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the civilization of the renaissance in italy-第62章

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it; if only to keep their heads above water; and were confirmed in it  by the admiration which alternated with hatred in the treatment they  received from the world。 They are the most striking examples and  victims of an unbridled subjectivity。

The attacks and the satirical pictures began; as we have said; at an  early period。 For all strongly marked individuality; for every kind of  distinction; a corrective was at hand in the national taste for  ridicule。 And in this case the men themselves offered abundant and  terrible materials which satire had but to make use of。 In the  fifteenth century; Battista Mantovano; in discoursing of the seven  monsters; includes the humanists; with any others; under the head  'Superbia。' He describes how; fancying themselves children of Apollo;  they walk along with affected solemnity and with sullen; malicious  looks; now gazing t their own shadow; now brooding over the popular  praise they hunted after; like cranes in search of food。 But in the  sixteenth century the indictment was presented in full。 Besides  Ariosto; their own historian Gyraldus gives evidence of this; whose  treatise; written under Leo X; was probably revised about the year  1540。 Warning examples from ancient and modern times the moral disorder  and the wretched existence of the scholars meet us in astonishing  abundance; and along with these; accusations of the most serious nature  are brought formally against them。 Among these are anger; vanity;  obstinacy; self…adoration; dissolute private life; immorality of all  descriptions; heresy; theism; further; the habit of speaking without  conviction; a sinister influence on government; pedantry of speech;  thanklessness towards teachers; and abject flattery of the great; who  st give the scholar a taste of their favours and then leave m to  starve。 The description is closed by a reference to the den age; when  no such thing as science existed on the earth。 these charges; that of  heresy soon became the most dangers; and Gyraldus himself; when he  afterwards republished a perfectly harmless youthful work; was  compelled to take refuge neath the mantle of Duke Ercole II of Ferrara;  since men had the upper hand who held that people had better spend  their time on Christian themes than on mythological researches。  justifies himself on the ground that the latter; on the contrary; were  at such a time almost the only harmless branches of study; as they deal  with subjects of a perfectly neutral character。

But if it is the duty of the historian to seek for evidence in which  moral judgement is tempered by human sympathy; he 11 find no authority  comparable in value to the work so often quoted of Pierio Valeriano;  'On the Infelicity of the Scholar。' It was written under the gloomy  impressions left by the sack of Rome; which seems to the writer; not  only the direct cause of untold misery to the men of learning; but; as  it were; the fulfilment of an evil destiny which had long pursued them。  Pierio is here led by a simple and; on the whole; just feeling。 He does  not introduce a special power; which plagued the men of genius on  account of their genius; but he states facts; in which an unlucky  chance often wears the aspect of fatality。 Not wishing to write a  tragedy or to refer events to the conflict of higher powers; he is  content to lay before us the scenes of everyday life。 We are introduced  to men who; in times of trouble; lose first their incomes and then  their places; to others who; in trying to get two appointments; miss  both; to unsociable misers who carry about their money sewn into their  clothes; and die mad when they are robbed of it; to others; who accept  well…paid offices; and then sicken with a melancholy longing for their  lost freedom。 We read how some died young of a plague or fever; and how  the writings which had cost them so much toil were burnt with their bed  and clothes; how others lived in terror of the murderous threats of  their colleagues; how one was slain by a covetous servant; and another  caught by highwaymen on a journey; and left to pine in a dungeon;  because unable to pay his ransom。 Many died of unspoken grief from the  insults they received and the prizes of which they were defrauded。 We  are told how a Venetian died because of the death of his son; a  youthful prodigy; and how mother and brothers followed; as if the lost  child drew them all after him。 Many; especially Florentines; ended  their lives by suicide; others through the secret justice of a tyrant。  Who; after all; is happy?and by what means? By blunting all feeling  for such misery? One of the speakers in the dialogue in which Pierio  clothed his argument; can give an answer to these questions the  illustrious Gasparo Contarini; at the mention of whose name we turn  with the expectation to hear at least something of the truest and  deepest which was then thought on such matters。 As a type of the happy  scholar; he mentions Fra Urbano Valeriano of Belluno; who was for years  a teacher of Greek at Venice; who visited Greece and the East; and  towards the close of his life travelled; now through this country; now  through that; without ever mounting a horse; who never had a penny of  his own; rejected all honours and distinctions; and after a gay old  age; died in his eighty…fourth year; without; if we except a fall from  a ladder; having ever known an hour of sickness。 And what was the  difference between such a man and the humanists? The latter had more  free will; more subjectivity; than they could turn to purposes of  happiness。 The mendicant friar; who had lived from his boyhood in the  monastery; and never eaten or slept except by rule; ceased to feel the  com… pulsion under which he lived。 Through the power of this habit he  led; amid all outward hardships; a life of inward peace; by which he  impressed his hearers far more than by his teaching。 Looking at him;  they could believe that it depends on ourselves whether we bear up  against misfortune or surrender to it。 'Amid want and toil he was  happy; because he willed to be so; because he had contracted no evil  habits; was not capricious; inconstant; immoderate; but was always  contented with little or nothing。' If we heard Contarini himself;  religious motives would no doubt play a part in the argumentbut the  practical philosopher in sandals speaks plainly enough。 An allied  character; but placed in other circumstances; is that of Fabio Calvi of  Ravenna; the commentator of Hippocrates。 He lived to a great age in  Rome; eating only pulse 'like the Pythagoreans;' and dwelt in a hovel  little better than the tub of Diogenes。 Of the pension which Pope Leo  gave him; he spent enough to keep body and soul together; and gave the  rest away。 He was not a healthy man; like Fra Urbano; nor is it likely  that; like him; he died with a smile on his lips。 At the age of ninety;  in the sack of Rome; he was dragged away by the Spaniards; who hoped  for a ransom; and died of hunger in a hospital。 But his name has passed  into the kingdom of the immortals; for Raphael loved the old man like a  father; and honoured him as a teacher; and came to him for advice in  all things。 Perhaps they discoursed chiefly of the projected  restor
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