Reriews
Fal o4 Venice


VENKE
werdenfeld
DURRANT HOUSE
HERBAL HILL
LONDON E.C.1
DURRANT'S
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
135, FLEET STREET,
ISSUE
DATED 26 FEB 1970
LONDON, E.C.4
A Fruitful Decadence
By Max Beloff
The Fall of Venice. Bv Maurice Rowdon. (Weidenfeld&
Nicolson. 50s.)
THE decline of great mari and when we call to mind an
time empires is marked image of Venice we usually
by protectionism in econo- think of the sunlit years of
mics, the loss of public spirit decline rather than the time of
and the respect for martial the cruelty and majesty of the
virtues where politics are con- ascension.
cerned, and permissiveness in As Mr Rowdon shows, the in-
private life.
side was hollow; when Napoleon
In the 18th century, Venice's chose to call the bluff there was
imperial decline was halted no Republic one to say that him Wordsworth nay. The
of through neutrality the and prudent the practice lack. of mourned was imaginary. In the
interest of the ancien régime inability bine we can of Venetians see the to com- of
in putting an end to the its present
when con-
aristocratic Republic. But
plight,
arrinte
while it held on to its terri- temporary unable tto inhabitants its seem as
tories, the substance of its existence as proteçt their predecessors physical
nobility luxury. Tourism was dissipated replaced i were its political identity. Soon
dustry and. commerce as its the illustrations to Mr Rowdon's
main source of revenue. No book pictures and other be all 18th-century there is to
new replace and productive the dwindling class ranks arose remind us usor what Venice was.
of the nobles; all shared in the
corruption and lassitude which
dependence upon invisible
exports' entailed.
Nevertheless the Venice of
the period, as Maurice Rowdon
lovingly recreates it, in an
imaginative if occasionally
over-written book,
only
produced a society nof good
manners, relative tolerance and
enormous attractiveness to
outsiders, but also achieve-
ments in the fine arts whose
full glory perhaps our own age
has been the first fully to
appreciate.
The century of Canaletto,
Guardi and Tiepolo, of Vivaldi
and Goldoni is not negligible,


Weidenfalf
DURRANT HOUSE
HERBAL illil
LONDON E.C.1
DURRANT'S
SCARBOROUGH EVEMING NEWS
SCARBOROUGH,
ISSUE
YORKSHIRE
DATED 25 FE 4
VENICE EFFECTIVELY BROUGHT
Maurice Rowdon sets out to
a scenic tour of the city as
describe the last and glittering
TO LIFE
I was in 1750.
Altogether. this book is an
but doomed hundred years of
artistic achievement. It is no:
the famous independent Repub-
Maurice Rowdon:
long, with only 179 pages
lic of Venice. Actually, he uses
text, but it is beautifuily illus:-
this peg to write a book that is
THE FALL OF VENICE
rated and produced. And
part history, part literary (Weidenfeld and Nichoison 50/-) throughout bubbling, colourful Maurice style Rowdon's brings
analysis of a remarkable city-
Venice effectively to life.
state, and part travelogue, with visual beauty, his great know-
its setting Venice 200 years ledge of the city, and his skill
ago.
in setting down his impressions
The hundred years 1700-1800 in He print. ranges far wider than the
was for the city of Venice its eighteenth century, starting
golden age, but golden in the with an introduction to Vene-
sense of great artistic achieve- tian history, as a prelude to
ment, for the city's days as a another chapter on the great
powerful state had passed, and age of the Doges of Venice.
during this century the city Then, having arrived at the
was to live on the fat of its eighteenth century. he spends
reputation, until Napoleon cut some felicitous chapters des-
away the trappings and the cribing the visual arts of the
decayed facade to reveal the city, its painters, sculptors, and
corruption beneath.
architects. He writes about the
However, this intriguing book city's literary lions and must-
is not a serious historical clans with the same candour
survey. Its attraction lies in and sympathy, and while he is
Maurice Rowdon's eye for doing this Mr. Rowdon weaves


Weddenleld
DURRANT HOUSE
DURRANT'S
HERBAL HILL
LONDON E.C.1
THE IRISH TIMES
DUBLIN
ISSUE
DATED
Tiepolo, a decorator to an earlier
from appreciated "The of Venetian and Italian generation, artists. is now one of the most
45s.), Fall of Venice' 9> (by Maurice
This cartoon is an
highly
nostalgic book about the eternal and Rowdon, by Weidenfeld and illustration Nicolson,
ever-dying city.


Werdiubld.
DURRANT HOUSE
DURRANT'S
HERSAL HILL
LONDON E.C.1
DAILY SKETCH
CARMELITE HOUSE,
ISSUE
LONDON, E.C.4
DAT026 FEB 1970
QUICK LOOKS
ESMnt
A a
Isaac Bashevis Singer is an ac-
quired taste, a slightly schmaitzy
fiddler on a Jewish roof. The
Seance 1 (Cape, 30s.) collects 16
of his short stories, and they open
up a special world, imbued with
myth, both bitter and sweet.
They reveal a way of thinking and
feeling we all need to understand.
"The Fall of Venice " (Weiden-
feld and Nicolson, 50s.) is the
kind of book that makes a package
tour superfluous, for Maurice
Rowdon, superbly supported by
illustrations, opens your eyes.
and senses toaspecis orVenice
the speedy tourisi misses.


THE SUNDAY TIMES
200, GRAY'S INN NOAD,
ISSUE DATED
LONDON, W.C.1
I KNOW of no city which
" on holidays Venice stopped
excrcises such attraction and
work by, law and there were
repulsion on me as Venice. The
Call me a
plentyot went to church-another holidays. And everyone reason
repulsion is based on a pro-
gondola
found dislike of the regime, of
for thought the that well-being. life ended Nobody with
the thousand-year-old police
death-an idea more depressant
State which governed by fear, advantages: the twin virtucs of THETALLOFIENKCEbY Maurice Rowdon/Weidenield&1 Nicolson50s of virour and serenity than any
anonymity and informers and its light and air: the light which
known to the mind Even
which looted Byzantium, bled makes every building and vista TRET TOAWISLARLS by Arthur Foss/Faber 55s
Casanova believed in God and
the Greek world and disgraced change colour hourly and daily,
prayed all his life.
so many of its great men. the air which, when not fogxy or CIRIL CONNOLLY
Then there was music. Today
The sumptuous worldliness of parched by the sirocco. has the
one herrs some of the worst
so much of its art, the poverty particula: maritime freshness
music from the Piazza and the
its literature (how there which both charms and stimu- not for him the nuance sold Venice to Austria, the gondolas: in the cighteenth cen-
BE literature, suggests ar Row- lates, the air which removes hushand, wife and cicisbeo, of Byzantinc horses of St. Mark's the quality was exception-
don, when religion and polilies hangovers, as the tidc removes Guardi's shimmering Pompeian looted from the Ilippodrome of MY high the cult was
arc taboo) the narrow
rubbish, as the sea wipcs out paintings, Tiepolo's obscrvation, Constantinople six centuries ubiquitous. Rowdon writes
ism of its rulers, who philistin- let the trivialities, so that, stumb. Goldoni's irony. the six months'
were removed to Paris: of Monteverdi, Corelli, Galuppi
Goldoni, Barctti, Vivaldi all slip ling out of the bars, the tourists masquerade. ile found the carignen January 17, 1798, the and Vivaldi with knowledge and
6 away, while Tiepolo died in find the steamers waiting to Arsenal shipless, took oversome Austrian garrison' took over. affection. There were operas,
misery; the envy of native pre- transport them to the occan or Icnian
and sold Presumably the caste system concerts, serenades and a church
cminence reminds one of ninc- Torccilo, Chioggia or Corfu. whele tortvwrte country Austria. te held; the reign of pleasure con- music to choose a fron. Classi-
teenth century Dublin or Mr Rowdon is fortunatc, was the Austrian yoke which tinued: the masquerade was on. cal" and
were one.
Chicago.
betuiss HILT Tmme his gave the Venetian aristocracy, Soon Byron wouid arrive to give Then, as now, PaRc only way to
This resentment against. enthraling cssays onc cansuit or some of it, the chance to ita fillip, Chatcaubriand, Brown- know Venice was to live tlierc,
badat1te-Venice.and
redecm itsclf.
ing, Ruskin, Wagner, Proust. to savour the artisanat, to buy
Venice against (which Rome, one Florencc, docsn't fecl or that has survived HERCNEL the
Venice fcll but is still stand- Apart from its visual pleasures happiness by the shilling on the
Munich) has a physical counter- TTC Topeeleyte ing. So it is with us and there beloved Venice has of writers scca some and artists, of the tures Vaporetto. are not Alas tie tempera- 41,
partin my dislike oi the Piazza. houses life is the are same, thesame, the theirwater fétes, the between are some swinging interesting and most exquisite entertainments of 43, today 37. When inviting-32, it rcaches
Those pigeons! Strulting banal-
our from the
Ta-Emini
ity, flying sewers, with the food and drink, the palaces and the city of the Doges in declinc.
Princesse to the de 60 perhaps, the before the tourists
and
the museums which preserve "They're changing,
concerts
and pigeons.
Fohdmey
photographers ists who surround exhibition- them; the of their contents. What Buckingham Palace surd rausnt Bestegui Ball, Theyears before Nr Foss is less lyrical and
hordes of Nordic tourists, many sgi was political autonomy, about the legions on the Wall? and after the mark 1914 of war were a light-hearted than Mr Rowdon
lying bibulous on the stones, the independence, class; but by the the eightcenth governing Corfu was
high-water in the Venetian sense, dissipation, for its but gives a very good measure
undistinguished façades, the bad century the city-state was one two company éelendet APALPUE the dissipation was controlled hy its of information The
and enthusiasm Ilis book
music. Perhaps
Albanians
it serves an alrcady given over to pleasure, BnA whole consisted healthy climate and consisted more Ionian of a Islands. to Hugh
for
who
d6r
outlet
everyone vouid the world's number one tourist couple of yote Venctian oflicers ivid largeiy of making love and Hlonour's excellent partner
clog up the circulation if they attraction.
drew for the whole Jot. music, taking cofice and liber-
Collins guide
to be
Venice in the series.
preferred anywhere elsc. The Republic fell for the same Names Pon payrolls remained of ties (behind a mask), gambling takes the islands from
St. Marks Placc covered
that the régime perpelual, irrespective and pienicking the mainland.
with Zakynthos
over in a morning KAll chicken reireve everywherc Europe: no death. [In the great arsenall The opulence co gondoias and to Corfu the Venetian several chapters
coops, which strike one to death allowance
in her most of workmen their decoration werc
domination and
as nobody, I belieye, of
turned up
thinks crnment 1075 the existence FONE
for day Ency strictly regulated, so werc vere much infermation about the
changing their baskets; and all the middle classes they used the tccrietn ship build- amount of one could dis- British. Lear, Maitland. and
about the ducal palace is made were the missing link in the ing to soventy warm their homes
or onc might serve, Guillord figure in his pages as
very oflensive by the resort city's crisis whereas in
thousand fassots
well
and
Lorderone
as Odysseus, Solimos
S7 human creatures for every France there was an energetic, Abet disappeared annually in Iare was cven a law against Capodistria.
purpose most unworthy of so. politically-minded middle class this way. The ordinary snobbery. You could get six
charming a place, that all take over,
in Venelian almost certainly never months for boasting about your This is a book to kecp to
enjoynent of its beautics is Venieke the apEreernt were all the realised the real state of aflairs forebears and be secretly prepare for the next visit, or
rendered diflicult to a person sovernment there was. They" his prolonged daydream. drowned if the offence was re- to send to friends who have
of any delicacy.:
were the Kepublic and so the Frnoy would sec to it all.
