Part 4

St. Mark’s Place, after all I had read and all I had heard of it, exceeded expectation; such a cluster of excellence, such a constellation of artificial beauties, my mind had never ventured to excite the idea of within herself.... Whoever sees St. Mark’s Place lighted up of an evening, adorned with every excellence of human art and pleasure, expressed by intelligent countenances sparkling with every grace of nature; the sea washing its walls, the moonbeams dancing on its subjugated waves, sport and laughter resounding from the cafés, girls with guitars skipping about the square, masks and merry-makers singing as they pass you, unless a barge with a band of music is heard at some distance upon the water, and calls attention to sounds made sweeter by the element over which they are brought--whoever is led suddenly, I say, to this scene of seemingly perennial gaiety, will be apt to cry out of Venice, ...

‘With thee conversing, I forget all time, All seasons and their change--all please alike.’

For it is sure there are in this town many astonishing privations of all that are used to make other places delightful; and as poor Omai, the savage, said, when about to return to Otaheite: ‘No horse there, no ass, no cow, no golden pippins, no dish of tea.... I am always so content there, though.’ It is really just so one lives at this lovely Venice. One has heard of a horse being exhibited there, and yesterday I watched the poor people paying a penny a-piece for the sight of a stuffed one.... The view of Venice from the Zuecca would invite one never more to stray from it, farther, at least, than to St. George’s Church, on another little opposite island, whence the prospect is surely wonderful.... On Saturday next I am to forsake--but I hope not for ever--this gay, this gallant city, so often described, so certainly admired--seen with rapture, quitted with regret. Seat of enchantment! head-quarters of pleasure, farewell!

MRS. PIOZZI (1785).

TO VENICE

‘Questi palazzi, e queste logge or colte.’

These marble domes, by wealth and genius graced, With sculptured forms, bright hues, and Parian stone, Were once rude cabins ’midst a lonely waste, Wild shores of solitude, and isles unknown. Pure from each vice, ’twas here a venturous train Fearless in fragile barks explored the sea; Not theirs a wish to conquer or to reign, They sought these island-precincts--to be free.

Ne’er in their souls ambition’s flame arose, No dream of avarice broke their calm repose; Fraud, more than death, abhorred each artless breast; Oh! now, since Fortune gilds their brightening day, Let not those virtues languish and decay, O’erwhelmed by luxury, and by wealth opprest!

MRS. HEMANS. _From the Italian of ‘Della Casa.’_

VENICE: THAT RARE CITY

I have now a good while since taken footing in Venice, this admired maiden city, so called because she was never deflowered by any enemy since she had a being, nor since her Rialto was first erected, which is now above twelve ages ago.

I protest unto you at my first landing I was for some days ravished with the high beauty of this maid, with her lovely countenance. I admired her magnificent buildings, her marvellous situation, her dainty smooth neat streets, whereon you may walk most days in the year in a silk stocking and satin slippers, without soiling them, nor can the streets of Paris be so foul, as these are fair....

Give me leave to salute you first in these sapphics.

‘Insulam tendens iter ad Britannam Charta, de paucis volo, siste gressum, Verba Mansello, bene noscis illum, Talia perfer.

‘Finibus longe patriis Hoellus Dimorans, quantis Venetum superba Civitas leucis Doroberniensi Distat ab urbe;

‘Plurimum mentis tibi vult salutem, Plurimum cordis tibi vult vigorem, Plurimum sortis tibi vult favorem Regis et Aulæ.’

