United States or Guinea-Bissau ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
June 8th. I went this morning to the Uffizi gallery. The entrance is from the great court of the palace, which communicates with Lung' Arno at one end, and with the Grand Ducal Piazza at the other.
Say you had been formed, all over, in a lot of little pyramidal lozenges like that wonderful side of the Ducal Palace in Venice so lovely in a building, but so damnable, for rubbing against, in a man, and especially in a near relation. I can see them all from here each of them sticking out by itself all the architectural cut diamonds that would have scratched one's softer sides.
The first of these events followed close upon the demise of the splendid Vincenzo; for his son Francesco reigned but a short time, and died, leaving a little daughter of three years to the guardianship of her uncle, the Cardinal Ferdinand. The law of the Mantuan succession excluded females; and Ferdinand, dispensed from his ecclesiastical functions by the Pope, ascended the ducal throne.
In the afternoon, as there was no military parade or music, over the absence of which the chambermaids of Der Gross-Herzog moaned dolorously, we rambled through the ducal garden, admiring the quaintly-shaped basin in its centre, its numerous statues, and fresh grass. The town was dull and methodical enough, but would have been rejoicing, if it had not been respectfully mournful.
The great portal has been robbed of the statues which once adorned its niches. Three have been "restored"; they represent, center, the Savior; at the left, the patron, St. Bavon, recognizable by his falcon, his sword as duke, and his book as monk; he wears armor, with a ducal robe and cap above it; at the right, St. John the Baptist, the earlier patron.
Your Honour, by your long and late experience here, will understand the pinch of this business better than yet I do; who, by what I can learn, am of opinion, that according to the style of this Court, perhaps of all others likewise, a King's AMBASSADOR, in his own house, doth not give the hand to another King's RESIDENT, much less 'illustrissima, twenty years ago; but then again, I am informed, that now these very Ambassadors of Germany and France, who may with justice enough make scruple of that, may at the same time give 'illustrissima, and, within their own doors the hand, to a Ducal Ambassador, thereby preferring them to their own Residents: an old controversy not easily decided, and yet in a fair way to be so, when by strong inference we shall be found judges against ourselves.
Crossing by the "bridge of sighs," the canal, Rio de Palazzo, which runs behind the ducal palace, we entered the state prisons of Venice. In the dim light I could discern what seemed a labyrinth of long narrow passages; traversing which, we arrived at the dungeons.
His duties must have certainly embraced the management of the militia and the maintenance of the doge's peace within the always widening pale of the ducal abode. He was next in rank to the crown or throne. Thus we perceive that, after a series of trials, the Venetians eventually reverted to the form of government which appeared to be most agreeable, on the whole, to their conditions and genius.
He had pronounced my phaeton to be as well appointed as any equipage in town, and had done me the honour to drive out with me on several occasions. It was Betty that brought him humiliation that evening. "What do you think of the soar our Pandora hath taken, Miss Betty?" says he. "From a Maryland manor to a ducal palace. 'Tis a fable, egad! No less!" "Indeed, I think it is," retorted Betty.
Should fortune favor thy attempt shouldst thou obtain dominion alas! I then shall be but the more wretched. Condemned to misery shouldst thou fail if thou succeed, to misery still greater. Here is no choice but evil. Unless he gain the ducal power, Fiesco perishes if I embrace the duke I lose my husband. FIESCO. I understand you not.
Word Of The Day