The Baptistery Is Another Building On The Same
Piazza.
It is in the same stile of building as the Duomo, but incloses
much less space, and was formerly a separate church, called the church of
St John the Baptist.
The immense bronze doors or rather gates, both of the
Duomo and Battisterio, attracted my peculiar notice. On them are figured
bas-reliefs of exquisite and admirable workmanship, representing Scripture
histories. It was the symmetry and perfection of these gates that induced
Michel Angelo to call them in a fit of enthusiasm The Gates of Paradise.
At the door of the Battisterio are the columns in red granite, which once
adorned the gates of the city at Pisa, and were carried off by the
Florentines in one of their wars. Chains are fastened round these columns,
as a memorial of the conquest. The cupolas both of the Duomo and
Battisterio are octangular. There is a stone seat on the Piazza del Duomo
where they pretend that Dante used occasionally to sit; hence it is called
to this day Il Sasso di Dante.
You will now no doubt expect me to give some account of the theatres. At
the Pergola, which is a large and splendid theatre, I have seen two
operas; the one, L'Italiana in Algieri, which I saw before at Milan last
year; the other, the Barbieri di Seviglia by Rossini, which afforded to
my ears the most delightful musical feast they ever enjoyed. The cavatina
Una voce poco fa gave me inconceivable delight. The Ballo was of a very
splendid description and from a subject taken from the Oriental history
entitled Macbet Sultan of Delhi. How the Mogul Sultan came to have the
name of Macbet I know not. On the plafond of the Pergola is an
allegorical painting representing the restored Kings of Europe replaced on
their thrones by Valor and Justice. The decorations at this theatre are not
quite so splendid as those of the Scala at Milan, but living horses and
military evolutions seem to be annexed to every historical Ballo. Horses
indeed appear to be an indispensable ingredient in the Balli in the large
cities of Italy.
In the Teatro Cocomera, comedies are performed, and very generally those
of the inexhaustible Goldoni. I saw the Bugiardo very fairly performed at
this theatre. The story is nearly the same as that of our piece, The
Liar, which is I believe imitated from Le Menteur of Corneille. The
actor who did the Liar was a very good one. The actresses screamed too much
and were rather coarse. Another night at the theatre I saw a piece call'd
II furioso, a comedie larmoyante which was interesting and well given;
but the voice of the prompter was occasionally too loud. Tragedies are very
seldom played; the language of Alfieri could never, I will not say be given
with effect, but even conceived by the modern actors. It would be like a
tragedy of Sophocles performed by boys at school. There is another reason
too why these tragedies are not given; they abound too much in republican
and patriotic sentiments to be grateful to the ears of the Princes who
reign in Italy, all of whom being of foreign extraction and unshackled by
constitutions, come under the denomination of those beings called by Greeks
[Greek: Turannoi], I use this word in its Greek sense. Of the Tuscan
Government it is but justice to say that from the days of Leopold to the
present day it was and is a mild, just and paternal government, more so
perhaps than any in Europe; and the only one that can any way reconcile one
altogether to those lines of Pope:
For forms of Government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best.[83]
In the time of Leopold the factious nobility were kept in check, and the
industrious classes, mercantile and agricultural, encouraged. The peasantry
were, and are, the most affluent in Europe; and this is no small incitement
to the industry that prevails. On the elevation of Leopold to the throne of
the Caesars, the present Grand Duke succeeded in Tuscany; and he followed
the same system that Leopold did, and was equally beloved by his subjects.
Tuscany was the only country in Italy that did not desire a change at the
period of the French conquest, and the only state wherein the French were
not hailed as deliverers. The Tuscans exhibited a very honorable spirit on
the occasion of Buonaparte's visit to the Grand Duke in 1797. They went
together to the Theatre della Pergola, and on their entering into the Grand
Ducal box, the Grand Duke was hailed with cries of Viva il Nostro
Sovrano: now this proof of attachment at a period when Buonaparte was
all-mighty in Italy, when the Grand Duke was but an inferior personage, at
a time too when it was doubtful whether or not he would be dethroned, and
in the very presence of the mighty conqueror, reflects great honor and
credit on the Tuscan character. Buonaparte was much struck at this proof of
disinterested attachment on the part of the Florentines towards their
Sovereign, and told the Grand Duke very ingenuously that he had received
orders to revolutionize the country, from the French Directory; but that as
he perceived the people were so happy, and the Prince so beloved, he could
not and would not attempt to make any change.
The applause given to the Grand Duke at this critical period is so much the
more creditable to the Florentines as they in general receive their Prince,
on his presenting himself at the theatre, with no other ceremonial than
rising once and bowing. There is no fulsome God save the King repeated
even to nausea, as at the English theatres. In fact none of the Italians
pay that servile adulation to their Sovereigns that the French and English
do.
The changes projected in Italy at the treaty of Luneville by Napoleon then
first Consul, and his further views on Italy, induced him at length to
eject an Austrian Prince from the sovereignty of a country which he
intended to annex to the French Empire.
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