These wishes come to you from Venice, a place where there is nothing wanting that heart can wish; renowned Venice, the admiredst city in the world, a city that all Europe is bound unto, for she is her greatest rampart against that huge eastern tyrant the Turk by sea, else I believe he had overrun all Christendom by this time. Against him this city hath performed notable exploits, and not only against him, but divers other. She hath restored emperors to their throne, and popes to their chairs, and with her galleys often preserved Saint Peter’s barque from sinking: for which, by way of reward, one of his successors espoused her to the sea, which marriage is solemnly renewed every year in solemn profession by the Doge and all the Clarissimos, and a gold ring cast into the sea out of the great galleasse, called the _Bucentoro_, wherein the first ceremony was performed by the Pope himself, above three hundred years since, and they say it is the self-same vessel still, though often put upon the careen and trimmed. This made me think on that famous ship at Athens; nay, I fell upon an abstracted notion in philosophy, and a speculation touching the body of man, which being in perpetual flux, and a kind of succession of decays, and consequently requiring ever and anon a restoration of what it loseth of the virtue of the former ailment, and what was converted after the third concoction into blood and fleshly substance, which, as in all other sublunary bodies that have internal principles of heart, uses to transpire, breathe out, and waste away through invisible pores by exercise, motion, and sleep to make room still for a supply of new nourriture. I fell, I say, to consider whether our bodies may be said to be of like condition with this _Bucentoro_, which, though it be reputed still the same vessel, yet I believe there’s not a foot of that timber remaining which it had upon the first dock, having been, as they tell me, so often planked and ribbed, caulked and pierced. In like manner our bodies may be said to be daily repaired by new sustenance, which begets new blood, and consequently new spirits, new humours, and I may say new flesh, the old by continual deperdition and insensible transpirations evaporating still out of us, and giving way to stress; so that I make a question, whether by reason of these perpetual preparations and accretions the body of man may be said to be the same numerical body in his old age that he had in his manhood, or the same in his manhood that he had in his youth, the same in his youth that he carried about him in his childhood, or the same in his childhood which he wore first in the womb. I make a doubt whether I had the same identical individually numerical body when I carried a calf-leather satchel to school in Hereford, as when I wore a lambskin hood in Oxford, or whether I have the same mass of blood in my veins, and the same flesh now in Venice which I carried about me three years since up and down London streets, having in lieu of beer and ale drunk wine all this while, and fed upon different viands; now the stomach is like a crucible, for it hath a chemical kind of virtue to transmute one body into another, to transubstantiate fish and fruits into flesh within, and about us; but though it be questionable whether I wear the same flesh which is fluxible, I am sure my hair is not the same, for you may remember I went flaxen-haired out of England, but you shall find me returned with a very dark brown, which I impute not only to the heat and air of those hot countries I have ate my bread in, but to the quality and difference of food; but you will say that hair is but an excrementitious thing, and makes not to this purpose; moreover, methinks I hear you say that this may be true, only in the blood and spirits, or such fluid parts, not in the solid and heterogeneal parts; but I will press no further at this time this philosophical notion which the sight of _Bucentoro_ infused into me, for it hath already made me exceed the bounds of a letter, and I fear me to trespass too much upon your patience. I leave the further disquisition of this point to your own contemplations, who are a far riper philosopher than I, and have waded deeper into, and drunk more of Aristotle’s Well; but ... though it be doubtful whether I carry about me the same body or no, in all points that I had in England, I am well assured I bear still the same mind, and therein I verify the old verse--

‘Cœlum non animam mutant qui trans mare currunt.’

‘The air but not the mind they change, Who in outlandish countries range.’ ...

She [Venice] was built of the ruins of Aquileia and Padua, for when those swarms of tough northern people overran Italy under the conduct of that scourge of heaven Attila, with others, and that this soft voluptuous nation, after so long a desuetude from arms, could not repel their fury, many of the ancient nobility and gentry fled into these lakes and little islands, amongst the fishermen for their security, and finding the air good and commodious for habitation, they began to build upon those small islands, whereof there are in all three-score; and in tract of time, they conjoined and leagued them together by bridges, whereof there are now above eight hundred, and this makes up the city of Venice, who is now above twelve ages old, and was contemporary with the monarchy of France; but the signiory glorieth in one thing above the monarchy, that she was born a Christian, but the monarchy not. Though this city be thus hemmed in with the sea, yet she spreads her wings far wide upon the shore; she hath in Lombardy six considerable towns--Padua, Verona, Vicenza, Brescia, Crema, and Bergamo; she hath in the Marquisat, Bassan and Castlefranco; she hath all Friuli and Istria; she commands the shores of Dalmatia and Slavonia; she keeps under the power of Saint Mark, the islands of Corfu (anciently Corcyria), Cephalonia, Zant, Cerigo, Lucerigo, and Candy (Jove’s Cradle); she had a long time the kingdom of Cyprus, but it was quite rent from her by the Turk, which made that high-spirited Bassa, being taken prisoner at the Battle of Lepanto, where the grand signior lost above 200 galleys, to say, ‘That that defeat to his great master was but like the shaving of his beard or the paring of his nails; but the taking of Cyprus was like the cutting off of a limb, which will never grow again.’ This mighty potentate being so near a neighbour to her, she is forced to comply with him and give him an annual present in gold: she hath about thirty galleys most part of the year in course to scour and secure the gulf; she entertains by land in Lombardy and other parts 25,000 foot, besides some of the cantons of Suisses whom she gives pay unto; she hath also in constant pay 600 men of arms, and every one of these must keep two horses a-piece, for which they are allowed 120 ducats a year, and they are for the most part gentlemen of Lombardy. When they have any great expedition to make, they have always a stranger for their general, but he is supervised by two proveditors, without whom he cannot attempt anything.