Flirtation was really the settled there, or to drop from
wrote Mrs Thrale (1739-1821) Republic fell.
When the French arrived the peatrya and end-all of existence, a caique next summer and curse
while Beckford wrote of St. They were, incidentally, fring was a salutc to the enriched by the
luck. Each is
particularly one's
island given
Marks the vile stench which morc Trightened cf an internal merEMSIass 1 from the Croa- charming and voluptuous quality a compact history with an
exhalcs from every recess and revolution, a commune than tian mercenarics who were leav- of Venetian womanhood. They account of its surviving anti-
corner of the cdifice and which of Napolcon. When hc ing. The people stood outside provided the life-enhancement quitics and, in the ease of
all the incense of the altars sented'his ultimatum nota ssot noble houses screaming which the Council of Ten and Zantc. its lost oncs. The picture
cannot subdue."
was fired. IIc was twenty-cight PRTOns di San Marco." the Inquisition werc always the Valaoritis house on the
So much for the drawbacks: years old, ignorant and Spartan; Renier swept the strects with threatening to take away. On Mel of Moodra andl the dinerent
now that the whoie archipelago thosc claborate façades the artillery. On October 1797, other the Ten made styles of t Corf fiote architecture
threatened one clings tothe waters meant notiing sby, him. the Treatv of Camna 14.1707, the hand


CUMDANT HOUSE
KERCAL HILL
DURRANT
LONDON E.C.1
WESTERN MAIL
CARDIFF,
ISSUE
GLAMORGANSHIRE
DATED
Once great
THE FALL OF VENICE,
by Maurice Rowdon.
Weidenfeld and Nicolson;
one brief stay in
Mv Venice was marred by
torrential summer rain
that seemed to be creating
before my eyes the watery
stage-set that has existed for
centuries.
It is curious that my own
disappointment in bhe city,
only in
aliected by the
weather. Rass been ieli by many
more jilustrious predecessors.
"Abhorrent green, siippery
city," wrote D. H. Lawrence,
the least appreciative.
Mr. Rowdon has chosen to
speak of past glory rather
than preserit show. His Ilalian
Sketches. seven ycurs ago,
presented, an attractive record
of a people amongst whom he
has long been living; his
understanding of the Italian
way of lifc makes him a more
effective interpreter of their
ancestry.
His Javishly illustrated book
shows how Venice grew to be.
by the 13th century, "the
aristocratic showcase of
Europe" ' and how. when she no
longer had to fight ior her
independence. a Cecline into
ease and luxury contributedi to
a fall irom power and a loss
of freedom.
Her painters may ultimately
have made a more parmanent
contribution than her archi-
tecis whose work is threatened
by the encroaching Adriatic.
"The whole course nt Veretian
art can be seen as a biissful
attempt to define Venetian
light, until with Ticpoio in the
18th century there is only the
light left."
Venetians put on the mask
of revelry. Even the Church
was drawn into the ever-
lengthening carnivai. Politics
degeneratedi into sucial and
amorous intrigue. Mr. Rowdon
explains the function of the
cicisbco. the use 01 convent
pariatorii, the conversazione,
thc ridotio. Be writes
splendidly of Venice's con-
tribution to music and
drama.
The story ends with the
Treaty of Campo Formio when
Napolcon handed over what
remained Oi the once great
Venctian Republic to Austria.,
"Men are we. and must
grieve when cren the shade
Of that which once was
great has passed away."
D. P. M. Michael


Weidenfeld
DURRANT HOUSE
HERBAL HILL
LONDON
DURRANT'S
OXFORD MAIL
OXFORD,
ISSUE
OXFORDSHIRE
DATED
OVER-RIPE CITY
The Fall of Venice. Bv Maurice Rowdon (Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, 50s.).
TO SAY that Venice fell
to a Çanaletto picture
to Napoleon, who promptly full of life and colour,
sold her to Austria is almost photographic in its
true: the once-powerful city recreation of beauty and
was in the end neither taken self-indulgence, a fascinating
not pushed, but fell like an bortraitof the formerQueen
over-ripe fruit, a rotten fruit of the Adriatic when
even, which had stayed on had lost her kingdom, BhE
its tree for no very sub- not her gorgeous palace.
stantial reason.
And if her charms had
become more those of a
Maurice Rowdon's account courtesan than a queen they
of her last century, is like_an were nonetigeiess beguiling.
enormous and lively caption


LONDON, W.C.2
EBRUARY 26, 1970
NEW BOOKS
A SIGH FOR
VENICE
Reviews by GEOFFREY GRIGSON
THREE exceptional books. To master of pallid, tragic clowns.
begin with Venice, I am rather
I enjoyed reading Mr. Rowdon
glad Maurice Rowdon's booki is on the painters, though I found
not quite" what its title led me to myself disagreeing with him-
expect.
slightly-again and again. He seems
The Fall of Venice-well, the to find no "meaning"-his word, and
actual end of Venice as a power, a a word to be suspicious of, at all
state, came with a whimper, or some- times-in Tiepolo, as' if his con-
thing like the slow deflation of a trolled freedom, his light, his floating,
balloon after a party. After a noise his swifts cutting behind clouds, his
or two, Napoleon brought his hand gestures of perfect shape, of a tawny
down on the wrinkled balloon, and fulness, a tawny grace, were not
that was that. The Bucentoro, that "meaning".
marvellous golden allegorical barge Guardi-here is a good sentence:
from which the Doges "wedded" the "Buildings, boats, men are of the
Adriatic, was beached and burnt for same element as the water, ruffled,
its gold leaf. The horses of the sun about to break up, only a breath
were lowered from St. Mark's and away from the invisible energy that
yoicked off-a vulgar lot the French brought them into being; a world
were-on a waggon over the Alps to without roots, its space and time
sue Aun + su
ALLLILIG
THE FALL OF VENICE, By Maurice Rowdon
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 50s.)
