundless forest of olives around Tivoli offered an image of all the + aggregated apple-orchards in the world. Where the trees came closest to + the road they seemed to watch our passing, each with its trunk aslant and + its branches akimbo, in a humorous make-believe of being in some joke with + us, like so many gnarled and twisted apple-trees, used to children's + play-fellowship. You felt a racial intimacy with the whimsical and antic + shapes which your brief personal consciousness denied in vain; and you + rose among the slopes around Tivoli with a sense of home-coming from the + desert of the Campagna. But in the distance to which the olive forests + stretched they lost this effect of tricksy familiarity. They looked like a + gray sea against the horizon; more fantastically yet, they seemed a vast + hoar silence, full of mystery and loneliness. + </p> + <p> + If Tivoli does not flourish so frankly on its oil as Frascati on its wine, + it is perhaps because it has of late years tacitly prospered as much on + the electricity which its wonderful and beautiful waterfalls enable it to + furnish as abundantly to Rome as our own Niagara to Buffalo. The + scrupulous Hare, whose <i>Walks in Rome</i> include Tivoli, does not, + indeed, advise you to visit the electrical works, but he says that if you + have not strength enough for all the interests and attractions of Tivoli + it will be wise to give yourself entirely to the cascades and to the Villa + d'Este, and this was what we instinctively did, but in the reverse order. + Chance rewarded us before we left the villa with a sight of the electric + plant, which just below the villa walls smokes industriously away with a + round, redbrick chimney almost as lofty and as ugly as some chimney in + America. On our way to and fro we necessarily passed through the town, + which, with its widish but not straightish chief street, I found as clean + as Rome itself, and looking, after the long tumult of its history, + beginning well back in fable, as peaceable as Montclair, New Jersey. It + had its charm, and, if I could have spent two weeks there instead of two + hours, I might impart its effect in much more circumstance than I can now + promise the reader. Most of my little time I gladly gave to the villa, + which, with the manifold classic associations of the region, attracts the + stranger and helps the cataracts sum up all that most people can keep of + Tivoli. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0038" id="linkimage-0038"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-38.jpg" alt="38 Stairway and Fountain, Villa D'este " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + The Villa d'Este is not yet a ruin, but it is ruinous enough to win the + fancy without cumbering it with the mere rubbish of decay. Some neglected + pleasances are so far gone that you cannot wish to live in them, but the + forgottenness of the Villa d'Este hospitably allured me to instant and + permanent occupation, so that when I heard it could now be bought, casino + and all, for thirty thousand dollars, nothing but the want of the money + kept me from making the purchase. I indeed recognized certain difficulties + in living there the year round; but who lives anywhere the year round if + he can help it? The casino, standing among the simpler town buildings on + the plateau above the gardens, would be a little inclement, for all its + frescoing and stuccoing by the sixteenth-century arts, and in its noble + halls, amid the painted and modelled figures, the new American proprietor + would shiver with the former host and guests after the first autumn chill + began; but while it was yet summer it Avould be as delicious there as in + the aisles and avenues of the garden which its balustrated terrace looked + into. From that level you descend by marble steps which must have some + trouble in knowing themselves from the cascades pouring down the broken + steeps beside them, and companionably sharing their seclusion among the + cypresses and ilexes. You are never out of the sight and sound of the + plunging water, which is still trained in falls and fountains, or left to + a pathetic dribble through the tattered stucco of the neglected grots. It + is now a good three centuries and a half since the Cardinal Ippolito + d'.Este had these gardens laid out and his pleasure-house built + overlooking them; and his gardener did not plan so substantially as his + architect. In fact, you might suppose that the landscapist wrought with an + eye to the loveliness of the ruin it all would soon fall into, and, where + he used stone, used it fragilely, so that it would ultimately suggest old + frayed and broken lace. Clearly he meant some of the cataracts to face one + another, and to have a centre from which they could all be seen—say + the still, dull-green basin which occupies a large space in the grounds + between them. But he must have meant this for a surprise to the spectator, + who easily misses it under the trees overleaning the moss-grown walks + which hardly kept themselves from running wild. There is a sense of + crumbling decorations of statues, broken in their rococo caverns; of + cypresses carelessly grouped and fallen out of their proper straightness + and slimness; of unkempt bushes crowding the space beneath; of fragmentary + gods or giants half hid in the tangling grasses. It all has the air of + something impatiently done for eager luxury, and its greatest charm is + such as might have been expected to be won from eventual waste and wreck. + If there was design in the treatment of the propitious ground, self-shaped + to an irregular amphitheatre, it is now obscured, and the cultiavted + tourist of our day may reasonably please himself with the belief that he + is having a better time there than the academic Roman of the sixteenth + century. + </p> + <p> + Academic it all is, however hastily and nonchalantly, and I feel that I + have so signally failed to make the charm of the villa felt that I am + going to let a far politer observer celebrate the beauties of the other + supreme interest of Tivoli. When Mr. Gray (as the poet loved to be called + in print) visited the town with Mr. Walpole in May, 1740, the Villa d'Este + by no means shared the honors of the cataracts, and Mr. Gray seems not to + have thought it worth seriously describing in his letter to Mr. West, but + mocks the casino with a playful mention before proceeding to speak fully, + if still playfully, of the great attraction of Tivoli: “Dame Nature... has + built here three or four little mountains and laid them out in an + irregular semicircle; from certain others behind, at a greater distance, + she has drawn a canal into which she has put a little river of hers called + the Anio,... which she has no sooner done, but, like a heedless chit, it + tumbles down a declivity fifty feet perpendicular, breaks itself all to + shatters, and is converted into a shower of rain, where the sun forms many + a bow—red, green, blue, and yellow.... By this time it has divided + itself, being crossed and opposed by the rocks, into four several streams, + each of which, in emulation of the greater one, will tumble down, too: and + it does tumble down, but not from an equally elevated place; so that you + have at one view all these cascades intermixed with groves of olive and + little woods, the mountains rising behind them, and on the top of one + (that which forms the extremity of the half-circle's horns) is seated the + town itself. At the very extremity of that extremity, on the brink of the + precipice, stands the Sibyls' Temple, the remains of a little rotunda, + surrounded with its portico, above half of whose beautiful Corinthian + pillars are still standing and entire.” + </p> + <p> + For the reader who has been on the spot the poet's words will paint a + vivid picture of the scene; for the reader who has not been there, so much + the worse; he should lose no time in going, and drinking a cup of the + local wine at a table of the restaurant now in possession of Mr. Gray's + point of view. I do not know a more filling moment, exclusive of the wine, + than he can enjoy there, with those cascades before him and those temples + beside him; for Mr. Gray has mentioned only one of the two, I do not know + why, that exist on this enchanted spot, and that define their sharp, black + shadows as with an inky line just beyond the restaurant tables. One is + round and the other oblong, and the round one has been called the Sibyls', + though now it is getting itself called Vesta's—the goddess who long + unrightfully claimed the temple of Mater Matuta in the Forum Boarium at + Rome. As Vesta has lately been dispossessed there by archaeology (which + seems in Rome to enjoy the plenary powers of our Boards of Health), she + may have been given the Sibyls' Temple at Tivoli in compensation; but all + this does not really matter. What really matters is the mighty chasm which + yawns away almost from your feet, where you sit, and the cataracts, from + their brinks, high or low, plunging into it, and the wavering columns of + mist weakly striving upward out of it: the whole hacked by those mountains + Mr. Gray mentions, with belts of olive orchard on their flanks, and wild + paths furrowing and wrinkling their stern faces. To your right there is a + sheeted cataract falling from the basins of the town laundry, where the + toil of the washers melts into music, and their chatter, like that of + birds, drifts brokenly across the abyss to you. While you sit musing or + murmuring in your rapture, two mandolins and a guitar smilingly intrude, + and after a prelude of Italian airs swing into strains which presently, + through your revery, you recognize as “In the Bowery” and “Just One Girl,” + and the smile of the two mandolins and the guitar spreads to a grin of + sympathy, and you are no longer at the Cafe Sibylla in Tivoli, but in your + own Manhattan on some fairy roof-garden, or at some sixty-cent <i>table + d'hote,</i> with wine and music included. + </p> + <p> + It was a fortnight later that we paid our visit to Frascati, not proudly + motoring now, but traversing the Campagna on the roof of a populous + tram-car, which in its lofty narrowness was of the likeness of an + old-fashionable lake propeller. The morning was, like most other mornings + in Rome, of an amiability which the afternoons often failed of; but none + of us passengers for Frascati doubted its promise as we gathered at the + tram-station and tried for tickets at the little booth in a wall sparely + containing the official who bade us get them in the car. We all did this, + whatever our nation—American, English, German, or Italian—and + then we mounted to the hurricane-deck of our propeller and entered into a + generous rivalry for the best seats. We had a roof over our heads, and + there were curtains which we might have drawn if we could have borne to + lose a single glimpse of the landscape, or if we would not rather have + suffered the chill which our swift progress evoked from the morning's + warmth after we left the shelter of the city streets. We passed through + stretches of the ancient aqueducts consorting on familiar terms with rows + of shabby tenement-houses, and whisked by the ends of wide, dusty avenues + of yet incomplete structure, and by beds of market-gardens, and by simple + feeding-places for man and beast, with the tables set close in front of + the stalls. An ambitiously frescoed casino had a gigantic peacock painted + over a whole story, and the peach-trees were in bloom in the villa spaces. + When we struck into the Campagna we found it of like physiognomy with the + Campagna toward Tivoli. + </p> + <p> + There was very little tillage, but wide stretches of grazing-land, with + those lumps of turfed or naked antiquity starting out of them, and cattle, + sheep, and horses feeding over them, the colts' tails blowing + picturesquely in the wind that seemed more and more opposed to our + advance. It dropped, at times, where we paused to leave a passenger near + one of those suburbs which the tram-lines are building up round Rome, but + on our course building so slowly that our passengers had to walk rather + far from the stations before they reached home. There were other + pedestrians who looked rather English, especially some ladies making for + the gate of a kind, sunny walled old villa, where there was a girl singing + and a gardener coming slowly down to let them in. Nearer Frascati were + many neat, new stone houses, where Eoman families come out to stay the + spring and fall seasons, and even the summer. But these looked too freshly + like the suburban cottages on a Boston trolley-line; and we perversely + found our delight in a fine breadth of brown woods for the very reason of + that homelikeness which gave us pause in the houses. The trees looked + American; there were American wood-roads penetrating the forest's broken + and irregular extent; there was one steep-sided ravine worth any man's + American money; and the dead leaves littered the sylvan paths with an + allure to the foot which it was hard for the head to resist. + </p> + <p> + Elsewhere the tram-line that curved upward to Fras-cati was flanked, after + it left the Campagna's level, with vineyards as measureless as the olive + orchards of Tivoli. There was yet, at the end of March, no sign of leaf on + the newly trimmed vines, which were trained on long poles of canes brought + together in peaks to support them and netting the hill-slopes with the + endless succession of their tops. The eye wearied itself in following them + as in following the checkered wiring of the Kentish hop-fields, and was + glad to leave them for the closer-set, but never too closely set, palaces + of Frascati: the sort of palaces which we call cottages in our summer + cities, and the Italians call casinos from the same instinctive modesty. + When we began to doubt of our destination, our car passed a long, shaded + promenade, and then stopped in a cheerful square amidst hotels and + restaurants, with tables hospitably spread on the sidewalks before them. + </p> + <p> + We decided not to lunch at that early hour, but we could not keep our eyes + from feasting, even at eleven o'clock in the morning, on the wonderful + prospect that tempted them, on every hand, away from the more immediate + affair of choosing one out of the many cabs that thronged about our + arriving train. The cabs of Frascati are all finer than the cabs of Rome, + and the horses are handsomer and younger and stronger; we could have taken + the worst of the equipages that contested our favor and still fared well; + but we chose the best—a glittering victoria and an animal of proud + action, with a lustrous coat of bay. He wore a ring of joyous bells; he + had, indeed, not a headstall of such gay colors as some others; but you + cannot have everything, and his driver was of a mental vividness which + compensated for all the color wanting in his horse's headstall, and of a + personal attraction which made us ambitious for his company on any terms. + He quickly reduced us from our vain supposition that carriages in a + country-place should be cheaper than in a city; because, as he proved, + there were fewer strangers to hire them and they ought logically to be + dearer. So far from accepting our modest standards of time and money, he + all but persuaded us to employ him for the whole day instead of a few + hours at a price beyond our imagination; and he only consented to + compromise on a half-day at an increased figure. + </p> + <p> + We supposed that it was the negotiation which drew and held the attention + of all the leisure of Frascati, and that it was the driver and our + relation to him rather than the horse and our relation to it that + concentrated the public interest in us; and when we had convinced him that + we had no wish but to see some of the more immediate and memorable villas, + we mounted to our places in the victoria and drove out through the + reluctantly parting spectators, who remained looking after us as if unable + to disperse to their business or pleasure. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0039" id="linkimage-0039"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-39.jpg" alt="39 Villa Falconieri, Entrance, Frascati " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Our driver decided for us to go first to the Villa Falconieri, which had + lately been bought and presented by a fond subject to the German Emperor, + and by him in turn bestowed on the German Academy at Rome. In the cold, + clean, stony streets of Frascati, as we rattled through them, there + breathed the odor of the great local industry; and the doorways of many + buildings, widening almost in a circle to admit the burly tuns of wine, + testified how generally, how almost universally, the vintage of that + measureless acreage of grapes around the place employed the inhabitants. + But there was little else to impress the observer in Frascati, and we + willingly passed out of the town in the road climbing the long incline to + the Villa Falconieri, with its glimpses, far and near, of woods and + gardens. It was a road so much to our minds that nothing was further from + us than the notion that our horse might not like it so well; but, at the + first distinct rise, he stopped and wheeled round so abruptly, after first + pawing the air, that there could be no doubt where the popular interest we + had lately enjoyed in Frascati had really originated. Probably our horse's + distinguishing trait was known to everybody in Frascati except his driver. + He, at least, showed the greatest surprise at the horse's behavior, as + unprecedented in their acquaintance, which he owned was brief, for he had + bought him in Rome only the week before. With successive retreats to level + ground he put him again and again at the incline, but as soon as the horse + felt the ground rising under his feet he lifted them from it and whirled + round for another retreat. All this we witnessed from an advantageous + point at the roadside which we had taken up at his first show of + reluctance; and at last the driver suggested that we should leave it and + go on to the Villa Falconieri on foot. On our part, we suggested that he + should attempt some other villa which would not involve an objectionable + climb. He then proposed the Villa Mandragone, and the horse seemed to + agree with us. As we drove again through the clean, cold, stony streets, + with the rounded doorways for the wine-casks, we fancied something clearly + ironical in the general interest renewed by our return. But we tried to + look as if we had merely done the Villa Falconieri with unexampled + rapidity, and pushed on to the Villa Mandragone, where, under the roof of + interlacing ilex toughs, our horse ought to have been tempted on in a + luxurious unconsciousness of anything like an incline. But he was + apparently an animal which would have felt the difference between two + rose-leaves and one in a flowery path, and just when we were thinking what + a delightful time we were having, and beginning to feel a gentle question + as to who the pathetic little cripple halting toward us with a color-box + and a camp-stool might be, and whether she painted as well as a kind heart + could wish, our horse stopped with the suddenness which we knew to be + definite. The sensitive creature could not be deceived; he must have + reached rising ground, and we sided with him against our driver, who would + have pretended it was fancy. + </p> + <p> + It was now noon, and we drove back to the <i>piazza,</i> agreeing upon a + less price in view of the imperfect service rendered, and deciding to + collect our thoughts for a new venture over such luncheon as the best + hotel could give us. It was not so good a hotel as the lunch it gave. It + was beyond the cleansing tide of modernity which has swept the Roman + hotels, and was dirty everywhere, but with a specially dirty, large, + shabby dining-room, cold and draughty, yet precious for the large, round + brazier near our table which kept one side of us warm in romantic + mediaeval fashion, and invited us to rise from time to time and thaw our + fingers over its blinking coals. The bath in which our chicken had been + boiled formed a good soup; there was an admirable <i>pasta</i> and a + creditable, if imperfect, conception of beefsteak; and there was a caraffe + of new Frascati wine, sweet, like new cider. If we could have asked more, + it would not have been more than the young Italian officer who sat in the + other corner with his pretty young wife, and who allowed me to weave a + whole realistic fiction out of their being at Frascati so out of season. + </p> + <p> + Just as I was most satisfyingly accounting for them, our late driver + alarmed me by appearing at the door and beckoning me to the outside. The + occasion was nothing worse than the presence of a man who, he said, was + his brother, with a horse which, upon the same authority, was without + moral blame or physical blemish. If anything, it preferred a mountain to a + plain country, and could be warranted to balk at nothing. The man, who was + almost as exemplary as the horse, would assume the unfulfilled contract of + the other man and horse with a slight increase of pay; and yet I had my + doubts. The day had clouded, and I meekly contended that it was going to + rain; but the man explicitly and the horse tacitly scoffed at the notion, + and I yielded. I shall always be glad that I did so, for in the keeping of + those good creatures the rest of our day was an unalloyed delight. It + appeared, upon further acquaintance, that the man paid a hundred dollars + for the horse; his brother had paid a hundred and twenty-five for the + balker; but it was the belief