DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0383
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ISLAND OF CAPRI.
ALTHOUGH the island of Capri is but eleven miles
in circumference, it is a miniature world. Its his-
tory begins with the dawn of the kingdoms and peoples of
whom we know; the myths of the ancients are associ-
ated with it; the history of Rome tells its story at
important periods; it has sustained sieges in modern
warfare; has been an apple of discord between the Eng-
lish, French, and Italians, and is now a lovely retreat from
the bustling life of to-day, and a sanitarium for Naples
and the rest of the world; while it has lost somewhat of
its ingenuousness, and thereby its original charm for the
artists of all lands.
Within its narrow confines all the mysteries and pas-
sions of humanity are known. Birth begins, and death
ends life; love makes its sweet sacrifice of self, and hate
grows into murder; rivalry incites to attainments, humble
though they may be; and even ambition here finds a place,
and pushes the children of this Cephorim — the villages —
out into the great world, where they find nothing of the
essential realities that does not exist here, only more of
them in quantity.
Capri is first seen from a distance by the traveller, and
has been likened by various writers to very different
objects. Jean Paul compared it to a sphinx ; Gregorovius
to a splendidly carved sarcophagus, with an emperor
extended on it; but I, a much humbler writer, have had
THE ISLAND OF CAPRI.
ALTHOUGH the island of Capri is but eleven miles
in circumference, it is a miniature world. Its his-
tory begins with the dawn of the kingdoms and peoples of
whom we know; the myths of the ancients are associ-
ated with it; the history of Rome tells its story at
important periods; it has sustained sieges in modern
warfare; has been an apple of discord between the Eng-
lish, French, and Italians, and is now a lovely retreat from
the bustling life of to-day, and a sanitarium for Naples
and the rest of the world; while it has lost somewhat of
its ingenuousness, and thereby its original charm for the
artists of all lands.
Within its narrow confines all the mysteries and pas-
sions of humanity are known. Birth begins, and death
ends life; love makes its sweet sacrifice of self, and hate
grows into murder; rivalry incites to attainments, humble
though they may be; and even ambition here finds a place,
and pushes the children of this Cephorim — the villages —
out into the great world, where they find nothing of the
essential realities that does not exist here, only more of
them in quantity.
Capri is first seen from a distance by the traveller, and
has been likened by various writers to very different
objects. Jean Paul compared it to a sphinx ; Gregorovius
to a splendidly carved sarcophagus, with an emperor
extended on it; but I, a much humbler writer, have had