Who has entered the aged2 city of Rome and not felt the power of its thrilling associations? How the doors of history swing open before the traveller, and how sublime3 the panorama4 which unfolds to his view! How swiftly pass the scenes of pomp and the parades of heroes! It cannot be described. It must be felt to be understood. It requires no very active imagination to see again the strong walls, the towers, the gates, the majestic5 temples, and the superb Capitol rising over all. To be able to walk its paved streets, and wend about its Corinthian porches, and through its marvellous arches; to rush with the crowds of Romans to a seat in the Coliseum; to march in the triumphal processions, and to listen to the echo of Cicero’s voice among the pillars of the Forum6, is no very difficult dream, when the same buildings which saw and heard those things are yet before you. One[107] can stand in the shadows of ancient ruins, when the moon gives light enough to see the outline, but not sufficient to show the scars which the ages have given them, and witness again the gatherings7 of the Roman people, and make out the forms of Cincinnatus, of Scipio, of Marius, of C?sar, of Cicero, of Augustus, or of Constantine, as their lumbering8 chariots jolt9 over the pavements and around the palace walls. The Tiber, which rolls on its ceaseless course, and which saw the faces of Livy, Horace, and Virgil, moves by the Tarpeian Rock, and the Campus Martius, with the same eddying10 playfulness as it exhibited then. New glories gild11 the clouds, and new temples adorn12 the adjacent plains. Jupiter gives way to Jehovah, priests of Janus and Venus stand aside for monks13 and friars to fill their office. The Coliseum crumbles14, as St. Paul’s lifts its grand fa?ades. Capitolinus falls and St. Peter’s fills the bow of heaven. Marvels15 of ancient art grow dusty with the ages, while new forms, so divinely conceived, so incomparably wrought16, and so immaculate in modesty17 and matchless in color, spring into being at the call of the later civilization. All is interesting, exciting, glorious! One walks the streets in dreams, lulled18 by the musical cadences19 of the rippling20 native language. Words cannot convey the feelings awakened21 by that new sense, which discerns and interprets the ancient and modern associations of Rome. The traveller feels as if he were a companion of the great and powerful, of the refined and[108] good, who have walked those streets before him, and ever after the words they spoke22, and the books they wrote, have a fresh and unabating interest.
So Bayard saw the ancient city, although he has described it somewhat differently. Rome was to Florence what the Apollo is to the Venus de Medici, each enhancing the beauty of the other, and losing nothing by comparison. It was near the first of January, 1846, when the subject of these sketches24 entered Rome and took up his abode25 in a lowly tavern26 opposite the front of the Pantheon. In a most humble27, almost beggarly way, he obtained his food at the cheapest places, and walked among those old ruins in the most unobtrusive manner. He was too poor, and earned too little as a newspaper correspondent, to spend aught on the luxuries of Rome. Hence all his time and attention were on that which pleased the eye and satisfied the mind, rather than upon those things which gratify the appetite or inflate28 the pride. He walked to the Coliseum by moonlight, and heeded29 not fatigue30. For within its cragged circuit he saw again the excited hosts, the gay ladies about the imperial throne, the writhing31 Christian32, and the lions with bloody33 jaws34. Or he saw the fiercer human beings engaged in the gladiatorial combat, saw the flash of shields and swords, heard the groan35 of the dying as it was drowned by the rising shouts for the victor. He searched the hidden recesses36 of the baths, palaces, arches, prisons, and churches, which remain as reminders[109] of the old city; he marched far out on the Appian Way and contemplated37 its tombs and mysterious piles in laborious38 detail; he sketched39 the spirals of Trajan’s Column, and drew a plan of the ancient Capitol. In awe-stricken silence he walked beneath the dome40 of mighty41 St. Peter’s, and marvelled42 in worshipful mood before those exquisite43 mosaics44. He lingered long and lovingly in the great labyrinth45 of the Vatican, wept at the sight of some of those great paintings, and bowed with respect to the greatest productions of the greatest sculptors46. Few will give credit to the glowing pictures which he draws of the arts in Rome, nor believe the strong assertions we herein make, who have not been there and experienced the same sensations.