of our driver that it would be worth the + difference when it had reconciled itself to the rising ground of Frascati; + as yet it was truly a stranger there. His own horse was used to ups and + downs everywhere; they had just come from a long trip, and he was going to + drive to Siena and back the next week with two ladies for passengers, who + were to pay him five dollars a day for himself and horse and their joint + keep. He said the ladies, whose names he gave, were from Boston; he balked + at adding Massachusetts, but I am sure the horse would not; and, if I + could have hired them both to carry me about Italy indefinitely, I would + have gladly paid them five dollars a day as long as I had the money. The + fact is, that driver was charming, a man of sense and intelligence, who + reflected credit even upon his brother and his brother's horse: one of + those perfect Italian temperaments which endear their possessors to the + head and heart, so that you wonder, at parting, how you are going to live + without them. + </p> + <p> + We did not excite such vivid interest in Frascati at our second start as + at our first; but, as we necessarily passed over the same route again, we + had the applause of the children in streets now growing familiar, and a + glad welcome back from the pretty girls and blithe matrons of all ages + rhythmically washing in the public laundry, who recognized us in our new + equipage. The public laundry is always the gayest scene in an Italian + town, and probably our adventures continued the subject of joyous comment + throughout the day which was now passing only too rapidly for us. We were + again on the way to the Villa Falconieri, and while our brave horse is + valiantly mounting the steep to its gate this is perhaps as good a place + as any to own that the Villa Falconieri and the Villa Man-dragone were the + only sights we saw in Frascati. We did, indeed, penetrate the chill + interior of the local cathedral, but as we did not know at the time that + we were sharing it with the memory of the young Stuart pretender Charles + Edward, who died in Frascati, and whose brother, Cardinal York, placed a + mural tablet to him in the church, we were conscious of no special claim + upon our interest. We ought, of course, to have visited the Villa + Aldobrandini and the Villa Ruffinella and the Villa Graziola and the Villa + Taverna, but we left all these to the reader, who will want some reason + for going to Frascati in person, and to whom I commend them as richly + worth crossing the Atlantic for. Doubtless from a like motive we left the + ruins of Tusculum unvisited, just as at Tivoli we refrained from diverging + to Hadrian's Villa—the two things supremely worthy to be seen in + their respective regions. But, if I had seen only half as much as I saw at + Frascati—the Villa Falconieri, namely—I should feel forever + over-enriched by the experience. + </p> + <p> + Slowly an ancient servitor, whose family had been in the employ of the + Falconieri for a century, advanced as with the burden of their united + years and opened the high gate to us and delivered us over to a mild boy. + He bestowed on us, for a consideration, a bunch of wild violets, and then, + as if to keep us from the too abrupt sight of the repairs and changes + going on near the casino, led us first to the fish-pond, in the untouched + seclusion of a wooded hill, and silently showed us the magnificent view + which the top commanded, if commanded is not too proud a word for a place + so pathetic in its endearing neglect. It had once been the haunt of many a + gay picnicking crew in hoops and bag-wigs and all the faded fashion of the + past, when hosts and guests had planned a wilder escapade than the grove + before the casino invited, with its tables of moss-painted marble. There + would have been an academic poet, or more than one, in the company, and + they would have furnished forth the prospect with phrases far finer than + any I have about me, who can only say that the Cam-pagna, clothed in mist + and cloud-shadowed, swam round the upland in the colors of a tropic sea. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0040" id="linkimage-0040"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-40.jpg" + alt="40 in the Gardens of The Villa Falconieri " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Our mild boy waited a decent moment, as if to let me do better, and then + led down to the casino, round through a wooded valley where there were + some men with fowling-pieces, whom I objected to in tones, if not in + terms. “What are they shooting?” “They are shooting larks, signore.” “What + a pity!” “But the larks are leaving Italy, now, and going north.” It was a + reason, like many another that humanity is put to it in giving, and I do + not know that I missed any larks, later, from an English meadow where I + saw them spiring up in song, and glad as if none of their friends had been + shot at the Villa Falconieri. In fact, I did not see those fowlers + actually killing any; and I can still hope they were not very good shots. + </p> + <p> + The workmen who were putting the place in repair were lunching near the + casino, in a litter of lumber and other structural material, but the + casino itself seemed as yet unprofaned by their touch. At any rate, we had + it quite to ourselves, let wander at will through its cool, bare, still + spaces. If there was a great deal to see, there was not much to remember, + or to remember so much as the satirical frescos of Pier Leone Ghezzi, who + has caricatured himself as well as others in them. They are not bitter + satires, but, on the contrary, very charming; and still more charming are + the family portraits frescoed round the principal room. Under one curve of + the vaulted ceiling the whole family of a given time is shown, half-length + but life-size, looking down pleasantly on the unexpected American guests + who try to pretend they were invited, or at least came by mistaking the + house for another. Better even than this most amiable circle, or + half-circle, of father, mother, and daughter are the figures of friends or + acquaintances or kinsfolk: figures not only life-size, but full-length, in + panels of the walls, in the very act of stepping on the floor and coming + forward to greet their host and hostess from the other walls. They did not + visibly move during our stay, but I know they only waited for us to go; + and that at night, especially when there was a moon, or none, they left + their backgrounds and mingled in the polite gayeties of their period. One + could hardly help looking over one's shoulder to see if they were not + following to that farthermost room called Primavera, which is painted + around and aloft like a very bower of spring, with foliage and flowers + covering the walls and dropping through the trellis feigned overhead. Of + all the caprices of art, which in Italy so loved caprice, I recall no such + pleasing playfulness as in the decoration of these rooms. If you pass + through the last you may look from the spring within on no fairer spring + without bordering the shores of the Campagna sea. + </p> + <p> + It was so pathetic to imagine the place going out of the right Italian + keeping that I attributed a responsive sadness to the tall, handsome, + elderly woman who had allowed us the freedom of the casino. Her faded + beauty was a little sallow, as the faded beauty of a Roman matron should + be, and her large, dark eyes glowed from purpling shadows. + </p> + <p> + “And the German Emperor owns it now?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, they say he has bought it.” + </p> + <p> + “And the Germans will soon be coming?” + </p> + <p> + “They say.” + </p> + <p> + She would not commit herself but by a tone, an inflection, but we knew + very well what she and the frescoed presences about us thought. I wish now + I could have stayed behind and got the frescos to tell me just how far I + ought recognize her sorrow in my tip, but one must always guess at these + things, and I shall never know whether I rewarded the aged gatekeeper + according to the century of service his generations had rendered those of + the frescos. + </p> + <p> + We were going now to the Villa Mandragone, but we had not yet the courage + for the rise of ground where we had failed before, and we entreated our + driver to go round some other way, if he could, and descend rather than + ascend to it. He said that was easy, and it was when we came away that we + passed through that ilex avenue which we had not yet penetrated in its + whole length, and where we now met many foot-passengers, lay and cleric, + who added to the character of the scene, and saw again the little cripple + artist, now trying to seize its features, or some of them. I did not see + whether she was succeeding so well as in pity she might and as I knew she + did. + </p> + <p> + In spite of our triumph with the Villa Mandragone in this second attempt, + we can never think it half as charming as the Villa Falconieri. I forget + what cardinal it was who built it so spacious and splendid, with three + hundred and sixty-five windows, in honor of the calendar as reformed by + the reigning pope, Gregory XIII. It is a palace enclosing a quadrangle of + whole acres (I will not own to less), with a stately colonnade following + as far round as the reader likes. When he passes through all this + magnificence he will come out on a grassy terrace, with a fountain below + it, and below that again the chromatic ocean of the Cam-pagna (I have said + sea often enough). A weird sort of barbaric stateliness is given to the + place by the twisted and tapering pillars that rise at the several + corners, with colossal masques carven at the top and the sky showing + through the eye-hollows, as the flame of torches must often have shown at + night. But for all the outlandish suggestion of these pillars, the villa + now belongs to the Jesuits, who have a college there, where only the sons + of noble families are received for education. As we rounded a sunny wall + in driving away, we saw a line of people, old and young of both sexes, but + probably not of noble families, seated with their backs against the warm + stone eating from comfortable bowls a soup which our driver said was the + soup of charity and the daily dole of the fathers to such hungry as came + for it. The day was now growing colder than it had been, and we felt that + the poor needed all the soup, and hot, that they could get. + </p> + <p> + After a vain visit to Grotta Ferrata, which was signally disappointing, in + spite of the traces of a recent country fair and the historical merits of + a church of the Greek rite, with a black-bearded monk coming to show it + through a gardened cloister, we were glad to take the tram back to Rome + and to get into the snug inside of it. The roof, which had been so popular + and populous in the morning, was now so little envied that a fat lady + descended from it and wedged herself into a row of the interior where a + sylph would have fitted better but might not have added so much to the + warmth. No one, myself of the number, thought of getting up, though there + were plenty of straps to hang by if one had chosen to stand. This was + quite like home, and so was it like home to have the conductor ask me to + wait for my change, with all the ensuing fears that wronged the + long-delayed remembrance of his debt. In some things it appears that at + Rome the Romans do as the Americans do, but I wish we were like them in + having such a place as Frascati within easy tram-reach of our cities. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XV. A FEW REMAINING MOMENTS + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0041" id="linkimage-0041"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-41.jpg" alt="41 the Marble Faun " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + In the days of the earlier sixties, we youth who wished to be thought + elect did not feel ourselves so unless we were deeply read in Hawthorne's + romance of <i>The Marble Faun.</i> We made that our aesthetic handbook in + Rome, and we devoutly looked up all the places mentioned in it, which were + important for being mentioned; though such places as the Tarpeian Rock, + the Forum, the Capitoline Museum, and the Villa Bor-ghese might + secondarily have their historical or artistic interest. In like manner + Story's statue of Cleopatra was to be seen, because it was the “original” + of the imaginary sculptor Kenyon's Cleopatra, and a certain mediaeval + tower was sacred because it was universally identified as the tower where + the heroine Hilda lived dreaming and drawing, and fed the doves that + circled around its top. We used to show the new arrivals where Hilda's + tower was, and then stand with them watching the pigeons which made it + unmistakable. I should then have thought I could never forget it, but I + must have passed it several times unnoting in my latest Roman sojourn, + when one afternoon in a pilgrimage to the Via del Gambero a contemporary + of that earlier day glanced around the narrow piazza through which we were + passing and, seeing a cloud of doves wheeling aloft, joyfully shouted, + “Look! There is Hilda's tower!” and if Hilda herself had waved to us from + its battlements we could not have been surer of it. The present vanished, + and we were restored to our citizenship in that Rome of the imagination + which is greater than any material Rome, and which it needs no + archaeologist to discover in its indestructible integrity. + </p> + <p> + No one to-day, probably, visits the Capitoline Museum for the Faun of + Praxiteles because it gave the romance its name; but at my latest sight of + it I remembered it with a thrill of the young piety which first drew me to + it, and involuntarily I looked again for the pointed, furry ears, as I had + done of old, to make sure that it was really the Marble Faun of Hawthorne. + I was now, however, for no merit of mine, in official and scientific + company with which it would have been idle to share my satisfaction in the + verification of the Faun's ears. Instead of boasting it, I listened to + very interesting talk of the deathless Dying Gladiator, who is held to + have been originally looked at more from below than he has been seen in + modern times, and who is presently to be lifted to something like his + antique level. He, in fact, requires this from the spectator who would + feel all his pathos, as we realized in sitting down and looking a little + upward at him. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0042" id="linkimage-0042"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-42.jpg" + alt="42 Marcus Aurelius With Out-stretched Arm " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + In his room and in the succession of the rooms filled with his immortal + bronze and marble companions I was as if with ghosts of people I had known + in some anterior life. They were so familiar that I felt no need to go + about asking their names, even if the archaeologists had in several cases + given them new names. I should have known certain of them by traits which + remain in the memory long after names have dropped out of it. Julius + Caesar, with his long Celtic upper-lip, still looked like the finer sort + of Irish-American politician; Tiberius again surprised me with the sort of + racial sanity and beauty surviving in his atrocious personality from his + mother's blood; but the too Neronian head of Nero, which seems to have + been studied from the wild young miscreant when trying to look the part, + had an unremembered effect of chubby idiocy. A thing that freshly struck + me in the busts of those imperialities, which of course must have been + done in their lifetimes, was not merely that the subjects were mostly so + ugly and evil but that the artists were apparently safe in showing them + so. The men might not have minded that, but how had the sculptors managed + to portray the women as they did and live? Perhaps they did not live, or + live long; they are a forgotten tribe, and no one can say what became of + any given artist after executing the bust of an empress; his own execution + may have immediately followed. But what is certain is that those ladies + are no lovelier in their looks than they were in their lives; to be sure, + in their rank they had not so great need of personal charm as women of the + lower class. The most touching face as well as the most dignified and + beautiful face among them is that of the seated figure which used to be + known as that of Agrippina but which, known now as that of a Roman matron, + does not relieve the imperial average of plainness. The rest could rival + the average American society woman only in the prevailing modernity of + their expression; imperial Rome was very modern, as we all know, and + nothing in our own time could be more up to date than the lives and looks + of its smart people. + </p> + <p> + The general impression of the other marbles of the Capitoline Museum + remains a composite of standing, sitting, stooping, and leaning figures, + of urns and vases, of sarcophaguses and bas-reliefs. If you can be + definite about some such delightful presence as that old River dozing over + his fountain in the little cold court you see first and last as you come + and go, it is more than your reader, if he is as wise as you wish him, can + ask of you. I have been wondering whether he could profitably ask of me + some record of my experiences in the official and scientific company with + which I was honored that day at the Campidoglio; but I should have to + offer him again a sort of composite psychograph of objects printed one + upon another and hardly separable in their succession. There would be the + figure of Marcus Aurelius, commanding us with outstretched arm from the + back of the bronze charger which would not obey Michelangelo when he bade + it “Go,” not because it was not lifelike, but because it was too fat to + move. Against the afternoon sky, looking down into the piazza with dreamy + unconcern from their vantage would be the statues on the balustrated roof + of the museum. There would be the sense, rather than the vision, of the + white shoulders of Castor and Pollux beside their steeds above the + dark-green garden spaces on either hand; there would be the front of the + Church of Ara Coeli visible beyond the insignificance of Rienzi's + monument; and filling in the other end of the piazza which Michelangelo + imagined, and not the Romans knew, there would be the palace of the + senator, to which the mayor and the common council of modern Rome now + mount by a double stairway, and presumably meet at the top in proceeding + to their municipal labors. Facing the museum would be the palace of the + Conservatori, where in the noblest of its splendid halls the present + company would find itself in the carved and gilded arm-chairs of the + conservators, seated at an afternoon tea-table and restoring itself from + the fatigues of more and more antique art in the galleries about. After + this there would be the gardened court of the palace, with a thin lawn, + and a soft little fountain musing in the midst of it, and the sunset light + lifting on the wall where the fragments of Septimius Severus's marble map + of Rome order themselves in such coherence as archaeology can suggest for + them. + </p> + <p> + In the palace of the Senator (who was not, as I dare say the reader + ignorantly supposes, a residuum of the old Roman senate, but was the + dictator whom the mediaeval republic summoned from within or without to be + its head and its safeguard from the aristocracy) there would be, beyond + the chamber where the actual city council of Rome meets under the + presidency of the mayor, the great public rooms bannered and memorialled + around with heroic and historic blazons; and last there would be the + private room where the syndic devotes himself to civic affairs when he can + turn from the sight of the Roman Forum, with a peripatetic archaeologist + lecturing a group of earnest Americans, while long, velvety shadows of + imperial purple stretch from the sunset on the softly rounded and hollowed + ruins of the Palatine. + </p> + <p> + But, if each of these bare facts could be parted from the others and + intelligently presented, what would it avail with the reader who has never + seen the originals of my psychograph? It is from some such question, and + not from want of a hospitable will, that I hesitate to ask him to go with + me on a golden morning of March and spend it in the Villa Medici on the + Pincian Hill. If I could I should like to pour its yellowness and + mellowness round him, perfumed with a potpourri of associations from the + time of Lucullus down through every mediaeval and modern time to that very + day, when I knew Carolus Duran to be living somewhere in these beauteous + bounds as the head of the French Academy which has its home in them. The + academic garden-paths, with a few happy people wandering between their + correctly balanced passages of box; the blond facade of the casino looking + down with its statues and reliefs on these parterres; a young girl + vanishing up an aisle of the grove beside the garden into whatever dream + awaited her youth in the leafy dusk; an old American pair gazing after her + from the terrace, with the void of the vanished years aching in their + hearts for the Rome that was once young with them: does this represent to + the reader an appreciable morning in the Villa Medici? He may be grateful + to me if he does, and if he likes. I cannot do more for him without doing + less, and yet I know it is a palette rather than a picture I am giving + him. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0043" id="linkimage-0043"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-43.jpg" alt="43 in the Villa Medici " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + All the while I was there, the guest of the French nation by the payment + of fifty centimes gate-money, I was obscurely resenting its retention of a + place which Bonaparte bestowed upon the First Republic with so much other + loot from Italy. But now I have lately heard that the magnanimous Third + Republic is going to restore it to the people rightfully its owners, and + the remembrance of my morning in the Villa Medici will remain a pure joy. + So few joys in this world, even in the very capital of it, are without + some touch of abatement. I could not so much as visit the Catacombs of + Domatilla without suffering a frustration which, though incidental merely, + left a lasting pang of unrequited interest. As we drew toward the place, I + saw in a field the beginning of one of those domestic dramas which are not + attributable to Italy alone. Three peasants, a man and two women, were + engaged in controversy which, on his side, the man supported with both + hands flapping wildly at the heads of the women, who alertly dodged and + circled around him in the endeavor to close in upon him. It was instantly + conjecturable, if not apparent, that they were his wife and daughter, and + that he was the worse for the vintage of their home acre, and would be the + better for being got into the house and into bed. The conjecture enlisted + the worthier instincts of the witness on the side of the mother and + daughter; but he was in no hurry to have the animated action brought to a + close, and was about to tell his cabman to drive very, very slowly, when + suddenly the cab descended into a valley, and when the eager spectator + rose to his former level again the stone wall had risen with him, and he + never knew the end of that passage of real life. + </p> + <p> + It was impossible to bid the cabman drive back for the close of the scene; + the abrupt conclusion must be accepted as final; but it is proof of the + charm I found in the gentle guide who presently began to marshal us among + the paths of the subterranean sanctuary and cemetery that for the moment + my bitter sense of loss was assuaged, and it only returns now at long + intervals. Such as the woman actors in this brief scene were some early + Christians might have been, and it must have been the stubborn old pagan + spirit I saw surviving in the husband and father. He was probably such a + vessel of wrath as, being filled with Bacchus, would have lent itself to + the persecuting rage of Domitian and helped drive the emperor's gentle + cousin Domatilla into the exile whence she returned to found a Christian + cemetery in her villa. One understands, of course, under the villa; for + the catacombs in some places reach as many as five levels below the + surface. I will not follow the reader with that kind guide who will cheer + his wanderings through those sunless corridors of death, where many of the + sleepers still lie sealed within their tombs on either hand, and show him + by the smoky taper's light the frescos which adorn the cramped chapels. I + prefer to stand at the top of the entrance and ask him if he noticed how + the artist sometimes seemed not to know whether he was pagan or Christian, + and did not mind, for instance, putting a Mercury at the heads of the + horses in an Ascent of Elijah. Perhaps the artist was really a pagan and + thought a Greek god as good as a Hebrew prophet any day; art was probably + one of the last things to be converted, having a presentiment of the dark + and bloody themes the new religion would give it to deal with. + </p> + <p> + The earthy scent of the catacomb will cling to the reader's clothes, and + he will have two minds about keeping for a souvenir the taper which he + carried, and which the guide wraps in a bit of newspaper for him; he may + prefer the flower which he is allowed to gather from the tiny garden at + the entrance to the catacombs. Yet these Catacombs of Domatilla are among + the cheerfulest of all the catacombs, and a sense of something sweet and + appealing invests them from the memory of the gentle lady whose piety + consecrated them as the last home of the refugees and martyrs. They are of + the more recent Roman excavations, but I do not know whether later or + earlier than those which have revealed the house of the two Christian + gentlemen, John and Paul, of unknown surname, where they suffered death + for their faith, under the Passionist church named for them. Twenty-four + rooms on the two stories have been opened, and there are others yet to be + opened; when all are laid bare they will perfectly show what a Roman city + dwelling of the better sort was like in the mid-imperial time. The plan + differs from that of the average Pompeian house as much as the plan of a + cross-town New York dwelling would differ from that of the average Newport + cottage. The rooms are incomparably smaller than those of the mediaeval + palaces of the Roman nobles, and the decoration is sometimes crudely mixed + of pagan and Christian themes and motives; the artists, like the painters + of the Domatilla catacombs, were probably lingering in the old Greek + tradition. + </p> + <p> + The young Passionist father who showed us through the church and the house + under it made us wait half an hour while he finished his lunch, but he was + worth waiting for. He was a charming enthusiast for both, radiantly yet + reverently exulting in their respective treasures, and justly but not + haughtily proud of the newly introduced electricity which lighted the + darkness of the underground rooms and corridors. He told us he had been + twenty years a missionary in Rumania, where he had possibly acquired the + delightful English he spoke. When he would have us follow him he said, + “All persons come this way,” and he politely spoke of the wicked emperor + whose bust was somehow there as Mr. Commodus. With all his gentleness, + however, that good father had a certain smiling severity before which the + spirit bowed. He had made us wait half an hour before he came to let us + into the church, and during the hour we were with him there he kept the + door locked against an unlucky lady who arrived just too late to enter + with us. Not only this, but he utterly refused to go back with her singly + and show her the things we had seen. Perhaps it would not have been + decorous; they do not let ladies, either singly or plurally, into the + garden of the convent, which is memorable among many other facts as being + the retreat of Mr. Commodus when he suffered from sleeplessness, and where + he once carelessly left his list of victims lying about, so that his + friend Marcia found it and, reading her name in it, joined with other + friends in his assassination. The sex has indeed had much restraint to + bear from the Church, but in some respects it has been rendered fearless + in the assertion of its rights. With poor women one of these is the + indefeasible right to ask alms, and I admired the courage, almost the + ferocity, of the aged crone whom I had promised charity in coming to the + place and who rose up as I was being driven past her, in going away, and + stayed my cabman with a clamor which he dared not ignore. Her reproaches + continued through the ensuing transaction, and followed him away with + stings which instinct and experience taught her how to implant in his + tenderest sensibilities. + </p> + <p> + A chapter much longer than any I have written here might well be devoted + to the study of the clerical or secular guides in the minor churches of + Rome. They are of every manner and degree of kindliness, mixed with a fair + measure of intelligence and a very fitting faith in the legends of their + churches. You soon get on terms of impersonal intimacy with them, and you + cannot come away without sharing their professional zeal, and + distinguishing for the moment in favor of their respective churches above + every other. It did not matter whether it was that newest church in the + Quartiere dei Prati, or that most venerable among the oldest churches, the + Church of San Gregorio: I found a reason for agreeing with the sacristan + upon its singular claims. These were especially enforced by the good dame, + the only woman sacristan I remember, who would not spare us a single + object of interest in San Gregorio's, which is indeed for the visitor of + Anglo-Saxon race supremely rich in its associations with the conversions + of his ancestors from heathenism. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0044" id="linkimage-0044"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-44.jpg" alt="44 the Baths of Caracalla " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Being myself of Cymric blood, and of a Christianity several hundred years + older than that of the ordinary Anglo-Saxon traveller, I am afraid that it + was from a rather patronizing piety that I visited the church where the + great St. Gregory dismissed to their mission in England St. Augustine and + his fellow-apostles on one of the greatest days of the sixth century. I + might have stayed to imagine them kneeling among the people who then + thronged the genially irregular piazza, but as we came up some + ecclesiastical students were playing ball there, their robes tucked into + their girdles for their greater convenience, and we made our way at once + into the church. It forms one of a consecrated group of edifices + enshrining the memory of the best of the popes, who was also the greatest; + and here or in the adjacent convents a score of miracles were wrought + through the heavenly beauty of his life. Of these miracles, of whose + inspiration you must feel the poetry even if you cannot feel their verity, + the loveliest has its substantial witness in one of the little chapels + next the church. There you may see with your eyes and touch with your + hands the table at which St. Gregory fed every morning twelve poor men, + till one morning a thirteenth appeared in the figure of Christ the Lord, + as if to own them His disciples. The chapel which enshrines the table is + one of three, quaint in form and rich in art, standing in the garden + called St. Silvia's, after the mother of St. Gregory. As we came out + through it the westering sun poured the narrow court before the chapel + full of golden light and threw the black shadow of a cypress across the + way that a file of Comaldolese monks were taking to the adjoining convent. + They were talking cheerily together, and swung unheeding by in their white + robes so near that I could almost feel the waft of them across the + centuries that parted their faith and mine. + </p> + <p> + We had come to St. Gregory's from the Baths of Caracalla, which we had set + out to see on the first of our Roman holidays, and, after turning aside + for the Coliseum, had now visited on next to the last of them. The + stupendous ruin could scarcely have been growing in the ten or twelve + weeks that had passed, but a bewildering notion of something like this + obsessed me as I saw it bulking aloof in overhanging cliffs and + precipices, through the cool and bright April air, against a sky of + absolute blue. As if it had been cast up out of the earth in some + convulsive throe of nature, it floundered over its vast area in shapeless + masses which seemed to have capriciously received the effect of human + design in the coping of the inaccessible steeps, in the arches flinging + themselves across the spaces between the beetling crags, in the monstrous + spring and sweep of the vaults, in the gloom of the cavernous apertures of + its Titanic walls. For the moment its immensity dwarfed the image of all + the other fragments of the Roman world and set definite bounds to their + hugeness in the mind. It seemed to have been not so much a single edifice + as a whole city, the dwelling instead of the resort of the multitudes that + once thronged it. The traces of the ornamentation which had enriched it + everywhere and which it had taken ages of ravage to strip from it, + accented its savage majesty, and again the sentiment of spring in the + fresh afternoon breeze and sunshine, and the innocent beauty of the + blooming peach and cherry in the orchards around, imparted to it a pathos + in which one's mere brute wonder was lost. But it was a purely + adventitious pathos, and it must be owned here, at the end, that none of + the relics of ancient Rome stir a soft emotion in the beholder, and, as + for beauty, there is more of it in some ivy-netted fragment of some + English abbey which Henry's Cromwell “hammered down” than in the ruin of + all the palaces and temples and theatres and circuses and baths of that + imperial Rome which the world is so well rid of. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. A WEEK AT LEGHORN + </h2> + <p> + We left Rome with such a nostalgic pang in our hearts that we tried to + find relief in a name for it, and we called ourselves Romesick. Afterward, + when we practised the name with such friends as we could get to listen, + they thought we said homesick. Being better instructed, they stared or + simpered, and said, “Oh!” That was not all we could have asked, but Rome + herself would understand, and, while we were seeking this outlet for our + grief, she followed us as far as she could on her poor, broken aqueducts. + At places they gave way under her, and she fell down, but scrambled up + again on the next stretch of arches, like some fond cripple pursuing a + friend on crutches; when at last our train outran them, and there was no + longer an arch to halt upon, she gave up the vain chase and turned back + within her walls, where we saw her domes and bell-towers fading into the + heaven to which they pointed. + </p> + <p> + It was a heaven of better than absolute blue, for there were soft, white + clouds in it, and the air that our Sunday breathed under it was, at the + beginning of April, as bland as that of an American May-end. The orchard + trees were in bloom—peach and plum, cherry and pear—whenever + you chose to look at them, and all nature seemed to rejoice in the + cessation of the two days' strike which had now enabled us to drive to the + station instead of walking and carrying our bags and bundles. There were + so many of these that we had taken two cabs, and at the station our + drivers attempted to rejoice with nature in an overcharge that would have + recouped them for the loss suffered in their recent leisure. But as we + were then leaving Koine, and were not yet melted with the grief of + absence, I had the courage to resist their demand. Long before we reached + Leghorn I was so Romesick that I would have paid them anything they asked. + </p> + <p> + When we emerged from the suburbs upon the open Campagna, we passed through + many fields of wheat, more than we had yet seen on the grassy waste, but + there were also many flocks of sheep feeding with the cattle in pastures. + Now and then we passed a wretched hut which seemed to be the dwelling of + the shepherds we saw tending the flocks, and here and there we came upon a + group of farm buildings, all of straw, whether for man or beast, set + within a sort of squalid court, with a frowzy suggestion of old women and + children about the doors of the cottages. We saw no men, though there must + have been men off at work in the fields with the younger women. + </p> + <p> + As we drew near Civita Vecchia the sea widened on our view, wild with a + wind that seemed to have been blowing ever since the stormy evening in + 1865 when, after looking at the tossing ships in the harbor, we decided to + take the diligence for Leghorn, rather than the little steamer we had + meant to take. From our pleasant train we now patronized Civita Vecchia + with a recognition of its picturesqueness, unvexed by the choice that then + insisted on itself, though the harbor was as full of shipping as of old. + There was time to run out for a cup of coffee at the station buffet, where + there had been neither station nor buffet in our young time: but doubtless + then as now there had been the lonely graveyard outside the town, with its + sea-beaten, seaward wall. We buried there the last of our Roman holidays + under a sky that had changed from blue to gray since our journey began, + and mournfully set out faces northward in the malarial Maremma. + </p> + <p> + If the Maremma is as malarial as it is famed, it does not look it. There + were stretches of hopeless morass, with wide acreages under water, but + mostly, I should say, it was rather a hilly country. Now and then we ran + by a stony old town on a distant summit like the outcropping of granite or + marble, and there were frequent breadths of woodland, oak and pine and, I + dare say, walnut and chestnut. Evidently there had been efforts to reclaim + the Maremma from its evil air and make it safely habitable, and the + farther we penetrated it the more frequent the evidences were. There were + many new buildings of a good sort, and of wood as well as stone; when we + came to Grosetto, where we had spent a memorable night after being + overturned in the Ombrone, in the attempt of our diligence to pass its + flood, we were aware, in the evening light, of a prosperity which, if not + excessive for the twoscore years that had passed, was still very + noticeable. I should not quite say that the brick wall of the city had + been scraped and scrubbed, but it looked very neat and new, and there was + a pleasant suburb under it where the moat might have been, and people were + coming and going who had almost the effect of commuters; at least, they + seemed to have come out to their homes by trolley. We resisted an impulse + to dismount and go up to the inn in the heart of the town where we had + spent that “night of memory and of sighs.” + </p> + <p> + But we searched the horizon round for the point on the highway where our + diligence had failed of the track between the telegraph-poles and softly + rolled with us in the muddy waters, like an elephant taking a bath, but, + so far from finding it, we could not even find the highway. We began to + have our doubts of what we had always believed had happened, and remained + as snugly as we could in our compartment, where, to tell the truth, we + were not very snug. In too fond a reliance on the almanac, the Italian + government had cut off the steam which ought to have heated it, and the + cold from the hills, on which we saw snow, pierced our rugs and cushions; + but, if we had known what we were coming to in Leghorn, we should have + thought ourselves very enviable. + </p> + <p> + I do not know exactly how far it is from the station in Leghorn to the + hotel where we had providently engaged rooms with a fire in at least one + of them, but I should say at a rough calculation it was a hundred miles as + we covered the distance in a one-horse omnibus, through long, straight + streets, after ten o'clock at night. The streets and houses were mostly + dark, as houses of good habits should be at that hour, but, after passing + through a wide, lonely piazza, we struck into a street longer and + straighter than the others, and drew up at our hotel door opposite an + hilarious cafe, where there seemed a general rejoicing of some sort. We + were unable to make out just what sort, or to join in it without knowing, + though it lasted well toward morning, and we were up often during the + night to see that the fire did not die out of our one porcelain stove and + leave us to perish of cold. + </p> + <p> + In Leghorn the good Baedeker says that all the hotels are good, and this + sweeping verdict may be true if taken in the sense that one is as good as + another, but they are of the old Italian type which our winter in Rome had + taught us to think obsolete; now we found that it was only obsolescent. We + had written to bespeak a room with fire in it, and this was well, for the + hotel was otherwise heated only by the bodies of its frequenters, who, + when filled with Chianti, might emit a sensible warmth; though it was very + modern in being lighted with electricity, and having a lift, in which, + after a tepid supper, we were carried to our apartment. We had our + landlord's company at supper, and had learned from him that the most + eminent of American financiers, who shall not otherwise be identified + here, was in the habit, when coming to Leghorn, of letting him know that + he was bringing a party of friends, and commanding of him a banquet such + as he alone knew how to furnish a millionaire of that princely quality. + After that we were not so much surprised as grieved to find that our + elderly chambermaid had profited by our absence to gather all the coals + out of our one stove into two <i>scaldini,</i> which were bristling before + her where she knelt when we opened the door upon her. She apologized, but + still she carried away the coals, and we were left to rekindle the zeal of + our stove as best we could. It was not a large stove, and it seemed to + feel its inadequacy to the office of taking the chill off that vast, dim + room, where it cowered, dark and low upon the floor, with a yearning, + upward stretch of its pipe lost in space before it reached the lowermost + goddess in the allegory frescoed on the ceiling. If it had been a white + porcelain stove, that might have helped, but it was of a gloomy earthen + color that imparted no more cheer than warmth. + </p> + <p> + We rebuilt our fire, after many repeated demands for kindling, which had + apparently to be sawed and split in a distant wood-yard before we could + get it, and then the long, arctic night set in, unrelieved by the noisy + gayeties of the cafe across the way. These burst from