RE-EDIFICATION OF SAN CARLO. 29 I have devoted a considerable space in this chapter to the Neapolitan stage, because the theatre in this country forms a most essential part of the social system, and music is quite an object of national interest. Government takes a particular care of theatrical affairs; and the importation of a new prima donna, or a new dancer, becomes a matter of state. When, soon after the restoration of King Ferdinand, the theatre of San Carlo was consumed by fire, all classes of Neapolitans were in the deepest concern about it. It was a public calamity; hardly any thing else was talked of; some one was wanted who had the means of superintending the erection, and defraying the expenses of the new building; the treasury was exhausted, being just after the late French occupation; private fortunes had also suffered considerably however, the manager, Barbaja, a Milanese, who had risen from menial offices to be a man of wealth and consequence at Naples, offered to advance part of the money, and to build San Carlo anew, and in a very short period; the government were delighted; they secured to him the monopoly of the gambling-houses, and the building went on with astonishing rapidity. At last the new San Carlo arose, like a phoenix from its ashes, and on the first evening the house opened, the crowd was excessive. Sicilian noblemen, and ladies of high rank, came even from Palermo on purpose : 30 TASTE FOR MUSIC. to assist at the first performance; but the treacherous wind detained them in sight of the Mecca of their pilgrimage. The vessels could not enter the bay, but were obliged to put into the harbour of Ischia, where the anxious travellers spent in gloom and disappointment that night, in which their more fortunate rivals, the Neapolitan nobility, glittered in full splendour in the handsome boxes of the new theatre. Music is the chief business of the fashionables in this country, who being delighted to have a national subject upon which they can talk freely and propose the innovations they like, divide thereupon into parties, with all the enthusiasm and animosity which in other countries are attached to political and religious tenets. There are several houses for the performance of pupi or fantoccini during the day. Persons may go in for a few grains, provided their olfactory nerves can resist the effluvia which emanate from the crowd of dirty fellows who resort to them. There are also ambulatory puppet-shows in the streets. CHAPTER III. DESCRIPTION OF NAPLES. THE general appearance of this country I found to be, as I knew already, the Eden of Europe. The Italian proverb calls it, un paradiso abitato da diavoli. The climate is delightful; the views are magnificent. I live on the sea-shore, at one end of the town, where I enjoy a full view of this beautiful bay, the waves of which lave the sandy beach in front of my habitation. Before me I see the picturesque island of Capri*; to my left, this vast city, commanded by the green mount of Saint Elmo; farther on, the fertile plains of Campania Felix, between which and the sea rises the conical form of Vesuvius with its furnace of * Upon th' horizon placidly lies sleeping And all the broken hearts and spirits weeping, 32 VIEW OF THE BAY. perpetual fire and smoke: at the foot of that formidable mountain I can perceive the white hillocks which surround the remains of Pompeii; farther on the mounts of Stabia; and Sorrento, the birth-place of the immortal bard of Gerusalemme. What a display of classical scenery! What memories of sad tales or of brilliant history, equally portentous ! Close by me is the lovely coast of Mergellina; the verdant hill of Posilipo, with the tomb of Virgil rising on it; and, lower down, the church where Sannazaro is buried. I have been looking for an appropriate site for the castle of Paluzzi, described by Mrs. Radcliffe in her Italian, as having been in this neighbourhood, but I could not fix upon any particular spot; it appears that no such a name even has ever existed. The church of La Madonna del Pianto, the fancied haunt of the appalling Schedoni, is to be seen near the Campo di Marte or reviewing ground, but its modern appearance does not agree with the account of the awful solemnity of its capacious aisles so finely described by that powerful writer. The sketches Mrs. Radcliffe gives of the scenery of the country, however, are beautifully true to nature. Naples is an open, irregularly built city; its greatest length is along the sea-shore, where it extends in an irregular curve about four miles along the northern side of the bay. In the centre PALEPOLIS AND NEAPOLIS. 33 of this range are the two castles, Dell' Uovo, and Castello Nuovo, the king's place, and the harbour, which is small and not sufficiently sheltered. The breadth of Naples is very unequal: at the west end it is much contracted between the hills of Vomero and Belvedere and the sea, so as only to admit of one or two streets in breadth; it widens towards the centre, and there it extends to the north as far as the hills of Capodimonte and Capodichino, between which and the sea, the principal and most populous part of the town is built, including the old city, still partly surrounded with walls and ditenes, and the extensive additions made to it in course of time, and now blended with it. Its greatest breadth, from the sea to the foot of the hill of Capo di Monte, is better than two miles from south to north. ground on which Naples stands is very uneven, a considerable part of the city being built on the slope of the hills of Sant' Elmo and Capo di Monte. The The first city mentioned by historians as having existed on this spot, was of Greek origin and called Palapolis. Neapolitan antiquarians attribute its foundation, upon at least dubious authority, to Parthenope the daughter of Eumelus King of Chalcis in Eubæa, from whom it was originally called Parthenope, which name it afterwards changed into that of Palæpolis, in opposition to a new Greek colony which was built in its immediate neighbour VOL. I. D |