FOLK MUSIC OF BRITAIN AND BEYOND, By Frank Howes
(Methuen, 70s.)
WE, By Yevgeny Zamyatin
wue
( ou + C momm 5o
Paris; and Napoleon had a white illusions." " I consider he might have
statue of himself set up on the made more, in this "meaning" of
Piazzetta. All of that and. nothing Guardi, of life, all life, breaking up,
but that would have made a sigh, but dissolving, decaying, sinking under
hardly a book.
its lagoon or vanishing in its pink
The sigh here extends back- skies (think of Guardi's painting of
wards for 100 years. If The Fall of the Montgolfier balloon, seen within
Venice is in fact the decline rather thei frame ofa an arcade opening, small,
than the fall, it has the chance of high, floating away over Venice, as if
picturing an equilibrium almost, or a gaiety would soon be out of sight for
last level in the affairs of Venice. ever).
Napoleon nabbed this rather tarn-
ished fiove del mar in 1797 (and then
Neglected Artist
handed it over to Viennese insolence).
Mr. Rowdon's is one of the few
The years back from 1797 to 1697 Venetian books I have read to make
include the paintings of Canaletto, much of Gian Domenico Tiepolo's
Piazzetta, Guardi, and the Tiepolos, worrying and haunting images of
father and melancholy son; the melancholy clowns in long false
music of Marcello and Vivaldi; the noses and long white hats-the sight
comedies of Goldoni. On such things of them upstairs in the Ca'Rezzonico
Mr. Rawdon writes with an effect of is unforgettably poignant. He repro-
ease and authority. The swifts duces one Gian Domenico drawing,
scream overhead, the marble balus- the execution of blindfolded, bare-
trades are warm and flushed with headedlong-nosed Pulcinellobyclown
reflections from the sky or the soldiers of clown army, which serves
canals. Seriousness-Mr. Rowdon's as the most devastating symbol of
phrase-had certainly collapsed. But decline and fall. Yet it is more than
there was pleasure, especially the a symbol of a particular process in
opera, the concerts. "If the soul was history at a particular place, in a
locked away, music opened it - particular time. "The world is empty.
Music made the Venetian faint with We are on the edge of the romantic"
pleasure. It embodied all that re- are Mr. Rowdon's last words on this
ligion had once given him; it neglected artist. Ido not know about
captured the old peace, the firmness, being, as we regard him, on the edge
the sense that all things were com- of the
but the other
romantic,
posed into their. proper shape for a sentence will serve. Mr. Rowdon
moment."
might emphatically have. said about
The Tiepolo ceiling now in the Tiepolo, Guardi and Gian Domenico
National Gallery-there you have an that in their work they do, after all,
essence of the moment, the moment transcend their situation-the situa-
caught and held, which was 18th- tion and the circumstances of their
century Venice before the collapse. ageing, dying city.
And beside Tiepolo, with him rather Once in Venice I went to see
than against him, in something of Guarana's paintings around the
a paradox, one has to set Guardi music room of the Ospedaletto. It
and Gian Domenico Tiepolo, small was a mistake, I think, since the
PTO


COUNTRY LIFE-F
Uspedalettoi is nol longer an orphanage and one is left with an admiration
of girls who gave concerts, and to for artistic tenacity, for the way in
reach the music room one has to pass which change, fashion, evolution,
through a sad hall of the decrepit. polite consensus, can be resisted.
In the end I incline to think it is One gets on to England or the British
perverse to observe in Venice, or to Isles in the second half of the book.
search out in Venice, anything but In England persistence and recovery
its own perfection (London or New appear all the more remarkable, and
York or Gateshead will do for the Professor Howes sympathetically
imperfections). If it sinks, as they pictures the chief moles who were
sayi it will, supposing engineering and after the fine gold of folk song, or
a lunatic mankind can do nothing early music. It is amusing to read,
about it, then Guardi at his most for instance, about William Chappell
decadent (using the word literally) and his Popular Music of the Olden
and Gian Domenico at his most Time-to read of a double motive in
poignant, will have had the last his exploration. He couldn't bear
word.
Dr. Burney's Italianate history of
Does this suggest that Mr. music; and in his office (he belonged
Rowdon's study of the slow death to the piano-making firm) he had an
of the flower of cities and of the sea irritating Scottish nationalist who
is perverse? Perhaps it is. As the "goaded Chappell to disproving his
chapters go by, one sees the once taunts that England had no national
shrewd nobility of Venice inbreeding music." The Scots had been briskly
themselves out of education, sense, collecting their folk music 60 or. 70
competence and courage. At last,
before in the 18th century:
just before the French troops floated YHEN would show the conceited Scot
in and piled arms on the piazza, the with his boasts about his native
nobles accepted Napoleon's final Caledonian melody how far back
ultimatum by 513 yeas to 30 nays and English melody went-to "Sumer is
5 blanks; and having signed them- icumen in" and beyond."
selves out of existence, says Mr.
