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Extracts From The Memoirs Of The Life And Writings Of Edward Gibbon, Esq.
his sentimental comedy of the Enfant Prodigue , were played at the theatre of Monrepos . Voltaire represented the characters best adapted to his years , Lusignan , Alvarez , Benassar , Euphemon . His declamation was fashioned to the pomp and cadence of the old stage ; and he expressed the enthusiasm of poetry , rather than the feelings of nature . " In the years 176 4 and 1765 our author visited Ital and his
feel-, y ; ings on seeing the different places , once the setits of arts and of arms , in that country , are very elegantl y described . " I shall advance with rapid brevity in the narrative of this tour , in which somewhat more than a year ( April 1764—May 1765 ) was agreeably employed . Content with tracing my line of march , and slightly touching on my personal feelingsI shall wave the minute
, investigation of the scenes which have been viewed by thousands , and described by hundreds , of our modern travellers . ROME is the great object of our pilgrimage : and 1 st , the journey ; 2 d , the residence ; and 3 d , the return ; will form the most proper and perspicuous division . 1 . I climbed Mount Cenis , ancl descended into the plain of Piedmontnot on the back of an elephantbut on a liht Osier
, , g seat , in the hands of the dextrous ancl intrepid chairmen of the Alps . The architecture and government of Turin presented the same aspect of tame and tiresome uniformity ; but the court was regulated with decent and splendid economy ; and I was introduced to his
Sardinian majesty Charles Emanuel , who , after the incomparable Frederic , held the second rank ( proximus longo tamen inlervallo ) among the kings of Europe . The size and populousness of Milan could not surprise an inhabitant of London ; but the fancy is amused by a visit to the Boromean Islands , an enchanted palace , a work of the fairies , in the midst of a lake encompassed with mountains , and far removed from the haunts of men . I was less amused by the marble palaces
of Genoa , than by the recent memorials of her deliverance ( in Deccember 1746 ) from the Austrian tyranny ; and I took a military survey of every scene of action within the inclosure of her double walls . My steps were detained at Parma and Modena , by the precious relics of the Farnese and Este collections : but , alas ! the far greater part had been already transported , by inheritance , or purchase , to Naples
and Dresden . By the road of Bologna and the Appenine , I at last reached Florence , where I reposed from June to September , during the heat of the . summer months . In the Gallery , and especially in the Tribune , I first acknowledged , at the feet of the Venus of Medicis , that the chissel maydispute the pre-eminence with the pencil , a . truth in the fine arts which cannot on this side of the Alps be felt or
understood . At home I had taken some lessons of Italian ; on the spot I read , with a learned native , the classics of the Tuscan idiom ; but the shortness of my time , and the use of the French language , prevented , my acquiring any facility of speaking ; and I was a silent spectator in the conversations of our envoy , Sir Horace Mann , whose most serious business was that-of entertaining the English at his hospitable
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Extracts From The Memoirs Of The Life And Writings Of Edward Gibbon, Esq.
his sentimental comedy of the Enfant Prodigue , were played at the theatre of Monrepos . Voltaire represented the characters best adapted to his years , Lusignan , Alvarez , Benassar , Euphemon . His declamation was fashioned to the pomp and cadence of the old stage ; and he expressed the enthusiasm of poetry , rather than the feelings of nature . " In the years 176 4 and 1765 our author visited Ital and his
feel-, y ; ings on seeing the different places , once the setits of arts and of arms , in that country , are very elegantl y described . " I shall advance with rapid brevity in the narrative of this tour , in which somewhat more than a year ( April 1764—May 1765 ) was agreeably employed . Content with tracing my line of march , and slightly touching on my personal feelingsI shall wave the minute
, investigation of the scenes which have been viewed by thousands , and described by hundreds , of our modern travellers . ROME is the great object of our pilgrimage : and 1 st , the journey ; 2 d , the residence ; and 3 d , the return ; will form the most proper and perspicuous division . 1 . I climbed Mount Cenis , ancl descended into the plain of Piedmontnot on the back of an elephantbut on a liht Osier
, , g seat , in the hands of the dextrous ancl intrepid chairmen of the Alps . The architecture and government of Turin presented the same aspect of tame and tiresome uniformity ; but the court was regulated with decent and splendid economy ; and I was introduced to his
Sardinian majesty Charles Emanuel , who , after the incomparable Frederic , held the second rank ( proximus longo tamen inlervallo ) among the kings of Europe . The size and populousness of Milan could not surprise an inhabitant of London ; but the fancy is amused by a visit to the Boromean Islands , an enchanted palace , a work of the fairies , in the midst of a lake encompassed with mountains , and far removed from the haunts of men . I was less amused by the marble palaces
of Genoa , than by the recent memorials of her deliverance ( in Deccember 1746 ) from the Austrian tyranny ; and I took a military survey of every scene of action within the inclosure of her double walls . My steps were detained at Parma and Modena , by the precious relics of the Farnese and Este collections : but , alas ! the far greater part had been already transported , by inheritance , or purchase , to Naples
and Dresden . By the road of Bologna and the Appenine , I at last reached Florence , where I reposed from June to September , during the heat of the . summer months . In the Gallery , and especially in the Tribune , I first acknowledged , at the feet of the Venus of Medicis , that the chissel maydispute the pre-eminence with the pencil , a . truth in the fine arts which cannot on this side of the Alps be felt or
understood . At home I had taken some lessons of Italian ; on the spot I read , with a learned native , the classics of the Tuscan idiom ; but the shortness of my time , and the use of the French language , prevented , my acquiring any facility of speaking ; and I was a silent spectator in the conversations of our envoy , Sir Horace Mann , whose most serious business was that-of entertaining the English at his hospitable