time to time the + thin film of sleep which formed like a coating of ice over the + consciousness, and then one could only get up and put more wood into the + despairing stove and more clothes on the beds. Well for us that we had + thought to bring all our travelling rugs with us in straps, instead of + abandoning them with our other baggage in the station till next day! But, + even with these heaping the hotel blankets and com-forters, we shivered, + and a superannuated odor that had lurked in the recesses of those rooms, + to which the sun or wind had never pierced, grew with the growing cold, + and haunted the night like something palpable as well as sensible—the + materialization of smells dead and buried there long ago. It was wonderful + how little way the electric bulb shed its beams in that naughty air; it + would not even light the page which at one time was opened in the vain + hope that the author would help the benumbing cold to bring torpor if not + slumber to the weary brain. + </p> + <p> + It is really impossible to say where or how we breakfasted, but it was + somehow managed, and then search was made by the swiftest conveyance for + the hotel which we had heard of outside the city, as helping make Leghorn + the watering-place it is for Italians in the summer, and in the winter as + being steam-heated and appointed with every modern comfort for the passing + or sojourning stranger. It was all that and more, and only for the fear + that I should seem to join it in advertising its merits I should like to + celebrate it by name. But perhaps it is as well not; if I did, all my + readers would swarm upon that hotel, and there would be no room for me, + who hope some day to go back there and spend an old age of luxurious + leisure. There was not only steam-heat in the public rooms of the ground + floor, but there was furnace heat in all the corridors, and there were + fireplaces in certain chambers, which also looked out on the sea, to + Corsica and Elba and other isles of it, and would be full of sun as soon + as the cold rain closed a fortnight's activity. That which diffused a + blander atmosphere than steam or radiator, register and hearth, however, + was the kind will, the benevolent intelligence, which imagined us, and + which would not then let us go. We had become not only agnostic as + respected the possibility of warmth in Leghorn, we were open sceptics, + aggressive infidels. But the landlord himself followed us from one room to + another, lighting fires here and there on the hearth, making us feel the + warm air rising from the furnace, calling us to witness by palpation the + heat of the radiators, soothing our fears, and coaxing our unfaith. His + wife joined him in Italian and his son in English, and, if I do not say + that these amiable people were worthy all the prosperity which was not + then apparent in their establishment, may I never be comfortably lodged or + fed again. Our daily return for what we got was a poor twelve francs each; + but fancy a haughty American landlord caressing us with such sweet and + reassuring civility for any sum of money! Those gentle people made + themselves our friends; there was nothing they would not do, or try to do, + for us, in the vast, pink palace where we were never twenty guests + together, and mostly eight or ten, with the run of a reading-room where + there were the latest papers and periodicals from London and Paris, and + with a kitchen whence we were served the best luncheons and dinners we ate + in Europe. + </p> + <p> + The place had the true out-of-season charm. There were two stately + dining-rooms besides the one where we dined, and there were pleasant + spaces where we had afternoon tea or after-dinner coffee, and from which a + magnificent stairway ascended to the upper halls, and a quiet lift waited + our orders, with the landlord or his son to take us up; and so lonely and + quiet and gentle, with porters and chambermaids speaking beautiful Tuscan, + and watchful attendants everywhere prophesying and fulfilling our wants. + It was a keeping to make the worst believe in their merit, and we were not + the worst. Outside, the environment flattered or rewarded us with a garden + of laurel and other evergreens, and with flower-beds where the annuals + were beginning to show the gardener's designs in their sprouting seeds. + Beyond these ample villa bounds a tram-car murmured to and from the + well-removed city, and beyond its track lay a line of open-air theatres + and variety shows and bathing establishments, as at our own Atlantic City, + but here in enduring masonry instead of the provisional wood of our summer + architecture. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0045" id="linkimage-0045"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-45.jpg" alt="45 Piazza Victor Emanuel, Leghorn " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + This festive preparation intimated the watering-place supremacy which + Leghorn enjoys in Italy, and which must make our quiet hotel in the season + glisten and twitter and flutter with the vivid national life. The + preparation includes a delightful drive by the seashore, with groves and + gardens, to the city gate and indefinitely beyond it, which we one day + followed as far as an old fort, where a little hotel had nestled with + every promise of simple comfort. There was a neighboring village of no + very exciting interest, and I do not know that the Italian Naval Academy, + which we passed on the way, was very exciting, though with its villa + grounds it had a pleasing rural effect. Hard by our hotel, in a piazza + that seemed to have nothing to do but surround it, was the colossal bust + of an Italian admiral, or the like, which had not the impressiveness of a + colossal full-length figure, but which rendered the original with the + faithful realism of the Genoese Campo Santo sculpture. In compensation + there was, toward the city, near the ship-yards where the great Italian + battle-ships are built, the statue of their builder—a man who looked + it—standing at large ease, with one hand in his pantaloons pocket, + and not apparently conscious of the passer's gaze. Beyond the ship-yard, + in which a battle-ship was then receiving the last touches, was a statue + for which I could not claim an equal unconsciousness. In fact, it + challenged the public attention and even homage as it extended the baton + of command and triumphed over the four Moorish or Algerine corsairs who, + in their splendid nudity, were chained to the several corners of the + monument and owned themselves galley-slaves. The Medicean grand-duke who + lords it over them, and who erected this monument in honor of himself for + the victories his admirals had gained in sweeping the pirates from the + seas, is a very proud presence, and is certainly worthy of the admiration + which his bronze requires from the spectator. I instantly suspected this + monument of being the chief sculpture of Leghorn, and I did not wonder + that a <i>valet de place</i> was lying in wait for me there to make me + observe that from a certain point I could get all four of the + galley-slaves' noses in perspective at once. Upon experiment I did not + find that I could do this, but I imputed my failure to want of merit in + myself and not the monument, and I willingly paid half a franc for the + suggestion; if all one's failures cost so little, one could save money. I + was going then to view at close quarters the port of Leghorn, which is + famous for its mole and lighthouse and quarantine, the first of their kind + in their time. The old port, with the fortifications, was the work of a + natural son of Queen Elizabeth's Earl of Leicester, whose noble origin was + so constantly recognized by the Tuscan grand-dukes that he came at last to + be accepted as Lord Dudley by the English. From his day, if not from his + work, the prosperity of Leghorn began, and the English have always had a + great part in it. Early in the nineteenth century there were a score of + great British merchants settled there, and, though afterward they declined + in number, the trade with England did not decline, and the trade with + America has always been such that American merchants and captains have + fully shared in the commerce directly or indirectly. Both the old and the + new port were a scene of pleasant activity the pleasant afternoon when I + visited them, and were full of varied sail as well as many steamers, + loading or unloading for or from the Mediterranean ports, east and west, + and the Hanseatic cities and the far coasts of Norway. + </p> + <p> + Any seaport is charming and full of romantic interest, but an Italian port + has always a prime picturesqueness. Its sailors are the most ancient + mariners, and they look full of history, and capable, each of them, of + discovering a continent. I cannot say that I saw any nascent Columbus in + the tanned and tarry company I met, but I do not deny that there was one. + Leghorn is still in her lusty youth, being not much older than our Boston + in the prosperity which has not failed her since the Medici divined her + importance toward the close of the sixteenth century, and fortified her + harbor till she was one of the strongest places on the Mediterranean. With + a hazy general consciousness of her modernity in mind, I had imagined her + yet more modern, and I was somewhat surprised to read, in a rather airy + and ironical but very capable local guidebook called <i>Su e Giu per + Livorno</i> (or <i>Up and Down Leghorn),</i> that the place was settled + twenty-six hundred and fifty-six years before Christ. The author records + this with a smile, and then, by a leap over some forty centuries, he finds + firm footing in the fact that the great Countess Matilde, then much + bothering about in the affairs of her Tuscan neighbors everywhere, gave + the Livornese coasts to Pisa in 1103. This seems to have been the signal + for the Genoese, eleven years later, to ravage and destroy the Pisan + settlements; but later the Pisans, confirmed in their possession by the + Emperor of Germany, rebuilt and embellished the port. A century after, + Charles of Anjou demolished it, and then the Pisans fortified it some + more. Then, in the last years of the thirteenth century, the Florentines, + Lucchese, and Genoese devastated the whole territory of Pisa, and left + Leghorn only one poor little church. Well throughout the fourteenth + century there were wars between these republics, and Leghorn suffered the + consequences, being, as our author says, “according to custom, assailed, + taken, wasted, and destroyed.” But before that century was out she seems + to have flourished up again, and to have received with all honor Gregory + XL, returning from Avignon to Rome and bringing the papacy back from its + long exile to the Eternal City. + </p> + <p> + The Genoese now sold Leghorn to Milan, and in 1407 she was sold to France + for twenty-six thousand florins, which seems low for a whole city. But in + less than ten years we find the Genoese back again, and strengthening and + adorning her at the greatest rate. It was quite time now that she should + be visited by a virulent pestilence, and that, having passed to Florence + in the meanwhile, she should have been ceded without a blow to Charles + VIII. of France. But in a year she was once more in the hold of Florence + and helping that republic fight her enemies the Pisans, and her other + enemies under the Emperor Maximilian of Germany. + </p> + <p> + More fortifying, embellishing, and pestilence followed, and in 1429 + Michelangelo came to inspect the new fortifications which the Florentine + republic had built at Leghorn to repair the damages she had suffered. The + next year the republic fell, and Alessandro de' Medici, who came in master + at Florence, took Leghorn into the favor which his family continued to + show her to the end. The first Cosimo greatly improved her harbor, dug + canals, and built forts, but he let the Spaniards, for a pleasure to + Charles V., place garrisons in Florence, Pisa, and Leghorn, and the + Spaniards remained six years at Leghorn. In the last year of the sixteenth + century Ferdinand erected to himself the superb monument with the four + captive corsairs at the corners, whose noses I had failed to get in range, + and in the meanwhile many great public works had been constructed and the + city desolated by another plague. It was now time for the English to + appear in those waters, and in 1652 they were defeated by the Dutch off + Leghorn. About seventy-five years later the grippe paid Leghorn a first + visit, and not long after a violent earthquake shook down many buildings + and killed many women and children; but the authorities did what they + could to secure the city in future by declaring the day a perpetual fast, + and forbidding masking and dancing on it. + </p> + <p> + No disaster worth recording befell the city till Bonaparte came with the + Rights of Man in 1796 and left a French garrison, which evacuated the + place the next year, after having levied a fine of two million francs. The + year after that Nelson occupied it with eight thousand English troops, and + the following year the French reoccupied it and sacked the churches and + imposed another fine nearly as great as the first. After the Napoleonic + victories in the Italian wars, they seem to have come back again and fined + the city two million francs more. They now remained five years, and in the + mean time a Livornese, Giovanni Antonio Giaschi, invented a submarine-boat + for attacking and destroying war-vessels, and a Spanish ship brought the + yellow-fever. In 1808 Napoleon gave all Tuscany, and Leghorn with it, to + his sister Elisa, but when in 1814 he was deposed, Leghorn was restored to + the Tuscan grand-dukes and garrisoned for them by German troops, an + earthquake having profited by the general disorder meantime to pay it + another visit. The grand-duke now being driven out of Florence by Murat, + he took refuge at Leghorn, which fell a prey to an epidemic of typhus. The + first steam-vessel appared there in 1818, and in 1835 the Asiatic cholera; + in 1847 a telegraphic line to Pisa was opened. + </p> + <p> + In 1848 the revolutions prevalent throughout Europe had their effect at + Leghorn. The citizens shared in the uprising against the grand-duke, and + elected among its representatives F. D. Guerrazzi, once famous as the + first of Italian novelists and a man of generous mind and heart, who duly + suffered arrest and imprisonment when the grand-duke was restored by the + Austrians. He was sentenced to fifteen years' prison with hard labor, but + later his sentence was commuted to exile. He lived to return and take part + in the Italian unification in 1860, and in 1866 he led the movement + against making peace with Austria unless all her Italian-speaking + provinces were ceded to Italy. He died in 1873, and is remembered in + Leghorn by a monument very ineffective as a whole, but singularly + interesting in certain details. + </p> + <p> + I have omitted from this catalogue of events many of peaceful interest, + such as visits from popes, princes, and poets, and I am not sure I have + got in all the plagues and earthquakes. Perhaps I have the more willingly + suppressed a few war-like facts, in the interest of the superstition I had + cherished that Leghorn was without a history, or that it had no more + history than, most American cities of equal date with its commercial + importance, which began with the wise hospitality of the Medici to + merchants of all races and nations, religions and races, settled there, + and especially to the Spanish Jews who came in great numbers to the city + that it was a common saying that you had as well strike the duke as strike + a Jew in Leghorn. Greeks, Turks, Armenians were protected equally with + English and Dutch, and infidel and heretic were alike free in their + worship. It was the great prison of the galley-slaves, who were chiefly + the pirates and corsairs taken on the high seas by the duke's ships. These + captives not only served as models for the Moors at the base of his + monument, but they must have been very useful in the different public + works which he and his successors carried out. Now they and their like are + gone, and though the Greeks, the Armenians, the English, and the Scotch + still have their churches, I do not suppose there is a mosque in all + Leghorn. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0046" id="linkimage-0046"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-46.jpg" alt="46 the Canal at Leghorn " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + I do not speak very confidently, because my researches in that sort were + not exhaustive. I indeed visited the cathedral, not wholly because Inigo + Jones had something to do in planning it, but because I had formed the + habit of visiting churches in Rome, and I mechanically went into one + wherever I saw it. Generally speaking, I think that they were rather bare + in painting or sculpture, but they were such churches as in America one + would go a long way to see and think one's self well rewarded by their + objects of interest. I do not know what defence to offer for not having + visited the galleries of the Museo Civico, where by actual count in the + guide-book I missed one hundred and sixty-nine works of art, though just + how many masterpieces I am not able to say: probably one out of every ten + was a masterpiece. But, if I did not much resort to the churches and + galleries in Leghorn, I roamed gladly through its pleasant streets and + squares, and by the shores of the canals which once gave it the name of + New Venice, and which still invite the smaller shipping up among its + houses in right Venetian fashion. The streets of Leghorn are not so + straight as they are long, but many are very straight, and the others are + curved rather than crooked. The longest and straight-est were streets of + low dwelling-houses, uncommon in Italian towns, where each family lived + under its own roof with a little garden behind, and a respective entrance, + as people still mostly do in our towns. From the force of the mid-April + sun in these streets I realized what they might be in summer, and, if I + lived in Leghorn, I would rather live on the sea-front, in one of the + comfortable, square, stone villas which border it. But everywhere Leghorn + seemed a pleasant place to live, and convenient, with lively shops and + cafes and trams and open spaces, and statues and monuments in them. The + city, I understood, is of somewhat radical politics, tending from + clericalism to socialism; and, like every other Italian city, it is full + of patriotic monuments. There is a Victor Emmanuel on horseback, plump and + squat, but heroic as always, and a Garibaldi struggling in vain for beauty + in his poncho and his round, flat cap; there is a Mazzini, there is a + Cavour, and, above all, there is a Guerrazzi, no great thing as to the + seated figure, but most interesting, most touching in two of the + bas-reliefs below. One represents him proclaiming the provisional + government at Florence in 1849, after the expulsion of the grand-duke, + where the fact is studied, with the wonderful realism of the Italians, in + all its incidents and the costumes of the thronging spectators. The + sculptor has hesitated at no top-hat or open umbrella; there are + barefooted boys and bareheaded young girls, as well as bearded elders; if + my memory serves, the scene is not without a dog or two. But it is the + other relief which is so simply and so deeply affecting—the interior + of a narrow cell, with one chair and a rude table, at which the patriot + novelist wrote his greatest work, <i>The Siege of Florence,</i> and with + him standing a little way from it. In spite of the small space and the + almost vacant stage, the scene is full of most moving drama, and records a + whole Italian epoch, now happily past forever. + </p> + <p> + These are modern sculptures, and they scarcely contest the palm with the + monument of the four galley-slaves and the Medicean grand-duke. In another + piazza two princes of the Lorrainese family, if I remember rightly, face + each other over its oblong—classic motives, with the figures much + undraped, and one of them singularly impressive from the mutton-chop + whiskers which modernized him. There are several theatres, and among them + a Goldoni theatre, as there should be in a city where the sweet old + playwright sojourned for a time and has placed the action of his famous + comedy, “La Locandiera.” But I was told that the local theatres were not + so much frequented by polite people, especially for opera, as the theatre + in Pisa, which, if poorer, is prouder in its society than its old-time + vassal by the sea, and attracts the fashion of Leghorn during the season. + </p> + <p> + As Pisa has ceased to be the colony of literary English it once was, in + the time of Byron and Hunt and Shelley, to name no others, so Leghorn has + ceased to be the mercantile colony of former days. It has still a great + deal of commerce with England, but this is no longer carried on by + resident merchants, though here and there an English name lingers in the + style of a business house; and the distinctive qualities of both colonies + are united in the author of a charming book who fills the post of British + consul at Leghorn. His <i>Tuscan Towns</i> must not be confused with + another book called <i>Tuscan Cities,</i> though, if the traveller chooses + to carry both with him about Tuscany, I will not say that he could do + better. In <i>Tuscan Cities</i> there is nothing about Leghorn, I believe, + but in <i>Tuscan Towns</i> there is a specially delightful chapter about + the place, its