The Improvisatore |
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Page 36
Whilst stands the Coliseum , Rome shall stand ; When falls the Coliseum , Rome shall fall ; And when Rome falls - the world . " - BYRON . Author's Note . herds of tigers and hyenas ; they sped close past 36 THE IMPROVISATORE .
Whilst stands the Coliseum , Rome shall stand ; When falls the Coliseum , Rome shall fall ; And when Rome falls - the world . " - BYRON . Author's Note . herds of tigers and hyenas ; they sped close past 36 THE IMPROVISATORE .
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aloud Annunciata Antonio ascended Author's Note beautiful Bernardo blood blue blue air bon giorno breathed burned Campagna Capri carriage cheeks child church cicisbeo coloring cried dark dead deep Dido Domenica door dream everything Excellenza exclaimed eyes Fabiani Falernian wine fancy Federigo felt fire Flaminia Francesca Fulvia garlands gave Gennaro Habbas Dahdah hand handsome happy heard heart heaven Herculaneum holy hung improvisatore inquired kiss knew lady Lake Nemi Lara laughed lava light lips looked louis-d'or Madonna Maretti Maria Mariuccia merry mother mountain Naples never night Palazzo Borghese Peppo picture poem poet Poggio Pompeii prayed replied Rome Rosa sang Santa scudi seemed seen seized signora sing smiled song soul stood strange stranger street Terracina theatre thee thou thought Tiber told took Venice Vesuvius voice wall whilst whole wine woman words young
Popular passages
Page 123 - ... that which he formed in marble. What giant forms are those which seize upon our eye and our thoughts as we enter ! But, when intoxicated with this view, let us turn our eyes to the background of the chapel, whose whole wall is a high altar of art and thought. The great chaotic picture, from the floor to the roof, shows itself there like a jewel, of which all the rest is only the setting.
Page 36 - While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; 'When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; 'And when Rome falls — the World.
Page 254 - I had too much imagination, and too little reflection; the pedant, that 1 had not sufficiently occupied myself with the Latin language. The politician always asked me, in the social circle, about the political news, in which I was not at home, and inquired only to show my want of knowledge. A young nobleman, who only lived for his stud, lamented over my small experience in horseflesh, and united with others in a Miserere over me, because I had more interest in myself than in, his horse. . . . The...
Page 11 - I felt that his hand was ice-cold, and that he trembled. On this I grew more uneasy, and called my mother : but now he seized me firmly by the shoulder, and, shaking me violently, said, " I will beat thee if thou art not quiet ! " Then he bound his pocket-handkerchief round my arm, and held me fast, but bent himself down to me the next moment, kissed me vehemently, called me his dear little Antonio, and whispered, " Do thou also pray to the Madonna ! " ' " Is the string lost ?
Page 122 - Angelo has breathed forth in colors upon the ceiling and the walls. I contemplated his mighty sibyls and wondrously glorious prophets, every one of them a subject for a painting. My eyes drank in the magnificent processions, the beautiful groups of angels; they were not to me painted pictures; all stood living before me. The rich tree of knowledge from which Eve gave the fruit to Adam; the Almighty God, who floated over the waters, not borne up by angels, as the old masters represented him - no,...
Page 255 - I felt that it must either bleed, or become callous ' No beast is, however, so cruel as man ! Had I been rich and independent, the colours of everything would soon have changed. Every one of them was more prudent, more deeply grounded, more rational than I. I learned to smile obligingly where I could have wept ; bowed to those whom I lightly esteemed, and listened attentively to the empty gossip of fools. - Dissimulation, bitterness...
Page 28 - Cardinals, in their mantles woven with silver, advanced under canopies adorned with flowers ; monks of various orders followed, all bearing burning tapers. When the procession came out of the church an immense crowd followed. We were carried along with it, — my mother held me firmly by the shoulder, that I might not be separated from her. Thus I went on, shut in by the crowd ; I could see nothing but the blue sky above my head. All at once there was sent forth a piercing cry — it rang forth on...
Page 43 - ... life; they fell upon us in myriads with their poison-stings ; the buffaloes often looked as if they were covered over with this buzzing swarm, which beset them as if they were carrion, until, tormented to madness, they betook themselves to the Tiber, and rolled themselves in the yellow water. The Roman who, in the hot summer days, groans in the almost expiring streets, and crawls along by the house-sides, as if he would drink up the shadow which is cast down from the walls, has still no idea...
Page 262 - ... and I had expected attention and rapture, they seemed indifferent, and made only cold and every-day remarks. I broke off at the conclusion of the second canto; it was impossible for me to read any more. My poem, which had seemed to me so beautiful and so spiritual, now lay like a deformed doll, a puppet with glass eyes and twisted features ; it was as if they had breathed poison over my image of beauty ' They had mistaken both it and me, but my soul could not bear it. I went out into the great...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Improvisatore |
| Author | Hans Christian Andersen |
| Translated by | Mary Botham Howitt |
| Publisher | Hurd and Houghton, 1869 |
| Original from | Harvard University |
| Digitized | 6 Nov 2007 |
| Length | 341 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |