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    Untitled Article

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    FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.

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    Untitled Article

    .. ( special . ) ^ , . Rome , February 21 . THE "CARNIVAL SENZA MOCGOLO . " npHERE are things in the world which allow of no description , X and of such things a true Roman carnival is one . You might as well seek to analyze champagne , or expound the mystery of melody , or tell why a woman pleases you . Lhe strange web of colour , beauty , mirth , wit , and folly is tangled so together that common hands cannot unravel it . To paint a carnival without blotching ; to touch ' it without destroying , is an art given unto tew- — I might almost say to none—save to our own wondrous word-^ Yizard , who dreamt the : " dream of Venice , " and told it waiting . For my own part , the only branch of art to which , even as a child , I ever took kindly was the humble one of tracing upon gritty glass

    with a grating pencil hard outlines of coarse sketches squeezed tight against the window pane . After the manner in which 1 used to draw , I have since sought to write . For such a picture frame then as mine , the airy baseless fabric of an Italian revel is no fitting subject , and had the Roman Carnival for 1860 been even as other carnivals are , I should have left it unrecorded . It has been my lot , however , to witness such a Carnival as has not been seen at Home before , and is not likely to be seen again . In the decay of creeds and the decline of dynasties there appear from time to : time signs which , like the writing on the wall , proclaim the coming change , and amongst these signs our ^ ast Carnival is , if I err not , no . unimportant one . While , then , the memory of the scene is yet fresh upon me , let me seek to tell what I have seen and heard .

    The question whether we were to have a Carnival at all , remained lono- doubtful . The usual time for issuing the regulations had long passed , and no edict had appeared ' . Strange reports were spread , and odd stories circulsited . Our rulers were , it seems , equally afraid of having a Carnival-. and' not having it ; ^ and with their wonted wisdom decided on the middle course of having a carnival which was not a carnival at all . One \ veek before the first qf the eiight fete days , the long-delayed edict was posted on the walls . The festival was to be celebrated as usual , except that no masks were to be allowed . False beards and moustaches , or any attempt to disguise the features , were strictly forbidden . Political allusions , or cries of any kind , were placed under the same ban . Crowds were obedience to be

    to disperse at a moment ' s notice , and prompt was rendered to any injunction of the police . Subject to these slight restraints , the wild revel and joyous licence of the Carnival was to rule unbridled . In the words of a Papal writer in the Government Gazette of Venice , " The festival is to be celebrated in full vigour , except that masks are not allowed , as the fashion for them has lately gone out . There will be , however , disguises and fancy dresses , confetti , bouquets , races , tnoccoletti , public and private balls , and , in short , every amusement .-of the Carnival time . " What more could be required by a happy and contented people ? Somehow , the news does not seem to be received with any extraordinary rejoicing , A group of idlers gaze at the decree and pass on , shrugging their

    / shoulders listlessly . Along the Corso notice boards are hung out of balconies to let , but the notices grow mildewed , and the balconies remain untaken . The carriage-drivers don ' t pester you , as in former years , to engage thorn for the Carnival , ; and the fancy dresses exposed in the shop windows are shabby and few in number . There is no appearance of unnecessary excitement ; but " still waters run deep , and in order to restrain any possible exuberance of feeling on the very night before the Carnival the French general issues a , manifesto . " To prevent painful occurrences , " so runs General Guton ' s orders , " the officer com . inanding each detachment of troops which may have to act against a crovyd , shall himself , or through a police officer , make it a summons to disperse . without noise

    After this warning the crowd must . disperse instantly , or cries , if it does , not wish to sue force employed . " Still no doubts are entertained of the brilliancy oI' the Carnival . The Romans ( so at least their rulers sav , and who ishould know thorn better ?) will enjoy themselves notwithstanding . The Carnival is their great holiday , the one week of , pleasure counted on the long dul l year through , and no power on eifirth > still less no abstract consideration , will keep them from tlxe Corso revels . From old time , all that they have evejr cared for are the " panes ct circenses , " and the Carnival gives them both ! It is the Roman harvest-time , when this poor gather in thojr gleanings , Flower-sellers , vendors of covfrtii , hawkers of papers , letters-out of chairs and benches , itinerant minstrel ' s , perambulating cigar merchants , wedlurs , beggars , emmd boys , and u hundred other obscure traders , pick up , hoaven knows how , enough in Carnival time to tide them over the cloud auminer season , So both necessity and pleasurewant and luxury , will combine to swell the crowd , and

    , the pageant will bo surely gay enough for the Vnticnn to sny that its faithful subjoots are loyal nnd satisfied . The day opens drearily , chilly , a \ nd damp aucl raw , with a feobjo sun breaking at intervals through the lowering clouds . Soon after noon the streets begin to UU with soldiers . Till this your the Corso used to be guarded , nnd the files of carriages hunt , in order by the Italian pontifical dragoon * , the most warlike-looking 1 of parade regiments t have over seen . Last spring , however , when the war broke out , those bold dragoons grew nshumod- ot Iheir police duties , and began to ride across , the frontier without leave or license , to fitfht in behalf of Italy . The whole regiment , in fact , was found to be so disaffected , thi \ t it whs disbanded without dulay ; and , at present there are only some soovo ov so left , who rule close behind , the Pone whon , ho goes out " unattended , " as his