people, language, and customs which I can commend to the + reader as the best corrective of the errors I must have been constantly + falling into here. + </p> + <p> + It was in company no less enviable than this author's that I revisited the + port on a gray Sunday afternoon of my stay, and then for the first time + visited the ancient fortifications which began to be in the time of the + Countess Matilde and intermittently increased under the rule of the Pisan, + Genoese, and Florentine republics, until the Medicean grand-dukes + amplified them in almost the proportions I saw. The brutal first duke of + their line, Alessandro de' Medici, who some say was no Medici, but the + bastard of a negro and a washerwoman, stamped his creed in the inscription + below his adoptive arms, “Under one Faith and one Law, one Lord,” and it + was in the palace here, the story goes, that the wicked Cosimo I. killed + his son Don Garzia before the eyes of the boy's mother. Anything is + imaginable of an early Medicean grand-duke, but in a manner the father's + murderous fury was provoked by the fact, if it was a fact, that Don Garzia + had just mortally wounded his brother Giovanni. I should like to pretend + that the tragedy had wrought in my unconsciousness to the effect of the + pensive gloom which the old fortress cast over me, but perhaps I had + better not. There are some gray Sunday afternoons of a depressing effect + on the spirit which requires no positive or palpable reason. + </p> + <p> + In any case it was a relief to go from the shadow of the past there + through the pleasant city streets to the gentle quiet of the British + cemetery, where so many of our race and some even of our own nation are + taking their long rest. No one is now buried there, and the place, in the + gradual diminution of the English colony at Leghorn, has fallen into a + lovely and appealing neglect if not oblivion. Oblivion quite covers its + origin, but it is almost as old as Protestantism itself, and, if the + ground for it was the gift of the grand-duke who tolerated heretics as + well as Jews in the impulse he gave to the city's growth, it would not be + strange. The beautiful porch of the English church, for once Greek and not + Gothic, fronts upon it, but the dwindling congregation has no care of it, + and there is no fund to keep it so much as free from weeds and brambles + and the insidious ivy rending its monuments asunder. The afternoon of our + visit it was in the sole charge of a large, gray cat, which, after + feasting upon the favorite herb, lay stretched in sleep on a sunny bed of + catnip under the walls of a mansion near, at whose windows some young + girls looked down in a Sunday listlessness, as we wandered about among the + “tall cypresses, myrtles, pines, eucalyptus-trees, oleanders, cactuses, + huge bushes of monthly roses, a jungle of periwinkles, sarsaparilla, wild + irises, violets, and other loveliest of wild flowers.” On the forgotten + tombs were the touching epitaphs of those who had died in exile, and whose + monuments are sometimes here while their ashes lie in Florence or Rome, or + wherever else they chanced to meet their end. Among them were the + inscriptions on the graves of “William Magee Seton, merchant of New York,” + who died at Pisa in 1803, and “Henry De Butts, a citizen of Baltimore, N. + America,” who died at Sarzana; with “James M. Knight, Esq., Captain of + Marines, Citizen of the United States of America,” who died at Leghorn in + 1802; and “Thomas Gamble, Late Captain in the Navy of the United States of + America,” who died at Pisa in 1818; and doubtless there were other + Americans whose tombs I did not see. The memorials of the English were + likewise here, whether they died at Leghorn or not; but most of them seem + to have ended their lives in that place, where there were once so many + English residents, whether for their health or their profit. The youth of + some testified to the fact that they had failed to find the air specific + for their maladies, and doubtless this would account also for the + disproportionate number of noble ladies who rest here, with their + hatchments and their coronets and robes of state carven on the stones + above them. Among others one reads the titles of “Lady Catharine Burgess + born Beauclerk; Jane Isabella, widow of the Earl of Lanesborough and + daughter of the Earl of Molesworth; and Catharine Murray, only child of + James Murray,... and the Right Honorable Lady Catharine Stewart his + Spouse,” with knights, admirals, generals, and other military and naval + officers a many. Most important of all is the tomb of that strenuous + spirit, more potent for good and ill in the English fiction of his time + than any other novelist of his time, and second only to Richardson in the + wide influence of his literary method, Tobias Smollett, namely, who here + ended his long fight with consumption and the indifference of his country + to his claims upon her official recognition. After many years of narrow + circumstance in the Southern climates where he spent his later life, he + tried in vain for that meek hope of literary ambition, a consulate, + perhaps the very post that my companion, a hundred and fifty years later, + was worthily holding. The truest monument to his stay in Italy is the book + of Italian travel that he wrote, and the best effect is that sort of + peripatetic novel which he may be said to have invented in <i>Humphrey + Clinker,</i> and which has survived the epistolary form into our own time. + It is a very simple shaft that rises over his grave, with the brief + record, “Memoriae Tobiae Smollett, qui Liburni animam efflavit, 16 Sept., + 1773,” but it is imaginable with what wrath he would have disputed the + record, if it is true, according to all the other authorities, that he + exhaled his spirit two years earlier, and how he would have had it out + with those “friends and fellow-countrymen” who had the error perpetuated + above his helpless dust. + </p> + <p> + It was not easy to quit the sweetly solemn place or to resist the wish + which I have here indulged, that some kinsman or kinswoman of those whom + the blossoms and leaves are hiding would come to their rescue from nature + now claiming an undue part in them, and obliterating their very memories. + One would not have a great deal done, but only enough to save their names + from entire oblivion, and with the hope of this I have named some of their + names. It might not be too much even for the United Kingdom and the United + States, though both very poor nations, to join in contributing the sum + necessary for the work. Or some millionaire English duke, or some + millionaire American manufacturer, might make the outlay alone; I cannot + expect any millionaire author to provide a special fund for the care of + the tomb of Smollett. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. OVER AT PISA + </h2> + <p> + If the half-hour between Leghorn and Pisa had been spent in any less + lovely transit, I should still be grieving for the loss of the thirty + minutes which might so much better have been given to either place. But + with the constant line of mountains enclosing the landscape on the right, + in all its variety of tillage, pasture-land, vineyard, and orchard, and + the unchanging level which had once been the bed of the sea, we were + gainers in sort beyond the gift of those cities. We had the company, great + part of the way, of more stone-pines than we had seen even between Naples + and Rome, here gathering into thick woods, with the light beautiful + beneath the spread of their horizontal boughs, there grouped in classic + groves, and yonder straying off in twos and threes. We had the canal that + of old time made Pisa a port of the Mediterranean, with Leghorn for her + servant on the shore (or, if it was not this canal, it was another as + straight and long), with a peasant walking beside it, under a light-green + umbrella, in the showers which threatened our start but spared our + arrival. We had then the city, with its domes and towers, grown full + height out of the plain through which the Arno curves in the stateliest + crescent of all its course. + </p> + <p> + The day had turned finer than any other day I can now think of in my whole + life, and I was once more in Pisa without the care for its history or art + or even novelty which had corroded my mind in former visits. I had been + there twice before—once in 1864, when I had done its wonders with + all the wonder they merited, and again in 1883, when I had lived its + memories on the scene of its manifold and mighty experiences. No distinct + light from that learning vexed my present vision, but an agreeable mist of + association, nothing certain, nothing tangible remaining, but only a + gentle vague involving everything, in which I could possess my soul in + peace. In this glimmer I recognized a certain cabman as having been + waiting there from the dawn of time, with his dark-eyed little son, to + make me his willing captive at something above the tariff rates, but + destined by the same fate to serve me well, and to part with me friends at + the close of the day for a franc more than the excess agreed upon. It + costs so small a sum to corrupt the common carrier in Italy that I hold it + wrong to fail of any chance, and this driver had not only a horse of + uncommon qualities, but he spoke a beautiful Tuscan, and he had his Pisa + at his fingers' ends. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0047" id="linkimage-0047"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-47.jpg" + alt="47 the Cathedral, Baptistery, and Leaning Tower, Pisa " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + We were of one mind about driving without delay to the famous group which + is without rival on the earth, though there may be associated edifices in + the red planet Mars that surpass the Cathedral, the Leaning Tower, the + Baptistery, and the Campo Santo at Pisa. What genius it was imagined + placing them in the pleasant meadow where they sit, just beyond the city + streets, I do not know, but it was inspiration beyond any effect of mere + taste, and it commanded my worship as much the last as the first time. The + meadow still swims round them and breaks in a foam of daisies at their + feet; for I take it that it is always mid-April there, and that the grass + is as green and the sun as yellow on it as the afternoon we saw it. The + sacred edifices are as golden as the light on them, and there is such a + joyous lift in the air that it is a wonder they do not swing loose from + their foundations and soar away into the celestial blue. For travellers in + our willing mood there was, of course, the predestined cicerone waiting + for us at the door of the cathedral, who would fix no price for the + pleasure he was born to do us, yet still consented to take more than twice + that he ought to have had at parting. But he was worth the money; he was + worth quite two francs, and, though he was not without the fault of his + calling and would have cumbered us with instruction, I will not blame him, + for after a moment I perceived that his intelligence was such that I might + safely put my hands in my pocket on my shut guide-book and follow him from + point to point without fear of missing anything worth noting. Among the + things worthiest noting, I saw, as if I had never seen them before, the + unforgettable, forgotten Andrea del Sartos, especially the St. Agnes, in + whose face you recognize the well-known features of the painter's wife, + but with a gentler look than they usually wore in his Madonnas, perhaps + because he happened to study these from that difficult lady when she was + in her least celestial moods. Besides the masterpieces of other masters, + there is a most noble Sodoma, which the great Napoleon carried away to + Paris and which the greater French people afterward restored. At every + step in the beautiful temple you may well pause, for it abounds in + pictures and sculptures, the least of which would enrich St. Peter's at + Rome beyond the proudest effect of its poverty-stricken grandeur. + Ghirlandajo, Michelangelo, Gaddo Gaddi, John of Bologna—the names + came back to me out of a past of my own almost as remote as theirs, while + our guide repeated them, in their relation to the sculptures or pictures + or architecture, with those of lesser lights of art, and that school of + Giotto, of all whose frescos once covering its walls the fire of three + hundred years ago has left a few figures clinging to one of the pillars, + faint and uncertain as the memories of my own former visits to the church. + I did, indeed, remember me of an old bronze lamp, by Vincenzo Possenti, + hanging from the roof, which I now revered the third time, at intervals of + twenty years; from its oscillation Galileo is said to have got the notion + of the pendulum; but it is now tied back with a wire, being no longer + needed for such an inspiration. Mostly in this last visit I took Pisa as + lightly as at the first, when, as I have noted from the printed witness, I + was gayly indifferent to the claims of her objects of interest. If they + came in my way, I looked at them, but I did not put myself much about for + them. I rested mostly in the twilight of old associations, trusting to the + guidance of our cicerone, whom, in some form or under some name, the + reader will find waiting for him at the cathedral door as we did. But I + have since recurred to the record of my second visit in 1883, with + amazement at the exact knowledge of events shown there, which became, in + 1908, all a blur of dim conjecture. It appears that I was then acquainted + with much more Pisan history than any other author I have found own to. I + had also surprising adventures of different kinds, such as my poorer + experience of the present cannot parallel. I find, for instance, that in + 1883 I gave a needy crone in the cathedral a franc instead of the piece of + five centimes which I meant for her, and that the lamp of Galileo did + nothing to light the gloom into which this error plunged my spirit. + </p> + <p> + It appears to have jaundiced my view of the whole cathedral, which I did + not find at all comparable to that of Siena, whereas in 1908 I thought it + all beautiful. This may have been because I was so newly from the ugliness + of the Eoman churches; though I felt, as I had felt before, that the whole + group of sacred edifices at Pisa was too suggestive of decorative pastry + and confectionery. No more than at the second view of it did I now attempt + the ascent of the Leaning Tower; I had discharged this duty for life when + I first saw it; with my seventy-one years upon me, I was not willing to + climb its winding stairs, and I doubted if I could keep it from falling, + as I then did, by inclining myself the other way. I resolved that I would + leave this to the new-comer; but I gladly followed our cicerone across the + daisied green from the cathedral to the baptistery, where I found the + famous echo waiting to welcome me back, and greet me with its angelic + sweetness, when the custodian who has it in charge appealed to it; though + its voice seemed to have been weakened and coarsened in its forced replies + to some rude Americans there, who shouted out to it and mocked at it. One + wished to ask them if they did not know that this echo was sacred, and + that their challenges of it were a species of sacrilege. But doubtless + that would not have availed to silence them. By-and-by they went away, and + then we were aware of an interesting group of people by the font near the + lovely Lombardic pulpit of Nicola Pisano. They were peasants, by their + dress—a young father and mother and a little girl or two, and then a + gentle, elderly woman, with a baby in her arms, at which she looked + proudly down. They were in their simple best, and they had good Tuscan + faces, full of kindness. I ventured some propitiatory coppers with the + children, and, when the old woman made them thank me, I thought I could + not be mistaken and I ventured further: “You are the grandmother?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, signer,” she answered; and then we had some talk about the age and + the beauty of the baby, which I declared wonderful for both, in praises + loud enough for the father and mother to hear. After that they seemed to + hold a family council, from which I thought it respectful to stand apart + until the grandmother spoke to me again. + </p> + <p> + I did not understand, and I appealed to our guide for help. + </p> + <p> + “She wishes you to be godfather to the child.” + </p> + <p> + I had never yet been a godfather, but I had the belief that it brought + grave responsibilities, which in the very casual and impermanent + circumstances I did not see how I was to meet. Yet how to refuse without + wounding these kind people who had so honored me I did not know until a + sudden inspiration came to my rescue. + </p> + <p> + “Tell them,” I said, “and be careful to make them understand, that I am + very grateful and very sorry, but that I am a Protestant, and that I + suppose I cannot, for that reason, be godfather to their child.” + </p> + <p> + He explained, and they received my thanks and regrets with smiling + acquiescence; and just then a very stout little old priest (who has + baptized nearly all the babies in Pisa for fifty years) came in, and the + baptism proceeded without my intervention. But I remained, somehow, + disappointed; it would have been pleasant to leave a godchild behind me + there in the neighborhood of Pisa; to have sent him from time to time some + little remembrance of this remote America, and, perhaps, when he grew up + and came to Pisa, and learned the art of the statuary, to have had from + him a Leaning Tower which he had cut in alabaster for me. I was taking it + for granted he was a boy, but he may not have been; there is always that + chance. + </p> + <p> + If I had been alone, I suppose I should still have gone into the Campo + Santo, from mere force of habit; I always go, in Pisa, but I had now with + me clearer eyes for art than mine are, and I wished to have their light on + the great allegories and histories frescoed round the cloisters, and test + with them the objects of my tacit and explicit reserves and misgivings. I + needed such eyes, and even some such powerful glasses as would have + pierced through the faded and wasted pictures and shown them at least as I + had first seen them. They were then in such reasonable disrepair as one + might expect after three or four centuries, but in the last thirty years a + ruinous waste has set in before which not only the colors have faded, but + the surfaces have crumbled under the colors; and as yet no man knows how + to stop the ravage. I think I have read that it is caused by a germ; but, + if not, the loss is the same, and until a parasite for the germ is found + the loss must go on, and the work of Giotto, of Benozzo Gozzoli, of Memmi, + must perish with that of the Orgagnas, which may indeed go, for all me. + Bible stories, miracles, allegories—they are all hasting to decay, + and it can be but a few years until they shall vanish like the splendors + of the dawn which they typify in art. + </p> + <p> + In some things the ruin is not altogether to be regretted. It has softened + certain loathsome details of the charnel facts portrayed, and in other + pictures the torment and anguish of the lost souls are no longer so + painful as the old painters ascertained them. Hell in the Campo Santo is + not now the hell of other days, just as the hell of Christian doctrine is + not the hell it used to be. Death and the world are indeed immitigable; + the corpses in their coffins are as terrifying to the gay lords and ladies + who come suddenly upon them as ever they were, though doubtless of no more + lasting effect with such sinners than they would be nowadays. But what one + must chiefly lament is the waste of the whole quaint and charming series + of Scripture incidents by Benozzo Gozzoli. This is indeed most lamentable, + and after realizing the loss one is only a little heartened by the gayety + of certain grieving widows, sitting in marble for monuments to their + husbands at several points under the arcades. What cheer they might have + brought us was impaired by the sight of the sarcophaguses and the other + antiques against the walls, which inflicted an inappeasable ache for the + city where such things abound, and brought our refluent Romesickness back + full tide upon us. More than once Pisa elsewhere did us the like + involuntary unkindness; she, too, is yellow and mellow like Rome, and she + had moments of the Piazza Navona and the Piazza di Spagna which were + poignant. But she had moments of her own when Rome could not rival her—such, + for instance, as that when she invited us from the perishing frescos of + her Campo Santo to turn our eyes on the flower-strewn field of death which + the cloisters surrounded, and where in the hallowed earth which her + galleys brought from Jerusalem her children, in their several turns, used + to sleep so sweetly and safely. + </p> + <p> + The afternoon sunlight was prolonging the day there as well as it could, + and we should have liked to linger with it as late as it would, but there + were other places in Pisa calling us, and we must go. We found our driver, + and his black-eyed boy beside him on the box, waiting for us at the + cathedral door, and we seem to have left it pretty much to them where we + should go. They decided us, if we really left it to them, mainly for the + outside of things, so that we might see as much of Pisa as possible; but + it appears to have been their notion that we ought to visit, at least, the + inside of the Church of the Knights of St. Stephen. I do not know whether + I protested or not that I had abundantly seen this already, but, at any + rate, I am now glad that they took us there. As every traveller will + pretend to remember, the main business of the knights was to fight the + Barbary pirates, and the main business of their church is now to serve as + a repository of the prows of the galleys and the flags which they took in + their battles with the infidels. There are other monuments of their valor, + but by all odds the flags will be the most interesting to the American + visitor, because of the start that many of them will give him by their + resemblance to our own banner, with their red-and-white stripes, which the + eye follows in vivid expectation of finding the blue field of stars in the + upper left-hand corner. It never does find this, and that is the + sufficient reason for holding to the theory that our flag was copied from + the armorial bearings of the Washington family, and not taken from the + standard of those paynim corsairs; but there is poignant instant when one + trembles. + </p> + <p> + We viewed, of course, the exterior of the edifice standing on the site of + the Tower of Famine, where the cruel archbishop starved the Count Ugolino + and his grandchildren to death; and we drove by the buildings of Pisa's + famous university, which we afterward fancied rather pervaded the city + with the young and ardent life of its students. It is no great + architectural presence, but there are churches and palaces to make up for + that. Everywhere you chance on them in the narrow streets and the ample + piazzas, but the palaces follow mostly the stately curve of the Arno, + where some of them have condescended to the office of hotels, and where, I + believe, one might live in economy and comfort; or, at any rate, I should + like to try. It would get rather warm there in May, and July and August + are not to be thought of, but all the other year it would be divine, with + such a prospect as can hardly be matched anywhere else. Pisa used once to + be the resort of many seeking health or warmth, and for mere climate it + ought again to come into favor. Probably there is reasonably accessible + society there, and, as the Livornese believe, there is at least excellent + opera. The time might grow long, but ought not to be very heavy, and there + is a cafe, at the very finest point of the curve, where you can get an + excellent cup of tea. Whether this attests the resort or sojourn of many + English, or the growth of the tea-habit among the Pisans, I cannot say, + but that cafe is very charming, with students standing about in it and + admiring the ladies who come in to buy pastry, and who do not suppose + there is any one there to look at them. I am sure that the handsome mother + with the pretty daughter who lingered so long over their choice of little + cakes could not have imagined any one was looking, or she would at once + have taken macaroons and hurried away: at that cafe they have macaroons + almost three inches across, and delicious. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0048" id="linkimage-0048"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-48.jpg" alt="48 With Almost Any of My Backgrounds " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + The whole keeping was so pleasant that we hated to leave it to the + lengthening shadows from the other shore, but we were to drive down the + Arno into the promenade that follows it, I do not know how far; with the + foolish greed of travel, we wanted to get in all of Pisa that we could, + even if we tore ourselves from its most tempting morsel. But it was all + joy, and I should like, at this moment, to be starting on that enchanting + drive again. I leave the reader to imagine the lovely scenery for himself; + almost any of my many backgrounds will serve; but I will supply him with a + piece of statistics such as does not fall in everybody's way. We noted the + great number of anglers who lined the opposite bank, with no appearance of + catching anything, and I asked our driver if they never happened to get a + bite. “Not in the daytime,” he explained, compassionately, “but as soon as + the evening comes they get all the fish they want.” + </p> + <p> + I could pour out on the reader many other Pisan statistics, but they would + be at second-hand. After long vicissitude, the city is again almost as + prosperous as she was in the heyday of her national greatness, when she + had commerce with every Levantine and Oriental port. We ourselves saw a + silk factory pouring forth a tide of pretty girls from their work at the + end of the day; there was no ruin or disrepair noticeable anywhere, and + the whole city was as clean as Rome, with streets paved with broad, smooth + flagstones where you never missed the rubber tires which your carriage + failed of. But Pisa had a great air of resting, of taking life easily + after a tumultuous existence in the long past which she had put behind + her. Throughout the Middle Ages she was always fighting foreign foes + without her walls or domestic factions within, now the Saracens wherever + she could find them or they could find her, now the Normans in Naples, now + the Cor-sicans and Sardinians, now Lucca, now Genoa, now Florence, and now + all three. Her wars with these republics were really incessant; they were + not so much wars as battles in one long war, with a peace occasionally + made during the five or ten or fifteen years, which was no better than a + truce. When she fell under the Medici, together with her enemy Florence, + she shared the death-quiet the tyrants brought that prepotent republic, + and it was the Medicean strength probably which saved her from Lucca and + Genoa, though it left them to continue republics down to the nineteenth + century. She was at one time an oligarchy, and at another a democracy, and + at another the liege of this prince or that priest, but she was never out + of trouble as long as she possessed independence or the shadow of it. In + the safe hold of united Italy she now sits by her Arno and draws long, + deep breaths, which you may almost hear as you pass; and I hope the + prospect of increasing prosperity will not tempt her to work too hard. It + does not look as if it would. + </p> + <p> + We were getting a little anxious, but not very anxious, for that one + cannot be in Pisa, about our train back to Leghorn; though we did not wish + to go, we did not wish to be left; but our driver reassured us, and would + not let us shirk the duty of seeing the house where Galileo was born. We + found it in a long street on the thither side of the river, and in such a + poor quarter that our driver could himself afford to live only a few doors + from it. As if they had expected him to pass about this time, his wife and + his five children were sitting at his door and playing before it. He + proudly pointed them out with his whip, and one of the little ones + followed on foot far enough to levy tribute. They were sufficiently comely + children, but blond, whereas the boy on the box was both black-eyed and + black-haired. When we required an explanation of the mystery, the father + easily solved it; this boy was the child of his first wife. If there were + other details, I have forgotten them, but we made our romance to the + effect that the boy, to whose beautiful eyes we now imputed a lurking + sadness, was not happy with his step-mother, and that he took refuge from + her on the box with his father. They seemed very good comrades; the boy + had shared with his father the small cakes we had given him at the cafe. + At the station, in recognition of his hapless lot, I gave him half a + franc. By that time his father was radiant from the small extortion I had + suffered him to practice with me, and he bade the boy thank me, which he + did so charmingly that I almost, but not quite, gave him another + half-franc. Now I am sorry I did not. Pisa was worth it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX. BACK AT GENOA + </h2> + <p> + There is an old saying, probably as old as Genoa's first loot of her + step-sister republic, “If you want to see Pisa, you must go to Genoa,” + which may have obscurely governed us in our purpose of stopping there on + our way up out of Italy. We could not have too much of Pisa, as apparently + the Genoese could not; but before our journey ended I decided that they + would have thought twice before plundering Pisa if they had been forced to + make their forays by means of the present railroad connection between the + two cities. At least there would have been but one of the many wars of + murder and rapine between the republics, and that would have been the + first. After a single experience of the eighty tunnels on that line, with + the perpetually recurring necessity of putting down and putting up the + car-window, no army would have repeated the invasion; and, though we might + now be without that satirical old saying, mankind would, on the whole, + have been the gainer. As it was, the enemies could luxuriously go and come + in their galleys and enjoy the fresh sea-breezes both ways, instead of + stifling in the dark and gasping for breath as they came into the light, + while their train ran in and out under the serried peaks that form the + Mediterranean shore. I myself wished to take a galley from Leghorn, or + even a small steamer, but I was overruled by less hardy but more obdurate + spirits, and so we took the Florentine express at Pisa, where we changed + cars. + </p> + <p> + The Italian government had providently arranged that the car we changed + into should be standing beyond the station in the dash of an unexpected + shower, and that it should be provided with steps so high and steep, with + Italian ladies standing all over them and sticking their umbrellas into + the faces of American citizens trying to get in after them, that it was a + feat of something like mountain-climbing to reach the corridor, and then + of daring-do to secure a compartment. Though a collectivist, with a firm + belief in the government ownership of railroads everywhere, I might have + been tempted at times in Italy to abjure my creed if I had not always + reflected that the state there had just come into possession of the roads, + with all their capitalistic faults of management and outwear of equipment + which it would doubtless soon reform and repair. I venture to suggest now, + however, that its prime duty is to have platforms level with the + car-doors, as they are in England, and not to let Italian ladies stand in + the doorways with their umbrellas. I do not insist that it shall impose + silence and sobriety upon a party of young French people in the next + compartment, but I do think it should remove those mountains back from the + sea so that the trains carrying cultivated Americans can run along the + open shore the whole way to Genoa. Pending this, it should provide strong + and watchful employees to lower and raise the windows at the mouth of each + of the eighty tunnels in every car. I do not demand that it shall change + the site of the station in Genoa so that it shall not always be the city's + whole length away from the hotel you have chosen, but I think this would + be a desirable improvement, especially if it is after dark when you arrive + and raining a peculiarly cold, disagreeable rain. + </p> + <p> + That rain was very disappointing; for, in the intervals between tunnels, + we had fancied, from the few brief glimpses we caught of the landscape, + that the April so backward elsewhere in Italy was forwarder in the + blossomed trees along the eastern Riviera; and we learned at our hotel + that the steam-heat had just been taken off because the day had been so + hot and dry, though the evening was now so cold and wet. It was fitfully + put on and off during the chilly week that ensued, though in our + fifth-story garden, to which we sometimes resorted, there was a mildness + in the air that was absent in-doors. The hotel itself was disappointing; + any hotel would be after our hotel in Leghorn; and, though there was the + good-will of former days, there was not the former effect. The corridors + crashed and clattered all day long and well into the night with the gayety + of some cheap incursion of German tourists, who seemed, indeed, to fill + the whole city with their clamor. They were given a long table to + themselves, and when they were set at it and began to ply their knives and + tongues the din was deafening. That would not have been so bad if they had + not been so plain, or if, when they happened, in a young girl or two, to + be pretty, they had not guttled and guzzled so like the plainest of their + number. One such pretty girl was really beautiful, with a bloom perhaps + already too rich, which, as she abandoned herself to her meat and drink, + reddened downward over her lily neck and upward to her golden hair, past + the brows under which her blue, blue eyes protruded painfully, all in a + frightful prophecy of what she would be when the bud of her spring should + be the full-blown cabbage-rose of her summer. + </p> + <p> + I dare say those people were not typical of their civilization. Probably + modern enterprise makes travel easy to sorts and conditions of Germans who + once would not have dreamed of leaving home, and now tempts these rude + Teutonic hordes over or under the Alps and pours them out on the + Peninsula, far out-deluging the once-prevalent Anglo-Saxons. The first + night there was an Englishman at dinner, but he vanished after breakfast; + the next day an Italian officer was at lunch, but he came no more; we were + the only Americans, and now we had the sole society of those German + tourists. Perhaps it was national vanity, but I could not at the moment + think of an equal number of our fellow-citizens of any condition who would + not have been less molestively happy. One forgot what one was eating, and + left the table bruised as if physically beaten upon by those sound-waves + and sight-waves. But our companions must have made themselves acceptable + to the city they had come to visit; Genoa is very noisy, and they could + not be heard above the trams and omnibuses, and in the streets they could + not be seen at table; when I ventured to note to a sacristan, here and + there, that there seemed to be a great many Germans in town, the fact + apparently roused nothing of the old-time Italian antipathy for the + Tedeschi. Severally they may have been cultivated and interesting people; + and that blooming maiden may really have been the Blue Flower of Romance + that she looked before she began to dine. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0049" id="linkimage-0049"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-49.jpg" alt="49 Washing in the River, Genoa " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + We were entering upon our third view of Genoa with the zest of our first, + and I was glad to find there were so many things I had left unseen or had + forgotten. First of all the Campo Santo allured me, and I went at once to + verify the impressions of former years in a tram following the bed of a + torrential river which was now dry except in the pools where the + laundresses were at work, picturesquely as always in Italy. But here they + were not alone the worthy theme of art; their husbands and fathers, and + perhaps even their <i>fiances,</i> were at work with them, not, indeed, + washing the linen, but spreading to dry it in snowy spaces over the clean + gravel. On either bank of the stream newly finished or partly finished + apartment-houses testified to the prosperity of the city, which seemed to + be growing everywhere, and it would not be too bold to imagine this a + favorite quarter because of its convenience to the Cam-po Santo. Already + in the early forenoon our train was carrying people to that popular + resort, who seemed to be intending to spend the day there. Some had + wreaths and flowers, and were clearly sorrowing friends of the dead; + others, with their guide-books, were as plainly mere sight-seers, and + these were Italians as well as strangers, gratifying what seems the + universal passion for cemeteries. In our own villages the graveyards are + the favorite Sunday haunt of the young people and the scene of their + love-making; and it has been the complaint of English visitors to our + cities that the first thing their hosts took them to see was the cemetery. + They did not realize that this was often the thing best worth showing + them, for our feeble aesthetic instincts found their first expression in + the attempt to dignify or beautify the homes of the dead. Each mourner + grieved in marble as fitly as he knew how, and, if there was sometimes a + rivalry in vaults and shafts, the effect was of a collective interest + which all could feel. Sometimes it was touching, sometimes it was + revolting; and in Italy it is not otherwise. The Campo Santo of San + Miniato at Florence, the Campo Santo at Bologna, the Campo Santo wherever + else you find it, you find of one quality with the Campo Santo at Genoa. + It makes you the helpless confidant of family pride, of bruised and + lacerated love, of fond aspiration, of religious longing, of striving + faith, of foolish vanity and vulgar pretence, but, if the traveller would + read the local civilization aright, he cannot do better than go to study + it there. + </p> + <p> + My third experience of the Genoese Campo Santo was different only in + quantity from the first and second. There seemed more of the things, + better and worse, but the increasing witness was of the art which rendered + the fact with unsparing realism, sometimes alloyed with allegory and + sometimes not, but always outright, literal, strong, rank. The hundreds of + groups, reliefs, statues, busts; the long aisles where the dead are sealed + in the tableted shelves of the wall, like the dead in the catacombs, the + ample space of open ground enclosed by the cloisters and set thick with + white crosses, are all dominated by a colossal Christ which, in my fancy, + remains of very significant effect. It is as if no presence less mighty + and impressive could centre in itself the multitudinous passions, wills, + and hopes expressed in those incongruous monuments and reduce them to that + unity of meaning which one cannot deny them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0050" id="linkimage-0050"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-50.jpg" alt="50 Realistic Group in the Campo Santo " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + The Campo Santo of Genoa is a mortuary gloss of Genoese history: of the + long succession of civic strifes and foreign wars common to all the + Italian republics, now pacified at last by a spirit of unity, of + brotherhood. At Genoa, more than anywhere else in Italy except Milan, you + are aware of the North—its strenuousness, its enterprise, its + restless outstretching for worlds beyond itself. Columbus came with the + gift of a New World in his hand, and, in the fulness of time, Mazzini came + with the gift of a Newer World in his hand: the realization of Christ in + the ideal of duties without which the old ideal of rights is heathen and + helpless. Against the rude force of Genoa, the aristocratic beauty of such + a place as Pisa was nothing; only Florence and Venice might vie with her. + But she had not the inspiration of Florence, her art, her literature; the + dialect in which she uttered herself is harsh and crabbed, and no poet + known beyond it has breathed his soul into it; her architecture was first + the Gothic from over the Alps, and then of the Renaissance which built the + palaces of her merchants in a giant bulk and of a brutal grandeur. She had + not the political genius of Venice, the oligarchic instinct of + self-preservation from popular misgovernment and princely aggression. Her + story is the usual Italian story of a people jealous of each other, and, + in their fear of a native tyrant, impatiently calling in one foreign + tyrant after another and then furiously expelling him. When she would + govern herself, she first made her elective chief magistrate Doge for + life, and then for two years; under both forms she submitted and rebelled + at will from 1359 till 1802, when, after having accepted the French notion + of freedom from Bonaparte, she enjoyed a lion's share of his vicissitudes. + For a hundred years before that the warring powers had fought over her in + their various quarrels about successions, and she ought to have been well + inured to suffering when, in 1800, the English and the Austrians besieged + her French garrison, and twenty thousand of her people starved in a cause + not their own. The English restored the Doges, and the Republic of Genoa + fell at last nineteen years after the Republic of Venice and three hundred + years after the Republic of Florence. She was given to Piedmont in 1815 by + the Congress of Vienna, and she has formed part of Italy ever since the + unification. I believe that now she is of rather radical opinions in + politics, though the bookseller who found on his shelves a last copy of + the interesting sketch of Genoese history which I have profited by so + little, said that the Genoese had been disappointed in the Socialists, + lately in power, and were now voting Clerical by a large majority. + </p> + <p> + The fact may have been colored by the book-seller's feelings. If the + Clericals are in superior force, the clerics are not: nowhere in Italy did + I see so few priests. All other orders of people throng the narrow, noisy, + lofty streets, where the crash of feet and hoofs and wheels beats to the + topmost stories of the palaces towering overhead in their stony + grandiosity. Everywhere