THE RIVIERA DI CHIAIA
AND SOME STRANGE THINGS WHICH OCCURRED THERE
In bright sunshine I came down the last slopes of the Posilipo,
wending towards the Riviera di Chiaia. The bay sparkled with
innumerable colours; the hills lay in morning shadow; Vesuvius was
dark and sullen, and the twin peaks of Capri rested on the horizon
like the softest cloud. The sun fell very sweetly among the oranges in
the villa gardens, lighting up their dark and glossy leaves with
quick-changing gleams which moved and went as lightly as if reflected
from the restless waters of the bay. Out on the sea there was a swarm
of fishing boats, each provided with a rod of monstrous length; while
as I reached the level of the sea, and entered on the winding road
that goes to Naples, I found myself skirting a long, narrow beach, of
which the reeking odours proclaimed it to be a landing-place of
fishers. There, under the shadow of the towering cliff, boats were
hauled up, nets were drying, fish frails were piled in heaps, and
close to a small stone pier which jutted out into the water a couple
of fishing-wives were scolding each other much in the same way as two
dames of Brixham or of Newlyn, while a small urchin prone upon the
sand, watched the encounter of wits with eager curiosity to know
whether more was to come of it or not.
[Illustration: STRADA DI CHIAIA, NAPLES.]
More did not come of it. The strife sank into silence, and as I paced
along the margin of the little beach, glancing now at the wide curve
of the bay, now at the dark fortress of the enchanted Castle of the
Egg upon its further horn, I found myself in a strange medley of
ancient thoughts and modern ones, the old world wrestling with the
new, tales of the kings of Aragon mingling with the cries of cabmen
and the whirring noises of the tramways.
This little beach by which I stand is all that is now left of the
Marina di Chiaia, which once ran round the bay up to the rocks and
caverns of the Chiatamone, where the Egg Castle juts out into the sea.
It was all a sandy foreshore, with boats hauled up and nets set out to
dry, just as one may see them on this scrap which still remains. It
was renowned as a place of ineffable odours. Indeed, an ancient
writer, seeking a simile for a certain very evil smell, could think of
none more striking than "that which one smells on the Marina di Chiaia
in the evening." It is to be gathered that the women were in large
measure responsible for this--as for most other things that go wrong
in Naples. "Tutt'e' peccate murtali so' femmene," says the
proverb--All the mortal sins are feminine; and if those, why not the
smells also? But it is not to be supposed that the women of the Chiaia
were the less attractive. Far from that. We have the word of the poet
del Tufo that they were so gracious and charming that even a dead man
would not remain insensible to the desire of loving them. What can
have become of these houris? I did much desire to see them, but I
searched in vain. I found none but heavy, wide-mouthed women, owning
no charm but dirt, and no attractions save a raucous tongue. Perhaps
the disappearance of the smells involved the loss of the beauty also.
If so, another grudge is to be cherished against the sanitary
reformers, who so often in the history of mankind have proved that
they know not what they do.
But I was about to speak of King Alfonso of Aragon, a monarch whose
story can be forgotten by no one who has given himself the pleasure of
reading the superb work in which Guicciardini has told the story of
his times, a tale of greatness and of woe immeasurable, having in
itself every element of tragedy, with a human interest which throbs
even painfully from page to page. Macaulay, by giving currency to a
stupid tale about a galley slave who chose the hulks rather than the
history, has contrived to rob many of us of a pleasure far greater
than can be derived from the antitheses in which he himself delights;
and has spread abroad the impression that this prince among
historians, this dignified and simple writer, this unsurpassed judge
of men whom he himself in a wiser moment compared to Tacitus, was
dull! It is but one more injustice done by Macaulay's hasty fancy,
serving well to prove what mischief may be wrought by a man who cannot
deny himself the pleasure of a quirk until he has reflected what
injury it may do to another's reputation.
