THE first Sunday I was in Rome I began my local career with a visit to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, that faces the Via Cavour not far from the Continental1 Hotel where I was stopping, and afterwards San Prassede close beside it. After Canterbury, Amiens, Pisa and St. Peter’s, I confess churches needed to be of great distinction to interest me much; but this church, not so divinely harmonious2, exteriorly3 speaking, left me breathless with its incrustations of marbles, bronzes, carvings4, and gold and silver inlay. There is a kind of beauty, or charm, or at least physical excitation, in contemplating5 sheer gorgeousness which I cannot withstand, even when my sense of proportion and my reason are offended, and this church had that. Many of the churches in Rome have just this and nothing more. At least, what else they may have I am blind to. It did not help me any to learn as I did from Mrs. Barfleur, that it was very old, dating from 352 A. D., and that the blessed Virgin6 herself had indicated just where this basilica in her honor was to be built by having a small, private fall of snow which covered or outlined the exact dimensions of which the church was to be. I was interested to learn that they had here five boards of the original manger at Bethlehem inclosed in an urn7 of silver and crystal which is exposed in the sacristy on Christmas Eve and placed over the high altar on Christmas Day, and that here were the tombs and chapels8 of Sixtus V and Paul V and Clement10 VIII of the Borghese family and, too, a chapel9 of the Sforza family. Nevertheless338 the hodge-podge of history, wealth, illusion and contention11, to say nothing of religious and social discovery, which go to make up a church of this kind, is a little wearisome, not to say brain-achey, when contemplated12 en masse. These churches! Unless you are especially interested in a pope or a saint or a miracle or a picture or a monument or an artist—they are nothing save intricate jewel-boxes; nothing more.
For the first five or six days thereafter I went about with a certain Signor Tanni who was delivering peripatetic13 lectures at the principal places of interest in Rome. This is a curious development of the modern city, for so numerous are the travelers and so great their interest in the history of Rome that they gladly pay the three to twelve lire each, which is charged by the various lecturers for their discussions and near-by trips. There was a Nashville, Tennessee, chicken-and-egg merchant who, with his wife, was staying at our hotel and who was making the matter of seeing Rome quite as much of a business as that of chickens and eggs in Tennessee. He was a man of medium height, dark, pale, neat, and possessed15 of that innate16 courtesy, reserve, large-minded fairness and lively appreciation—within set convictions—which is so characteristic of the native, reasonably successful American. We are such innocent, pure-minded Greeks—most of us Americans. In the face of such tawdry vulgarity and vileness17 as comprises the underworld café life of Paris, or before such a spectacle of accentuated18 craft, lust19, brutality20, and greed as that presented by the Borgias, a man such as my chicken-merchant friend, or any other American of his type, of whom there are millions, would find himself utterly21 nonplused. It would be so much beyond his ken14, or intention, that I question whether he would see or understand339 it at all if it were taking place before his very eyes. There is something so childlike and pure about the attitude of many strong, able Americans that I marvel22 sometimes that they do as well as they do. Perhaps their very innocence23 is their salvation24. I could not have told this chicken-merchant and his wife, for instance, anything of the subtleties25 of the underworld of Paris and Monte Carlo as I encountered them; and if I had he would not have believed me, he would have recoiled26 from it all as a burned child would recoil27 from fire. He was as simple and interesting and practical as a man could be, and yet so thoroughly28 efficient that at the age of forty-five he had laid by a competence29 and was off on a three years’ tour of the world.
Mrs. Chicken Merchant was a large woman—very stout30, very fair, very cautious of her thoughts and her conduct, thoroughly sympathetic and well-meaning. Before leaving her native town, she told me, she had inaugurated a small library, the funds for which she had helped collect. Occasionally she was buying engravings of famous historic buildings, such as the Colosseum and the Temple of Vesta, which would eventually grace the walls of the library. She and her husband felt that they were educating themselves; and that they would return better citizens, more useful to their country, for this exploration of the ancient world. They had been going each day, morning and afternoon, to some lecture or ancient ruin; and after I came they would seek me out of an evening and tell me what they had seen. I took great satisfaction in this, because I really liked them for their naïve point of view and their thoroughly kindly31 and whole-hearted interest in life. It flattered me to think that I was so acceptable to them and that we should get along so well together. Frequently they invited me to340 their table to dinner. On these occasions my friend would open a bottle of wine, concerning which he had learned something since he had come abroad.
