• ISIDORA, OR THE ADVENTURES OP A NEAPOLITAN.
THIS fiction displays the same familiar acquaintance with the history
and literature of Italy in the sixteenth century, as was visible in the , author's previous publication of The Pope, and equally exhibits his
accomplishments and ability. This second effort, however, shows the same want of skill in the construction of a fable, and is con- clusive as to his incapacity to rise to the historical novel, or indeed to fiction of any kind. Besides looseness and incoherence in the structure of a story, he is deficient in creative power ; exhibiting little truth in the dialogue of his persons, and no consistency or purpose in their conduct, for they act like the puppets of a story- teller, not like rational men. The knowledge of the author saves him from those ambitious displays of reading which distinguish the lucubrations of persons who have crammed themselves for the occa- sion ; but it is not less clear that he writes to show his learning, and frames his tale to exhibit the historical persons and events of the age, rather than the general actions of life or the characters of men. •
The public events, as in the writer's previous fiction, are those springing out of the rivalship between Charles the Fifth and Francis the First ; though the Emperor alone appears upon the stage. The scene is first laid in Spain, where Charles is contend- ing with his nobles ; then in Naples during the plague which, in addition to the usual evils of war, devastated the city, when the French army under Lautrec was besieging it ; then in Bologna whither many of the characters are taken for no other purpose than to witness the coronation of Charles the Fifth and bear a part in a matinee literaire where Ariosto and other memorable authors are introduced ; and lastly, at Tunis, whither the heroine is carried by corsairs in defiance of probability, in order to afford the author an opportunity of describing Barbarossa, his court, and Christian captives, as well as the invasion of Africa by Charles the Fifth.
There are both history and running critical remarks in Isidora, though less of the latter perhaps than in The Pope : but as the author does not stick at probability in the scheme or conduct of his story, so his history is not always accurate in its spirit or its colour- ing ; and if the criticism and the descriptions of contemporary 'au- thors were better than they are, we should still think them out of place. A didactic novel is not the best vehicle for disquisition, but it is better than a fiction where blues and• banditti alternate.
Quotations from a true novel are not always satisfactory, on ac- count of the length requisite to do justice to its scenes, and the probability that they will not be properly apprehended without a knowledge of their antecedents. In Isidora, however, the story has so little interest, the characters have so little truth, that we avoid the fictitious part from choice, and take, in preference, THE PLAGUE OF NAPLES.
A fortnight had elapsed since Alfonso of Procida had last trod the streets of Naples; and yet, miserable as was the aspect they then wore, how much was that misery now increased ! We have said that the town had been divided up into districts and allotted to the superintendence of different boards of health and inspectors ; but these could do little to arrest the ravages of the plague--t nothing towards providing food for the famishing population. Day by day the pestilence had extended its ravages; day by day had it appeared more hopeless to attempt to contend with it. The army and the citizens alike fell beneath the scourge; - for no discipline was of sufficient force to restrain the brutal German soldiers from intercourse with the afflicted quarters whenever they thought that pleasure or booty, or, above all, wine was to be thence obtained ; and the Spanish troopers, long disorganized at Rome, were iu little better subjection. The whole city was one vast charnel-house. Pity and horror contended in the bosom of Alfonso of Procida as he ad- vanced along the open streets. At the doors of the churches, on the steps of the houses, the dead lay in heaps. Despair, terror, and faintness had overcome every natural feeling; and there appeared to be none there who cared for them. A few priests and mediciners only might be seen circulating rapidly from house to house, warding off, with a long cane, whomsoever should appear to be coming in contact with them. A few tumbrils or open carts creaked along the flinty pebbles, bearing away their loads of dead, and attended by the lowest of the Neapolitan rabble, who had been bribed to act the part of undertakers. Nor' had it been easy to find those who would for any pay forego the chance of
booty which others obtained by indiscriminate robbery. • • *
Discordant, however, as were the sounds of merriment which rent his ear, they prepared not Alfonso for the sight which he witnessed, when, turning round an angle, he entered this populous street. Before the open doors of a half-underground cellar, stood a large waggon piled with the bodies of the dead, which were tossed one above the other in horrid disarray : there exposing the grizzle head of some venerable elder lying upon the sunken, bare, and dis- coloured bosom of a scarce-budding girl ; while beside, and entwined amid the straggling limbs of both, the corpses of a wealthy notary and a widely-known beggar were closely entangled : before the doors of the cellar, stood a waggon thus hastily, indecently, and ruthlessly loaded ; while within the vault itself a score of Neapolitans, whose features bore the stamp of every vice and whose limbs still carried the shortened shackle of galley-slaves, were intermixed with a lot of Turkish slaves, whom the Viceroy had joined with them in the office of burying the dead, or rather of clearing the streets. Within the cellar they all sat commingled in drunken good-fellowship : beside them lay many a pre- cious garment, many a glittering gem, trodden amid the wine-flasks which bestrewed the floor around. They appeared to be taking a parting or a start- ing cup ; for many a full goblet was uplifted in the air while they all stood around, and at the full pitch of their discordant voices screamed forth word's to the following effect-
Evviva the plague I may it flourish say we, For the plague gives us freedom, wealth, wine, jollity. What has opened our prison and broken our chain ? What had bid us come forth over thousands to reign ? 'T is the plague 1 't is the plague ! May it never decay May war, famine, and pestilence flourish for ay !
Evviva the plague 1 They were dying around, And had no one to hurry their dead underground ; So they proffered us pardon and bade us go free : We obliged them. Ha, ha !—jolly sextons are we 1 With a cart and a pitchfork we clear out the way! And we drink to their rest : we leave others to pray.
Then evviva the plague ! for the dead ones, you know, Can't look after their gold when we toss them below. And to handle the corpses their friends are afraid ; So we handle them, boys—let us drink to the trade! Let us drink to the plague ; it avenges our cause ! To the plague, boys, which levels rank, fortune, and laws I
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