Page images
PDF
EPUB

feet square, in the hope of ultimately achieving the dominion of a wholesale warehouse. It was here that the renowned Clarke, that prince of hardwaremen, and pink of cutlers, amassed the enormous fortune of 800,000l. by those habits of frugality that clung to him to the last What a delightful lounge, in our school-boy days, to explore the dark profound; to gaze, with longing eyes, on its varied stores, and, by a sort of mental furtiveness, appropriate each tempting article to our own exclusive enjoyment! What a manifestation too of fair dealing, in that pithy sentence,-"The_lowest price marked, and no abatement made!" A voucher of integrity, that, but for the simple lack of means, would have tempted us to purchase them all. And are we to lose thee for ever, thou renowned repository of walking-sticks, that are ever stationary; watches, that never go; knives, warranted to be at least as keen as their purchasers; braces, brushes, and battledores, patches, pomatums, wash-balls, and razor-strops? One liege adherent, at least, will shed a tear of regret over thy departed greatness.

But important as all these matters undoubtedly are, who, that has a soul, would hesitate to stay the sacrilegious hand, raised to sweep away those hallowed haunts, where our brightest bards and profoundest philosophers first drew their inspiration? Genius loved to rear her offspring in holes aud corners. (Green Arbour-court, oh, Goldsmith! was thy academic grove, and I tremble at its destiny.) Shall they not be deemed sacred? Shall not a nobler feeling preserve them from the reckless ruin that modern refinement would deal out to them? Away, then, all meaner regards! all mockeries of taste! I abjure the classic frenzy, with which I fancied myself inspired. Could we, at a wish, emulate the ædific skill of Greece and Rome, and cause their proud structures to overspread the land,-gained at such a sacrifice, I should deem the purchase dear. No; let us rally round the time-honoured memorials of our ancestors; let us shield them from the spoliation that awaits them; and warring with the whole race of architects, projectors, and surveyors, establish the cause of Old English feeling over foreign taste and modern innovation! Q. Q. Q.

I FRATELLI DELLA MISERICORDIA-THE BROTHERHOOD OF MERCY.

"Elle n'a point cette charité paresseuse des riches, qui paient en argent aux malheureux le droit de rejeter leurs prières, et pour un bienfait imploré ne savent jamais donner que l'aumône."-La Nouvelle Heloise.

Two or three days after my arrival in Pisa, I was talking in the street with an Italian gentleman, when about thirty fellows came round the corner, walking two and two, not soberly as pious folks move in procession, but with stout manly strides, and wearing a disguise of so uncouth a fashion, that the moment they caught my eye I muttered a "God bless me!" and asked who they were. They were clothed in black sackcloth from top to toe, girded round the waist; and the hood not only came over the head, but fell before the face down to the breast, with two small peep-holes for the eyes. Each carried a rosary in his hand, and each at his shoulders bore a black broad-brimmed hat. "Din mene guardi! ma chi sono questi?" My Italian coolly answered, "La Misericordia." Whether, owing to the word misericordia, or to their sackcloth and rosaries, or both, or what I know not, but without further question I set them down in my mind as penitents on their way to some sort of devotion; and very sorry I was they could not be aghast at their own consciences without wearing so frightful an appearance.

It happened within a week that a house under repair, on the Lung'

Arno, fell down, with the exception of the front wall, on the workmen, who had incautiously disturbed the foundation. I was on the opposite side of the river, ignorant of what had occasioned the noise and the dense cloud of dust, till the wind slowly wafted it away, and the mischief was clear before me. Four were buried in the ruins, and a fifth clung to the wall, with his feet upon the window-sill at the second story, whither he had leaped from the room at the moment of the crash. As soon as the panic would allow any one to act, a long ladder, lying before the house, was raised, and the poor fellow slowly moved from his dangerous situation. As he reached the ground in safety, a loud bell in the city tolled once, then stopped, and tolled again, and I heard the crowd about me say, "Hark! there is the bell of the Misericordia! they will soon be here!" Those in the neighbourhood brought ladders of various sizes, and spades, and pickaxes, to be in readiness. Presently across the bridge came those black penitents, as I had imagined them, hastening almost at a run, and bearing a litter on their shoulders. The crowd made way for them, and they climbed into the ruins at the back of the house, with the spades and pickaxes. From the moment they came, not a word was spoken; all was hushed, even the sorrowful cries of the relations, waiting for the event. In a short while the Brothers brought out one of the sufferers, insensible and grievously bruised; they placed him in the litter, and bore him to the hospital. By that time a party of soldiers arrived, who kept the crowd back from the front wall, lest that also should fall; while the Brothers, regardless of the danger, still worked on, and indefatigably. I saw three of the buried workmen brought from the ruin and carried to the hospital; the fourth was killed, and they bore away his body on a bier.

After having witnessed this dauntless and persevering conduct on the part of the Brotherhood of Mercy, I was continually making inquiries about them. I was told it was a very ancient institution, first established in Florence; that the Brothers were very numerous in all the Tuscan cities, and that their duty was to be always ready to succour any person in distress, "Are they priests?" "No; only a certain number of priests are permitted to join them." "Then it is not a religious establishment?" "Not at all; and their charity is so gene

ral, that they would render the same assistance to you, a foreigner and a heretic, as to one of their Catholic citizens. They never inquire into creeds; it is enough that a fellow being stands in need of their exertions."

The next time their bell tolled, I hurried from my lodgings to attend them on their errand. They walked very fast, and not a word was spoken. At a sign from their chief, the litter from time to time was. changed to different shoulders. I followed them to the further end of the city, on the south side of the Arno, and they stopped before a little chapel, where a poor old woman lay on the steps with her leg broken. The litter, a covered one, was placed on the ground by her side; then, without a word, but with the utmost attention and gentleness, they placed her within it, and immediately it was raised again on their shoulders. One of the Brothers asked her some question in a whisper, and she replied that she felt no pain, but was very faint; upon which the covering of the litter was pulled up higher, and as they bore her to

the hospital, they stopped two or three times at the turnings of the streets, in order to dispose the covering so as to afford her as much air as possible, and at the same time to shelter her from the sun. Such quiet and unaffected benevolence, such a tender regard for the ease and comfort of this poor woman, showed the Brothers to me in another light, and I was rejoiced to see that their kindness was equal to their heroism. They no longer appeared to me so uncouth; and, as I continued to walk near them, it struck me there was a very benignant expression in a pair of eyes seen through their sackcloth masks. I also observed, below their habits, that two of them wore black silk stockings. This rather surprised me; but I learnt that all ranks of persons are enrolled in the Misericordia,-tradesmen, gentlemen, nobles, and the Grand Duke himself.

Not to detain the reader by particularising a variety of circumstances under which, both in Pisa and Florence, I have watched the prompt attendance of the brothers, I proceed to give you a short historical account of the institution. This has been done, and in the highest terms of praise, by the late Professor Pictet, in the "Bibliothèque Universelle" for 1822; and it appears he was the first traveller who considered them worthy of such notice. Upon reference to several Italian works, especially to that of Placido Landini, I am sorry to observe many inaccuracies in the professor's account. I shall therefore follow those writers who have derived their information directly from the archives of the establishment; adding to them what I have learnt through the kindness of several gentlemen, "Capi di Guardia❞ to the company.

Those who contend we excel our forefathers in humanity and charity, will be surprised to hear that the Compagnia della Misericordia, the most conspicuous, even in the present day, for those virtues, has existed for nearly six hundred years within the walls of Florence. It was established in 1240; and its origin was extremely curious. At that period of the Republic, when the citizens were acquiring immense profits from the manufacture of woollen cloth, the city-porters were numerous, and usually took their stand round the church of the Baptistery, near the Cathedral. In fact, for the most part they lived there; and during the intervals of work, they ate their meals and drank their wine, or played at various games, either on the Piazza, or in the sheds erected for their accommodation. One among them, Piero di Luca Borsi, an old and devout man, was highly scandalized at the cursing and swearing of his companions. Therefore, as their elder, he proposed that he who should hereafter take God's or the Virgin's name in vain, should be mulcted to the amount of a crazia (three farthings); and that the said crazia should be dropped through a small hole into a certain box, so that an end might be put to such vain and sinful conversation. To this the porters agreed, and the difficulty of conquering a bad habit caused the box to be well nigh filled. Piero then reminded them that, for the benefit of their souls, the contents of the box ought to be employed in acts of charity, and made the following proposal: "Let us," said he, "purchase with part of this money six litters, to serve for the six divisions of the city, and let us in turns attend with them. Thus we shall be in readiness to carry to their houses, or to the hospital, all those who may be taken with sudden illness, or who Dec.-VOL. XVII. NO. LXXII. 2 L

fall from a scaffolding, or otherwise be grievously injured in our streets, and stand in need of their fellow creatures' assistance; and we will also carry to the churches the bodies of such as may fall down dead, or be slain, or be drowned; and let us agree that for each several journey of this sort, the porters shall receive a giulio (sixpence) from the box." This not only met with approbation, but each individual took an oath to observe it. Their labours began, and they pursued them with so much diligence and charity (says their chronicler) that every man in the city greatly applauded these porters, sometimes offering them three giuli, as a present, for a single journey; but this the old man, Piero, would not allow, bidding them perform their duty, cheerfully and without bribes, and to wait for their farther reward in eternity.