Alfonso of Aragon was King of Naples when the French, led by their
King Charles the Eighth, were advancing through Italy to the attack of
Naples. The old title of the House of Anjou which reigned in Naples
for near two centuries, was in the French judgment not extinct; and
Charles, called into Italy by Ludovic the Moor, Duke of Milan, and one
of the greatest scoundrels of all ages, was pressing on through the
peninsula faster and with more success than either his friends wished
or his enemies had feared. One by one the obstacles which were to have
detained him in northern Italy crumbled at his approach. Florence was
betrayed by Piero di Medici; the Neapolitan armies in the Romagna were
driven back; the winter was mild, offering no obstacle to campaigning;
the Pope was overawed; and at length Alfonso, seeing the enemy
victorious everywhere, and now almost at his gates, fell into a
strange state of nerves. The first warrior of his age broke down like
a panic-stricken girl. The strong, proud King fell a prey to fear. He
could not sleep, for the night was full of haunting terrors, and out
of the dark there came to visit him the spectres of men whom he had
slain by treachery, each one seeming to rejoice at the vengeance of
which Heaven had made the French King the instrument.
Yet Alfonso had large and well-trained armies at his command, and the
passes of the kingdom were easily defended. The French were no nearer
than at Rome; and anyone who has travelled between the Eternal City
and Naples must see how easily even in our own days a hostile army
could be held among the mountains. Had there been a resolute defence,
many a month might yet have passed before a single Frenchman reached
the Siren city. But Alfonso could give no orders; and his terrors were
completed by a vision which appeared to one of his courtiers in a
dream repeated on three successive nights. It was the spirit of the
old King Ferdinand which appeared to the affrighted Jacopo, grave and
dignified as when all trembled before him in his life, and commanded,
first in gentle words and afterwards with terrifying threats, that he
should go forthwith to King Alfonso, telling him that it was vain to
hope to stem the French invasion; that fate had declared their house
was to be troubled with infinite calamities, and at length to be
stamped out in punishment for the many deeds of enormous cruelty which
the two had committed, but above all for that one wrought, at the
persuasion of Alfonso, in the Church of San Lionardo in the Chiaia
when he was returning home from Pozzuoli.
The spirit gave no details of this crime. There was no need. The mere
reference to it completed Alfonso's overthrow. Whatever the secret may
have been, it scored the King's heart with recollections which he
could not face when conjured up in this strange and awful manner.
There was no longer any resource for him. His life was broken once for
all, and hastily abdicating his kingdom in favour of his son
Ferdinand, whose clean youth was unstained by any crimes, he carried
his remorse and all his sinful memories to a monastery in Sicily,
where he died, perhaps in peace.
No man who reads this tale can refrain from wondering where was this
Church of San Lionardo on the Chiaia, and what it was that King
Alfonso did there. The first question is easier than the last to
answer, yet there are some materials for satisfying curiosity in
regard to both.
[Illustration: NAPLES--PORTA MERCANTILE]
It is useless to seek for the Church of San Lionardo now. It was swept
away when the fine roadway was made which skirts the whole sea-front
from the Piazza di Vittoria to the Torretta. But in old days it must
have been a rarely picturesque addition to the beauty of the bay. It
stood upon a little island rock, jutting out into the sea about the
middle of the curve, near the spot where the aquarium now stands. It
was connected with the land by a low causeway, not unlike that by
which the Castle of the Egg is now approached; and it was a place
of peculiar interest and sanctity, apart from its conspicuous and
beautiful position, because from the days of its first foundation it
had claimed a special power of protection over those who were
tormented by the fear of shipwreck or captivity, both common cases in
the lives of the dwellers on a shore haunted by pirates and often
vexed by storms. The foundation was due to the piety of a Castilian
gentleman, Lionardo d'Oria, who, being in peril of wreck so long ago
as the year 1028, vowed a church in honour of his patron saint upon
the spot, wherever it might be, at which he came safely to land. The
waves drove him ashore upon this beach, midway between Virgil's Tomb
and the enchanted Castle of the Egg; and here his church stood for
seven hundred years and more upon its rocky islet--a refuge and a
shrine for all such as went in peril by land or sea.
Naturally enough, the thoughts of Neapolitans turned easily in days of
trouble to the saint whose special care it was to extricate them. Many
a fugitive slipped out of Naples in the dark and sped furtively along
the sandy beach to the island church, whence, as he knew perfectly, he
could embark on board a fishing-boat with far better hope of getting
clear away than if he attempted to escape from Naples. Thus at all
moments of disturbance in the city the chance was good that important
persons were in hiding in the Church of San Lionardo waiting the
favourable moment of escape. King Alfonso must have known this
perfectly. One may even surmise that his journey to Pozzuoli was
undertaken with the object of tempting out rebellious barons and their
followers from the city, where they might be difficult to find, into
this solitary spot, where he could scarcely miss them. If so, he
doubtless gloated over the first sight of the island church as he came
riding down from the Posilipo and out upon the beach towards it,
knowing that the trap was closed and the game his own.