Occasionally I find Professor
Rowdon, "they all ran away home." Howes making statements-outside
All the same this decline of his discipline-which look odd. When
Venice, this fall of Venice, can be he talks of the Northumbrian small-
said to define its unique ascendancy; pipe and Northumbrian songs and
which is still preserved in its warm music, I was surprised to find him
marble. In that sense I gratefully explaining things by a Norwegian
recommend The Fall of Venice as racial strain setting Northumberland
about the one modern book (other apart from other English regions.
than Giulio Lorenzetti's guide, A clanger, surelyl-Northumberland
Venezia e il suo Estuario) to read having been Anglian in people (as in
before, and during, and after visiting place-names), the Norwegian element
the city; the one modern book, belonging to the north-west;" not the
decline or no, tourists or no, which north-east.
measures up, in terms of sensibility,
But one ends this book informed
and knowledge, to the real thing. and exhilarated, and thinking better
ofhumanappetites,alsor prealising that
THE RECOVERY OF
the recovery of folk-song is due to an
FOLK SONG
extraordinary campaign of sense,
FOLK-SONG and plainsong are sensibility, sentimentality, musical
the only survivors, except exploration and musical archaeology.
perhaps Jewish cantillation, into
modern Western music of the ancient TYRANNY OF THE MANY
monodic music of the Mediterranean EVGENY ZAMYATIN'S We,
civilizations." There you are. "The
written in 1920, 11 years before
very nature of folk-song as single Stalin allowed Zamyatin to leave
line melody." Professor Howes has Russia, is the classic embodiment by
called his book "Folk Music of a great artist of the theme later used
Britain and Beyond." Really it is in Byave New World by Huxley,
as much, or more, folk music of the whose writing never matched his
"Beyond," folk music in general; enviable intellect, and in 1984. by
and for this reviewer, who is not a Orwell, who wrote, for all his virtues,
musician, this is the virtue of the like a rough and tumble journalist.
operation. I hate the word "folk": Inl his diary-" "diary" hardly suggests
iti is now debased, and no one is the impact, the economical imagina-
going to put this particular verbal tion of We-the space ship mathe-
Humpty Dumpty back on the wall, matician D-503 unfolds his involve-
Iam afraid. Igo down to Magdalen ment with E-330, a female number
Bridge on May morning, Morris regrettably unabsorbed by the
dancers arrive and begin, the crowd "divinely rational and regular"
smirks a little, and it can't, no it system of the One State, by which
really can't, be said, as in the 16th- each separate "I" becomes a mole-
or 17th-century song Under the cule of the total "We." The rebels
Greenwood Tvee, that the dancers are against unanimity, against the life
exactly." "dancing ripe." All the more of "numbers" inside the constant
need, then, for clear definitions and visibility of glass (individual blinds
the clearest understanding, for get- lowered, by ticket, only on Sexual
ting the whereabouts of folk-song in Days) do not succeed, though they
the actual and historical scheme of breach the Green Wall separating
things located exactly, evaluated the city from the wild plains and the
exactly. "The Greeks disliked old savagery of freedom. D-503
harmony when they accidentally recants (and undergoes the Grand
heard it and the preoccupation oft the Operation of fantasiectomy), the
Near East with single-line melody female number is due for extinction.
forced alt-the peoples of the eastern Tomorrow she will mount the steps
Mediterranean to cultivate subtlety to the Machine of the Benefactor-
of line for purpose of expression, "for rationality must conquer." A
whether by the differentiation of wonderful book. Could not we now
mode, or of microtones or of orna- have a translation of The Islanders,
mentation."
which Zamyatin wrote after building
The technicalities in this book ice-breakers (he began as a naval
are! not too difficult or exhausting, architect) on Tyneside?


DURRANT HOUSE
HERSAL HILL
LOMOONE.C.1
DURRANT'S
THE NORTHERN ECHO -
DARLINGTON,
ISSUE
DURHAM
DATED
i 2
Camival
years
TIE STATUE of "Il Gran
Goldoni." Carlo Goldini, the
Venetian playwrizht. in the
tiny Campo diSan Bartoloni-
meo. is surely a speaking
likeness. one of the most
human and hunorous of all
memorial ligures.
This is one the illustrations in
The Fall Venice. by Maurice
Rowdon (Weidenteld and Nicoi-
scn 50s).
Built among the shallow lugoons
as a refuge froni the barbarians
overrunning, the Italian ma :1-
land in the fifth century
(" sixty churches fell doun
before they got it right )
Venice was 10 survive all enemy
thteats for J.000 years.
But noi only to survive: in estai-
lishing and fighting fer her
security, she became a great
trading city. wealthy as well as
independent. and a sea pouer
with an empirc of 2m. subjecis.
By the eighteenth century, Venice
was sofe and relaxed at last. tie
aristocratic showca- of Enrope.
frec to follow the historie
pattern of luxurions streneth
that forgeis jis vigilance and
slides into decadence and
cclipse.
This is the story Mr. Rou don tells:
of the carnival years of seli-
indulgence, gambling and love
intrigues, creating that other-
and now the better rerembered
--legend of flarid and iaintiy
sinister and unhealthy Venetian
of regattas and masked
Eairvan and a dagger in the dark.
Napoleon abruptly closed the
carnival in 1707.
Mr. Rowdon capturcs the
atmosphere in a detailed
portrait of bygone ereryday
life in a city which today,
because of its unique nature,
more vividiy than any other in
the world conjures up its own
past.
It' a study not only for readers
of colourful history, but to
xeepen. a tourist's anprocinion
of Venice. The illustrations arei
as evocative as oniy Canaletto
or Guardi canvases çan be:
thouzh their colour is sadiy
missed.


