VIITHE TRIUMPHANT CITY

1599.

with the magnet. He was re-appointed again and again with an increase of salary.

In April or May, in 1609, when he was in Venice, it was reported that a certain Dutchman had presented Maurice of Nassau with a sort of eyeglass which made distant objects seem near. This was all that was known of the invention, but Galileo was so much interested by the story that he returned to Padua at once, and in the course of a single night succeeded in constructing his first telescope, in spite of the poor quality of the lenses he had, and on the following day he returned to Veniceand showed the instrument to his astonished friends. After perfecting it he resolved to present it to the reigning Doge, Leonardo Donà, and to the whole Venetian Senate.

I translate literally the letter he wrote to the Doge to accompany the gift.

Most Serene Prince: Galileo Galilei, your Serenity’s most humble servant, labouring assiduously and with all his heart not only to do his duty as lecturer on mathematics in the University of Padua, but also to bring your Serenity some extraordinary advantage by means of some useful and signal discovery, now appears before you with a new device of eyeglass, the result of the most recondite theories of perspective; the which [invention] brings objects to be visible so near the eye and shows them so large and distinct, that what is distant, for instance, nine miles, seems as if it were only one mile away, a fact which may be of inestimable service for every business and enterprise by land and sea; for it is thus possible, at sea, to discover the enemy’s vessels and sails at a far greater distance than is customary, so that we can see him two hours and more before he can see us, and by distinguishing the number and nature of his vessels, we can judge of his forces and prepare for a pursuit, or a battle, or for flight. In the same manner, on land, the quarters and the defences of the enemy within a strong place can be descried from an eminence, even if far away; and even in the open country, it is possible with great advantage to make out every movement and preparation; moreover, every judicious person will clearly perceive many uses [for the telescope]. Therefore, deeming it worthy to be received and considered very useful by your Serenity, he [Galileo] has determined to present it to you, and to leave it to your judgment to determine and provide concerning thisinvention, in order that, as may seem best to your prudence, others should or should not be constructed. And this the aforesaid Galilei presents to your Serenity as one of the fruits of the science which he has now professed in the University of Padua during more than seventeen years, trusting that he is on the eve of offering you still greater things, if it please the Lord God and your Serenity that he, as he desires, may spend the rest of his life in the service of your Serenity, before whom he humbly bows, praying the Divine Majesty to grant you the fulness of all happiness.

The letter is not dated, but on the twenty-fifth of August 1609 the Signory appointed the astronomer professor for life, with ‘three times the highest pay ever granted to any lecturer on mathematics.’

It was in Padua that Galileo invented the microscope, observed the moon’s surface, and the spots on the sun, discovered that the milky way and the nebulæ consist of many small fixed stars, discovered Jupiter’s moons, Saturn’s rings, and the fact that Venus revolves round the sun, ‘and not below it, as Ptolemy believed.’

Much has been written of late about Galileo, but most of what has appeared seems to be founded on this life by his pupil Viviani.

WhenPhilippe de Commines came to Venice in 1495 as ambassador of Charles VIII. he wrote: ‘This is the most triumphant city that ever I saw.’

He meant what he said figuratively, no doubt, for in that day there was something overwhelming about the wealth and splendour, and the vast success of the Republic. But he meant it literally too, for no stateor city of the world celebrated its own victories with such pomp and magnificence as Venice.

The Venetians had never been altogether at peace with the Turks, in spite of the treaty which had been made soon after the fall of Constantinople;

Daru; Rom.

but when Venice herself was threatened by all the European powers together, it was with the highest satisfaction that she saw the Moslems attack her old enemies the Hungarians. Yet her joy was of short duration, for the Emperor soon made peace with the Sultan. It will be remembered that the Imperial throne had then already been hereditary in the Hapsburg family for many years.

The character of Turkish warfare in the Mediterranean was always piratical, of the very sort most certain to harass and injure a maritime commercial nation like Venice, and the latter began to lose ground steadily in the Greek archipelago, and now found herself obliged to defend the coasts of the Adriatic against the Turks as she had formerly defended them against the pirates of Narenta. From time to time a Turkish vessel was captured, and hundreds of Christian slaves were found chained to the oar.

