The old town was entirely5 surrounded by ramparts built in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. On the summit of these was a broad way, where the defenders6 mustered7 when the town was attacked. Upon the northern front a considerable portion of the ancient ramparts still exists, while the terrace that capped them has become a modest promenade8. Within and above the ramparts rose the town, like a castle of stone elliptical in shape. To the outer world it presented only a lofty and continuous wall, entered by certain gates, and strengthened here and there by towers. The wall represented the backs of the outer houses welded together in one unbroken barrier. The fronts of these houses looked into narrow streets, but the outer wall was blank and blind, being pierced only by a few small windows, high above the reach of attack, and by long, narrow, vertical9 slits10 as the ground was neared.
These ancient windows and these slits in the wall are still to be seen, but the enceinte has been broken in many places by casual windows of recent date and even by doors. Still, the walls of Vence—as viewed from the north of the town—have an aspect which has altered but little during the last four hundred years. They have aged11, of course, but the gates are there and the towers still stand.
It is on the southern side of Vence that the hand of the town-improver has fallen most heavily, but even here the ruin wrought12 by “reconstruction” has not obliterated13 the ancient landmarks14. The Boulevard Marcelin-Maurel, where the tramways run, follows the course of the southern ramparts. The wall on this side has been battered15 in to provide up-to-date houses and up-to-date shops, but yet the line of the old enceinte remains16 unshaken, for the hustling17, irreverent tram is compelled to humbly18 follow the curve of the town wall as laid down six centuries ago.
On reaching Vence by the Nice road the first gate that is come upon is the Signadour Gate, which stands almost on the tramlines. It is a gate of the fourteenth century, with a pointed19 arch, and it opens at the base of a rough, old tower. Some way to the right of it is the East Gate, which is much more ample, has a rounded arch, and passes directly through the outer wall into the mysterious shadows of the town. It is credited to the eighteenth century.[13] At the opposite end of Vence is the Portail du Peyra, guarded by a very massive square tower of great height. The gate belongs to the days of the good King René, who died in 1480, and the tower to the seventeenth century. The gate has evidently been much restored and, indeed, reconstructed. It leads into the Place du Peyra, a quiet square shaded by a chestnut20 tree and charmed by the babble21 of a fountain in the form of a vase, from which issues four streams. The name of this ancient lounging place has been recently (and rather precipitately) changed to Place Wilson. A very picturesque22 little gate, called the Portail Levis, opens on to the ramparts towards the north. It has a pointed arch of the fourteenth century and a channel in the masonry23 for a portcullis. It leads into the Rue24 de la Coste, one of the oldest of the old lanes of the town. In the Boulevard Marcelin-Maurel (which, as already stated, is laid on the site of the medi?val ramparts) is a modern gate, with the date 1863. It has been driven through the houses which here form the enceinte of the town and opens almost directly into the church square.
The church at Vence has many peculiarities25, not the least being the way in which it has hidden itself from the eyes of the world. It is so surrounded by parasitic26 buildings that nothing of it can be seen from the outside except a gable end, which projects fortuitously into another square. Indeed, the only outward and visible sign of the church is a door, surmounted27 by an image of the Virgin28, jammed in between a café and a blank wall. The blank wall belongs to a seminary, one of the buildings with which the church is encrusted. This building directly faces the new mairie, a very startling and effusive29 erection which stands where once stood a wing of the bishop30’s palace. Between the schoolhouse and the exuberant31 mairie are two dark, picturesque arches under a house. They represent what remains of the court of the palace, while the building above them is a part of the palace itself. The other side of this old house, having been left undisfigured, serves to show how stately a structure was this évêché of the fifteenth century.
Now, on that wall of the seminary which immediately faces the unblushing mairie will be found the Roman inscriptions32 to which reference has been made in the previous chapter (inscriptions dealing33 with the Taurobolium and with Valerianus and his wife Vibia). Here also are preserved certain carved tablets showing an interlacement of grapes and roses, mingled34 with confused birds; while above is a smaller stone on which is depicted35 an archaic36 eagle of doubtful anatomy37. These carvings38 are generally described as Merovingian (A.D. 500-750), but the author of the Vence Handbook inclines to the view that they are Romano-Byzantine, and suggests that they may have belonged to a church that stood on this spot in the fifth century.
A Christian40 church of some kind has existed at Vence since the fourth century, for the first bishop of Vence, St. Eusebius, held office in the year 374. The present church dates from the tenth century, although that which now stands belongs to a period between the twelfth and the fifteenth. On entering the building there is at once a sense of being in a place of great antiquity41. No church in this part of France conveys so striking an impression of old age. It is dark and crypt-like and, above all, primitive42. On each side of the nave43 are immense square pillars supporting round arches. The pillars are without capitals and without a trace of ornament44. There are two side aisles45 roofed over by a wide gallery which looks into the nave through the line of arches. The galleries were erected47 in the fifteenth century to accommodate an increasing congregation. On each side of these aisles is still another aisle46, which is narrow and dark and in which are the chapels49. The church, therefore, is represented by a nave and four aisles.
VENCE: OLD HOUSE IN THE PLACE GODEAU.
VENCE: RUE DE LA COSTE.
The side chapels are all old and beautifully decorated. One chapel48 contains the body of St. Veran, who died in 492. The tomb—which forms also the altar—is a Roman sarcophagus. It presents some mysterious carving39 which is thus described in the Vence Handbook: In the centre are the busts50 of a man and a young woman enclosed in a large sea-shell. Below is a bird and three naked children playing. The rest of the surface is occupied by the waves of the sea. It may be conjectured51 that it was the last resting-place of a lover of the sea, who would wish to sleep with the waves about him, with a bird in the blue and with children at play on the sand. The high altar is of marble of many colours and the tabernacle is surmounted by angels’ heads in white. By the altar are the tombs of the Villeneuves, the Lords of Vence.