Her great Council consists of above 2,000 gentlemen, and some of them meet every Sunday and holiday to choose officers and magistrates, and every gentleman being past twenty-five years of age is capable to sit in this Council. The Doge or Duke (their sovereign magistrate) is chosen by lots, which would be too tedious here to demonstrate, and commonly he is an aged man who is created, like that course they hold in the popedom. When he is dead there be inquisitors that examine his actions, and his misdemeanours are punishable in his heirs. There is a superintendent council of ten, and six of them may dispatch business without the Doge, but the Doge never without some of them, not as much as open a letter from any foreign state, though addressed to himself, which makes him to be called by other princes, _Testa di legno_, a head of wood.

The wealth of this republic hath been at a stand, or rather declining, since the Portugal found a road to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope; for this city was used to fetch all those spices and other Indian commodities from the grand Cairo down the Nile, being formerly carried to Cairo from the Red Sea upon camels’ and dromedaries’ backs, three score days’ journey; and so Venice used to dispense those commodities through all Christendom, which not only the Portugal, but the English and Hollander, now transport, and are masters of the trade. Yet there is no outward appearance at all of poverty, or any decay in this city, but she is still gay, flourishing, and fresh, and flowing with all kind of bravery and delight, which may be had at cheap rates....

I have now enough of the maiden city, and this week I am to go further into Italy; for though I have been a good while in Venice, yet I cannot say I have been hitherto upon the continent of Italy: for this city is nought else but a knot of islands in the Adriatic Sea, joined in one body by bridges, and a good way distant from the firm land. I have lighted upon very choice company, your cousin Brown and Master Web, and we all take the road of Lombardy, but we made an order amongst ourselves that our discourse be always in the language of the country, under penalty of a forfeiture, which is to be indispensably paid. Randal Symns made us a curious feast lately, where in a cup of the richest Greek we had your health, and I could not tell whether the wine or the remembrance of you was sweeter; for it was naturally a kind of aromatic wine, which left a fragrant perfuming kind of farewell behind it. I have sent you a runlet of it in the ship _Lion_, and if it come safe, and unpricked, I pray bestow some bottles upon the lady (you know) with my humble service.... Before I conclude I will acquaint you with a common saying that is used of this dainty city of Venice:

‘Venetia, Venetia, chi non te vede non te pregia, Ma chi t’ha troppo veduto te dispreggia.’

Englished and rhymed thus (though I know you need no translation, you understand so much of Italian):

‘Venice, Venice, none thee unseen can prize, Who hath seen too much will thee despise.’

I will conclude with that famous hexastic which Sannazaro made of this rare city, which pleaseth me much better:

‘Viderat Hadriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis Stare urbem, et toti ponere jura Mari; Nunc mihi Tarpeias quantum vis, Jupiter, Arces Objice, et illa tui mænia Martis ait, Sic Pelago Tibrim præfers, urbem aspice utramque, Illam homines dices, hanc posuisse Deos.’

‘When Neptune saw in Adrian surges stand Venice, and gave the sea laws of command: Now Jove, said he, object thy Capitol, And Mars’ proud walls: this were for to extol Tyber beyond the main; both towns behold; Rome, men thou’lt say, Venice the Gods did mould.’

Sannazaro had given him by Saint Mark a hundred zecchins, for every one of these verses, which amounts to about 300 pounds. It would be long before the city of London would do the like. Witness that cold reward, or rather those cold drops of water which were cast upon my countryman, Sir Hugh Middleton, for bringing Ware River through her streets, the most serviceable and wholesomest benefit that ever she received.

JAMES HOWELL (1621).

VENISE

Dans Venise la rouge, Pas un bateau qui bouge, Pas un pêcheur dans l’eau, Pas un falot.

Seul, assis à la grève, Le grand lion soulève, Sur l’horizon serein, Son pied d’airain.

Autour de lui, par groupes, Navires et chaloupes, Pareils à des hérons Couchés en ronds,

Dorment sur l’eau qui fume, Et croisent dans la brume, En légers tourbillons Leurs pavillons.

La lune qui s’efface Couvre son front qui passe D’un nuage étoilé Demi-voilé.

Ainsi, la dame abbesse De Sainte-Croix rabaisse Sa cape aux vastes plis Sur son surplis,

Et les palais antiques, Et les graves portiques, Et les blancs escaliers Des chevaliers,

Et les ponts, et les rues, Et les mornes statues, Et le golfe mouvant Qui tremble au vent,

Tout se tait, fors les gardes Aux longues hallebardes, Qui veillent aux créneaux Des arsenaux.