There were also other robbers along the Dalmatian coast, who exercised their depredations against Turks

Niccolò da Ponte triumphs over the Usocchi; Tintoretto, Hall of the Great Council.

and Christians alike, with admirable equity. These were the so-called ‘Usocchi,’ a name derived from a Slav root meaning to ‘leap out’—hence, those who had escaped and fled their country and were outlaws.

About this time the island of Cyprus had fallen in part under Turkish domination. The Turks had

Cicogna, Iscr. Ven. iii. 134.

made a piratical descent upon Nicosia, and had carried off all the women who were still young enough for the Eastern market. But one of these, a heroine whose name is lost, fired the ship’s powder-magazine and saved herself and her companions from outrage by causing the instant death of every soul on board. This was in the latter half of the sixteenth century.

Thirsting for vengeance, the Venetians now eagerly joined Philip II. of Spain in the league proposed by the Pope. The three fleets were to meet at Messina, and much precious time was lost, during which the Turks completed their conquest of Cyprus, which was heroically defended by Marcantonio Bragadin. His fate was horrible. His nose and ears were cut off, and he was obliged to witness the death of his brave companions, Tiepolo, Baglione, Martinengo, and Quirini. They were stoned, hanged, and carved to shreds before his eyes, and a vast number of Venetian soldiers and women and children were massacred before him during the following ten days. At last his turn came to die; he was hung by the hands in the public square and slowly skinned alive. It is said that he died like a hero and a saint, commending his soul to God, and forgiving his enemies.

The ferocious Mustapha, by whose orders these horrors were perpetrated, ordered his skin to be stuffedand had it carried about the streets, under a red umbrella, in allusion to the arms of the Bragadin family. The hideous human doll

Molmenti, Seb. Venier.

was then hoisted to the masthead of Mustapha’s ship as a trophy and taken in that way to Constantinople.

But in his lifetime Bragadin had ransomed a certain man of Verona from the Turks, and had earned his undying gratitude. This Veronese, hearing of his benefactor’s awful end, swore to bring home his skin, since nothing else remained, and with incredible skill and courage actually entered the Turkish arsenal at Constantinople, where the trophy was kept, stole it and brought it home. It is related that the skin was found as soft as silk and was easily folded into a small space; it is preserved in the church of San Giovanni e Paolo.

The vengeance of the league was slow, but it was memorably terrible; in 1571 Don John of Austria, a stripling of genius, scarcely six and twenty years of age, commanded the three fleets and led Christianity to victory at Lepanto.

Lepanto, A. Vicentini; ducal palace.

One of the decisive battles of the world checked the Mohammedan power for ever in the Gulf of Corinth, and the blood of eighty thousand Turks avenged the inhuman murder of Bragadin and the self-destruction of the captive Venetian women.

Not many days later, on the eighteenth of October 1571, the great ‘Angel Gabriel,’ a galley of war, came sailing into the harbour of Venice, full

Molmenti, Seb. Venier.

dressed with flags, and trailing in her wake long line of Turkish standards, and turbans and coats.Then the cannon thundered, and the crew cried ‘Victory! Victory!’ and the triumphant note went rolling over Venice, while Onofrio Giustiniani, the commander of the man-of-war, went up to the ducal palace. Then the people went mad with joy, and demanded that all prisoners should be set free in honour of the day; and the Council allowed at least all those to be liberated who were in prison for debt. Then, too, the people cried ‘Death to the Turks!’ and would have massacred every Mussulman in the Turks’ quarter; but to the honour of Venice it is recorded that the government was strong enough to hinder that.

And then the Doge, Aloise Mocenigo, found his way through the closely packed crowd to the Basilica,

Aloise Mocenigo, praying, Tintoretto; Sala del Collegio.

and fifty thousand voices sang ‘Te Deum laudamus Domine,’ till the triumphant strain must have been heard far out on the lagoon. During four days processions marched through the streets and hymns of victory and thanksgiving were sung; the greatest battle of the age had been fought and won on the feast of Saint Justina, who was one of the patrons of Venice. In return for her military assistance an enthusiastic and devout people resolved to set up a statue of her in the Arsenal and to build her a church in Padua, as she already had one in Venice.