Alfonso was a man who never knew mercy. Who the fugitives were whom he
found hidden in the church, or in what manner they met their death,
is, so far as I know, recorded nowhere. But this we know, that it was
no ordinary death, no mere strangling or beheading of rebellious
subjects that the King sanctioned and perhaps watched in this lonely
church which was built as a refuge for troubled men. Of such deeds
there were so many scored up to the account of both kings that the
spirit of the elder could hardly have reproached his son with any one
of them. What was done in the Church of San Lionardo was something
passing the common cruelty of even Spaniards in those ages, and it is
perhaps a merciful thing that oblivion has descended on the details.
I shall return again to King Alfonso and his family, for the city is
full of memories of them, and in the vaults of the Castel Nuovo there
are things once animate which throw a terrible light upon the
practices of the House of Aragon. But for the time this may be enough
of horrors; and I turn with pleasure to the long sea-front against
which the tide is breaking fresh and pleasantly, surging white and
foaming over the black rocks which skirt the foot of the sea-wall. The
wind comes freshly out of the east. Capri is growing into a wonderful
clearness. Even the little town upon the saddle of the island begins
to glow white and sparkling, and the limestone precipices show their
clefts and shadows in the increasing light. The soft wind blows in
little sunny gusts, which shake the blossoms of wistaria on the
house-fronts, mingling the salt and fishy odours of the beach with the
scent of flowers in the villa gardens. There is scarce a sign of cloud
in the warm sky, and all the crescent bay between me and the city
takes colours which are perpetually changing into deeper tints of
liquid blue and rare soft green, with flashes here and there of brown,
and exquisite reflections which are but half seen before they yield to
others no less beautiful. The long white sea-wall gleams like the
setting of a gem, and the warm air trembles slightly in the distance,
so that the Castle of the Egg looks as if it were indeed enchanted,
and might be near the doom predicted for it when its frail foundations
shall be broken.
I had meant to spend an hour this morning in the Church of Sannazzaro,
on the slope of the hill, at no great distance from this spot. He who
does not see churches betimes in Naples may chance to miss them
altogether, and will waste much temper during the hot afternoon in
hammering on barred doors with vain effort to rouse sleepy sacristans.
Heaven knows I am not indifferent to church architecture, and had the
morning been less beautiful I should certainly have described
learnedly enough, the building preserving the memory of the quaint and
artificial poet whom Bembo, as frigid and unnatural as himself,
declared to be next to Virgil in fame, as he was also next in
sepulture. I often wonder whether Bembo really meant anything at all
by this judgment, except an elegant turn of verse. If he did--But I am
straying away from the lights and shadows of this magic morning, which
are far more delightful than the arcadian rhapsodies of Sannazzaro and
of Bembo. Let me put them both aside. Or stay, one observation of the
former comes into mind. He said the Mergellina was "Un pezzo di cielo
caduto in terra"--a scrap of heaven fallen down on earth. He had blood
in him, then, this worshipper of nymphs and classicism; let us go and
see his Mergellina. It will not take us far from the sea-front, to
which it once lay open, in the days when there were no grand hotels
nor ugly boarding-houses blocking out the sweet colours and the clean
air of the sea.
As I turn inland, my eye is caught by a tablet on a house-front to the
left, which has a melancholy interest for all Englishmen:--
"IN QUESTA CASA NACQUE FRANCESCO CARACCIOLI
AMMIRAGLIO
IL 18 GUIGNO 1752
STRANGOLATO AL 29 GUIGNO 1799"
"Strangolato"--ay, hung at Nelson's yardarm, while his flagship lay
off Naples, and sunk afterwards in the sea, whence his naked body was
washed up on shore. It is a tragic tale; but to use it as an
imputation on Nelson's honour is unjust. Caraccioli was a rebel, and
paid the penalty of unsuccessful revolution. He was brave and
unfortunate, he resisted manfully an evil government; but he was not
unfairly slain.
