Travels Through France And Italy by Tobias Smollett (beautiful books to read .txt) 📖

Of Northern

Friendship With The Refined Passion Of The South For The

Seclusion Of Women. As An Experiment In Protest Against The

Insipidity Which Is Too Often An Accompaniment Of Conjugal

Intercourse The Institution Might Well Seem To Deserve A More

Tolerant And Impartial Investigation Than It Has Yet Received At

The Hands Of Our Sociologists. A Survival So Picturesque Could

Hardly Be Expected To Outlive The Bracing Air Of The Nineteenth

Century. The North Wind Blew And By 1840 The Cicisbeatura Was A

Thing Of The Past.

 

 

 

Freed From The Necessity Of A Systematic Delineation Smollett

Rambles About Nice, Its Length And Breadth, With A Stone In His

Pouch, And Wherever A Cockshy Is Available He Takes Full

Advantage Of It. He Describes The Ghetto (P. 171), The Police

Arrangements Of The Place Which He Finds In The Main Highly

Efficient, And The Cruel Punishment Of The Strappado. The

Garrucha Or Strappado And The Garrotes, Combined With The Water-Torture

And The Rack, Represented The Survival Of The Fittest In

The Natural Selection Of Torments Concerning Which The Holy

Office In Italy And Spain Had Such A Vast Experience. The

Strappado As Described By Smollett, However, Is A More Severe

Form Of Torture Even Than That Practised By The Inquisition, And

We Can Only Hope That His Description Of Its Brutality Is Highly

Coloured. [See The Extremely Learned Disquisition On The Whole

Subject In Dr. H. C. Lea's History Of The Inquisition In Spain,

1907, Vol. Iii. Book Vi Chap. Vii.] Smollett Must Have Enjoyed

Himself Vastly In The Market At Nice. He Gives An Elaborate And

Epicurean Account Of His Commissariat During The Successive

Seasons Of His Sojourn In The Neighbourhood. He Was Not One Of

These Who Live Solely "Below The Diaphragm"; But He Understood

Food Well And Writes About It With A Catholic Gusto And Relish

(156-165). He Laments The Rarity Of Small Birds On The Riviera, 

Part 6 Pg 32

And Gives A Highly Comic Account Of The Chasse Of This Species Of

Gibier. He Has A Good Deal To Say About The Sardine And Tunny

Fishery, About The Fruit And Scent Traffic, And About The Wine

Industry; And He Gives Us A Graphic Sketch Of The Silkworm

Culture, Which It Is Interesting To Compare With That Given By

Locke In 1677. He Has Something To Say Upon The General

Agriculture, And More Especially Upon The Olive And Oil Industry.

Some Remarks Upon The Numerous "Mummeries" And Festas Of The

Inhabitants Lead Him Into A Long Digression Upon The Feriae Of

The Romans. It Is Evident From This That The Box Of Books Which

He Shipped By Way Of Bordeaux Must Have Been Plentifully Supplied

With Classical Literature, For, As He Remarks With Unaffected

Horror, Such A Thing As A Bookseller Had Not Been So Much As

Heard Of In Nice. Well May He Have Expatiated Upon The Total Lack

Of Taste Among The Inhabitants! In Dealing With The Trade,

Revenue, And Other Administrative Details Smollett Shows Himself

The Expert Compiler And Statistician A London Journalist In Large

Practice Credits Himself With Becoming By The Mere Exercise Of

His Vocation. In Dealing With The Patois Of The Country He

Reveals The Curiosity Of The Trained Scholar And Linguist.

Climate Had Always Been One Of His Hobbies, And On Learning That

None Of The Local Practitioners Was In A Position To Exact A

Larger Fee Than Sixpence From His Patients (Quantum Mutatus The

Nice Physician Of 1907!) He Felt That He Owed It To Himself To

Make This The Subject Of An Independent Investigation. He Kept A

Register Of The Weather During The Whole Of His Stay, And His

Remarks Upon The Subject Are Still Of Historical Interest,

Although With Teysseire's Minutely Exact Monograph On The

Climatology Of Nice (1881) At His Disposal And Innumerable

Commentaries Thereon By Specialists, The Inquirer Of To-Day Would

Hardly Go To Smollett For His Data. Then, As Now, It Is Curious

To Find The Rumour Current That The Climate Of Nice Was Sadly

Deteriorating. "Nothing To What It Was Before The War!" As The

Grumbler From The South Was Once Betrayed Into Saying Of The

August Moon. Smollett's Esprit Chagrin Was Nonplussed At First To

Find Material For Complaint Against A Climate In Which He Admits

That There Was Less Rain And Less Wind Than In Any Other Part Of

The World That He Knew. In These Unwonted Circumstances He Is

Constrained To Fall Back On The Hard Water And The Plague Of

Cousins Or Gnats As Affording Him The Legitimate Grievance, In

Whose Absence The Warrior Soul Of The Author Of The Ode To

Independence Could Never Be Content.

 

 

 

Part 7 Pg 33

 

 

For His Autumn Holiday In 1764 Smollett Decided On A Jaunt To

Florence And Rome, Returning To Nice For The Winter; And He

Decided To Travel As Far As Leghorn By Sea. There Was Choice

Between Several Kinds Of Small Craft Which Plied Along The Coast,

And Their Names Recur With Cheerful Frequency In The Pages Of 

Part 7 Pg 34

Marryat And Other Depictors Of The Mediterranean. There Was The

Felucca, An Open Boat With A Tilt Over The Stern Large Enough To

Freight A Post-Chaise, And Propelled By Ten To Twelve Stout

Mariners. To Commission Such A Boat To Genoa, A Distance Of A

Hundred Miles, Cost Four Louis. As Alternative, There Was The

Tartane, A Sailing Vessel With A Lateen Sail. Addison Sailed From

Marseilles To Genoa In A Tartane In December 1699: A Storm Arose,

And The Patron Alarmed The Passengers By Confessing His Sins (And

Such Sins!) Loudly To A Capuchin Friar Who Happened To Be Aboard.

