FERRARA.
On the 9th of May I set out from Florence on my journey hither. Two days'
journey brought me to Bologna where I stopped one day; and the following
day I reached this place (Ferrara), six miles distant from Bologna. The
country between these two cities is a perfect plain and very fertile. At
Malalbergo (half-way) We crossed the Reno in a boat. I put up at the Tre
Mori in Ferrara. Having remained two and half days here I have had time to
inspect and examine almost everything of consequence that the city affords.
The city itself has an imposing, venerable appearance and can boast of some
fine buildings; yet with all this there is an air of melancholy about it.
It is not peopled in proportion to its size and grass is seen growing in
several of the streets. I believe the unhealthiness of the environing
country is the cause of the decrease of population, for Ferrara lies on a
marshy plain, very liable to inundation In the centre of the city stands
the ancient Palace of the Dukes of Ferrara, a vast Gothic edifice, square,
and flanked with round towers, and a large court-yard in the centre. It was
in this court-yard that Hugo and Parisina were decapitated. From the top of
this palace a noble view of the plain of the Po represents itself, and you
see the meanderings of that King of Rivers, as the Italian poets term it.
As the Po runs thro' a perfectly flat country, and is encreased and swollen
by the torrents from the Alps and Appennines that fall into the smaller
rivers, which unite their tributary streams with the Po and accompany him
as his seguaci to the Adriatic, this country is liable to the most
dreadful inundations: flocks and herds, farm-houses and sometimes whole
villages are swept away. Dykes, dams and canals innumerable are in
consequence constructed throughout this part of the country, to preserve it
as much as possible from such calamities. Ariosto's description of an
over-flowing of this river is very striking, and I here transcribe it:
Con quel furor che il Re de' fiumi altero,
Quando rompe tal volta argine e sponda,
E che ne' campi Ocnei si apre il sentiero,
E i grassi solchi e le biade feconde,
E con le sue capanne il gregge intero,
E co' cani i pastor porta neil' onde, etc.[118]
Even with that rage wherewith the stream that reigns,
The king of rivers - when he breaks his mound.
And makes himself a way through Mantuan plains -
The greasy furrows and glad harvests, round,
And, with the sheepcotes, nock, and dogs and swains
Bears off, in his o'erwhelming waters drowned.
- Trans. W.S. ROSE.
The next place I went to see was the Lyceum or University, where there is a
very fair cabinet of natural history in all its branches. The Library is
very remarkable, and possesses a great number of valuable manuscripts. But
my principal object in visiting this Museum was to see the monument erected
in honour of Ariosto, which has been transferred here from the Benedictine
church. The inkstand and chair of this illustrious bard are carefully
preserved and exhibited. They exactly resemble the print of them that
accompanies the first edition of Hoole's translation of the Orlando
Furioso. Among the manuscripts what gratified me most was the manuscript
of the Gerusalemme liberata of Tasso. But few corrections appear in this
manuscript; tho from the extreme polish and harmony of the versification
one would expect a great many. It is written in an extremely legible hand.
I also inspected the original manuscripts of the Pastor Fido of Guarini
and of the Suppositi of Ariosto.
I then went to visit the Hospital of St Anna, for the sake of seeing the
dungeon where poor Tasso was confined and treated as mad for several years.
When one beholds this wretched place, where a man can scarce stand upright,
one only wonders how he could survive such treatment; or how he could
escape becoming insane altogether. The old wooden door of this cell will
soon be entirely cut away by amateurs, as almost everyone who visits the
dungeon chops off a piece of wood from the door to keep as a relic. The
door is in consequence pieced and repaired with new wood, and in a short
time will be in the state of Sir John Cutter's worsted stockings which were
darned so often with silk that they became finally all silk.
Ferrara has a strong citadel which is still garrisoned by Austrian troops;
and they will probably not easily be induced to evacuate it. The Austrian
Eagle seldom looses his hold.
VENICE, 18th May.
On the 16th May at six o'clock in the morning I left Ferrara in a
cabriolet to go to the Ponte di Lago oscuro, which is a large village
on the south bank of the Po, three miles distant from Ferrara. A flying
bridge wafted me across the river, which is exceedingly broad and rapid to
the north bank, where a barge was in waiting to receive passengers for
Venice. This barge is well fitted up and supplied with comestibles of all
sorts and couches to recline on. The price is twelve francs for the
passage, and you pay extra for refreshments. The bark got under weigh at
seven o'clock and descended rapidly this majestic river, which however,
from its great breadth, and from the country on each side of it being
perfectly flat, did not offer any interesting points of view. Plains and
cattle grazing thereon were the only objects, for they take care to build
the farms and houses at a considerable distance from the banks, on account
of the inundations.