It was Mr. and Mrs. Chicken Merchant who gave me a full description of the different Roman lecturers, their respective merits, their prices, and what they had to show. They had already been to the Forum32, the Palatine, the Colosseum and the House of Nero, St. Peter’s, the Castle of St. Angelo, the Appian Way, the Catacombs and the Villa33 Frascati. They were just going to the Villa d’Este and to Ostia, the old seaport34 at the mouth of the Tiber. They were at great pains to get me to join the companies of Signor Tanni who, they were convinced, was the best of them all. “He tells you something. He makes you see it just as it was. By George! when we were in the Colosseum you could just fairly see the lions marching out of those doors; and that House of Nero, as he tells about it, is one of the most wonderful things in the world.”
I decided35 to join Signor Tanni’s classes at once, and persuaded Mrs. Barfleur and Mrs. Q. to accompany me at different times. I must say that in spite of the commonplaceness of the idea my mornings and afternoons with Signor Tanni and his company of sightseers proved as delightful36 as anything else that befell me in Rome. He was a most interesting person, born and brought up, as I learned, at Tivoli near the Villa d’Este, where his father controlled a small inn and livery stable. He was very stocky, very dark, very ruddy, and very active. Whenever we came to the appointed rendezvous37 where his lecture was to begin, he invariably arrived, swinging his coat-tails, glancing smartly around with his big black eyes, rubbing and striking his hands in a friendly manner, and giving every evidence of taking a keen interest in his work. He was always polite and courteous38 without341 being officious, and never for a moment either dull or ponderous39. He knew his subject thoroughly of course; but what was much better, he had an eye for the dramatic and the spectacular. I shall never forget how in the center of the Forum Romanum he lifted the cap from the ancient manhole that opens into the Cloaca Maxima and allowed us to look in upon the walls of that great sewer40 that remains41 as it was built before the dawn of Roman history. Then he exclaimed dramatically: “The water that Cæsar and the emperors took their baths in no doubt flowed through here just as the water of Roman bath-tubs does to-day!”
On the Palatine, when we were looking at the site of the Palace of Elagabalus, he told how that weird42 worthy43 had a certain well, paved at the bottom with beautiful mosaic44, in order that he might leap down upon it and thus commit suicide, but how he afterwards changed his mind—which won a humorous smile from some of those present and from others a blank look of astonishment45. In the House of Nero, in one of those dark underhill chambers46, which was once out in the clear sunlight, but now, because of the lapse47 of time and the crumbling48 of other structures reared above it, is deep under ground, he told how once, according to an idle legend, Nero had invited some of his friends to dine and when they were well along in their feast, and somewhat intoxicated49, no doubt, it began to rain rose leaves from the ceiling. Nothing but delighted cries of approval was heard for this artistic50 thought until the rose leaves became an inch thick on the floor and then two and three, and four and five inches thick, when the guests tried the doors. They were locked and sealed. Then the shower continued until the rose leaves were a foot deep, two feet deep, three feet deep, and the tables were covered. Later the guests had to climb on tables and342 chairs to save themselves from their rosy51 bath; but when they had climbed this high they could climb no higher, for the walls were smooth and the room was thirty feet deep. By the time the leaves were ten feet deep the guests were completely covered; but the shower continued until the smothering52 weight of them ended all life.—An ingenious but improbable story.
No one of Signor Tanni’s wide-mouthed company seemed to question whether this was plausible53 or not; and one American standing54 next to me exclaimed, “Well, I’ll be switched!” My doubting mind set to work to figure out how I could have overcome this difficulty if I had been in the room; and in my mind I had all the associated guests busy tramping down rose leaves in order to make the quantity required as large as possible. My idea was that I could tire Nero out on this rose-leaf proposition. The picture of these noble Romans feverishly55 trampling56 down the fall of rose leaves cheered me greatly.
After my first excursion with Signor Tanni I decided to take his whole course; and followed dutifully along behind him, listening to his interesting and good-natured disquisitions, during many delightful mornings and afternoons in the Forum, on the Palatine, in the Catacombs, on the Appian Way and in the Villas57 at Frascati and Tivoli! I shall never forget how clearly and succinctly58 the crude early beginnings and characteristics of Christianity came home to me as I walked in the Catacombs and saw the wretched little graves hidden away in order that they might not be desecrated59, and the underground churches where converts might worship free from molestation60 and persecution61.