Weidon lold
DUGRANT HOUSE
HER3AL HILL
LONDON
DURRANT'S
THE O3SERVER
160, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, ISSUE
LONDON, E.C.4
DATED 2 FES
Swinging Venice
ENMERNAGSSESSX NR i IRTHERRNERNA for centuries the grealest sca
THE FALL OF VENICE by power in the Mediterrancan and
Maurice Rowdon
a far-fung empire of enormous
(Weidenicld and Nicolson 50s) strength and influence. The dis-
covery of new trade routes. the
MRETDENA CARETLAS
Sa FASTENORNA emergence of other maritime
Powers and a series of military
NOT present-day Venice, crumbling reverses had sapped not so much
into the 'sea under the impact of her accumulated wealth but her
old age and modern technology. but ambitions and energies: and by the
thc fall of the Venctian Republic cnd of the seventeenth century the
in 1797 and the century of deca- proud capital of a dynamic empire
dence preceding it is the subject of was fasi becoming just swinging
Mr Rowdon's beautiully illis Venice- gambling paradisc. tourist
taicthoah Secure and stable in attraction, city of ciernal carnivals
her island state, Venice had been and centre ot fashion and the aris.
With his intimate knoul
under rt
NEEmT und T3 Veneti
noretmeTTNESE EIL don
pives a vidi apd ili
Pieiurer 1.
amo-phere of :: t:
Candonto
Thicre Was loi o1 vorru tion iti
the iop and some miery at the
bottom, but the Venetian age of
decadence climay of kindly
manners was in many waysmore
altractive than the harsher. morc
ruthless days of the Republic's
glorious past. The rich, of courve.
had a very good time. but the
masses enjoyed contentment and
well-being "the Government sait
to it that the working people never
worked too hardand that no child
was employed beyond its powers").
The Venetians, it has been said.
turned their decline into a fine art
-periaps not the Horst response to
thel lossuf power.
William Guttmann


Showcase of Europe
The Fall of Venice. by Maurice Rowdon. enough to stop any disorder. while on th
Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 50s.
occasion of the visit of the Grand Duk-
Paul Petrovitch of Russia only thres
THIS IS ONE OF THOSE GOOD BOOKS WHICH policemen were found necessary during
might SO easily have been much better. celebrations which went on night andday
Mr Rowdon is master of his subject, and The number of murders in any one year
the earlier chapters, dealing with the back- never exceeded 20, and was generai
ground oft the Serenissima and the outlook nearer three or four, which contraste:
of its citizens, are exceilent, as also is his very favourably with Rome's annual
analysis of its delay. Then he seems to average of 1,000. This is not to say tha:
lose sight of the general in the particular, the Venetians were naturally even-
and a mere ten pages are devoied to the tempered. Gondoliers always shouted
actual fall of Venice which is supposed to and cursed, they raised their oars agains:
be the main theme of the book. The im- each other and yelled elaborate insul:s
pression created is that Mr Rowdon was until their voices could no longer bel heard:
late in delivering his copy, and, with the but there was hardly ever fighting."
publishers pressing, he dashed off the
As portrayed by Mr Rowdon Jife in
last chapter as quickly as he couid. There eighteenth century Venice may be definee
are also one or two historical errors which as a permissive society in a police state.
might have been corrected in proof: there and the sumptuary laws were almost un-
was no War of the Spanish Succession in believably strict. Theyailected all ciasses.
the 1730s (though there was one of the and when the wife ofthe Doge was giver
Polish), while surely it is hardly true to a piece of jewellery by the Duke of Savey
say of Venice that : between 1700 and on the occasion of the visit of Henri II:
1797 she lost hardly a yard of territory", ofFrance she was only allowed to wear it
when by the Treaty of_Passarowitz in on certain specified occasions. Yet if one
1718 she had to cede the Morea to the knew the ropes there seems to have been
Turks.
no limit as to what could be donc, and a
The Serenissima was in complete middle-class woman put her daughter's
decay throughout the eightcenth century, honour in a lottery, and sold the tickets
and thosc who made any attempts at at a sequin apiece, without apparently
reform soon found themselves incar- incurring any reproach from authority.
cerated in a fortress. The cityl had become
The rise and decline of empires is a
primarily a resort for visitors, a place fascinating study, and is worthy of more
where people thought only of amusing attention in modern England than it
themselves, where the carnival lasted always receives. The author maintains
nearly half the year, where the use of that in Venice until the seventeentht
masks was permitted, and where every century the people had been hardy and
encouragement was given to gambling.
self-denying, 6 then softening--and sen-
Discontent, of which Napoledn was sualizing-infuences worked on the
people as on the nobles ". Yet there was
no pessimism or excessive introspection.
religion maintained its hold, for nobod:
thought that life ended with death, which
Mr Rowdon rightly denounces as ar
idea more depressant of vigour and
serenity than anyl known to the mind".
ItistructhatgraduallytheVenetianles:
the will to empire, but in the last resort.
whatever might be the case of the terra
firma, he was ready to put up a fight for
his independence. It was the aristocracy
which, for its own purposes, handed the
Serenissima over to the. French on a
platter; for an oligarchy is always the
most selfish form of government, and the
ordinary citizen was fully justified in
standing outside the noblei houses scream-
ing, à Murderers of St Mark". As for
Napoleon, after : some stufi about
Canaletto's painting of Santa Maria
liberty, equality, and fraternity ", her trans-
della Salute, from San Giorgio.
ferred Venice to the Austrians lock, stock,
and barrel.
not slow to take advantage when the time
In the period covered by this book
came, was increasing in the provinces on Venice, as we have seen, had bccome a
the mainland, which were stiil without tourist attraction, and that had no
political rights in the capital. This dis- inconsiderable influence upon her citizens"
content was duc to the increasing burden outlook on life. She was what the author
oftaxation, the administrative inefficiency weil describes as : the aristocratic show-
and abuscs, the confused multiplicity of case of Europe where revolution was
the ordinances which maintained the thoughta an impossibility She was so old
feudalexactions, and the vexations caused and had survived so much that no one
: by the rural consorteria. As fighting seriously believed she could ever die.
forces the army and navy can hardiy be:
When the news of alarming events
said tot havc existed, though they remained takingplace intheoutsideworld.aworldin
as a considerable debit in the national which! hewasnolongerinterested,reached
accounts.
thecarsoftheaverageVenetianhisreaction
At the same time Mr Rowdon makes was, It couldn't happen here.' So long
out a good case for the average cightecnth as the stream of foreign visitors continued
century Venetian as the most law-abiding unabated, and the money they brought in
ofItalians. Nothing was casier," weare was undiminished, all was well-it was
told, than quieting a Venctian mob ". even possible to cnjoy the illusion that the
which was certainiy not the case in Serenissima still counted. There are
Naplcs. Just beforethe faliofthel Republic indeed many lessons to be learnt from
the appearance of a single policeman was her fall.


THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
FEBRUARY 22,'1970
SEA QUEEN'S DECAY
D. EADERS of Maurice Row-
n. don's" Italian Sketches"
By NIGEL DENNIS
ill expect much from his
zew study, The Fall of Venice. The Fall of Venice BY MAURICE ROWDON. Weidenfeld, 50s.
Tiey, will get even more than
:hey hoped for. The new book boasting about his ancestry got were a bad people, but simply
s a bold and vigorous one, six months in
In fact, that they were a happy
and though true to its title is everybody, from iog to bottom, who disliked being upset EryeS too
ritten with such enthusiasm wàs so ruthlessly treated that much gravity. They went to
:hat one cannot help con- they all
like members of church-to hear concerti. They
ciuding that to fall is happier "one FUMICE To demand equal took their many convents pretty
rights would have been absurd seriously-because
:han to rise.
in a democracy of such painfully their wives there, much they ricked the
Certainly, it was happier for fair shares.
way the tourist picks his fish
Venice. Mr. Rowdon sketches This awful grandeur lasted from a tankful in a Continental
ence in her ascendancy and until the end of 17th cen- restaurant. When two nuns
ime--an imperial
tury. Venice had had about 500 fought a duel in a convent over
riched with the spoils
it by then. The strain a priest,
were
Ecatarer
they
scandalised
zantium, haughty, despotic, beens 86 tell. Tourists began to -not by duel but by the
austere. puritanical. She does visit the world's most beautiful ladies' lack Hof etiquette in using
not make a pretty picture, over- city-and, as we know, once consecrated ground.
1 with government spies and tourists start coming, the
" Good nature
ormers, capable of being has come, too. A "feeling
key
stupendously cruel )) and dis- security
into
18th-century
That ts
venke.the
began seep
zustingly treacherous. None. suf governing class. That this spelt why Goldoni Mr. was their only
:ered more from her suspicious, decadence is shown by "the writer. the Rowdon cites very
revengeful nature than her own famous
that the poison cleverly
Goldoni
great heroes, who were savagely used by
which the sword of a
Venetian
punished
Inquisitors
one
for their victories.
found to have
and nobleman but proves whipped out in a a
Mr. Rowdon almost persuades the recipe for it eareuck Such care-
with no blade. to be. Its only
that the victims enjoyed this lessness makes one wince.
owner urges cautious noble of it.
rearment. It increased their The old soçial unity remained: That hilt cost money," says.
aved worship of
:seir
the State, it was a habit now. Most of the The whole
devotion to law and order.. rules remained, too. So did the made
Venetian by Mr. scene is
Anarchy and chaos were the spies. But nobody quite knew don. He entrancing
Row-
main terrors of Italian states, what the rules or the spies were
catches
the
Dut they were never known to for any longer.
just residue of pride
remained
aperecty
Venice.
traditions. Or as They Mr. were Rowdon -in the nobleman who care-
Everybody dressed according
it, what had' been real out lessly of threw the all window his gold plate a
a book of rules. Everybody Betore became a play now.
banquet. He catches the after
ate. married, and worked by the Take religion, for instance. shrewdness-in the
abiding
bock. Any noble overheard Mr. Rowdon takes a serious view man's supposed stationing same noble- of a
of a people's regard for their
religion, and so did the Vene- row plate before servants it hit to the catch canal. the
tians in the early days. But. as How can one really describe
early as 1573, real" religion society where carnival lasted
was on the way out.
for six months, and the remain-
That was the year the Holy ing six were spent looking for-
Office summoned Paolo Veronese ward to the next one? What
à to investigate his motives in can one, sav of a population
painting as part of a 'Last that fluctuated
Supper a jester with a parrot, 100,000 and 150,000" AhStrCE
St. Peter carrying a roast, included listed in 11,654 a çourtesans (all
drunken Germans, a dwarf and addresses)? book, of with a their
a servant with a nose-bleed."
What Christian
The painter's excuse was that community in which the
A the canvas was avery
Gospel was taboo for
one
and he had to fill ME because it was full of rirls sub-
somehow.ha
versive sincerity' tog
Even Titian, Mr. Rowdon but It all came slowly, to an end,
thinks, was " nearly incapable
happy to the
There
a sacred subject." His was too much writing
lore elegies
of Christ bearing the Cross " does on the death of
poodles"
not depict the Passion so much and "impromptu oRes on bottles
as a a moment snatched from of lovers, maraschino." the cicisbei, The wives'
busy life full of brilliant FrOnLE decadent to do their became too
Later Venetian painters made which was € to feed
iob,
painting simply a quest for
wifej
net
on praise' -a job
EE 22 EENES.
bliss, and too often the bliss Mr. Rowdon says, no which, as
was found in the act of paint- could be expected to husband him-
Society at play: a sketch by ing itself."
G. D.' Tiepolo, from - The Fall
Mr. Rowdon's main point here self. beautiful If the women this of very. Venice
of Venice."
is not that the later Venetians ire.b because to the worship dnat
women always produces beauty
in. them," and centuries of wor-
ship are still in their bones.
