登陆注册
3553900000051

第51章 BOOK Ⅲ(12)

This,then,was the town of Paris in the fifteenth century—an immense mass—what the Romans called insula—of burgher dwelling-houses,flanked on either side by two blocks of palaces,terminated the one by the Louvre,the other by the Tournelles,bordered on the north by a long chain of abbeys and walled gardens all blended and mingling in one harmonious whole;above these thousand buildings with their fantastic outline of tiled and slated roofs,the steeples—fretted,fluted,honeycombed—of the forty-four churches on the right bank;myriads of streets cutting through it;as boundary:on one side a circuit of lofty walls with square towers(those of the University wall were round);on the other,the Seine,intersected by bridges and carrying numberless boats.

Beyond the walls a few suburbs hugged the protection of the gates,but they were less numerous and more scattered than on the side of the University.In the rear of the Bastile about twenty squalid cottages huddled round the curious stonework of the Croix-Faubin,and the abutments of the Abbey of Saint-Antoine des Champs;then came Popincourt,buried in cornfields;then La Courtille,a blithe village of taverns;the market-town of Saint-Laurent with its church steeple appearing in the distance as if one of the pointed towers of the Porte Saint-Martin;the suburb of Saint-Denis with the vast enclosure of Saint-Ladre;outside the Porte-Montmartre,the Grange-Batelière encircled by white walls;behind that again,with its chalky slopes,Montmartre,which then had almost as many churches as wind-mills,but has only retained the wind-mills,for the world is now merely concerned for bread for the body.Finally,beyond the Louvre,among the meadows,stretched the Faubourg Saint-Honorè,already a considerable suburb,and the verdant pastures of Petite-Bretagne and the Marchè-aux-Porceaux or pig-market,in the middle of which stood the horrible furnace where they seethed the false coiners.

On the top of a hill,rising out of the solitary plain between La Courtille and Saint-Laurent,you will have remarked a sort of building,presenting the appearance,in the distance,of a ruined colonnade with its foundation laid bare.But this was neither a Pantheon nor a Temple of Jupiter;it was Montfaucon.6

Now,if the enumeration of so many edifices,brief as we have done our best to make it,has not shattered in the reader's mind the image of old Paris as fast as we have built it up,we will recapitulate in a few words.In the centre,the island of the City like an immense tortoise,stretching out its tiled bridges like scaly paws from under its gray shell of roofs.On the left,the dense,bristling,square block of the University;on the right,the high semicircle of the Town,showing many more gardens and isolated edifices than the other two.The three areas,City,University,and Town,are veined with streets innumerable.Athwart the whole runs the Seine—'the fostering Seine,'as Peter du Breul calls it—encumbered with islands,bridges,and boats.All around,a vast plain checkered with a thousand forms of cultivation and dotted with fair villages;to the left,Issy,Vanvres,Vaugirarde,Montrouge,Gentilly,with its round and its square tower,etc.;to the right,a score of others from Conflans to Ville-l'Evêque;on the horizon,a border of hills ranged in a circle,the rim of the basin,as it were.Finally,far to the east,Vincennes with its seven square towers;southward,Bicêtre and its sharp-pointed turrets;northward,Saint-Denis with its spire;and in the west,Saint-Cloud and its castle-keep.Such was the Paris which the ravens of 1482 looked down upon from the heights of Notre-Dame.

And yet this was the city of which Voltaire said that'before the time of Louis XIV it only possessed four handsome examples of architecture'—the dome of the Sorbonne,the Val-de-Grace,the modern Louvre,and I forget the fourth—the Luxembourg,perhaps.Fortunately,Voltaire was none the less the author of Candide;and none the less the man of all others in the long line of humanity who possessed in highest perfection the rire diabolique—the sardonic smile.It proves,besides,that one may be a brilliant genius,and yet know nothing of an art one has not studied.Did not Molière think to greatly honour Raphael and Michael Angelo by calling them'the Mignards 7 of their age'?

But to return to Paris and the fifteenth century.

It was in those days not only a beautiful city;it was a homogeneous city,a direct product—architectural and historical—of the Middle Ages,a chronicle in stone.It was a city composed of two architectural strata only—the Romanesque and the Gothic—for the primitive Roman layer had long since disappeared excepting in the Baths of Julian,where it still pierced through the thick overlying crust of the Middle Ages.As for the Celtic stratum,no trace of it was discoverable even when sinking wells.

Fifty years later,when the Renaissance came,and with that unity of style,so severe and yet so varied,associated its dazzling wealth of fantasy and design,its riot of Roman arches,Doric columns and Gothic vaults,its delicate and ideal sculpture,its own peculiar tastes in arabesques and capitals,its architectural paganism contemporary with Luther,Paris was perhaps more beautiful still though less harmonious to the eye and the strictly artistic sense.But that splendid period was of short duration.The Renaissance was not impartial;it was not content only to erect,it must also pull down;to be sure,it required space.Gothic Paris was complete but for a moment.Scarcely was Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie finished when the demolition of the old Louvre began.

Since then the great city has gone on losing her beauty day by day.The Gothic Paris,which was effacing the Romanesque,had been effaced in its turn.But what name shall be given to the Paris which has replaced it?