The west end of the church presents a very large gallery or tribune, which was placed there at the close of the fifteenth century. Here are the famous choir52 stalls which were transferred from the choir at the same period. These stalls, fifty-one in number, are of dark oak and are most elaborately wrought. Besides much architectural detail there are innumerable carvings of animals and plants, of human figures and of vague incidents. Some details, as the writer of the Handbook says, are serious, others are amusing, and a few are not “très convenables.” These exquisite53 stalls were the work of Jacques Bellot of Grasse. He commenced the work, according to Mr. Kaye,[14] in 1455, when he was twenty-five years of age, and completed it in 1495. He was, therefore, twenty-five when the work began and sixty-five when it was finished.
In this gallery also is a very fine lectern, which is claimed to be even an earlier work than the stalls. In one of the chapels of the church (the Chapelle des Saints-Anges) is the wondrously54 carved door of the prév?té or chapter house. This work is older than the stalls and is generally ascribed to the artist who fashioned the lectern. Certain Roman figures or statuettes are to be found in the church, one let into the pillar before the chapel of St. Veran, and another, that of a senator, in the wall between this chapel and that of the Sacred Heart.
Behind the church is a poor, distracted-looking square, once the cemetery55, now the Place Godeau. It is shaded by three large chestnut trees and contains some ancient houses, one notably56 with a two-arched Romanesque window and another with the date 1524 carved above the doorway57. In the centre is a disconsolate58 column of bluish granite59 to which is ignominiously60 fixed61 a brass62 water-tap. This column seems to have wandered from some museum and to have lost both its way and its label. There are those who affirm that it was a gift of the Phoc?ans to the ancient town, others that it came from the temple of Mars; while those who range less far believe it to be a Roman boundary stone or borne. From this Place can be seen the great watch tower of Vence, often called the tower of the castle. It is square and very severely63 plain, and contains the belfry and a too modern clock. The tower belongs to the fifteenth century, or to even an earlier period. From this square can also be seen a little lancet window of the church which is perhaps the oldest of its present lights.
The town of old Vence is small and cramped64. Around the church, crushed in between it and the city wall, is a maze65 of small streets. They still maintain the lines they followed long before the day when—in England—Elizabeth was queen. They are narrow, of course, and dark and crowded with houses of great age, houses of such antiquity that no modern mask can hide the hollow eyes or the shrunken cheeks. There are among them handsome windows and fine entries, good mason’s work and some decoration pitiable in its playfulness.
The place is almost empty. Certain houses are deserted66; a few are ruinous, and in these the black, blank windows glare like the eye-sockets of a skull67. Many show the tottering68 deformities of age and have become crippled, wizened69 and bent70.
This almost silent city once held seven thousand people. Its streets were then crowded, full of life and colour, of fair women and stalwart men. The wayfarer71 would need squeeze himself into a doorway to allow the lady in a litter to pass by, or to make room for a company of young gallants rollicking along arm in arm, or for the wedding party on its way to the cathedral close. The place is now hushed like a house of mourning, while in many a lane there may be no one to be seen.
He who strolls alone through the city of Vence may find himself carried back into the past by some nightmare witchery, and imagine that he wanders in a strange country, amid the scenes of a half-forgotten tale. There is about the streets the faint, musty smell that clings to the leaves of an ancient missal or that hovers72 about the worm-eaten chest stuffed with lumber73. To read the life of the town as it was in earlier times is like the turning over of a bundle of old letters that are fragmentary and partly illegible74, that are strange in both the wording and the script, but that show now and then a sudden light that illumines the figure of a man or a woman who stands out amidst the gloom—alive.
[13]
“Vence,” by J. D., sold for the benefit of the Church and published at Vence in 1914. It is referred to in the text as “The Vence Handbook.”
[14]
“Grasse and its Vicinity,” by Walter J. Kaye, 1912.
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1
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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appendage
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| n.附加物 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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7
mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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slits
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| n.狭长的口子，裂缝( slit的名词复数 )v.切开，撕开( slit的第三人称单数 )；在…上开狭长口子 | |
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11
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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12
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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13
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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14
landmarks
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| n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址） | |
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15
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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16
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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17
hustling
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| 催促（hustle的现在分词形式） | |
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18
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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19
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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20
chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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21
babble
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| v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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23
masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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24
rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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25
peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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26
parasitic
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| adj.寄生的 | |
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27
surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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28
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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29
effusive
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| adj.热情洋溢的；感情(过多)流露的 | |
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30
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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31
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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32
inscriptions
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| （作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记 | |
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33
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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34
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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35
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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36
archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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37
anatomy
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| n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织 | |
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38
carvings
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| n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 )；雕刻术；雕刻品；雕刻物 | |
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39
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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40
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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41
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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42
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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43
nave
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| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
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44
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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45
aisles
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| n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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46
aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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47
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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48
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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49
chapels
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| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
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50
busts
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| 半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕 | |
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51
conjectured
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| 推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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53
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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54
wondrously
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| adv.惊奇地，非常，极其 | |
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55
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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56
notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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57
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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58
disconsolate
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| adj.忧郁的，不快的 | |
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59
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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60
ignominiously
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| adv.耻辱地，屈辱地，丢脸地 | |
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61
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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62
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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63
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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64
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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65
maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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66
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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67
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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68
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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69
wizened
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| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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70
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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71
wayfarer
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| n.旅人 | |
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72
hovers
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| 鸟( hover的第三人称单数 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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73
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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74
illegible
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| adj.难以辨认的，字迹模糊的 | |
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