in the structures dating after the Gothic period + there is want of sensibility; the art of the Renaissance was not moulded + here in the moods of a refined and effeminate patriciate, such as in + Venice tempered it to beauty; but it renders in marble the prepotence of a + commercialized nobility, and makes good in that form the right of the city + to be called Genoa the Proud. Perhaps she would not wish to be called + proud because of these palaces alone. It is imaginable that she would like + the stranger to remember the magnificence with which she rewarded the + patriotism of her greatest citizen after Columbus and Mazzini: that mighty + admiral, Andrea Doria, who freed this country first from the rule of + Charles V. and then from the rule of Francis I.; who swept the Barbary + corsairs from the seas; who beat the Turks in battles on ship and on + shore; who took Corsica from the French when he was eighty-eight years + old; who suffered from civil faction; who outlived exile as he had + outlived war, and who died at the age of ninety-four, after he had refused + the sovereignty of the country he had served so long; who was the + Washington of his day, and was equally statesman and soldier, and, above + all, patriot. It is his portrait that you see in that old palace (called + the Palace of the Prince because Charles V. had called him Prince) + overlooking the port, where he sits an old, old man, very weary, in the + sole society of his sarcastic cat, as I have noted before. The cat seems + to have just passed some ironical reflection on the vanity of human things + and to be studying him for the effect. Both appear indifferent to the + spectator, but perhaps they are not, and you must not for all that fail of + a visit to the Church of San Matteo, set round with the palaces of the + Doria family—the palace which his grateful country gave the Admiral + after he refused to be her master, and the palaces of his kindred + neighboring it round. + </p> + <p> + I do not remember any equal space in all Europe which, through a very + little knowledge, so takes the heart as the gentle little church founded + by an earlier Doria, and, after four hundred years, restored by a later, + and then environed with the stately homes of the race, where they could be + domesticated in the honor and reverence of their countrymen because of the + goodness and greatness of the loftiest of their line. It is such a place + as one may revere and yet possess one's soul in self-respect, very much as + one may revere Mount Vernon. The church, as well as the piazza, is full of + Dorian memories, and the cloister must be visited not only for its rather + damp beauty, but for the full meaning of the irony which Doria's cat in + the portrait wished to convey: against the wall here are gathered the + fragments of the statue of Doria which, when the French Revolution came to + Genoa, the patriots threw out of the ducal palace and broke in the street + below. + </p> + <p> + We were some time in finding our way into the magnificent hall of the + Great Council where this statue once stood, with the statues of many other + Genoese heroes and statesmen, and I am not sure that it was worth all our + trouble. Magnificent it certainly was, but coarsely magnificent, like so + much elsewhere in Genoa; but, if we had been at ten times the trouble we + were in seeing the Palace of the Municipality, I should not think it too + much. There in the great hall are the monuments of those Genoese notables + whose munificence their country wished to remember in the order of their + generosity. I do not remember just what the maximum was, but the Doge or + other leading citizen who gave, say, twenty-five thousand ducats to the + state had a statue erected to him; one who gave fifteen, a bust; and one + who gave five, an honorary tablet. The surprising thing is that nearly all + the statues and busts, whether good likenesses or not, are delightful art: + it is as if the noble acts of the benefactors of their country had + inspired the sculptors to reproduce them not only in true character, but + in due dignity. To the American who views them and remembers that we have + now so much money that some of us do not know what to do with it, they + will suggest that our millionaires have an unrivalled opportunity of + immortality in the same sort. There is hardly a town of ten thousand + inhabitants in the country where there are not men who could easily afford + to give a hundred thousand dollars, or fifty, or twenty to their native or + adoptive place and so enter upon a new life in bronze or marble. This + would enrich us beyond the dreams of avarice in a high-grade portrait + statuary; it would give work to hundreds of sculptors who now have little + or nothing to do, and would revive or create the supplementary industries + of casting in metal or carving in stone. + </p> + <p> + The time was in Genoa, it seems, as the time is now with us, when a great + many people did not know what to do with their money. There were sumptuary + laws which forbade their spending it, either they or their wives or + daughters, in dress; apparently they could not even wear Genoa velvet, + which had to be sold abroad for the corruption of the outside world; and + this is said to be the reason why there were so many palaces built in + Genoa in the days of the republic. People who did not wish to figure in + that hall of fame put their surplus into the immense and often ugly + edifices which we still see ministering to their pride in the wide and + narrow streets of the city. Now and then a devout family built or rebuilt + a church and gave it to the public; but by far the greater number put up + palaces, where, after the house-warming, they dwelt in a cold and + economical seclusion. Some of their palaces are now devoted to public + uses; they are galleries of pictures and statues most worthy to be seen, + or they are municipal offices, or museums, or schools of art or science; + but part are still in the keeping of the families that contributed them to + the splendor of their city. The streets in which they stand are loud with + transit and traffic, but the palaces hold aloof from the turmoil and lift + their lofty heads to the level of the gardens behind them. Huge, heavy + they are, according to the local ideal, and always wanting the delicacy of + Venetian architecture, where something in the native genius tempered to + gentleness the cold severity of Palladio, and where Sansovino knew how to + bridge the gulf between the Gothic and the Renascent art that would have + been Greek but halted at being Roman. + </p> + <p> + The grandeur of those streets of palaces in Genoa cannot be denied, but + perhaps, if the visitor quite consulted his preference or indulged his + humor, he would wander rather through the arcades of the busy port, up the + chasmal alleys of little shops into the tiny piazzas, no bigger than a + good-sized room, opening before some ancient church and packed with busy, + noisy people. The perspective there is often like the perspective in old + Naples, but the uproar in Genoa does not break in music as it does in + Naples, and the chill lingering in the sunless depths of those chasms is + the cold of a winter that begins earlier and a spring that loiters later + than the genial seasons of the South. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X. EDEN AFTER THE FALL + </h2> + <p> + A few years ago an Englishman who had lived our neighbor in the same villa + at San Remo, came and said that he was going away because it was so dull + at San Remo. He was going with his wife to Monte Carlo, because you could + find amusement every day in the week at the tables of the different games + of chance, and Sundays there was a very nice little English church. He did + not seem to think there was anything out of the way in his grouping of + these advantages, but he did not strongly urge them upon us, and we + restricted ourselves in turn to our tacit reflections on the indifference + of the English to a point of morals on which the American conscience is + apt to suffer more or less anguish if it offends. So far as I know they do + not think it wrong to take money won at any game; but possibly their + depravity in this matter rather comforted us than offended. At any rate, I + am sure of the superiority of our own morals in visiting Monte Carlo after + we left Genoa. If we did not look forward with our Englishman's + complacency to the nice little church there, we certainly did not mean to + risk our money at the tables of Roulette, nor yet at the tables of Trente + et Quarante, in the Casino. What we really wished to do was to look on in + the spiritual security of saints while the sinners of both sexes lost and + gained to the equal hurt of their souls. We perhaps expected to hear the + report of a pistol in the gardens of the Casino, if we did not actually + see the ruined gambler falling among the flowers, or if not so much as + this, we thought we might witness his dramatic despair as the croupier + drew in the last remnant of his fortune and mechanically invited the other + Messieurs and Mesdames to make their game; secretly, we might even have + been willing to see something hysterical on the part of the Mesdames if + fate frowned upon them, or something scandalously exuberant if it smiled. + If our motives were not the worst, they were, at any rate, not the best; I + suppose they were the usual human motives, and I am afraid they were + mixed. + </p> + <p> + We found it rather long from Genoa to Monte Carlo, but this was not so + much because of the distance as because of the delays of our train, which, + having started late, grew reckless on the way, and before we reached the + Italian frontier at Ventimiglia, had lost all shame and failed to connect + there with the French train for the rest of our journey. So, instead of + having barely time to affirm our innocence of tobacco, spirits, or + perfumes to the customs officers, and to wash down a sandwich with a cup + of coffee at the restaurant, we had an hour and forty minutes at + Ventimiglia, which I partly spent in vain attempts to buy the poverty of + the inspector so far as to prevail with him not to delay the examination + of our baggage, but to proceed to it at once, in order that we might have + it all off our minds, and devote our long leisure to the inquiry by what + steps the ancient Ligurian tribe of the Intemelii lost their name in its + actual corruption of Ventimiglia. It is a charming old town, far more + charming than the stranger who never has time to walk into it from the + station can imagine, and there is a palm-bordered avenue leading from the + railway to the sea, with the shops and cafes of Italy on one side and the + shops and cafes of France on the other. So late as six o'clock in the + evening those cafes and shops preserved a reciprocal integrity which I + could not praise too highly, but after dark there must be a ghostly + interchange of forbidden commodities among them which no force of customs + officers could wholly suppress. At any rate, I should have liked to see + them try it, though I should not have liked to be kept in Ventimiglia + overnight for any less reason; it seemed a lonesome place, though mighty + picturesque, with old walls, and a magnificent old fort toward the sea, + and a fine bridge spanning, though for the moment superfluously spanning, + the perfectly dry bed of a river. + </p> + <p> + I wished to ask what the name of the river was, but out of all the files + of people coming and going I chose an aged man who could not tell me; he + excused himself with real regret on the ground that he was a stranger in + those parts. Then there was nothing for me to do but go back to the + station and renew my attempt on the inspector, who still remained proof + against me. What added to the hardship of the situation was that it was + Italy at one end of the station and France at the other, and in one + extremity it was an hour earlier than it was at the other, by the time of + Central Europe at the east and by the time of Paris at the west, so that I + do not know but we were two hours and forty minutes at Ventimiglia instead + of one hour and forty minutes. Of this period little could be employed at + tea, and we were not otherwise hungry; we could give something of our + interminable leisure to counting our baggage and suffering unfounded + alarms at failing to make it come out right, but we could not give much. + </p> + <p> + The weather had turned chilly, the long station was full of draughts, and + the invalid of the party, without whom no American party is perfectly + national, was rapidly taking cold. We were quite incredulous when the + examination actually began, but at last it really did, and it began with + our pieces, with such a show of favoring us on the inspector's part, that + when it was over, in about two minutes, one trunk serving as a type of the + innocence of all, I furtively held up a piece of five francs in + recognition of his kindness. But he slowly shook his head, whether in + regret or whether in stern refusal I shall never know. He was an Italian, + but in the employment of the French republic, and I have not been able + since to credit with certainty his incorruptibility to his native or his + adoptive country; I might easily be mistaken in deciding either way. + </p> + <p> + What I am certain of, and certainly sorry for, is the superiority of the + French company's railway carriage, from Ventimiglia on, to the Italian + carriage which had brought us so far, and it is still with unwillingness + that I own the corporation's greater care for our comfort. If we had been + in the paternal care of the administration of the gambling-house. at Monte + Carlo, we could not have been more tenderly or cleanly cushioned about, or + borne away on softer springs; and very possibly a measure of wickedness in + the means is a condition of comfort in the end to which we are so tempted + to abandon ourselves in a world which is not yet so sternly collectivist + as I could wish. It was not quite dark when we arrived at Monte Carlo and + began to experience, in the beautiful keeping of the place, how admirably + a gambling-house can manage the affairs of a principality when it pays all + the taxes. There were many two-horse landaus waiting our pleasure outside + the station, and the horses were all so robust and handsome that we were + not put to our usual painful endeavor in seeking the best and getting the + worst. All those stately equipages were good, and the one that fell to us + mounted the hill to our hotel by a grade so insinuating that the balkiest + horse in Frascati could hardly have suspected it. + </p> + <p> + In our easy ascent we were aware of the gray-and-blond houses behind their + walls among their groves and gardens, among flowers and blossoms; of the + varying inclines and levels from which some lovely difference of prospect + appeared at every step; of the admirably tended roadways, and the walks + that followed them up hill and down, and crossed to little parks, or led + to streets brilliant with shops and hotels, clustering about the great + gambling-house, the centre of the common prosperity and animation. The air + had softened with the setting sun, and the weather which had at Leghorn + and Genoa delayed through two weeks of rain and cold, seemed to confess + the control of the Casino administration, as everything else does at Monte + Carlo, and promised an amiability to which we eagerly trusted. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0051" id="linkimage-0051"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-51.jpg" alt="51 Monaco " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + It was of course warmer out-doors than in-doors, and while the fire was + kindling on our hearth we gave the quarter hour before dinner to looking + over our garden-wall into the comely town in the valley below, and to the + palace and capital of the Prince of Monaco on the heights beyond. Nothing + by day or by night could be more exquisite than the little harbor, a + perfect horseshoe in shape, and now, at our first sight of it, set round + with electric lights, like diamonds in the scarf-pin of some sporty Titan, + or perhaps of Hercules Monoecus himself, who is said to have founded + Monaco. In the morning we saw that the waters arranged themselves in the + rainbow colors of such a scarf round the shores, and that there were only + pleasure-craft moored in them: the yacht of the Prince of Monaco and the + yacht of some American Prince, whose title I did not ascertain, but whose + flag was unmistakable. There must have been other yachts, but I do not + remember them, and possibly there were some workaday craft, of which I do + not now recall the impression; but I am certain of the festive air of + disoccupation pervading the port from the adjacent towns, both Monte Carlo + and Monaco, which its wicked suburb has cleansed in corrupting, and + rendered attractive by the example of its elegant leisure. There remains + from both places, and from Condamine in the plain between them the sense + of a perpetual round of holidays. There seemed to be no more creative + business in one place than another, but I do not say there is none; there + is certainly a polite distillery of perfumes and liqueurs in Condamine, + but what one sees is the commerce of the shops, and the building up of + more and more villas and hotels, on every shelf and ledge, to harden and + whiten in the sun, and let their gardens hang over the verges of the + cliffs. On the northeast, the mountains rise into magnificent steeps whose + names would say nothing to the reader, except that of Turbia, which he + will recall as the classic Tropaea of Augustus, who marked there the + bounds between Italy and Gaul. But we were as yet in no mood to climb this + height, even with the help of a funicular railway, and I made my + explorations at such convenient elevations as I could reach on foot, or by + the help of one of those luxurious landaus peculiar to Monte Carlo. + </p> + <p> + One such point was undoubtedly the headland of Monaco, where the Greeks of + Marseilles, long enough before Augustus, built a temple to Hercules + Monoecus. The Grimaldi family which gave Genoa many doges, came early into + the sovereignty of Monaco, by the hook or crook those days, but whether it + was they who fostered its piracy in the fourteenth century, does not + distinctly appear, though it seems certain that one of the Grimaldi + princes served against the English under Philip of Valois, and was wounded + at Crecy. In 1524 a successor went over to the empire under Charles V. + Still later the principality returned to the sovereignty of France, and in + 1793 the French republicans frankly annexed it, but it was given back to + the Grimaldi in 1814. + </p> + <p> + The Grimaldi on the whole were a baddish line of potentates, and only + lacked largeness of scene to have left the memory of world-tragedies. They + murdered one another, at least in two cases; in another, the people killed + their ruler by publicly drowning him in the sea for insulting their women; + the princes were the protectors of piracy, and in the very late times + following their restoration by the Congress of Vienna, the reigning prince + confiscated the property of the churches for his own behoof, and took into + his hands the whole trade of the principality. He alone bought and ground + the grain, and baked the bread, which he sold to his people at an + extortionate price; he bought damaged flour in Genoa and fed it to his + subjects at the same rate as good. When they murmured and threatened + rebellion, he threatened in turn that he would rule them with a rod of + iron, as if their actual conditions were not bad enough. Some of his + oppressions were of a fantasticality bordering on comic opera: travellers + had to give up their provisions at the frontier and eat the official bread + of Monaco; ships entering the port were confiscated if they had brought + more loaves than sufficed them for their voyage thither; no man might cut + his own wood without leave of the police, or prune his trees, or till his + land, or irrigate it; the birth and death of every animal must be publicly + registered, with the payment of a given tax, and nobody could go out after + ten at night without carrying a taxed lantern. When Nice was annexed to + France in 1860 Monaco passed under French protection again, and now it is + subject to conscription like the rest of France. Ten years after the + beginning of this new order of things the great M. Blanc was expelled from + Hombourg, and the Prince of Monaco rented to him the-gambling privilege of + Monte Carlo. + </p> + <p> + Then the modern splendor of the place began. The entire population of the + three towns, Monaco, Monte Carlo, and Condamine, is not above fifteen + thousand, and apparently the greater part of the inhabitants depend upon + the gay industry of the Casino for their livelihood. I should say that the + most of the houses in Monte Carlo were hotels, or pensions, or furnished + villas, or furnished apartments, and if one could be content to live in + the atmosphere of the Casino, which is not meteorologically lurid, I do + not know where one could live in greater comfort. It is said that + everything is rather dearer than in Nice, for instance, but such things as + I wanted to buy I did not find very dear. The rates at the most expensive + hotels did not seem exhorbitant when reduced to dollars, and if you went a + little way from the Casino the hotels were very reasonable, so that you + could spend a great deal of money at the tables which in America you would + spend in board and lodging. I fancy that a villa could be got there