In a few yards further the whole charming length of Sannazzaro's bit
of heaven lies spread out before me. A wide, straight street, a
paradise of yellow stucco, stained and peeling off, a wilderness of
sordid shops and dirty children running wild, a solitary tramcar
spinning on its way to Naples, a creaking cart with vegetables, a
huckster bawling fish--I have not patience to catalogue the delights
of the Mergellina of to-day, but turn my back on them and flee to the
sea-front again, where I can look out on what is still unspoiled,
because man has no dominion over it.
[Illustration: BOATS AT THE MERGELLINA--NAPLES]
A short stroll towards the city within reach of the lapping waves
restored my temper, and I remembered that as I fled from the
Mergellina I saw over my shoulder a halting-place for tramcars, well
known to all who visit Naples by the name of the "Torretta."
I hardly know how many of those visitors have asked themselves what
this Torretta was, to which they have so often paid their fares of
twenty-five centimes, or have connected it in memory with the other
towers of which they hear upon the further side of Naples. But since
Naples is a seaborn city, and a wealthy city by the shore of ocean
attracts pirates as naturally as flies flock to honey, it may be as
well to explain why the Torretta was built.
The tale goes back as far as the days of Don Fernando Afan de Rivera,
Duca d'Alcala, who did Naples the honour of condescending to govern it
as Viceroy to His Most Catholic Majesty of Spain from the year 1629 to
1631. He was an old and gouty viceroy, but not lacking in energy or
courage. Those were times in which infinite numbers of Turkish pirates
hovered round the coasts of Italy; and week by week the warning cannon
roared out from Ischia, and the heavy toll of the alarm bells rolled
along the shore from Campanella and Castellammare to the harbours
beneath Vesuvius, waking all the fishermen to watchfulness and rousing
the guards within the city walls.
"All'arme! all'arme! la Campana sona
Li Turche so' arrivati a la marina!"
The terror-stricken refrain is still on the lips of the peasants in
the coasts which were harried by Dragut and Ucchiali.
One night a band of these bold corsairs struck suddenly in the
darkness, and landed on the western end of the Chiaia, well outside
the limits of the city. There were among their numbers certain
renegades of Naples, and using the local knowledge of these
scoundrels, they had conceived the design of capturing the Marchesa
del Vasto, whose palace stood in this somewhat unprotected region, and
whom they intended to surprise in her sleep. So rich a prisoner would
have brought them a vast ransom; but the scheme turned out
disappointing. The Marchesa had gone to take the waters, over the
hills at Agnano, whither greedy Turks could not pursue her. Nothing
remained but to bag as many people of inferior consequence as time
permitted; and the renegades, turning to their advantage the alarm
which was already spreading among the inhabitants, rushed about
knocking at every door and imploring the people in anguished tones to
come out at once and save themselves from the Turks, who were landing
at that moment. Some poor frightened souls were simple enough to
accept this invitation, and were made prisoners for their pains the
moment they crossed the threshold. Others, more wisely, suspecting the
trick, made rude replies, and barred their doors and shutters, knowing
that at dawn, if not before, help must surely come from the
neighbouring city.
[Illustration: NAPLES--GRADONI DI CHIAIA.]
They were not mistaken in their faith. Naples was astir, and the
guards were mustering by torchlight in the streets. The Duca d'Alcala
was at the Palazzo Stigliano, near the Porta di Chiaia. Old and gouty
as he was, he had set himself at the head of his men, the city gate
was flung open, and in the grey light of morning the Turks saw a
considerable force advancing on them. They did not stay to fight, but
pushed off their ships, carrying with them twenty-four prisoners,
whom next day they signified that they were willing to ransom.
Accordingly parleys were held upon the Island of Nisida; the Viceroy
himself paid part of the sum demanded, while the rest was contributed
by the Society for the Redemption of Captives, a useful public
institution whose income was heavily drawn upon in those days.
Probably neither one nor the other was entirely pleased at having to
pay out a large sum for the redemption of people living almost under
the walls of the city. It was to guard against such mishaps in future
that the Torretta was built, and garrisoned as strongly as its size
permitted.