Religious obligations being thus cancelled, the universal rejoicing manifested itself in civic pageantry,

Rom. vi. 317.

and, to use a modern expression, the Venetians held a general exhibition of their treasures. The square of the Rialto was draped withscarlet cloth, on which were hung the pictures of the most famous masters, at a time when some of the greatest that ever lived were alive in Venice and at the height of their glory. In the midst of the square a trophy was raised, composed of Turkish arms and banners, turbans, slippers, jewels, and all sorts of ornaments taken from the slain. From the jewellers’ lane to the bridge a canopy of blue cloth covered with golden stars was spread high across the way, the most precious tapestries were hung on the walls of the houses, the shops showed all their most artistic wares in their windows. The German quarter was so crammed with beautiful objects that it seemed one great enchanted palace. To increase the general gaiety, the government made a special exception and allowed masks in the streets.

When it is remembered that Venice really obtained little or no immediate advantage from the battle of Lepanto, her frenzy of triumph may seem exaggerated; yet it was moderate compared with the reception Rome gave to the commander of the Papal fleet, Marcantonio Colonna. The Venetian captain, Sebastian Venier, was not present, and there was not the least personal note in the rejoicings; that, indeed, would have been very contrary to the usual behaviour of the Republic towards her own sons, for if they failed she disowned them or put them to death, and if they succeeded it was her motherly practice to disgrace them as soon as possible, and generally to find an excuse for imprisoning them, lest they should grow dangerous to herself.

We cannot help reproaching her for that; yet outof her magnificent past comes back ever that same answer: she succeeded, where others failed. She bred

DOOR OF THE CARMINE

such men as Enrico Dandolo, Vittor Pisani, Carlo Zeno, and Sebastian Venier, yet she was never enslaved by one of her own children. Rome served her Cæsar,and her many Cæsars; France, her Bonaparte; Russia, her Ivan Strashny, the Terrible; Spain, her Philip II.; England, her Richard III.—and her Cromwell, Protector and Tyrant. But Venice was never subject to any one Venetian man beyond the time needed to compass his destruction and death, which was never long, and sometimes was awfully brief.

Venier did not return to Venice till long after the battle of Lepanto, and his presence was necessary in the Archipelago in order to protect such colonies as were left to the Republic.

Venier returns in triumph, Palma Giovane; Sala dei Pregadi.

For though the Turks had suffered a disastrous defeat, final in the sense that their advance westwards was checked as effectually as the spreading of the Moorish conquest had been by Charles Martel at Poitiers, yet they were still at the height of their power in Constantinople, and were strong on the eastern side of the dividing line which was now drawn across the Mediterranean, and which marked the eastern limit of Christian domination. When Venier returned, the Turks were absolute masters of the island of Cyprus, and Venice was already beginning to pay what was really a war indemnity, destined to reach the formidable sum of three hundred thousand ducats. As Montesquieu truly says, it looked as if the Turks had been the victors at Lepanto.

Three years after that battle Venice was again adorned in her best to greet Henry III. of

Rom. vi. 341.

France, who visited the city in July 1574, the year of his accession. The King was to make hisentry on the eighteenth, and he was requested to stop at Murano on the previous evening, in the

Horatio Brown, Venetian studies.

Palazzo Cappello, which was all hung with silk and cloth of gold in his honour. Forty young nobles were attached to his person and sixty halberdiers mounted guard, dressed in yellow and blue, which were regarded by the Venetians as his colours, and wearing a

Henry III. visits Venice, A. Vicentino; Sala delle Quattro Porte.

cap with a white tuft for a cockade. Their weapons were taken from the armoury of the Council of Ten. There were also eighteen trumpeters and twelve drummers dressed in the King’s colours.

Henry III. was still in mourning for his brother Charles IX., and appeared very plainly clad in the midst of all this display. The chronicles have preserved the details of his costume; he wore a brown mantle that fell from his neck to his feet, and beneath it a violet tunic of Flemish cloth with a white lace collar. He also wore long leathern boots, perfumed gloves, and an Italian hat.

The night was passed in feasting, during which the French and the Venetians fraternised most closely, and on the following morning a huge galley was ready to take the King to Venice by way of the Lido.