Smollett Finally Decided On A Gondola, With Four Rowers And A

Steersman, For Which He Had To Pay Nine Sequins (4 1/2 Louis).

After Adventures Off Monaco, San Remo, Noli, And Elsewhere, The

Party Are Glad To Make The Famous Phones On The Torre Della

Lanterna, Of Which Banker Rogers Sings In His Mediocre Verse:

 

 

 

Thy Pharos Genoa First Displayed Itself

Burning In Stillness On Its Rocky Seat;

That Guiding Star So Oft The Only One,

When Those Now Glowing In The Azure Vault

Are Dark And Silent

 

 

 

Smollett's Description Of Genoa Is Decidedly More Interesting. He

Arrived At A Moment Specially Propitious To So Sardonic An

Observer, For The Republic Had Fallen On Evil Times, Having

Escaped From The Clutches Of Austria In 1746 By Means Of A

Popular Riot, During Which The Aristocracy Considerately Looked

The Other Way, Only To Fall Into An Even More Embarrassed And

Unheroic Position Vis-A-Vis Of So Diminutive An Opponent As

Corsica. The Whole Story Is A Curious Prototype Of The Nineteenth

Century Imbroglio Between Spain And Cuba. Of Commonplaces About

The Palaces Fruitful Of Verbiage In Addison And Gray, Who Says

With Perfect Truth, "I Should Make You Sick Of Marble Were I To

Tell You How It Is Lavished Here," Smollett Is Sparing Enough,

Though He Evidently Regards The Inherited Inclination Of Genoese

Noblemen To Build Beyond Their Means As An Amiable Weakness. His

Description Of The Proud Old Genoese Nobleman, Who Lives In

Marble And Feeds On Scraps, Is Not Unsympathetic, And Suggests

That The "Deceipt Of The Ligurians," Which Virgil Censures In The

Line

 

 

 

Haud Ligurum Extremus, Dum Fallere Fata Sinebant

 

 

 

May Possibly Have Been Of This Balderstonian Variety. But

Smollett Had Little Room In His Economy For Such Vapouring

Speculations. He Was As Unsentimental A Critic As Sydney Smith Or

Sir Leslie Stephen. He Wants To Know The Assets Of A Place More 

Part 7 Pg 35

Than Its Associations. Facts, Figures, Trade And Revenue Returns

Are The Data His Shrewd Mind Requires To Feed On. He Has A Keen

Eye For Harbours Suitable For An English Frigate To Lie Up In,

And Can Hardly Rest Until His Sagacity Has Collected Material For

A Political Horoscope.

 

 

 

Smollett's Remarks Upon The Mysterious Dispensations Of

Providence In Regard To Genoa And The Retreat Of The Austrians

Are Charged To The Full With His Saturnine Spirit. His Suspicions

Were Probably Well Founded. Ever Since 1685 Genoa Had Been The

More Or Less Humiliated Satellite Of France, And Her Once Famous

Bank Had Been Bled Pretty Extensively By Both Belligerents. The

Senate Was Helpless Before The Austrian Engineers In 1745, And

The Emancipation Of The City Was Due Wholly To A Popular Emeute.

She Had Relapsed Again Into A Completely Enervated Condition.

Smollett Thought She Would Have Been Happier Under British

Protection. But It Is A Vicious Alternative For A Nation To

Choose A Big Protector. It Was Characteristic Of The Republic

That From 1790 To 1798 Its "Policy" Was To Remain Neutral. The

Crisis In Regard To Corsica Came Immediately After Smollett's

Visit, When In 1765, Under Their 154th Doge Francesco Maria

Rovere, The Genoese Offered To Abandon The Island To The Patriots

Under Paoli, Reserving Only The Possession Of The Two Loyal

Coast-Towns Of Bonifazio And Calvi. [See Boswell's Corsica, 1766-8.]

At Paoli's Instance These Conciliatory Terms Were Refused.

Genoa, In Desperation And Next Door To Bankruptcy, Resolved To

Sell Her Rights As Suzerain To France, And The Compact Was

Concluded By A Treaty Signed At Versailles In 1768. Paoli Was

Finally Defeated At Ponte Novo On 9th May 1769, And Fled To

England. On 15th August The Edict Of "Reunion" Between France And

Corsica Was Promulgated. On The Same Day Napoleon Buonaparte Was

Born At Ajaccio.

 

 

 

After A Week At Genoa Smollett Proceeded Along The Coast To

Lerici. There, Being Tired Of The Sea, The Party Disembarked, And

Proceeded By Chaise From Sarzano To Cercio In Modenese Territory,

And So Into Tuscany, Then Under The Suzerainty Of Austria. His

Description Of Pisa Is Of An Almost Sunny Gaiety And Good Humour.

Italy, Through This Portal, Was Capable Of Casting A Spell Even

Upon A Traveller So Case-Hardened As Smollett. The Very Churches

At Pisa Are "Tolerably Ornamented." The Campo Santo And Tower

Fall In No Way Short Of