Such was the commencement of the Misericordia, a society that has never relaxed in its zeal, through so many centuries, and under all the changes of government. Whatever enemy entered Florence, these brothers and their property were always respected. The French, their last invaders, did more, they intrusted them with a set of keys to the city-gates, that they might not be impeded in their labours; and Napoleon was preparing to establish a similar institution at Paris, when his own downfall put an end to the scheme.

After Piero's death, the porters were desirous of hiring an apartment, where they might hold the meetings of their new society. For this purpose, as their funds were inefficient, they appealed to their fellow-citizens, and placed at the door of the Baptistery a painting of a dead Christ, with the box at the foot of it, bearing this inscription,— "Fate elemosine per i poveri infermi e bisognosi della città." It was on a 13th of January, and the people, eager to evince their gratitude, and to encourage them, flocked from all quarters to that church-door with their alms; and before the day ended, the box could not contain the offerings, so that the money lay heaped on the lid. From this contribution, more than one apartment was purchased, not hired; and the Porters continued unweariedly in their works of benevolence, till at the end of a few years the Archbishop convened them before him, and blessed them. The benediction was "in honour and glory of the most Holy Virgin, and of St. Peter Martyr, and of St. John the Baptist, and in reverence of St. Tobias, their Protector; and masses were ordained, with litanies and prayers, for the souls of all benefactors to the institution." How agreeable to read of an Archbishop's exercising his divinity in the cause of humanity!

The Porters would by no means consent to admit the other workmen of the city; upon which the latter formed a separate society of their own. They were afterwards united together, under the title of "La Compagnia della Misericordia," on 2nd of October, 1428, and governed by eight Captains, a Notary, and a Purveyor. It also appears that during the contentions of the Guelfi and Ghibellini, the society experienced a slight division, which however soon ceased,-a rivalship in deeds of pure good-will could not but allay the fury of party spirit.

No men ever deserved the gratitude of their country more than these Brothers, for their conduct in the times of the plague. Florence was visited by this scourge no less than eleven times in the fourteenth and

fifteenth centuries.

At some of those periods, especially in 1848, as many as six hundred persons died, day after day, within the walls. There is undeniable evidence,* in the archives of the institution, confirming Landini's account of the intrepidity of the Brothers, at every several period when the black banners were unfurled at the "Tribunale di Sanità." They bore the sick to the hospitals, and the dead to the sepulchres; and as they journeyed through the streets, they were preceded by one ringing a bell, warning the people to escape from their approach, lest the infection should be spread by them, while they dared it for the welfare of the community. Notwithstanding their exposure to infection, it appears they suffered in a less degree, proportionably to their numbers, than the more cautious citizens. This is a proof that a sound courage is the best preservative against the plague, as well as against every other species of disease; and it gives me pleasure to add, that when the typhus fever raged in Florence, about eight years ago, not one of the Brothers was attacked by it, though they not only removed the sick from their houses, but in many instances attended them as nurses. As an instance of the grateful feelings of the Florentines, we are told that, after the last severe visitation of the plague in 1633, when it came to the turn of the Misericordia to go to the cathedral and render thanks to God, the populace crowded the streets through which they were to pass, and all the bells in the city were ringing, while from every side and from every window there were shouts of "Viva! viva la Compagnia della Misericordia!"-as if, continues Landini, the health of the citizens, one and all, depended on the charity and diligence of those Brothers.

The company consists of three orders: the first in rank is that of the "Capi di Guardia;" their number is 72, of whom 14 are noble, and 30 are priests, including the Grand Duke and the Archbishop. The second order, called "Giornanti," consists of 20 priests and 105 laymen; and the third, the " Stracciafogli," of 180, of whom 30 are priests. These, together with the supernumeraries, amount to about 1200. Four" Capi di Guardia" and fifteen "Giornanti" must be in attendance. At the sound of their bell, which can be heard in every part of the city from the top of that beautiful tower designed by Giotto, they never fail in assembling more than a sufficient number of the Brothers. It tolls once for the removal of the sick, twice for a common accident in the streets, and three times for death. A "Stracciafoglio" is promoted to the honours of a "Giornante," and finally to those of 66 a Capo di Guardia," in recompense for diligent attendance; and negligence is punished by degradation. There are no fines. It costs about six crowns to be enrolled, in which sum is included the purchase of the dress. None are admitted but those of good charac

Boccaccio, in the introduction to his Decameron, gives an account of the great plague in 1348, without once alluding to the Society farther than where he speaks of "lo ajuto d'alcuni portatori," and that without a word of commendation. It must be borne in mind that Boccaccio was making out an exaggerated case of distress; and that it did not suit his purpose to relieve the mournful colouring of his picture, intended, by the force of contrast, to give the tales that followed a higher brilliancy. Indeed the anecdotes he brings forward are sometimes in contradiction to each other; and he himself, as in his Life of Dante, appears to have considered fables, provided they are interesting, fully as important as facts.

« PreviousContinue »