DOI chapter:
Chapter I: Naples
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0041
Naples
“ O, balmy nights of Naples ! is it but wayward indulgence,
If for a few swift moments the revelling heart is oblivious
For thy fair sake of St. Peter, of e’en the divine Pantheon,
Ay, and of Monte Mario ? And thou, O Villa Pamphili,
E’en thy fountains of crystal, thy laurel-dimmed paths are
forgotten.” 1
But for those who wish to study the life and ways
of the people the Corso is too far away from the town,
and too far from the picturesque life of the fishermen,
who are a great feature of Naples, and of all the little
fishing towns along the shore. Crowds of idlers, lean-
ing over the sea wall, seem never weary of watching
the hauling in of the nets, which are very large and
stretch far out to sea. Sometimes as many as twenty
men will be hauling the same rope, and the operation
seems to go on for hours ; but I myself have never
“ been in at the finish.” If interested, the loiterers
looking on will often lend a hand, and the scene is
full of animation. These fishermen are as dark as the
Pompeiian bronzes in their Naples Museum, and a
breath of the sculpturesque spirit of antiquity seems
to touch us in looking at them. But the genius such
forms once inspired seems asleep. The artistic char-
acter of a race undergoes changes as inexplicable as
its political development. “ O, com’ e bello ! ” says
the poorest peasant before any beautiful object, and no
doubt the sense of beauty is as alert in these southern
races as in the Grseco-Roman workmen of the Roman
Empire. But the sacred fire of creative enthusiasm is
1 Translated from the German of Von Platen.
10
“ O, balmy nights of Naples ! is it but wayward indulgence,
If for a few swift moments the revelling heart is oblivious
For thy fair sake of St. Peter, of e’en the divine Pantheon,
Ay, and of Monte Mario ? And thou, O Villa Pamphili,
E’en thy fountains of crystal, thy laurel-dimmed paths are
forgotten.” 1
But for those who wish to study the life and ways
of the people the Corso is too far away from the town,
and too far from the picturesque life of the fishermen,
who are a great feature of Naples, and of all the little
fishing towns along the shore. Crowds of idlers, lean-
ing over the sea wall, seem never weary of watching
the hauling in of the nets, which are very large and
stretch far out to sea. Sometimes as many as twenty
men will be hauling the same rope, and the operation
seems to go on for hours ; but I myself have never
“ been in at the finish.” If interested, the loiterers
looking on will often lend a hand, and the scene is
full of animation. These fishermen are as dark as the
Pompeiian bronzes in their Naples Museum, and a
breath of the sculpturesque spirit of antiquity seems
to touch us in looking at them. But the genius such
forms once inspired seems asleep. The artistic char-
acter of a race undergoes changes as inexplicable as
its political development. “ O, com’ e bello ! ” says
the poorest peasant before any beautiful object, and no
doubt the sense of beauty is as alert in these southern
races as in the Grseco-Roman workmen of the Roman
Empire. But the sacred fire of creative enthusiasm is
1 Translated from the German of Von Platen.
10