What old tales these seem, and how changed is all the aspect of this
bay! San Lionardo gone as completely as the shadow of a drifting
cloud! The Torretta degraded to a halting-place of tramcars! The
Mergellina stripped of all that made the poet Sannazzaro love it! Only
on the sea-front the same beauty of heavenly blue still shimmers on
the waters, breaking into bubbles of pure gold where the soft tide
washes up amid the rocks. The fishing boats slip to and fro under
their large three-cornered sails. There is more wind out there upon
the bay; it strikes in sharp puffs on the bellying canvas, and the
light craft heel towards the land. One of them has put in beside the
stairs not far from where I am loitering. The bottom of his boat is
alive with silvery fish; and on the cool stones of the landing-place,
just awash with clear green water, stand the barelegged fishermen,
stooping over the still living fish, cleansing their burnished scales
from the soil of the dirty skiff, laughing and chattering like
children, as they are. Suddenly one of them snatches at a little
object which the others had not noticed, and holds it up to me in
gleeful expectation of a few soldi. "Cavallo di mare!" A tiny
sea-horse, already stiff and rigid, a clammy and uncomfortable
curiosity. My good man, if I desire to look at sea-horses I have but
to cross the road to the aquarium, where I can watch them in the grace
and wonder of their life and shall not be asked to cumber myself with
their dead bodies. Salvatore shrugs his shoulders. If I am mad enough
to miss this chance, it is my own affair; the Madonna will scarce send
me another. In the midst of the diatribe I stroll across to the
aquarium.
Rarely, if ever, have I passed by this storehouse of great marvels
without regretting it, for indeed it has no equal in the world. Tanks
of fish are kept in many cities; the only aquarium is at Naples. There
alone can one stand and watch the actual stress and movement of the
life which passes in the sea, that animal life of myriad shapes and
colours which is so like the plants and which while rooted to a rock,
and spreading long translucent tendrils like a frond of seaweed, will
yet curl and uncurl, swaying this way and that in search of food, or
in the effort to escape some enemy it fears. For the depths of the sea
are full of enemies, and every sense of those which dwell beneath it
is alert. There one may see the tube-dwelling worms, thrust out from
the mouth of their tall cylinders like a feathery tuft of tendrils, a
revolving fan, which spins and spins until some sea-horse floating up
erect and graceful comes too close, and instantly the fan closes, the
tendrils disappear and lie hidden till the danger has gone by. Far
along the rock clefts, high and low throughout the pools, there is a
perpetual watchfulness and motion, a constant stir and trembling; and
the provision which the lowest animal possesses for the protection of
its life is in quick and momentary use, laying open such a revelation
of the infinite resources of nature as itself makes this cool chamber
one of the most interesting places in the world.
But if a man go there for beauty only, in what profusion he will find
it! The green depths of the tanks are all aglow with soft rich colour.
The sea beneath the cliffs at Vico is not more blue on the softest day
in spring than the fish which glide by among these shadows; nor are
the lights seen from Castellammare when the sun drops down behind
Ischia and the rosy flushes spread along the coast, more exquisite
than the soft pink scales which glance through the arches of the
rocks. Turquoise and pearl, emerald and jacinth, the gleams caught
from the hidden sun above reflect the hues of every gem. The strange,
dense vegetation, the quick flash of moving gold and purple, reveal a
world of marvellous rich beauty; and if it be indeed the case that
those bold divers of past days who dared to plunge out of the bright
sun into the dusk and dimness of the ocean depths saw there the orange
sponges, the waving forests of crimson weed, and all the myriad
colours of the moving fishes glinting through them, it is no wonder
that they came back into the world of men spreading tales of countless
jewels, and unnumbered treasures, which lie buried in the caves and
grottoes of the sea.
Naples is alive with stories of this sort; and not Naples only, but
all Sicily and southern Italy share the tales of the great diver,
Nicolo Pesce, who is sometimes a Sicilian and sometimes a dweller on
the mainland, but is claimed by Naples with good reason, as I shall
show presently. The mere sight of things so like those which Nicolo
must have seen calls up all the rare stories told of him; and I go up
into the Villa Garden, which skirts the long sea-front, and having
found a seat beneath a shady palm tree, whence I can watch the blue
sea lying motionless around the dark battlements of Castel dell'Uovo,
while the wind makes light noises in the feathery boughs above me, I
fall to thinking of the diver who, at the bidding of the king,
searched the caverns underneath the castle, which no man has ever
found but he, and came back with his arms full of jewels. Any child in
Naples knows that heaps of gems are lying in those caverns still.
Who was Nicolo Pesce? Ah! what is the use of asking such questions
about a myth? He was once, like all of us, a thing which crept about
the earth--it matters little when, _nei tempi antichi_! But now he is
a butterfly fluttering in the world of romance, a theme for poets, and
cherished in the heart of children. If you must know more about his
actual existence, catch a child and give him a few soldi to escort you
to the foot of the Vico Mezzocannone, away on the further side of the
city, where the lanes drop steeply to the harbour. There, built into
the front of a house, you will see an ancient stone, on which is
carved the figure of a shaggy man grasping a knife in his right hand,
while his left is clenched in the air. That is Nicolo Pesce, so called
because he was at home in the water as a fish is; and the knife is
that which he used to cut himself out from the bellies of the fish
when he had done the long swift journeys which he was wont to make in
the manner of which no other man had experience but Jonah.
You may get much more than this from the child, though confidence is
hard to gain, and soldi will not always buy it. One day the King bade
Nicolo find out what the bottom of the sea is like. The diver plunged,
and when he came up gasping he said he had seen gardens of coral and
large spaces of ribbed sand strewn with precious stones, and piled
here and there with heaps of treasure, mouldering weapons, the ribs of
sunken ships and the whitening skeletons of drowned mariners. I well
believe it! Ave Maria, Stella Maris, Star of the Sea, be gracious to
poor sailors in their peril!
But another time the King bade Nicolo dive down and find out how
Sicily floated on the sea, and the man brought up a fearful tale. For
he said that groping to and fro in the dim abysses he saw that Sicily
had rested on three pillars, whereof one had fallen, one was split and
like to fall, and one only stood erect and sound! The years have gone
by in many hundreds since that plunge; but no man knows whether the
shattered pillar is erect.
Now the King desired to be sure that Nicolo did actually reach the
bottom of the sea, and accordingly took him to the summit of a rock
where the water was deepest, and there, surrounded by his courtiers,
hurled a gold cup far out from the shore. The goblet flashed and sank,
and the King bade Nicolo dive and bring it back.
The diver plunged, and the King waited, watching long before the
surface of the sea was broken. At last Nicolo rose, brandishing the
cup as he swam, and when he had reached shore and won his breath again
he cried, "Oh, King, if I had known what I should see, neither this
cup nor half your kingdom would have tempted me to dive." "What did
you see?" the King demanded, and the diver answered that he found on
the floor of the ocean four impenetrable things. First the great rush
of a river which streams out of the bowels of the earth, sweeping all
things away before the might of its resistless current; and next a
labyrinth of rocks, whose crags overhung the winding ways between
them. Then he was beaten hither and thither by the flux and reflux of
the waters out of the lowest parts of ocean; and lastly, he dared not
pass the monsters which stretched out long tentacles as if to clutch
him and draw him into the caverns of the rocks. So he groped and
wandered in mortal fear, till at last he saw the gleam of gold upon a
shelf of rock and grasped the cup and came up into the world again.
Now the King pondered long upon this story, and then taking the cup
flung it into the sea once more, and bade Nicolo dive again. The
fellow begged hard that he might not go, but the King was ruthless,
and the waters closed over the diver. The day waned, the night came
on, and still the King waited on the crag beside the sea. But Nicolo
Pesce the diver was never seen again.
Many a child has thrilled over this story as told in Schiller's
verse,--"Wer wagt es, Rittersman oder Knapp...." You ask--What is the
truth of these old stories? I answer that they have neither truth nor
falsity, and that is enough for most of us in this dull world, of
which so much has to be purged away before the beauty can appear. The
flower-laden boughs in this Villa garden go on rustling in the sunny
wind; the Judas trees are gay with purple blossoms, and from the long,
straight avenue, where white marble statues gleam in the cool shades,
the cries and laughter of the children ring out merrily. Tell a child
these tales and he will doubt nothing, reason over nothing, but accept
the beauty and talk of it with quickened breath and glowing cheeks.
That is the wisdom of the babes. Let us be content to copy it.