He visited in pious47 respect the tombs of Tasso, Keats, and Shelley, and found his way into the studios of the modern artists. He took short trips into the country, and once stopped for the night under the shadows of the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli. Beyond Rome he could not go. For once, Dame48 Fortune turned her back upon him. If he would see Naples, Pompeii, and Samos, he must have money. Money he could not get. Grievously disappointed, yet thankful for what he had seen, he most devoutly49 thanks God, and turns northward50.
At Civita Vecchia to which place he, as usual, walked, he embarked51, third class, on a steamboat for Marseilles. The beds were rough planks52, the food was drenched53 like himself, and fleas54 infested55 every stitch of[110] covering. It stormed, and Bayard might have perished with exposure to the bad weather, had not a sailor taken compassion56 on him and his companion, and lent them some clothing. That kindness he ever remembered, and it may have been in his mind when, after meeting many sailors, he wrote of them:—
“They do not act with a studied grace,
They do not speak in delicate phrase,
And the freedom of ocean in all their ways.
The lying arts that the landsmen learn:
Each looks in the eyes of the man he meets,
And whoso trusts him, he trusts in turn.
But whether they die on sea or shore,
And lie under water, or sand, or sod,
Christ give them the rest that he keeps in store,
And anchor their souls in the harbor of God!”
He arrived at Marseilles with but five dollars for the expense of a journey of five hundred miles on foot. Dark outlook, indeed, on entering for the first time a country with whose language he was unacquainted. Through rain and mud, sunshine and darkness, he moved on, courageous59 as ever, and enjoying with the same zest60 his glimpses of ancient cathedrals and renowned61 localities. At Lyons he received a small amount of money by mail, and at a time when death by starvation seemed but a few hours removed. The[111] story of his mishaps62 by land and by water, on his way from Lyons to Paris is a very exciting narration63, as he relates them in his “Views Afoot,” and yet shows the best side of a most terrible experience. But Paris was reached at last, and in the first week of February, 1846, they found a lodging64 place in the Rue65 de la Harpe, at the rate of two dollars and eighty cents a month. He lived on twenty cents a day, and in place of a teacher of French, subscribed66 at a circulating library and picked out the words and phrases by downright hard study in his fireless and damp attic67. For five weeks he studied and rambled68 and endured privation, learning Paris by heart and finding himself made free and happy by the atmosphere of gayety which pervades69 everything there. His favorite resort was the Place de la Concorde, which is an open space at one side of the palace of the Tuileries, and at the foot of that magnificent embowered avenue called the Champs Elysées. There were then, as now, the enchanting70 groves71, with the gardens, concert bowers72, and shy booths. There was the obelisk73 from Luxor, which called Bayard’s attention to Egypt and created a strong desire to see that ancient land of the Nile. There were the solid walls of the Tuileries upon one side, the river Seine upon another, while the twin palaces, with the distant front of the Madeleine Church showing between them, shut out the populous74 city on the other. But the pavements, flowers, fountains, bronze figures, obelisk and palaces were the least of the attractions[112] which called this persevering75 young student to that celebrated76 square. It was there that many of the most important acts in the history of France were performed. It was there that kings were made, and there they were beheaded. It was there that priests had preached, and there that they were murdered. It was there that in the crimson77 and lurid78 days of ’94, the Red Revolutionists each day filled the baskets at the foot of the guillotine with the heads of twoscore and often threescore citizens. Who would surmise79 that in a city so gay, so cheerful, so imbued80 with the very spirit of pleasure and childlike life, such hideous81 deeds of blood and destruction could be performed! Quick-tempered, excitable people, going with the flash of a thought from one extreme to the other. No place in all Paris better exhibits the character of the nation, than the Place de la Concorde. There Bayard often lingered and pondered, seeing clearly through the film of gay attire82, garlands of roses, delightful83 wines, and gorgeous carriages, the dangerous yet often heroic elements, which have so often thrown off the crust of fashion and politeness, and flooded the beautiful city with seething84 torrents85 from the deepest hell.