very + reasonably, and as the morals of all the inhabitants are scrupulously + cared for by the administration of the Casino, and no one living in the + principality is allowed to frequent the gaming-tables, it is probable that + domestic service is good and cheap. If I may speak from our experience at + our very simple little hotel, it is admirable, one waiter sufficing for + ten or twelve guests, with leisure for much friendly conversation in the + office, between the breakfasts served in our rooms and the excellent + dinners at the small tables in the salon. If you liked, he would speak + French or Italian, though he spoke English as well as any one, and he was + of that excellent Piedmontese race which has been the saving salt of the + whole peninsula. As for the food, it was far beyond that of our + cold-storage, and it must have been cheap, since it was provided for us at + the rate we paid. + </p> + <p> + The cost of dress varies, according to the taste of and the purse, + everywhere. White serge seemed the favorite wear of most of the ladies one + saw in the street at Monte Carlo, especially in the region of the Casino. + This may have expressed an inner condition, or it may have been a + sympathetic response to the advances of the flowers in the pretty beds and + parterres so fancifully designed by the gardeners of the administration, + or it may have been a token of the helpless submission to which the + windows of the milliners and modistes reduced all comers of the dressful + sex. Many of the men with the women, or without them, were also in white + serge, but they seemed more variably attired; there was a prevailing + suggestion of yachting or automobiling in their dress, though doubtless + most of them had not sailed or motored to the spot. Some few, say four or + five, may have motored away from it, for in the centre of the charming + square before the Casino there was an automobile of some newest type being + raffled for in the interest of that chiefest of the Christian virtues + which makes its most successful appeals in the vicinity of games of + chance. Some one must have won the machine and carried a party of his + friends away, and triumphantly turned turtle with it over the first of the + precipices which abound at Monte Carlo. More than the tables within this + opportunity of fortune tempted me, and it was only by the repeated + recurrence to my principles that I was able to get away alive. In spite of + myself, I did not get away without, however guiltlessly, having yielded to + the spirit of the place. It was at the Administrational Art Exhibition, + where there were really some good pictures, and where, on my entering, I + was given a small brass disk. On going out I attempted to restore this to + the door-keeper, but he went back with me to a certain piece of mechanism, + where he instructed me to put the disk into a slot. Then the disk ran its + course, and a small brass ball came out at the bottom. The door-keeper + opened this, and showed me that it was empty; but he gave me to understand + that it might have been full of diamonds, or rubies, or seed-pearls, which + might have implanted in me a lust of gambling I should never have + overcome. Monte Carlo was in every way tempting. A vast oblong, brilliant + with flowers in artistic patterns, stretched upward from the Casino, and + there was an agreeable park where one might sit. On every other side there + were costly hotels and costly restaurants, including that of the + unexampled, the insurpassable Giro, where one saw people eating and + drinking at the windows whenever one passed, by day or night. Beyond the + Casino seaward were the beautiful terraces, planted with palms and other + tropic growths, where people might come out and kill themselves when they + had nothing left to lose but their lives; and against the dark green of + their fronds the temple of fortune lifted a frosted-cake-like front of + long extent. I do not know just what type of architecture it is of, but it + distinctly suggests the art of the pastry cook when he has triumphed in + some edifice crowning the centre of the table at a great public dinner. + What mars the pleasing effect most is a detail which enforces this + suggestion, for the region of the Casino is thickly frequented by a + species of black doves, and when these gather in close lines of black dots + along the eaves, they have exactly the effect of flies clustering on the + sugary surfaces of the cake. At intervals are bronze statues of what seem + a sort of adolescent cherubs, but which have, I do not know why, a + peculiarly devilish appearance. No doubt they are harmless enough; but + certainly they do nothing to keep the flies off the cake. + </p> + <p> + In fine, as an edifice the Casino disappoints, and if one is not + pressingly curious about the interior, one rather lingers on the terrace + overlooking the sea, and the lines of the railroad following the shore, + and the panorama of the several towns. It is charming to sit there, and if + it is in the afternoon, you may see an artist there painting water-colors + of the scenery. Even if he were not painting, you could not help knowing + him for an artist, because he wears a black velvet jacket and + knickerbockers, and a soft slouch hat, and has a curled black mustache and + pointed beard; there is no mistaking him; and at a given moment, after he + has been working long enough, he puts above his sketch the sign, “For + Sale,” as artists always do, and then, if you want a masterpiece, you go + down a few steps from where you are sitting and buy it. But I never did + that any more than I took tickets for the charity automobile, though there + is no telling what I might not have done if I had broken the bank when at + last I went into the Casino. + </p> + <p> + It seems to open about eleven o'clock in the morning, for gamblers are + hard-working, impatient people, and do not want to lose time. A broad + stretch of red carpet is laid down the steps from the portal and they + begin to go in at once, and people keep going in until I know not what + hour at night. But I think mid-afternoon is the best hour to see them, and + it is then that I will invite the reader to accompany me, instructing him + to turn to the left on entering, and get his gratis billet of admission to + the rooms from the polite officials there in charge, who will ask for his + card, and inquire his country and city, but will not insist upon his + street and his number in it. This form is apparently to make sure that you + are not a resident of the principality, and that if you suffer in your + morals from your visit to the Casino you shall not be a source of local + corruption thereafter. They bow you away, first audibly pronouncing your + name with polyglottic accuracy, and then you are free to wander where you + like. But probably you will want to go at once from the large, nobly + colonnaded reception-hall or atrium, into that series of salons where + wickeder visitors than yourself are already closely seated at the oblong + tables, and standing one or two deep round them. The salons of the series + are four, and the tables in each are from two to five, according to the + demands of the season; some are Trente et Quarante-tables, and some, by + far the greater number, are Roulette-tables. Roulette seems the simpler + game, and the more popular; I formed the notion that there was a sort of + aristocratic quality in Trente et Quarante, and that the players of that + game were of higher rank and longer purse, but I can allege no reason + justifying my notion. All that I can say is that the tables devoted to it + commanded the seaward views, and the tops of the gardens where the players + withdrew when they wished to commit suicide. The rooms are decorated by + several French painters of note, and the whole interior is designed by the + famous architect Gamier, to as little effect of beauty as could well be. + It is as if these French artists had worked in the German taste, rather + than their own, and in any case they have achieved in their several + allegories and impersonations something uniformly heavy and dull. One + might fancy that the mood of the players at the tables had imparted itself + to the figures in the panels, but very likely this is not so, for the + players had apparently parted with none of their unpleasing dulness. They + were in about equal number men and women, and they partook equally of a + look of hard repression. The repression may not have been wholly from + within; a little away from each table hovered, with an air of detachment, + certain plain and quiet men, who, for all their apparent inattention, may + have been agents of the Administration vigilant to subdue the slightest + show of drama in the players. I myself saw no drama, unless I may call so + the attitude of a certain tall, handsome young man, who stood at the + corner of one of the tables, and, with nervously working jaws, staked his + money at each invitation of the croupiers. I did not know whether he won + or lost, and I could not decide from their faces which of the other men or + women were winning or losing. I had supposed that I might see + distinguished faces, distinguished figures, but I saw none. The players + were of the average of the spectators in dress and carriage, but in the + heavy atmosphere of the rooms, which was very hot and very bad, they all + alike looked dull. At a psychological moment it suddenly came to me in + their presence, that if there was such a place as hell, it must be very + dull, like that, and that the finest misery of perdition must be the + stupid dulness of it. For some unascertained reason, but probably from a + mistaken purpose of ornament, there hung over the centre of each table, + almost down to the level of the players' heads, lengths of large-linked + chains, and it was imaginable, though not very probable, that if any of + the lost souls rose violently up, or made an unseemly outcry, or other + rebellious demonstration, those plain, quiet men, the agents of the + Administration, would fling themselves upon him or her, and bind them with + those chains, and cast them into such outer darkness as could be + symbolized by the shade of the terrace trees. The thing was improbable, as + I say, but not impossible, if there is truth in Swedenborg's relation that + the hells are vigilantly policed, and from time to time put in order by + angels detailed for that office. To be sure the plain, quiet men did not + look like angels, and the Administration of which they were agents, could + not, except in its love of order, be likened to any celestial authority. + </p> + <p> + Commonly in the afternoon there is music in the great atrium from which + the gambling-rooms open, and then there is a pleasant movement of people + up and down. They are kept in motion perhaps by their preference, + somewhat, but also largely by the want of seats. If you can secure one of + these you may amuse yourself very well by looking on at the fashion and + beauty of those who have not secured any. Here you will see much more + distinction than in the gambling-rooms; the air is better, and if you + choose to fancy this the limbo of that inferno, it will not be by a + violent strain. In the crowd will be many pretty young girls, in proper + chaperonage, and dressed in the latest effects of Paris; if they happen to + be wearing the mob-cap hats of the moment it is your greater gain; they + could not be so charming in anything else, or look more innocent, or more + consciously innocent. You could only hope, however, such were the malign + associations of the place, that their chaperons would not neglect them for + the gaming-tables beyond, but you could not be sure, if the chaperons were + all like that old English lady one evening at the opera in the Casino, who + came in charge of her niece, or possibly some friend's daughter. She + remained dutifully enough beside the girl through the first act of the + stupid musical comedy, and even through the ensuing ballet, and when a + flaunting female, in a hat of cart-wheel circumference, came in and shut + out the whole stage from the hapless stranger behind, this good old lady + authorized her charge to ask him to take the seat next them where he could + see something of the action if he wished. But at the end of the ballet, + she rose, and bidding the girl wait her return, she vanished in the + direction of the gaming-rooms. She may merely have gone to look on at a + spectacle which, dulness for dulness, was no worse than that of the + musical comedy, and I have no proof that she risked her money there. The + girl sat through the next act, and then in a sudden fine alarm, like that + of a bird which, from no visible cause, starts from its perch, she took + flight, and I hope she found her aunt, or her mother's friend, quietly + sleeping on one of those seats in the atrium. It was one of those tacit, + eventless dramas which in travel are always offering themselves to your + witness. They begin in silence, and go quietly on to their unfinish, and + leave you steeped in an interest which is life-long, whereas a story whose + end you know soon perishes from your mind. Art has not yet learned the + supreme lesson of life, which is never a tale that is told within the + knowledge of the living. + </p> + <p> + Nowhere, I think, is the “sweet security of streets” felt more than in + Monte Carlo. Whether the control of that good Administration of the Casino + reaches to the policing of the place in other respects or not, I cannot + say, but one walks home at night from the theatre of the Casino with the + same sense of safety that one enjoys under that paternal roof. At eleven + o'clock all Monte Carlo sleeps the sleep of the innocent and the just in + the dwellings of the citizens and permanent residents; though it cannot be + denied that there appear to be late suppers in the hotels and restaurants + surrounding the Casino, which the iniquitous may be giving to the guilty. + Away from the flare of their bold lights the town reposes in a demi-dark, + and presents to the more strenuous fancy the effect of a mezzotint study + of itself; by day it is a group of wash-drawings near to, and farther off, + of water-colors, very richly and broadly treated. I could not insist too + much upon this notion with the reader who has never been there, or has not + received picture postal-cards from sojourning correspondents. These would + afford him a portrait of the chief features and characteristics of the + place not too highly flattered, for in fact it would be impossible for + even a picture postal-card to exaggerate its beauty. They will besides + convey one of the few convincing proofs that in spite of the Blanc Casino + and the French Republic the Prince of Monaco is still a reigning + sovereign, for the postage-stamps bear the tastefully printed head of that + potentate. If the visitor requires other proofs he may take a landau at + the station in Monaco, and drive up over the heights of the capital into + the piazza before the prince's palace. When the prince is not at home he + can readily get leave to visit the palace for twenty minutes, but on my + unlucky day the prince was doubly at home, for he was sick as well as in + residence. I satisfied myself as well as I could, and I am very easy to + satisfy, with my drive through the pleasant town, which is entirely + Italian in effect, with its people standing about or looking out of their + windows in their Sunday leisure, and quite Roman in the cleanliness of its + streets. I took due pleasure in the unfinished exterior of the + Oceanographic Museum and the newly finished interior of the Monaco + Cathedral. The cathedral, which is so new as to make one rejoice that most + other cathedrals are old, is of a glaring freshness, but is very handsome; + somehow in spite of its newness it contains the tombs of the reigning + family, and perhaps it has only been newly done over. The museum which is + ultimately to be the greatest of its kind in the world, already contains + somewhere in its raw inaccessible recesses the collections made by Prince + Albert in his many cruises, and is of a palatiality worthy of a sovereign + with a tenant so generous and prompt in its rent as the Administration of + the Casino of Monte Carlo. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0052" id="linkimage-0052"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%;"> + <img src="images/r1-52.jpg" alt="52 the Casino, Monte Carlo " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + This fact, namely, that the princely grandeur and splendor of Monaco all + came out of the gaming-tables, was something that the driver of my landau + made me observe, when our intimacy had mounted with our road, and we + paused for the magnificent view of the sea from the headland near the + museum. He was otherwise a shrewd and conversible Piedmontese who did not + make me pay much above the tariff, and who had pity on my poor French + after awhile, and consented to speak Italian with me. In the sort of + French glare over the whole local civilization of the principality, + everybody will wish to seem French, but after you break through the + surface, the natives will be as comfortably and endearingly Italian as + anybody in the peninsula. Among themselves they speak a Ligurian patois, + but with the stranger they will use an Italian easily much better than + his, and also much better than their own French. I think they prefer you + in their racial parlance after you have shown some knowledge of it, and + two kind women of whom I asked my way in Monte Carlo, one day when I was + trying for the station of the funicular to Turbia, grew more volubly kind + when I asked it in such Tuscan as I could command. That station is really + not hard to find when once you know where it is, and at three o'clock in + the afternoon I was mounting the precipitous incline of the alp on whose + summit Augustus divided Italy from Gaul, and left the stupendous trophy + which one sees there in ruins to-day. + </p> + <p> + I should like to render the sense of my upward progress dramatic by + pretending that we mounted from a zone of flowers at Monte Carlo into + regions where only the hardiest blossoms greeted us, but what I really + noticed was that by-and-by the little patches of vineyard seemed to grow + less and the olive-trees scraggier. Perhaps even this was partly fancy; as + for the flowers, I cannot bring myself to partake of their deceit; for + they are the most shameless fakers, as regards climate, in nature. It is, + for instance, perfectly true that they are in bloom along the Riviera all + winter long, but this does not prove that the winter of the Riviera is + always warm. It merely proves that flowers can stand a degree of cold that + nips the nose bent to hale their perfume, and brings tears into the eyes + dwelling in rapture on their loveliness. They are like women; they look so + fragile and delicate that you think they cannot stand anything, but they + can stand pretty much everything, or at least everything they wish to. + Throughout that week at Monte Carlo, while we cowered round our fires or + went out into a frigid sunshine, the flowers smiled from every + garden-ground in a gayety emulous of that of their sisters passing in + white serge. So probably I gave less attention to the details of the + scenery through which my funicular was passing than to the stupendous + prospects of sea and shore which it varyingly commanded. If words could + paint these I should not spare the words, but when I recall them, my + richest treasure of adjectives seems a beggarly array of color tubes, + flattened and twisted past all col-lapsibility. Nothing less than an + old-fashioned panoramic show would impart any notion of it, and even that + must fail where it should most abound, namely, in the delicacy of that + ineffable majesty. + </p> + <p> + We climbed and climbed, with many a muted hope and many a muted fear of + the mechanism which carried us so safely, and then we ran across a stretch + of comparative level and reached the last station, under the cliff on + which the local hotel stood, with the mighty ruin behind it. Our + passengers flocked up to the terrace of the hotel, much shoved and + shouldered by automobiles bearing the company which seems proper to those + vehicles, and dispersed themselves at the many little tables set about for + tea, and the glory of the matchless outlook. While one could yet have the + ruin mostly to one's self, it seemed the most favorable moment to visit + the crumbling walls and broken tower, whose fragments strewed the slopes + around. The tower was of Augustus, and the fortress into which it was + turned in the Middle Ages was of unknown authority, but the ruin was the + work of Marshal Villars, who blew up both trophy and stronghold sometime + in the French king's wars with the imperialists in the first half of the + eighteenth century. The destruction was incomplete, though probably + sufficient for the purpose, but as a ruin, nothing could be more + admirable. There seems to be at present something like a restoration going + on; it has not gone very far, however; it has developed some fragments of + majestic pillars, and some breadths of Roman brick-work; a few spaces + about the base of the tower are cleared; but the rehabilitation will + probably never proceed to such an extreme that you may not sit down on + some carven remnant of the past, and closing your eyes to the surrounding + glory of alp and sea find yourself again on the Palatine or amid the + memorials of the Forum. + </p> + <p> + THE END <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Roman Holidays and Others, by W. D. 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