Travels Through France And Italy by Tobias Smollett (fastest ebook reader .txt) 📕

So Far Excel Theirs That Smollett Could Have Stood A Whole Day To

Examine And Admire Them. These Agremens May Be Attributable In

Some Measure To "A Very Good Inn."  In Stating That Galleys Were

Built In The Town, Smollett Seems To Have Fallen A Victim, For

Once, To Guide-Book Information. Evelyn Mentions That Galleys

Were Built There In His Time, But That Was More Than A Hundred

Years Before. The Slips And Dock Had Long Been Abandoned, As

Smollett Is Careful To Point Out In His Manuscript Notes, Now In 

The British Museum. He Also Explains With Superfluous Caution

That The Duomo Of Pisa Is Not Entirely Gothic. Once Arrived In

The Capital Of Tuscany, After Admitting That Florence Is A Noble

City, Our Traveller Is Anxious To Avoid The Hackneyed Ecstasies

And Threadbare Commonplaces, Derived In Those Days From Vasari

Through Keysler And Other German Commentators, Whose Genius

Smollett Is Inclined To Discover Rather "In The Back Than In The

Brain."

The Two Pass-Words For A Would-Be Connoisseur, According To

Goldsmith, Were To Praise Perugino, And To Say That Such And Such

A Work Would Have Been Much Better Had The Painter Devoted More

Time And Study To It. With These Alternatives At Hand One Might

Pass With Credit Through Any Famous Continental Collection.

Smollett Aspired To More Independence Of Thought And Opinion,

Though We Perceive At Every Turn How Completely The Protestant

Prejudice Of His "Moment" And "Milieu" Had Obtained Dominion Over

Him. To His Perception Monks Do Not Chant Or Intone, They Bawl

And Bellow Their Litanies. Flagellants Are Hired Peasants Who Pad

Themselves To Repletion With Women's Bodices. The Image Of The

Virgin Mary Is Bejewelled, Hooped, Painted, Patched, Curled, And

Frizzled In The Very Extremity Of The Fashion. No Particular

Attention Is Paid By The Mob To The Crucified One, But As Soon As

His Lady-Mother Appeared On The Shoulders Of Four Lusty Friars

The Whole Populace Fall Upon Their Knees In The Dirt. We Have

Some Characteristic Criticism And Observation Of The Florentine

Nobles, The Opera, The Improvisatori, [For Details As To The

Eighteenth-Century Improvisatore And Commedia Delle Arte The

Reader Is Referred To Symonds's Carlo Gozzi. See Also The Travel

Papers Of Mrs. Piozzi; Walpole's Letters To Sir Horace Mann, And

Doran's Mann And Manners At The Court Of Florence. (Vide Appendix

A, P. 345)] The Buildings, And The Cicisbei. Smollett Nearly

Always Gives Substantial Value To His Notes, However Casual, For

He Has An Historian's Eye, And Knows The Symptoms For Which The

Inquirer Who Comes After Is Likely To Make Inquisition.

Smollett's Observations Upon The State Of Florence In Letters

Xxvii And Xxviii Are By No Means Devoid Of Value. The Direct Rule

Of The Medici Had Come To An End In 1737, And Tuscany (Which With

The Exception Of The Interlude Of 1798-1814 Remained In Austrian

Hands Down To 1860) Was In 1764 Governed By The Prince De Craon,

Viceroy Of The Empress Maria Theresa. Florence Was, Indeed, On

The Threshold Of The Sweeping Administrative Reforms Instituted

By Peter Leopold, The Archduke For Whom Smollett Relates That

They Were Preparing The Pitti Palace At The Time Of His Stay.

This Prince Governed The Country As Grand Duke From 1765 To 1790,

When He Succeeded His Brother As Emperor, And Left A Name In

History As The Ill-Fated Leopold. Few More Active Exponents Of

Paternal Reform Are Known To History. But The Grand Duke Had To

Deal With A People Such As Smollett Describes. Conservative To 

The Core, Subservient To Their Religious Directors, The "Stupid

Party" In Florence Proved Themselves Clever Enough To Retard The

Process Of Enlightenment By Methods At Which Even Smollett

Himself Might Have Stood Amazed. The Traveller Touches An

Interesting Source Of Biography When He Refers To The Englishman

Called Acton, Formerly An East India Company Captain, Now

Commander Of The Emperor's Tuscan Navy, Consisting Of "A Few

Frigates." This Worthy Was The Old Commodore Whom Gibbon Visited

In Retirement At Leghorn. The Commodore Was Brother Of Gibbon's

Friend, Dr. Acton, Who Was Settled At Besancon, Where His Noted

Son, Afterwards Sir John Acton, Was Born In 1736. Following In

The Footsteps Of His Uncle The Commodore, Who Became A Catholic,

Smollett Tells Us, And Was Promoted Admiral Of Tuscany, John

Acton Entered The Tuscan Marine In 1775.