On the high poop-deck a seat was placed for the King, covered with cloth of gold; on his right sat the Papal Nuncio, who was the Cardinal San Sisto, then came the Dukes of Nevers and Mantua; on his left the Doge and the Ambassadors. Four hundred rowers pulled the big vessel over, and fourteen galleys followedbringing the Senators and many others. To amuse the King during the short passage, the glass-blowers of

Murano had constructed on rafts a furnace in the shape of a marine monster that belched flames from its jaws and nostrils, while the most famous workmen blewbeakers and other vessels in the beast’s body, of the finest crystal glass, for the King and his suite.

Just when he might be thought to be weary of this spectacle a long array of decorated boats began to manœuvre before his eyes, with sails set and banners flying. These belonged to the various guilds and were wonderfully adorned. One represented a huge dolphin; on its back stood Neptune driving two winged steeds, while four aged boatmen in costume stood for the four rivers of the Republic, Brenta, Adige, Po, and Piave. Some of the boats had arrangements for sending up fireworks, others were floating exhibitions of the richest and most marvellous tapestries and stuffs.

The royal vessel, instead of proceeding straight to Venice, went round by the Lido to the landing of Saint Nicholas, where the State architect Palladio had erected a triumphal arch which Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese had covered with ten beautiful paintings. Here the King was invited to leave his galley in order to go on board the Bucentaur. Tintoretto was in the crowd, looking out for a chance of sketching the King, precisely as a modern reporter hangs about the docks and railway stations to get a snapshot at royalty. Tintoretto did not disdain the methods of a later time either; he succeeded in exchanging his threadbare cloak for the livery of one of the Doge’s squires or footmen, by which trick he managed to get on board the Bucentaur. Once there he made a sketch in pastels of the King which pleased the royal treasurer, De Bellegarde, and the latter persuaded his master to sit tothe artist for a full-length portrait, which was presented to the Doge on the King’s departure, in recollection of the visit.

During the following days nothing was omitted which might amuse the Sovereign or tend to strengthen the pleasant impression he had already received. Every sort of Venetian game was played, and all the traditional contests of strength and skill between Niccolotti and Castellani were revived, and with such earnestness on both sides as to lead to a fresh outbreak of their hereditary hate. Two hundred men fought with sticks at the Ponte del Carmine, as savagely as if the safety and honour of their wives and children depended on the result. At the most critical moment the fisherman Luca, the famous chief of the Niccolotti, fell into the canal, his followers were momentarily thrown into disorder by the accident, and the Castellani won the day.

Afterwards a banquet was given to the King, of which the remembrance remains alive amongst the people to our own time. The gondoliers and fishermen of to-day describe the feast, its magnificence, the beauty of the patrician ladies, the splendour of the service, as if they were speaking of something that happened yesterday instead of more than ten generations ago.

The tables were set in the hall of the Great Council for three thousand persons. The King sat in the middle of the hall under a golden canopy. We are told that the bill of fare set forth twelve hundred different dishes, and that all the company ate off solid silver plates, of which there were enough for all withouthaving recourse to the reserve which had been set up for show on a huge sideboard at the end of the hall. After the feast, the King assisted at the performance of the first opera ever given in Italy, composed by the once famous master Zarlino da Chioggia.

The banquet and the music must have occupied several hours; yet we are amazed to learn that so short a time sufficed for putting together a whole galley, of which Henry had seen the pieces, all taken apart, just before sitting down to table. When he left the ducal palace, he saw to his stupefaction the vessel launched into the canal on rollers, and towed away towards the Lido.

Not surfeited by the official amusements offered him by the Republic, the King diverted himself on his own account and went about the city in disguise,

Mut. Annali.

like Otho of old. The government had directed the jewellers and merchants to have in readiness their finest wares in order that when the King sent for them, he might buy objects worthy of the reputation of the Venetian shops; and the shopkeepers inquired with feverish anxiety when they were to go to the Palazzo Foscari.

But Henry preferred to go out shopping himself. One morning the jeweller at the Sign of the Old Woman on the Rialto Bridge was visited by a noble stranger, who inquired the price of a marvellously chiselled golden sceptre: apparently the Venetian jewellers kept sceptres in stock in case a king should look in. The price of this one was twenty-six thousandducats, or between eighteen and nineteen thousand pounds, which seems dear, even for a sceptre. But the noble stranger was not at all surprised, thought the matter over for a few seconds, nodded quietly, and ordered the thing to be sent to the Foscari palace, to

CAMPO BEHIND S. GIACOMO IN ORIO

the inexpressible joy of the jeweller, who knew the address well enough.

