The annual fair is what contributes most to keeping their folks alive
though, for such are the roads it is scarce possible any strangers
should come near them, and our people complain that the inns are very
extortionate: here is one building, however, that promises wonders from
its prodigious size and magnificence; I only wonder such accommodation
should be thought necessary.
The gentleman who shewed us the Ducal palace, seemed himself much struck
with its convenience and splendour; but I had seen Versailles, Turin,
and Genoa. What can be seen here, and here alone, are the numerous and
incomparable works of Giulio Romano; of which no words that I can use
would give my readers any adequate idea.--For such excellence language
has no praise, and of such performances taste will admit no criticism.
The giants could scarcely have been more amazed at Jupiter's thunder,
than I was at their painted fall. If Rome is to exhibit any thing beyond
this, I shall really be more dazzled than delighted; for imagination
will stretch no further, and admiration will endure no more.
* * * * *
Sunday, April 10.
Here is no appearance of spring yet, though so late in the year; what
must it be in England? One almond and one plum tree have I seen in
blossom; but no green leaf out of the bud: so cheerless has been the
road between Mantua and Verona, which, however, makes amends for all on
our arrival. How beautiful the entrance is of this charming city, how
grand the gate, how handsome the drive forward, may all be read here in
a printed book called _Verona illustrata_: but my felicity in finding
the amphitheatre so well preserved, can only be found in my own heart,
which began sensibly to dilate at the seeing an old Roman colisseum kept
so nicely, and repaired so well. It is said that the arena here is
absolutely perfect; and if the galleries are a little deficient, there
can be no dispute concerning the _podium_, or lower seats, which remain
exactly as they were in old times: while I have heard that the building
of the same kind now existing at Nismes, shews the manner of entering
exceeding well; and the great one built by Vespasian has every thing
else: so that an exact idea of the old Circus may be obtained among them
all. That something should always be left to conjecture, is however not
unpleasing; various opinions animate the arguments on both sides, and
bring out fire by collision with the understanding of others engaged in
the same researches.
A bull-feast given here to divert the Emperor as he passed through, must
have excited many pleasing sensations, while the inhabitants sate on
seats once occupied by the masters of the world; and what is more worth
wonder, sate at the feet of a Transalpine _Cæsar_, for so the sovereign
of Germany is even now called by his Milanese subjects in common
discourse; and when one looks upon the arms of Austria, a spread eagle,
and recollects that when the Roman empire was divided, the old eagle was
split, one face looking toward the East, the other toward the West, in
token of shared possession, it affects one; and calls up classic imagery
to the mind.
The collection of antiquities belonging to the Philharmonic society is
very respectable; they reminded me of the Arundel marbles at Oxford, and
I said so. "_Oh!_" replied the man who shewed these, "_that collection
was very valuable to be sure, but the bad air, and the smoke of coal
fires in England, have ruined them long ago_." I suspected that my
gentleman talked by rote, and examining the book called _Verona
illustrata_, found the remark there; but that is _malasede_, and a very
ridiculous prejudice. I will confess however, if they please, that our
original treaty between Mardonius and the Persian army, at the end of
which the Greek general Aristides, although himself a Sabian, attested
the fun as witness, in compliance with their religion who worshipped
that luminary, at least held it in the highest veneration, as the
residence of Oromasdes the good Principle, who was considered by the
Magians as for ever clothed with light: I will consider _that_, I say,
if they insist upon it, as a marble of less consequence than the last
will and testament of an old inhabitant of Sparta which is shewn at
Verona, and which _they say_ disposes of the iron money used during the
first of many years that the laws of Lycurgus lasted.
Here is a very fine palace belonging to the Bevi-l'acqua family, besides
the Casa Verzi, as famous for its elegant Doric architecture, as the
charming mistress of it for her Attic wit.
St. Zeno is the church which struck me most: the eternal and all-seeing
eye placed over the door; Fortune's wheel too, composed of six figures
curiously disposed, and not unlike our man alphabet, two mounting, two
sitting, and two tumbling, over against it: on the outside of the wheel
this distich,
En ego Fortuna moderor mortalibus usum,
Elevo, depono, bona cunctis vel mala dono[J]--
this other on the inside of the wheel, less plainly to be read:
Induo nudatos, denudo veste paratos,
In me confidit, si quis derisus abibit[K].