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.
He sought out the master-pieces of art in the galleries, cathedrals, and parks, and dwelt long and caressingly86 upon their entrancing forms, having now passed through a school that left him a competent critic. He gazed after the carriage where Louis Philippe rode in state, and wondered if such a monarchy87 could endure,[113] and with a powerful yearning88 fumbled89 the unintelligible90 leaves of Victor Hugo, Beranger, and Lamartine—not, however, to be long unintelligible.
There, again, he was in financial distress91, and was saved from great suffering by the unexpected kindness of a merchant, who, like Mr. Chandler and Mr. Patterson at the beginning of his career, loaned him money, although Bayard was a stranger and could give no security.
From Paris via Versailles and Rouen, he walked to Dieppe, and, after crossing the Channel, travelled by third-class car to London, where he arrived with but thirty cents in French money. With no money to pay his lodging, with a letter from home in the post-office, on which he could not pay the postage, he made desperate attempts to obtain employment as a printer. But the “Trade unions” were so omnipotent92, that no stranger without a certificate could be set at work without a “strike.” At last, when long without his usual meals, and sure of being refused a lodging, he applied93 to Mr. Putnam, who was conducting the London agency of the American publishing firm, who loaned him five dollars, and he could again eat and sleep. Several weeks of waiting intervened, in which Mr. Putnam kindly94 kept Bayard in employment, at a salary sufficient to pay his board, before the money came from America to take them home. Even then the captain of the vessel95 on which he returned with his two friends who started with him nearly two years before, was compelled to take a[114] promise for a part of the fare. Captain Morgan, who commanded the vessel, was one of the noblest men that ever paced a deck, and so popular did he become, that his biography was published thirty years after this passage, in an illustrated96 number of “Scribner’s Magazine.” Their voyage was a fair one, their landing in New York a happy one; but no pen except his own can describe the joy of seeing again his own country, and of walking at evening into the door of that home which he left two years before as a boy, and to which he then returned a man.
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1
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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forum
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| n.论坛，讨论会 | |
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gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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jolt
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| v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸 | |
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eddying
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| 涡流，涡流的形成 | |
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gild
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| vt.给…镀金，把…漆成金色，使呈金色 | |
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adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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crumbles
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| 酥皮水果甜点( crumble的名词复数 ) | |
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marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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lulled
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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cadences
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| n.（声音的）抑扬顿挫( cadence的名词复数 )；节奏；韵律；调子 | |
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rippling
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| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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arena
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| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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inflate
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| vt.使膨胀，使骄傲，抬高（物价） | |
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heeded
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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33
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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34
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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36
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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44
mosaics
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| n.马赛克( mosaic的名词复数 )；镶嵌；镶嵌工艺；镶嵌图案 | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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sculptors
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| 雕刻家，雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 )； [天]玉夫座 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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48
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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devoutly
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| adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地 | |
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50
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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51
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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fleas
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| n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 )；爱财如命；没好气地（拒绝某人的要求） | |
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infested
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| adj.为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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candor
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| n.坦白，率真 | |
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fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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mishaps
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| n.轻微的事故，小的意外( mishap的名词复数 ) | |
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narration
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| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
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64
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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subscribed
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| v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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rambled
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| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的过去式和过去分词 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
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pervades
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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bowers
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| n.（女子的）卧室( bower的名词复数 )；船首锚；阴凉处；鞠躬的人 | |
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obelisk
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| n.方尖塔 | |
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populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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persevering
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| a.坚忍不拔的 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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81
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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82
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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83
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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84
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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85
torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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86
caressingly
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| 爱抚地，亲切地 | |
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87
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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88
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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89
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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90
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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91
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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92
omnipotent
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| adj.全能的，万能的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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94
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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96
illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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