At that time there dwelt in Venice a branch of the famous Fugger family of Augsburg, the richest bankers of the sixteenth century. They owned all

Mutinelli, Annali.

the district of the city round the church of San Giacomo, and had even protected themselves bya sort of wall. There they had built a bank, a hospital, and houses for their numberless retainers, and they lived in a kind of unacknowledged principality of their own which was respected both by the State and the people.

The family had the most magnificent traditions of hospitality. When the Emperor Charles V. passed through Augsburg in the earlier part of the same century, he lodged in the Fuggers’ house, and as it was winter, his hosts caused his fires to be made only of aromatic wood imported as a perfume from Ceylon. Henry III. visited the Fuggers in Venice, and they were neither surprised by his unannounced visit nor unprepared to receive a royal guest.

While in Venice the King spent much of his time with Veronica Franco, the celebrated poetess and courtesan. She, on her side, fell deeply in

Tassini.

love with the man who was to be the worst of all the French kings. But he was only twenty-three years old then, he was half a Medici by blood, and all of one by his passionate nature. Veronica loved him with all her heart, and amidst all the evil he did there was at least one good result, for when he was gone she would not be consoled, nor would she ever look on another man, but mended her life and lived in a retirement to which she sought to attract other penitent women.

She had a picture of the King painted, and no doubt he was vividly present in her thoughts when she wrote the following sonnet, which is attributed to her, and which I do into prose for greater accuracy:—

Begone, deceiving thoughts and empty hope,Greedy and blind desires, and bitter cravings,Begone, ye burning sighs and bitter woes,Companions ever of my unending pain.Go memories sweet, go galling chains,Of a heart that is loosed from you at last,That gathers up again the rein of reason,Dropped for a while, and now goes forth in freedom.And thou, my soul, entangled in so many sorrows,Unbind thyself and to thy divine LordRejoicing turn thy thoughts;Now bravely force thy fate,Break through thy bonds; then, glad and free,Direct thy steps in the securer way!

Begone, deceiving thoughts and empty hope,Greedy and blind desires, and bitter cravings,Begone, ye burning sighs and bitter woes,Companions ever of my unending pain.

Go memories sweet, go galling chains,Of a heart that is loosed from you at last,That gathers up again the rein of reason,Dropped for a while, and now goes forth in freedom.

And thou, my soul, entangled in so many sorrows,Unbind thyself and to thy divine LordRejoicing turn thy thoughts;

Now bravely force thy fate,Break through thy bonds; then, glad and free,Direct thy steps in the securer way!

In order to give my readers some idea of what was done to furnish the Palazzo Foscari for Henry’s visit, I quote some items of the expenditure from theSouvenirsof Armand Baschet:—

‘Crimson silk and gold hangings, fifty-eight pieces making three hundred and seven braccia and a half at a ducat for each braccio and twelve inches. White silk and silver stuff; shot-silk and silver stuff; white satin with gold lines, etc. Cushions of brocade embroidered with gold and of blue velvet with gold and fringes etc. at forty ducats each. A bed quilt with gold lines and scarlet checks, twenty ducats. Yellow damask with little checks at one ducat the braccio. A rep rug of gold edged with blue velvet and lined with red silk, sixty ducats. A tablecloth of silver and gold brocade with white and gold fringe, thirty-four ducats. Greenand blue velvet for the floor, at one ducat the braccio. Complete hangings for a room of yellow satin with gold and silver fringe and gold lace, over seven hundred and thirty ducats.’

Further, we find for the royal gondolas the following items:—

‘Felse of scarlet satin, one hundred and fifty-six ducats. A boat’s carpet of violet Alexandria velvet; a felse of the same velvet lined with silk, fifty-five ducats. Another velvet carpet of the same colour, two canopies, one of violet satin fringed and embroidered with gold, the other of white satin, and two cushions of scarlet satin and gold.’

These things were put away in boxes, an inventory was taken, and they were valued at four thousand two hundred sequins, or more than three thousand pounds. The King on his side was generous. When he went away he presented each of the young noblemen who had attended him with a chain worth a hundred ducats, and gave a collar worth three hundred to his host, Foscari. The captain of his guard received a silver basin and ewer worth a hundred crowns. For the halberdiers of the guard there were three hundred crowns, eighty for the trumpeters and sixty for the drummers. His Majesty left a thousand crowns for the workmen of the Arsenal, two hundred for the rowers of the Bucentaur, one hundred for the major-domo, and fifty to the chief steward of the house.