[Sir John Acton's Subsequent Career Belongs To History. His

Origin Made Him An Expert On Naval Affairs, And In 1776 He

Obtained Some Credit For An Expedition Which He Commanded Against

The Barbary Pirates. In 1778 Maria Carolina Of Naples Visited Her

Brother Leopold At Florence, And Was Impressed By Acton's

Ugliness And Reputation For Exceptional Efficiency. Her Favourite

Minister, Prince Caramanico, Persuaded The Grand Duke, Leopold,

To Permit Acton To Exchange Into The Neapolitan Service, And

Reorganize The Navy Of The Southern Kingdom. This Actually Came

To Pass, And, Moreover, Acton Played His Cards So Well That He

Soon Engrossed The Ministries Of War And Finance, And After The

Death Of Caracciolo, The Elder, Also That Of Foreign Affairs. Sir

William Hamilton Had A High Opinion Of The" General," Soon To

Become Field-Marshal. He Took A Strong Part In Resistance To

Revolutionary Propaganda, Caused To Be Built The Ships Which

Assisted Nelson In 1795, And Proved Himself One Of The Most

Capable Bureaucrats Of The Time. But The French Proved Too

Strong, And Napoleon Was The Cause Of His Disgrace In 1804. In

That Year, By Special Dispensation From The Pope, He Married His

Niece, And Retired To Palermo, Where He Died On 12th August

1811.]

Let Loose In The Uffizi Gallery Smollett Shocked His Sensitive

Contemporaries By His Freedom From Those Sham Ecstasies Which

Have Too Often Dogged The Footsteps Of The Virtuosi. Like Scott

Or Mark Twain At A Later Date Smollett Was Perfectly Ready To

Admire Anything He Could Understand; But He Expressly Disclaims

Pretensions To The Nice Discernment And Delicate Sensibility Of

The Connoisseur. He Would Never Have Asked To Be Left Alone With

The Venus De Medicis As A Modern Art-Critic Is Related To Have

Asked To Be Left Alone With The Venus Of Rokeby. He Would Have

Been At A Loss To Understand The State Of Mind Of The Eminent

Actor Who Thought The Situation Demanded That He Should Be

Positively Bereft Of Breath At First Sight Of The Apollo

Belvedere, And Panting To Regain It, Convulsively Clutched At The 

Arm Of His Companion, With Difficulty Articulating, "I Breathe."

Smollett Refused To Be Hypnotized By The Famous Venus Discovered

At Hadrian's Villa, Brought From Tivoli In 1680, And Then In The

Height Of Its Renown; The Form He Admired, But Condemned The Face

And The Posture. Personally I Disagree With Smollett, Though The

Balance Of Cultivated Opinion Has Since Come Round To His Side.

The Guilt Of Smollett Lay In Criticizing What Was Above

Criticism, As The Contents Of The Tribuna Were Then Held To Be.

And In Defence Of This Point Of View It May At Least Be Said That

The Uffizi Was Then, With The Exception Of The Vatican, The Only

Gallery Of First-Rate Importance Open To The Travelling Public On

The Grand Tour. Founded By Cosimo I, Built Originally By George

Vasari, And Greatly Enlarged By Francis I, Who Succeeded To The

Grand Duchy In 1574, The Gallery Owed Most Perhaps To The

Cardinal, Afterwards Ferdinand I, Who Constructed The Tribuna,

And To Cardinal Leopold, An Omnivorous Collector, Who Died In

1675. But All The Medici Princes Added To The Rarities In The

Various Cabinets, Drawing Largely Upon The Villa Medici At Rome

For This Purpose, And The Last Of Them, John Gaston (1723-1737),

Was One Of The Most Liberal As Regards The Freedom Of Access

Which He Allowed To His Accumulated Treasures. Among The

Distinguished Antiquaries Who Acted As Curators And Cicerones

Were Sebastiano Bianchi, Antonio Cocchi, Raymond Cocchi, Joseph

Bianchi, J. B. Pelli, The Abbe Lanzi, And Zacchiroli. The Last

Three All Wrote Elaborate Descriptions Of The Gallery During The

Last Decades Of The Eighteenth Century. There Was Unhappily An

Epidemic Of Dishonesty Among The Custodians Of Gems At This

Period, And, Like The Notorious Raspe, Who Fled From Cassel In

1775, And Turned Some Of His Old Employers To Ridicule In His

Baron Munchausen, Joseph Bianchi Was Convicted First Of Robbing

His Cabinet And Then Attempting To Set It On Fire, For Which

Exploit The "Learned And Judicious Bianchi," As Smollett Called

Him In His First Edition, Was Sent To Prison For Life. The

Arrotino Which Smollett So Greatly Admired, And Which The

Delusive Bianchi Declared To Be A Representation Of The Augur

Attus Naevius, Is Now Described As "A Scythian Whetting His Knife

To Flay Marsyas."

Kinglake Has An Amusingly Cynical Passage On The Impossibility Of

Approaching The Sacred Shrines Of The Holy Land In A Fittingly

Reverential Mood. Exactly The Same Difficulty Is Experienced In

Approaching The Sacred Shrines Of Art. Enthusiasm About Great

Artistic Productions, Though We May Readily Understand It To Be

Justifiable, Is By No Means So Easily Communicable. How Many

People Possessing A Real Claim To Culture Have Felt Themselves

Puzzled By Their Insensibility Before Some Great Masterpiece!

Conditions May Be Easily Imagined In Which The Inducement To

Affect An Ecstasy Becomes So Strong As To Prove Overpowering.

Many Years Ago At Florence The Loiterers In The Tribuna Were

Startled By The Sudden Rush Into The Place Of A Little Man Whose

Literary Fame Gave Him High Claims To Intuitive Taste. He Placed

Himself With High Clasped Hand Before The Chief Attraction In 

That Room Of Treasures. "There," He Murmured, "Is The Venus De

Medicis, And Here I Must Stay--For Ever And For Ever." He Had

Scarcely Uttered These Words, Each More Deeply And Solemnly Than

The Preceding, When An Acquaintance Entered, And The Enthusiast,

Making A Hasty Inquiry If Lady