When Napoleon marched in
and broke it all up, everyone
was wearing tricolour cockades.
They happened to be the fashion
that year. This could only have
happened in a country where
one of the Senate had "ban-
ished a milliner
because
her work had failed to come
up to his wife's expectations."
Mr. Rowdon's pudding is fairly
stufied with such plums, but it
is an admirable and thoughtful
work, well illustrated and well
printed. There is now no better
writer on Italian themes.


DURBANT HOUSE
MEONAL
DURI R.
ILL
LONDON E.C.1
THE EVENING NEWS
CARMELITE HOUSE,
ISSUE
DATED
FED
LONDON, E.C.4
Catherine, the
great crusader
WIIEN LITTLE Catherine
sereral
Mumiord was two, she looked
makes a American universites
down on the waxen face of
vincing plaus.ble his and coc-
her dead baby brother. She
Locking A
case and stve a
never forgot the feeling of
histor.an. rich
reminiscent cf Freid-
awe and suiemnity with which
suasive. Heer, 15 suavely pe:-
the sight of death impressed
at hocks
He notes the
my baby mind."
influence cn Mohameddan
Psycholcgists, no doubt.
world but seems the to meders
would make something of
Isamic
dec.de thi:
that.
thinking was too m
Catherine coald read when enchanted lover; a heipless tical--insuticgently concep:t?.
she was three. She, learned by female :nto a force in a. man's -0 be more :han mnma.:
teading the Rble which, before worc.
effective as a nistory-iorma:
she was tweive. she had gone Did all this come from some force.
through from cover to cover, genius-spark that no: even her Parhaps a theory cf histar
eight times.
uporinging coud suppress ? just as plausible could be but:
Her muiher was a saintly Or was it produced bu her up- on the idea that the moder
sort of martine: who unceas- bringing; irue sprrituaiity worid was sired b; thrre
ingly taught sin and the forged o: the blunt metrument lorces: Chrstianity and thA
estrangement of man from of Wederan Methcdism ?
confiuence ci Jewish a:
God. Conscience and an If the Freuis and tie Spccks Greco-Arab traditions that cr.
emotional appeared in passion Catherne's for charac- truth are right, Catherine just formed tered and apparentiy F
irans.
ter-clements which modern coaidn': Cleariy did happen. happen. there As vou.a she Sevile and Granada. tope througt
reduction:st psycholney would seem to b2 something desper Ore feeis that if he ha:
sy were mere refexes, de- ately wrong wth reduct:onis: happened to ight on this
liberately conditioned.
psychology and the whole Per- some oiher conination. Mr.
FRAIL
missive premise. Catherine Parkes would be no leas p:r-
Bcoth was no distorted per. suasve in expounding :t.
The little gir! had a iapsed sonality but a spiendid and
BARDARIANS
Methodist for a father whoat uminois human being.
one stage took to the bottle. HOW DID the Western world
In her teens she was fraii and happen ? Did we inherit and IN The Fallof Vonice (Weidir
sick.
expand a legzoy from Greece? TE.E. SUEI TOHT
All of which would add up Do we ove our wor.d to th: HSUTOTS op
to a pretty desperate proz. aegression cf Romt2 Or to but at a singe scatilatins
nosis in modern parchological the annealing infiuence of face: of the whole tapestry-
terms. Doctors Freud and Chratianity?
the independen: Republic. o:
Spock would amcst certainiy History :s made up of facts Venice.
predict an inhibited, aberrated (or reported fac:s) but how Settied in the fifth centur:
aduit; in permiss:ve terms less we see the eob and ficw that by Italians fleeing f.om ::
than a Whole Perscn.
pushea the facts to the sur- invading ourbarians, Venice
Catherine. fo: some reason. face remains always a maiter her peak had a two-miit:
didn't quite conforn. She be- of personal mnterpretation.
population and a repura:.
came a forcefulif gentle extro-
io: biliance and decade::
vert. a crusader excraordinary
CONFLICT
unique :n hisiory.
and something not farstort cf
The literary and aritre:
a force in Westomn nistory.
For
Bamford
capita! of the worid. she
She married Willan Booth
Henry
Parkes. also at one stape the cap:ta:
ànd became a mother. alike to our word is a synthes:s forzed sophisticated vice. contr.v.:.
a .doting famiy and to that during the centuries cf confiet the a:l but impossib'e :a:k
social and religious enjant ter- between the Roman Empre mainta:ning a Perm:s:
rible, the Salvation Army.
and the insurgent Germanic Societ: with the web of :e
Catherine's Hife-and signis- tribes. In The Divine Order Inquis:tion.
cance-are reconstructed byher iGollancz. 80s.) he sces this M:. Rowdon's account of ::
granddaughter Ca:herine confic: as the cruc:bie in Republic's last centur: of :.
Bramwell Booth in Catherine wh:ch two ma.n cuiture her Yob cuiture, her casinc:
Booth (Hodder and S:ougaton. STERTE-Mecite-rantan, and and convent love-ns. her un
Northern-were fused to pro- sex and ner orzies str.kes
The book cffers a meticulous duce a wholly new knd ct :fe: death-knel! note that resonate
picture of an extraoidinary relig:ous, politicai, sociai and chillingy with our own TC.-
woman. The simpie fact artistic.
fare wor.d.
that Catherine ieit. as 2 total Frem this came the Medieva! The paintings of Canale:
and ever present reality, the Wor.d. the Renaissance and and Guard: bring to vwid
love of God. The conviction finay the modern West.
the glory-and the tragec:-
turned a frail voman into a Mr. Parkes, who has held of this astonishing c::y
giant; a repressed grl into an lectureships at Athens and briliance End failure.-E.C.