The Duke of Savoy, who accompanied the King of France, also left some splendid presents. To the wife

THE PIAZZA

of Luigi Mocenigo, in whose house he had been staying, he gave a belt composed of thirty gold rosettes, ornamented with fine pearls and valuable precious stones. The Duke was doubtless unaware that as soon as he was gone the handsome ornament would have to be handed over to the Provveditori delle Pompe, not to be worn again unless a special and elaborate decree could be obtained for the purpose.

In the first year of the reign of Sixtus V. Japan sent ambassadors to the Pope ‘to recognise him officially as Christ’s vicar on earth.’ These

1585. Rom. vi. 387.

personages, who were converts to Christianity, were received with demonstrations of the greatest joy and esteem when they visited Venice, and were regaled with spectacles which were partly religious in character and partly secular. A procession was organised against which the Pope himself protested in the most formal manner; but the Republic paid no more attention than usual to this expression of papal displeasure. It was always the dream of Venice to be Roman Catholic without Rome.

The Japanese envoys looked on while all the clergy of the city passed in review before them, as well as all the guilds bearing the images of their

Giustina Renier Michiel, Origini.

patron saints and their standards; these were followed by cars carrying enormous erections of gold and silver vessels, built up in the form of pyramids, and of columns, stars, eagles, lions, and symbolic beasts. Other cars came after these withplatforms, on which actors represented scenes from the lives of saints, even including martyrdom. The

PIGEONS IN THE PIAZZA

Japanese may have been more amazed than edified by these performances.

The Venetians always loved processions, and it is toone of these pageants that the pigeons of Saint Mark’s owe their immunity. As early as the end of the fourteenth century it was the custom to make a great procession on Palm Sunday, in the neighbourhood of Saint Mark’s. A canon of the Cathedral deposited great baskets on the high altar, containing the artificial palms prepared for the Doge, the chief magistrates, and the most important members of the clergy. The Doge’s palm was prepared by the nuns of Sant’ Andrea, and was a monument of patience. The leaves were plaited with threads of palm, of gold, of silver, and of silk; and on the gilded handle were painted the arms of the Doge. According to the appointed service the procession began immediately after the distribution of the palms; and while the choir chanted the words ‘Gloria, laus et honor’ of the sacred hymn, a great number of pigeons were sent flying from different parts of the façade down into the square, having little screws of paper fastened to their claws to prevent them from flying too high. The people instantly began to catch the birds, and a great many were actually taken; but now and then, one stronger than the rest succeeded in gaining the higher parts of the surrounding buildings, enthusiastically cheered by the crowd. Those who had once succeeded in making their escape were regarded as sacred for ever with all their descendants. The State provided them with food from its granaries, and before long, lest by some mistake any free pigeons should be caught on the next Palm Sunday, the Signory decreed that other birds than pigeons must be used on the occasion.

SOTTO PORTICO DELLA GUERRA

Inthe fourteenth century, life in Venice was simple and vigorous, and found its civic expression in the formation of the Guilds which united in

Molmenti, Vita Privata. Sansovino. Galliccioli, ii. 267, 269. Mutinelli, Lessico.

close and brotherly bonds men of grave and energetic character, devoted to their country and to its advantage. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the tendencies of the later Venetians took visible shape in brotherhoods of joyous and not harmless amusement, and chiefly in thatknown as the ‘Compagnia della Calza,’ in plain English the ‘Hose Club.’

The learned Professor Tomassetti of the University of Rome, whose authority in all that concerns the Middle Ages in Italy is indisputable, informs me that he believes the right of wearing hose of two or more colours, as one leg white and one leg red, or quartered above and below the knee, belonged exclusively to free men, and that the fashion was adopted by them in order that they might be readily distinguished from the serf-born, in crowds and in public places. This is, indeed, the only reasonable explanation of the practice which has ever been offered, and is borne out by a careful examination of the pictures of the time. The ‘Hose Club’ distinguished themselves and recognised one another by their hose, which were of two colours, one leg having at first a peacock embroidered on it, whence the whole company was sometimes nicknamed ‘The Peacocks.’