On the Palatine the fact that almost endless palaces were built one on top of the other, the old palace leveled by means of the sledge62 and the crowbar and the new one343 erected63 upon the smoothed-over space, is easily demonstrated. They find the remains of different ruins in different layers as they dig down, coming eventually to the early sanctuaries64 of the kings and the federated tribes. It is far more interesting to walk through these old ruins and underground chambers accompanied by some one who loves them, and who is interested in them, and who by fees to the state servitors has smoothed the way, so that the ancient forgotten chambers are properly lighted for you, than it is to go alone. And to have a friendly human voice expatiating65 on the probable arrangement of the ancient culinary department and how it was all furnished, is worth while. I know that the wonder and interest of the series of immense, dark rooms which were once the palace of Nero, and formerly66 were exposed to the light of day, before the dust and incrustation of centuries had been heaped upon them, but which now underlie67 a hill covered by trees and grass, came upon me with great force because of these human explanations; and the room in which, in loneliness and darkness for centuries stood the magnificent group of Laocoon and the porphyry vase now in the Vatican, until some adventuring students happened to put a foot through a hole, thrilled me as though I had come upon them myself. Until one goes in this way day by day to the site of the Circus Maximus, the Baths of Caracalla, the ruins of Hadrian’s Villa, the Castle of St. Angelo, the Forum, the Palatine and the Colosseum, one can have no true conception of that ancient world. When you realize, by standing on the ground and contemplating these ancient ruins and their present fragments, that the rumored68 immensity of them in their heyday69 and youth is really true, you undergo an ecstasy70 of wonder; or if you are of a morbid71 turn you indulge in sad speculations72 as to the drift of life. I cannot tell you how the mosaics344 from the palace of Germanicus on the Palatine affected73 me, or how strange I felt when the intricacies of the houses of Caligula and Tiberius were made clear. To walk through the narrow halls which they trod, to know truly that they ruled in terror and with the force of murder, that Caligula waylaid74 and assaulted and killed, for his personal entertainment, in these narrow alleys75 which were then the only streets, and where torches borne by hand furnished the only light, is something. A vision of the hugeness and audacity76 of Hadrian’s villa which now stretches apparently77, one would say, for miles, the vast majority of its rooms still unexcavated and containing what treasures Heaven only knows, is one of the strangest of human experiences. I marveled at this vast series of rooms, envying the power, the subtlety78 and the genius which could command it. Truly it is unbelievable—one of those things which stagger the imagination. One can hardly conceive how even an emperor of Rome would build so beautifully and so vastly. Rome is so vast in its suggestion that it is really useless to apostrophize. That vast empire that stretched from India to the Arctic was surely fittingly represented here; and while we may rival the force and subtlety and genius and imagination of these men in our day, we will not truly outstrip79 them. Mind was theirs—vast, ardent80 imagination; and if they achieved crudely it was because the world was still young and the implements81 and materials of life were less understood. They were the great ones—the Romans. We must still learn from them.
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1
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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exteriorly
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| adv.从外部，表面上 | |
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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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contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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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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urn
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| n.（有座脚的）瓮；坟墓；骨灰瓮 | |
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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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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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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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peripatetic
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| adj.漫游的，逍遥派的，巡回的 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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vileness
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| n.讨厌，卑劣 | |
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accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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subtleties
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| 细微( subtlety的名词复数 )； 精细； 巧妙； 细微的差别等 | |
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recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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competence
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| n.能力，胜任，称职 | |
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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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forum
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| n.论坛，讨论会 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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seaport
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| n.海港，港口，港市 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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sewer
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| n.排水沟，下水道 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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52
smothering
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的现在分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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succinctly
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| adv.简洁地；简洁地，简便地 | |
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desecrated
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| 毁坏或亵渎( desecrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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molestation
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| n.骚扰，干扰，调戏；折磨 | |
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persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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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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sanctuaries
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| n.避难所( sanctuary的名词复数 )；庇护；圣所；庇护所 | |
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expatiating
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| v.详述，细说( expatiate的现在分词 ) | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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underlie
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| v.位于...之下，成为...的基础 | |
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rumored
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| adj.传说的，谣传的v.传闻( rumor的过去式和过去分词 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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heyday
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| n.全盛时期，青春期 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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waylaid
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| v.拦截，拦路( waylay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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77
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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79
outstrip
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| v.超过，跑过 | |
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80
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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81
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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