--Ah! maintenant plus d’une Attend, au clair de lune, Quelque jeune muguet, L’oreille au guet.

Pour le bal qu’ou prépare, Plus d’une qui se pare, Met devant son miroir Le masque noir....

Et qui, dans l’Italie, N’a son grain de folie? Qui ne garde aux amours Ses plus beaux jours?

Laissons la vieille horloge, Au palais du vieux doge, Lui compter de ses nuits Les longs ennuis.

Comptons plutôt, ma belle, Sur ta bouche rebelle, Tant de baisers donnés. Ou pardonnés.

Comptons plutôt tes charmes, Comptons les douces larmes Qu’à nos yeux a coûtè La volupté!

ALFRED DE MUSSET.

A PEERLESS CITY

Safe at Venice. A place whose strange and passing beauty is well known to thee by report of our mariners. Dost mind too how Peter would oft fill our ears withal, we handed beneath the table, and he still discoursing of this sea-enthroned and peerless city, in shape a bow, and its great canal and palaces on piles, and its watery ways plied by scores of gilded boats; and that market-place of nations, orbis, non urbis, forum, St. Mark his place? And his statue with the peerless jewels in his eyes, and the lion at his gate? But I, lying at my window in pain, may see none of these beauties as yet, but only a street, fairly paved, which is dull, and houses with oiled paper and linen, in lieu of glass, which is rude; and the passers-by, their habits and their gestures, wherein they are superfluous. Therefore, not to miss my daily comfort of whispering to thee, I will e’en turn mine eyes inward, and bind my sheaves of wisdom reaped by travel. For I love thee so, that no treasure pleases me not shared with thee; and what treasure so good and enduring as knowledge? This then have I, Sir Footsore, learned, that each nation hath its proper wisdom, and its proper folly; and methinks, could a great king, or duke, tramp like me, and see with his own eyes, he might pick the flowers, and eschew the weeds of nations, and go home and set his own folk on Wisdom’s hill....

The Italians are a polished and subtle people. They judge a man, not by his habits, but his speech and gesture. Here Sir Chough may by no means pass for falcon gentle, as did I in Germany, pranked in my noble servant’s feathers. Wisest of all nations in their singular temperance of food and drink. Most foolish of all to search strangers coming into their borders, and stay them from bringing much money in. They should rather invite it, and like other nations, let the traveller from taking of it out. Also here in Venice the dames turn their black hair yellow by the sun and art, to be wiser than Him who made them. Ye enter no Italian town without a bill of health, though now is no plague in Europe. This peevishness is for extortion’s sake. The innkeepers cringe and fawn, and cheat, and in country places, murder you. Yet will they give you clean sheets by paying therefor. Delicate in eating, and abhor from putting their hand in the plate; sooner they will apply a crust or what not. They do even tell of a cardinal at Rome, which armeth his guest’s left hand with a little bifurcal dagger to hold the meat, while his knife cutteth it. But methinks this, too, is to be wiser than Him, who made the hand so supple and prehensile....

Their bread is lovely white. Their meats they spoil with sprinkling cheese over them; O, perversity! Their salt is black; without a lie. In commerce these Venetians are masters of the earth and sea; and govern their territories wisely.... Also, in religion, they hang their cloth according to the wind, siding now with the Pope, now with the Turk; but aye with the god of traders, mammon hight. Shall flower so cankered bloom to the world’s end? But since I speak of flowers, this none may deny them, that they are most cunning in making roses and gilliflowers to blow unseasonably. In summer they nip certain of the budding roses and water them not. Then in winter they dig round these discouraged plants, and put in cloves; and so with great art rear sweet-scented roses, and bring them to market in January....

Sweetheart, I must be brief, and tell thee but a part of that I have seen, for this day my journal ends. To-night it sails for thee, and I, unhappy, not with it, but to-morrow, in another ship, to Rome.

Dear Margaret, I took a hand litter, and was carried to St. Mark his church. Outside it, towards the market-place, is a noble gallery, and above it four famous horses, cut in brass by the ancient Romans, and seem all moving, and at the very next step must needs leap down on the beholder. About the church are six hundred pillars of marble, porphyry, and ophites. Inside is a treasure greater than either at St. Denys, or Loretto, or Toledo. Here a jewelled pitcher given the seigniory by a Persian king, also the ducal cap blazing with jewels, and on its crown a diamond and a chrysolite, each as big as an almond; two golden crowns and twelve golden stomachers studded with jewels, from Constantinople; item, a monstrous sapphire; item, a great diamond given by a French king; item, a prodigious carbuncle; item, three unicorns’ horns. But what are these compared with the sacred relics?