Sailed as before, but, sailing, cried "For Pæstum !” For then the demon works-then with that air But what are These still standing in the midst? The Earth has rocked beneath; the Thunder-bolt Passed thro' and thro', and left its traces there; Yet still they stand as by some Unknown Charter! Oh, they are Nature's own! and, as allied To the vast Mountains and the eternal Sea, They want no written history; theirs a voice For ever speaking to the heart of Man ! AMALFI. E who sets sail from Naples, when the wind Blows fragrance from Posìlipo, may soon, Crossing from side to side that beautiful lake, 1 Athenæus, xiv. 2 The Mal'aria. Land underneath the cliff where, once among There would I linger-then go forth again, As in that elder time ere Man was made. There would I linger-then go forth again; And he who steers due east, doubling the cape, Discovers, in a crevice of the rock, The fishing-town, Amalfi. Haply there The time has been, When on the quays along the Syrian coast, 'Twas asked and eagerly, at break of dawn, "What ships are from Amalfi ?" when her coins, Silver and gold, circled from clime to clime; From Alexandria southward to Sennaar, 1 Tasso. Sorrento, his birth-place, is on the south side of the gulf of Naples. 2 "Amalfi fell after three hundred years of prosperity; but the poverty of one thousand fishermen is yet dignified by the remains of an arsenal, a cathedral, and the palaces of royal merchants." GIBBON. And eastward, through Damascus and Cabul Then were the nations by her wisdom swayed; And every crime on every sea was judged According to her judgments. In her port Prows, strange, uncouth, from Nile and Niger met, People of various feature, various speech; And in their countries many a house of prayer, And many a shelter, where no shelter was, And many a well, like Jacob's in the wild, Rose at her bidding. Then in Palestine, By the way-side, in sober grandeur stood A Hospital, that, night and day, received The pilgrims of the west; and, when 'twas asked, "Who are the noble founders ?" every tongue At once replied, “ The merchants of Amalfi.” That Hospital, when Godfrey scaled the walls, Sent forth its holy men in complete steel; And hence, the cowl relinquished for the helm, That chosen band, valiant, invincible, So long renowned as champions of the Cross, In Rhodes, in Malta. For three hundred years There, unapproached but from the deep, they dwelt ; Assailed for ever, yet from age to age And Indian spices. Through the civilized world And, when at length they fell, they left mankind A legacy, compared with which the wealth There is at this day in Syracuse a street called La Strada degli Amalfitani. Of Eastern kings—what is it in the scale ? They are now forgot, And with them all they did, all they endured, The women wailing, and the heavy oar There now to him who sails Under the shore, a few white villages Scattered above, below, some in the clouds, announce The region of Amalfi. Then, half-fallen, Though now he little thinks how large his debt, In the year 839. See Muratori: Art. Chronici Amalphitani Fragmenta. 2 By degrees, says Giannone, they made themselves famous through the world. The Tarini Amalfitani were a coin familiar to all nations; and their maritime code regulated every where the commerce of the sea. Many churches in the East were by them built and endowed; by them was founded in Palestine that most renowned military Order of St. John of Jerusalem; and who does not know that the mariner's compass was invented by a citizen of Amalfi ? Glorious was their course, And long the track of light they left behind them. MONTE CASSINO.1 CHAT hangs behind that curtain ?" If thou art wise, thou wouldst not. Believed to be His master-work, who looked We know not much; There came a stranger to the convent-gate, . The abbey of Monte Cassino is the most ancient and venerable house of the Benedictine Order. It is situated within fifteen leagues of Naples on the inland-road to Rome; and no house is more hospitable. 2 Michael Angelo. 2 There are many miraculous pictures in Italy; but none, I believe, were ever before described as malignant in their influence.-At Arezzo in the church of St. Angelo there is indeed over the great altar a fresco-painting of the Fall of the Angels, which has a singular story belonging to it. It was painted in the fourteenth century by Spinello Aretino, who has there represented Lucifer as changed into a shape so monstrous and terrible, that he is said in that very shape to have haunted the Artist in his dreams and to have hastened his death; crying, night after night, "Where hast thou seen me in a shape so monstrous?" In the upper part St. Michael is seen in combat with the dragon: the fatal transformation is in the lower part of the picture.-VASARI. |