The Doge Michel Steno, who painted his four hundred horses yellow, and had been concerned in the libel against the nephew of Marin Faliero,

1400.

had been counted among the gayest youths of his day; and when he was elected the rich young men of Venice, knowing by hearsay from their fathers that he had been wild in his youth, determined to celebrate the accession of a former dandy in a manner suited to their own tastes. They agreed upon the dress which afterwards became famous, and each paid a sum of two thousand ducats into a general fundwhich was entirely spent in pageantry, banqueting, and masquerades.

They had not at first intended the Club to be permanent, but when the anniversary of the Doge’s coronation came round in the following year, they met again to consider the advisability of prolonging an institution which made such an agreeable contrast to the general gravity of Venetian life.

They now composed a sort of charter or constitution, which would have made the heads of the artisan Guilds tremble with indignation, and might

1401.

well have caused the fathers of Venetian families to look even more grave than usual.

The Club was to be always a Company of twenty members, chosen for four years only; for as soon as a young Venetian married, or took his seat in the Great Council, he put on the long gown of older years and more dignified habits, which effectively eclipsed his brilliant legs from the public gaze. Each Company was to choose its name, an emblem, and a motto. There were to be officers, a president, a secretary, and a treasurer; and as the Venetians had a mania for sanctioning even the most frivolous doings by means of some religious exercise, each Company was to have a chaplain to celebrate a solemn mass at the admission of each young scapegrace who joined. The chaplain also administered the oath which every Companion was bound to take on admission.

The smallest infraction of the rules entailed a heavy fine, and the fines were, of course, periodically spentin riotous amusements. As for the dress, the hose always remained a part of it, but the greatest latitude was allowed in the matter of colour and embroidery, or other ornamentation.

The formation of the joyous Companies was a natural reaction after the huge efforts, the strenuous labours, the awful dangers that had filled the fourteenth century, and had placed Venice high among the European powers. From the foundation of the first of the Company, that of the ‘Peacocks,’ to the dispersion of the ‘Accesi,’ the ‘Ardent,’ which was the last, a hundred and eighty-six years went by, which may be called six generations, during which forty-three Companies succeeded each other, and the ‘Hose Club’ became famous throughout Europe for its extravagance, and for the fertility of its festive inventions.

It made it its especial business to adorn with its presence in a body the public baptisms of noble children, and important weddings, the visits of illustrious personages, and even elections where there was much at stake. When a foreign sovereign stopped in Venice, he asked to be made an honorary member of the Company, he sometimes adopted its dress, and he took home with him its emblem and its motto.

The most famous of all the Companies was that of the ‘Reali,’ the ‘Royals,’ which was in existence about the year 1530. The members wore a red

Cicogna, Iscr. iii. 366.

stocking on the right leg, and a blue one on the left, which was embroidered on one side with large flowers of violet colour, and on the other theemblem of the Company, which was a cypress, over which ran the motto, ‘May our glorious name go up

PONTE S. ANTONIO

to heaven.’ The members wore a vest of velvet embroidered with gold and fine pearls, and the sleeves were fastened on by knots of ribband of different colours,a fashion permitting the wearer to display his shirt of gossamer linen, exquisitely embroidered.

A leathern or a gilded girdle was worn too, ornamented with precious stones, and over the shoulder was carelessly thrown a short mantle of cloth of gold, or damask, or brocade, with a hood thrown back, in the lining of which was seen again the emblematic cypress.

Last of all the ‘toga,’ the great cloak, was red, and was fastened at the neck by a small golden chain, from the end of which a handsome jewel hung down below the ear, over one shoulder. The boots were of embroidered or cut leather, and were made with very thin soles.

Venice had to thank the Companions of the Hose Club for some of the first real theatrical performances ever given, which gradually led to the creation of the ‘ridotti,’ and were more or less aristocratic gambling clubs in connection with the theatres. We read that in 1529 the Companions played a comedy with immense success in the house of one of the Loredan family. In the following year the Duke of Milan visited the city, and the Club determined to out-do all its previous festivities. A Giustiniani was then the president of the ‘Royals,’ and he appeared with a deputation before the Doge and the Signory. After announcing that the Club had determined to produce the spectacle of a naval combat, he requested the government to lend for the purpose forty of the light war-pinnaces from the Arsenal. As if this were nothingunusual, he went on to ask for the use of the hall of the Great Council for a dance, of the Library for a supper, and of the Square of Saint Mark’s for a stag-hunt.

