Excessive heat.--The Devil and Senegal.--A dreary shore.--Scene of
the Doge’s nuptials with the sea.--Return to the Place of St.
Mark.--Swarm of Lawyers.--Receptacles for anonymous
accusations.--The Council of Ten.--Terrible punishments of its
victims.--Statue of Neptune.--Fatal Waters.--Bridge of Sighs.--The
Fondamenti Nuovi.--Conservatory of the Mendicanti.--An
Oratorio.--Profound attention of the Audience.
August 4th, 1780.
The heats were so excessive in the night, that I thought myself several
times on the point of suffocation, tossed about like a wounded fish, and
dreamt of the Devil and Senegal. Towards sunrise, a faint breeze
restored me to life and reason. I slumbered till late in the day, and
the moment I was fairly awake, ordered my gondolier to row out to the
main ocean, that I might plunge into the waves, and hear and see nothing
but waters around me.
We shot off, wound amongst a number of sheds, shops, churches, casinos,
and palaces, growing immediately out of the canals, without any
apparent foundation. No quay, no terrace, not even a slab is to be seen
before the doors; one step brings you from the hall into the bark, and
the vestibules of the stateliest structures lie open to the waters, and
but just above their level. I observed several, as I glided along,
supported by rows of well-proportioned columns, adorned with terms and
vases, beyond which the eye generally discovers a grand court, and
sometimes a garden.
In about half an hour, we had left the thickest cluster of isles behind,
and, coasting the Place of St. Mark opposite to San Giorgio Maggiore,
whose elegant frontispiece was distinctly reflected by the calm waters,
launched into the blue expanse of sea, from which rise the Carthusian
and two or three other woody islands. I hailed the spot where I had
passed such a happy visionary evening, and nodded to my friends the
pines.
A few minutes more brought me to a dreary, sun-burnt shore, stalked over
by a few Sclavonian soldiers, who inhabit a castle hard by, go regularly
to an ugly unfinished church, and from thence, it is to be hoped, to
paradise; as the air of their barracks is abominable, and kills them
like blasted sheep.
Forlorn as this island appeared to me, I was told it was the scene of
the Doge’s pageantry at the feast of the Ascension; and the very spot to
which he sails in the Bucentaur, previously to wedding the sea. You have
heard enough, and if ever you looked into a show-box, seen full
sufficient of this gaudy spectacle, without my enlarging upon the topic.
I shall only say, that I was obliged to pursue, partly, the same road as
the nuptial procession, in order to reach the beach, and was broiled and
dazzled accordingly.
At last, after traversing some desert hillocks, all of a hop with toads
and locusts (amongst which English heretics have the honour of being
interred), I passed under an arch, and suddenly the boundless plains of
ocean opened to my view. I ran to the smooth sands, extending on both
sides out of sight, and dashed into the waves, which were coursing one
another with a gentle motion, and breaking lightly on the shores. The
tide rolled over me as I lay floating about, buoyed up by the water, and
carried me wheresoever it listed. It might have borne me far out into
the main before I had been aware, so totally was I abandoned to the
illusion of the moment. My ears were filled with murmuring undecided
sounds; my limbs, stretched languidly on the surge, rose or sunk just as
it swelled or subsided. In this passive state I remained, till the sun
cast a less intolerable light, and the fishing-vessels, lying out in the
bay at a great distance, spread their sails and were coming home.
Hastening back over the desert of locusts, I threw myself into the
gondola; and, no wind or wave opposing, was soon wafted across to those
venerable columns, so conspicuous in the Place of St. Mark. Directing my
course immediately to the ducal palace, I entered the grand court,
ascending the giants’ stairs, and examined at my leisure its
bas-reliefs. Then, taking the first guide that presented himself, I was
shown along several cloisters and corridors, sustained by innumerable
pillars, into the state apartments, which Tintoret and Paolo Veronese
have covered with the triumphs of their country.
A swarm of lawyers filled the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, and one of the
first advocates in the republic was pleading with all his might, before
a solemn row of senators. The eyes and ears of the assembly seemed
equally affected. Clouds of powder, and volleys of execrations issuing
every instant from the disputants, I got out of their way; and was led
from hall to hall, and from picture to picture, with exemplary
resignation. To be sure, I was heartily tired, but behaved with decency,
having never once expressed how much I wished the chefs-d’œuvre I had
been contemplating, less smoky and numerous.
At last, I reached once more the colonnades at the entrance, and caught
the sea-breeze in the open porticoes which front San Giorgio Maggiore.
The walls are covered in most places with grim visages sculptured in
marble, whose mouths gape for accusations, and swallow every lie that
malice and revenge can dictate. I wished for a few ears of the same
kind, dispersed about the Doge’s residence, to which one might apply
one’s own, and catch some account of the mysteries within; some little
dialogue between the three Inquisitors, or debate in the Council of Ten.
This is the tribunal which holds the wealthy nobility in continual awe;
before which they appear with trembling and terror; and whose summons
they dare not disobey. Sometimes, by way of clemency, it condemns its
victims to perpetual imprisonment, in close, stifling cells, between
the leads and beams of the palace; or, unwilling to spill the blood of a
fellow-citizen, generously sinks them into dungeons, deep under the
canals which wash its foundations; so that, above and below, its majesty
is contaminated by the abodes of punishment. What other sovereign could
endure the idea of having his immediate residence polluted with tears?
or revel in his halls, conscious that many of his species were consuming
their hours in lamentations above his head, and that but a few beams
separated him from the scene of their tortures? However gaily disposed,
could one dance with pleasure on a pavement, beneath which lie damp and
gloomy caverns, whose inhabitants waste away by painful degrees, and
feel themselves whole years a-dying? Impressed by these terrible ideas,
I could not regard the palace without horror, and wished for the
strength of a thousand antediluvians, to level it with the sea, lay open
the secret recesses of punishment, and admit free gales and sunshine
into every den.
When I had thus vented my indignation, I repaired to the statue of
Neptune, whom twenty ages ago I should have invoked to second my
enterprise. Once upon a time no deity had a freer hand at razing cities.
His execution was renowned throughout all antiquity, and the proudest
monarchs deprecated the wrath of KΡΕΙΩΝ ΕΝΟΣΙΧΘΩΝ. But, like
the other mighty ones of ancient days, his reign is past and his trident
disregarded. Formerly any wild spirit found favour in the eyes of
fortune, and was led along the career of glory to the deliverance of
captives and the extirpation of monsters; but, in our degenerate times,
this easy road to fame is no longer open, and the means of producing
such signal events are perplexed and difficult.
Abandoning therefore the sad tenants of the Piombi to their fate, I left
the courts, and stepping into my bark, was rowed down a canal
overshadowed by the lofty walls of the palace. Beneath these fatal
waters the dungeons I have also been speaking of are situated. There the
wretches lie marking the sound of the oars, and counting the free
passage of every gondola. Above, a marble bridge, of bold majestic
architecture, joins the highest part of the prisons to the secret
galleries of the palace; from whence criminals are conducted over the
arch to a cruel and mysterious death. I shuddered whilst passing below;
and believe it is not without cause, this structure is named PONTE DEI
SOSPIRI. Horrors and dismal prospects haunted my fancy upon my return. I
could not dine in peace, so strongly was my imagination affected; but
snatching my pencil, I drew chasms and subterraneous hollows, the domain
of fear and torture, with chains, racks, wheels, and dreadful engines in
the style of Piranesi. About sunset I went and refreshed myself with the
cool air and cheerful scenery of the Fondamenti nuovi, a vast quay or
terrace of white marble, which commands the whole series of isles, from
San Michele to Torcello,
“That rise and glitter o’er the ambient tide.”
Nothing can be more picturesque than the groups of towers and cupolas
which they present, mixed with flat roofs and low buildings, and now and
then a pine or cypress. Afar off, a little woody isle, called Il
Deserto, swells from the ocean and diversifies its expanse.
When I had spent a delightful half-hour in viewing the distant isles, M.
de Benincasa accompanied me to the Mendicanti, one of the four
conservatorios, which give the best musical education conceivable to
near one hundred young women. You may imagine how admirably those of
the Mendicanti in particular are taught, since their establishment is
under the direction of Bertoni, who breathes around him the very soul of
harmony. The chapel in which we sat to hear the oratorio was dark and
solemn; a screen of lofty pillars, formed of black marble and highly
polished, reflected the lamps which burn perpetually before the altar.
Every tribune was thronged with people, whose profound silence showed
them worthy auditors of this master’s music. Here were no cackling old
women, or groaning Methodists, such as infest our English tabernacles,
and scare one’s ears with hoarse coughs accompanied by the naso
obligato. All were still and attentive, imbibing the plaintive notes of
the voices with eagerness; and scarce a countenance but seemed deeply
affected with David’s sorrows, the subject of the performance. I sat
retired in a solitary tribune, and felt them as my own. Night came on
before the last chorus was sung, and I still seem to hear its sacred
melody.