    : partisans profess . So the dragoons liaving- disappeared , the duty of keeping order is giyen to the French soldiers . There are soldiers ; ranged every where . : Along the street pavements there is one long line of blue over-coats and red trousers arid oilskin flowerpot hats covering the short , squat ; small-made soldiers of the 40 th-Foot regiment , whose fixed bayonets gleam brightly in the rare sunlight intervals . At every piazza there are detachments stationed ; their muskets are stacked in rows on the ground , and the men stand ready to march at the word of order . In every side street sentinels are posted . From time to time orderlies gallop > past . Ever and anon you hear the rub-a-dub of the drums , as new detachments pass on towards the Corso . The head quarters at the Piazza Colonna are crowded with officers coining and going , and the whole French troops off duty seem to have received orders to crowd the Corso , where they stroll along- in knots of three or four , alone and unnoticed by tlie crowd around them . The heavy guns boom forth from the Castle of St . Angelo , and the Carnival has begun . ¦ ¦ ¦ '' ¦ ¦ Gradually and slowly the street fills . One day is so like another , that to see one is to have seen all . The length of the Corso , there saunters listlessly an idle , cloak-wrapt , hands-in-pocket-wearing , cigar-smoking , shivering crowd , composed of French soldiers and the riff-raff , of Rome , the proportion being one of the former to every two or three of the latter . The balconies , which grow like mushrooms on the fronts of every house , in all out-of-the-way places and positions , are every now and then adorijed with red hangings . These balconies and the windows are scantily filled with shabbily-dressed persons , who look on at the scene below , as spectators , not as actors . At rare intervals a carriage passes . The chances are that its occupants are English or Americans . On the most crowded day , there are , perhaps , at one time , fifty carriages in all , of which more than half belong to the fo ? 'estieri . Indeed , if it were not for our Anglo-Saxon countrymen , there would be no Carnival at all . We don't contribute much , it is true , to the brilliancy of the coup d ' call . Our gentlemen are in the shabbiest of coats and seediest of hats , while our ladies wear grey cloaks and round , soup-plate bonnets . However , if we are not ornamental , we are useful . We pelt each other : with a hearty vigour , and discharge volleys of confetti at every window where a fair English face appears . The poor luckless nosegay or sugar-plum boys look upon us as their best friends , and follow our carriages with importunate pertinacity . Fancy dresses of any kind are few . There are one or two . . . very young men—English , I suspect—dressed as Turks , or Greeks , or pirates , after Highbury Barn traditions , looking cold and uiicbmiortable . Half a dozen tumble-down carriages represent the Roman element . They are filled with men disguised as peasant women , and ¦ viceversd ; but , whether justly or unjustly , they are supposed to be chartered for the show by the Government , and attract small comment or notice . Amongst the foot-crowd , with the exception of a stray foreigner , there is not a well-dressed person to be seen . The fun is of the most dismal character . Boys with bladders whack each other ' on the back , and jump upon each other ' s shoulders . Harlequins and clowns—shabby , spiritless , and unmasked—grin inanely in your face , and seem to be hunting after a joke they can never find . A quack doctor , or a . man in crinoline , followed by a nigger holding an umbrella over his htiad , or a swell with pasteboard collars and a chimney-pot on his head , pass from time ^ to time , and shout to the bystanders , but receive no answer . Give them a wide berth , for they are spies , and bad company . The one great amusement is pelting a black hat , ; the glossier the better . After a short time even this pleasure palls , and , moreover , victims grow i « ciirce , for the crowd , contrary to the run of Italian crowds , is an ill-bred , ill-conditioned one , and take to throw nosegays weighted with stones , which hurt and cut . So the long three hours , from two to five , pass drearily . Up and , down the Corso , in a broken straggling line , amidst feeble showers of chalk ( not sugar ) plums , and a drizzle of penny posies to the sound of one solitary band , the crowd sways to and fro . At last the guns boom ngain . Then the score of dragoons—of whom one may truly say , in the words of Tennyson ' s " Balaclava Charge , " that they are " nil that are loft ofnot the ' twelve' hundred "—come trotting down the Corso from the Pinzza del Popolii . With a quick shuffling march , the French troops pass along the street , and form in tile , pushing back the crowd to the pavements . With drawn swords and at full gallop , the dragoons ride back through the double lino . 'Then there is a shout * or rather a long murmur . AH faces nr < 5 turned up the street , and half n dozen broken-kneed , riderless , terror-struck shnggy ponies , with , numbers chalked upon them , and fluttering trappings of pins and paper stuck into their backs , run past in straggling order . Where they started you see a crowd standing round one of the grooms who held them , and who is lying maimed and stunned upon the ground , nnd you wonder at the unconcern with > yhioh tho accident is treated . Another gun souuds . The troops fbra to clour the street ,. thd crowd disperses , and tho Carnival is over tor the day . A message is sent to tho Vatican , to inform the Pope that tho festival has been most brilliant , and along- the tologrnphio wires tho truth is flashed to Paris that the dny has passed without nn outbreak , Tho dull round , however , of tho eight carnival days , nil ho drearily like each other , Was not unbroken by other ineidonts . ' Jhinwtoy lft 3 fc , tho " Giovedi Grnsso , " is the grant peoplo ' s < ay . It m a foHtivnl , nnd all ahops are shut , and tho citizens two at liberty . On thin W tho devotees of tho Carnival worship hnd pinned their lust hopes , If to-day wns n failure us before , it wim all up with Huh years Carnival . There wero extra carriages chartered by Govuriunan * , nud tho Papal oilleinU wero required to umstor m the Uoroo uaioo-

    Untitled Article

    March 10 , I 860 ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 239

    Foreign Correspondence.

    FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1860, page 239, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2337/page/19/