The Hose Club evidently had large ideas. The Doge, however, granted all that was necessary for the naval show, but said that he should have to think over the other requests!

It is needless to say that the ladies of Venice had their share in the gay doings of the Club, first as invited guests only, but later as honorary Companions, wearing the emblem embroidered on their sleeves and on the scarlet ‘felse’ of their gondolas, until the sumptuary laws interfered.

There were times when the Signors of the Night and the Council of Ten thought fit to limit the Club’s excessive gaiety, and it was found necessary to issue a decree which strictly prohibited any of the eleven thousand light ladies of the city from being received as Companions, or asked to its entertainments; for, oddly enough, the reputables do not seem to have resented the presence of the disreputables in the sixteenth century.

Now and then the Companions fell out among themselves. Marin Sanudo, in his diary, mentions that in February 1500 the Companions

Marin Sanudo, iii. I, 39.

dined in the house of Luca Gritti, son of late Omobono; and after dinner Zuan Moro, the treasurer of the Club, went out with Angelo Morosini, Andrea Vendramin, and Zacaria Priuli; and theyquarrelled about a matter concerning which I refer my scholarly reader to his Muratori, and Zuan Moro was wounded in the face, and turned and gave his assailants as good as he had got, to the infinite scandal of the whole city, for these Companions were all the young husbands of beautiful women, and they disfigured each other!

We learn also from Sanudo that the Companions frequented the parlours of nunneries as well as the palaces of their noble relations and friends, and that in 1514, for instance, they played a comedy by Plautus in the convent of Santo Stefano. The Company of the ‘Sempiterni,’ the ‘Eternals,’ wished to give a performance of Pietro Aretino’s ‘Talanta’ in one of the monasteries, but this was more than the monks could endure, which will not surprise any one who has read Aretino’s works; they might as well have proposed to give one of Giordano Bruno’s obscene comedies; and perhaps they would, if he had then already lived and written. Refused by the monks, the Companions hired a part of an unfinished palace on the Canarregio for their performance.

At first sight, what surprises us is the impunity enjoyed by these young gentlemen of pleasure, and we ask what the three ‘Wise Men on Blasphemy’ were doing. They were the Censors of the Republic, and it is amusing to note that they acted in regard to licensing plays precisely as the modern English government censorship does, for whereas they allowed a scandalous piece by Aretino to be performed unchallenged, they most strictly forbade the presentation of any biblical personage or subject on the stage. The stories of Judith, of Jephthah’s daughter, and of Samson were those of which the wise magistrates most particularly disapproved, I know not why.

The first theatre Venice had was built by the Companions

S. ZOBENIGO

in 1560 after the designs of Palladio, of wood, in the court of the monastery of the Carità, but after a few years it took fire, and the monastery itself was destroyed with it.

I find that the Companions were great ‘racket’ players; but I apprehend that by ‘rackets’ the chroniclers intended to describe court tennis, whichwas played in Venice, whereas in most other Italian cities the game of ‘Pallone’ was the favourite, and has survived to our own time. It is played with a heavy ball which the player strikes with a sort of wooden glove, studded with blunt wooden pins and covering most of the forearm.

To return to the question of the large freedom and impunity granted to the Club by the government, the reason of such license is not far to seek. Young men who spend their time in a ceaseless round of amusement do not plot to overthrow the government that tolerates them. The Signory, on the whole, protected the Companions even in their wildest excesses, and no doubt believed them to be much more useful members of society than they thought themselves, since their irrepressible gaiety and almost constant popularity helped to keep the people in a good humour in times of trouble and disturbance.

At the time of the league of Cambrai, for instance, when Pope Julius II., the Emperor Maximilian, Louis XII. of France, and Ferdinand of Aragon agreed to destroy the Venetian Republic, and when it looked as if they must succeed, the Company of the ‘Eternals’ produced a mummery which was highly appreciated both by the government and the population.

They gave a sumptuous feast, after which the dining-hall was, as by magic, turned into an improvised theatre. In the middle of the stage

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