同类推荐
  • 送韦弇

    送韦弇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 洞灵真经注

    洞灵真经注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • A Defence of Poesie and Poems

    A Defence of Poesie and Poems

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 洞真太上金篇虎符真文经

    洞真太上金篇虎符真文经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上灵宝净明天尊说御强经

    太上灵宝净明天尊说御强经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 给古人拍“玉照”的赵成文

    给古人拍“玉照”的赵成文

    德国。路德维堡。“世界东西方首届专利发明优秀成果推广研讨大会”正在召开。会上,一个黑头发黄皮肤的学者,在与会者如潮的掌声中,从大会组织者的手中接过了金光闪闪的金奖奖杯和证书。这个学者,就是中国刑警学院教授赵成文。赵成文,除了中国刑事科学研究所所长、中国刑警学院科研处长头衔之外,还有好几个人们送给他的绰号:“中国亨特”、“警界怪才”、“学者神探”、“科技神笔”。2002年4月下旬,赵成文的又一项创举,震惊了国内外:他用他的“秘密武器”,让2200年前的西汉长沙国丞相夫人“复活”,拍出“玉照”,成为国内外媒体和互联网爆炒的新闻。
  • 男子汉故事

    男子汉故事

    无数事实、经验和理性已经证明:好故事可以影响人的一生。而以我们之见,所谓好故事,在内容上讲述的应是做人与处世的道理,在形式上也应听得进、记得住、讲得出、传得开,而且不会因时代的变迁而失去她的本质特征和艺术光彩。为了让更多的读者走进好故事,阅读好故事,欣赏好故事,珍藏好故事,传播好故事,我们特编选了一套“故事会5元精品系列”以飨之。其选择标准主要有以下三点:一、在《故事会》杂志上发表的作品。二、有过目不忘的艺术感染力。三、有恒久的趣味,对今天的读者仍有启迪作用。愿好故事伴随你的一生!
  • 百佛名经

    百佛名经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 我的女儿有个系统

    我的女儿有个系统

    新书《超级私服》已肥,欢迎观看。天地大变,灵气复苏。张筱萌:“爸爸!你带我去山上看流星雨吧?”张楚:“在家里也能看啊,为什么要去山上?”张筱萌:“在山上离流星更近啊,它们一定可以听到我的愿望啦。”张楚……山上:女儿向流星许愿一个系统,心理阴影系统降临……“叮咚!你未成年,不符合要求,再见!”女儿……
  • 法网恢恢

    法网恢恢

    助理检察官珍娜·詹姆斯曾立誓要维护法制,主持正义,防止犯罪,保卫社区。这不是一份轻松的工作,但无论案情多么复杂,罪犯和受害人总是有着清晰的界限。可是当珍娜变成了受害者后,她一直捍卫的体系突然间分崩离析,是非善恶变得模糊不清,她的生活也天翻地覆地乱了套。她意识到有一股势力强大到能凭借一通电话就让人凭空消失。受害者越来越多,除非珍娜找出前联邦法官和辩护律师只手遮天的确凿证据,否则死亡人数还将上升。
  • 产前产后专家指南(新世纪新生活百科全书)

    产前产后专家指南(新世纪新生活百科全书)

    本书从准妈妈怀孕以后常见的生理变化开始,科学、系统、全面地对分娩前、分娩时及分娩后准妈妈所面临的生活上的、护理上的、医疗上的问题,深入浅出地进行了阐述。尤其在病理产科方面,采用比较通俗的语言,向准妈妈、准爸爸提供了孕产期必备的保健知识。
  • 成交赢在心态:成功销售心态的50个法则

    成交赢在心态:成功销售心态的50个法则

    在销售行业中,决定你的销售业绩的不是你学会了什么销售技巧,而是你拥有什么心态,你以什么心态来做销售,就会有什么样的业绩。你想做一个成功人士吗?你想成为销售中的强者吗?只要你想你就一定可以做到,你要相信自己,自己一点都不比别人差,别人能做到的你就一定也能做到。想要改变自己的一生,就让自己先拥有一个坚定的信念,只有拥有自己坚定的信念,不管在什么时候就再也不会被挫折打倒,你不再是一个弱者,而是一个能够改变自己生活的强者。让你一步步改变自己的生活,让你成为销售中的强者,看本书怎样为你解答,相信你的选择,一定不会让你失望的。
  • 绝对执行:高效执行力组织的6大系统

    绝对执行:高效执行力组织的6大系统

    《影响时空管理丛书》由影响力训练集团组织十几位专家、几十位学者、上百位培训界精英历经三年时间精心创作,内容注重实战,以解决企业管理实际问题为导向;论述深入浅出,通俗易懂;工具多、方法多、案例多,且经过多轮培训课程使用并经过多次修订,受到各层次管理者的欢迎和好评。本书介绍了战略执行中的目标、文化、制度、流程、资源、控制等内容,以实战案例为辅,将提炼出的方法、步骤、技巧清晰呈现在读者面前,让读者能够运用所学,迅速提升执行力。
  • 流年中青涩的你

    流年中青涩的你

    别人眼中的他,高冷学霸,腹黑又心机。苏瑶却觉得他暖!睿智果决的宠妻狂魔!别人眼中的她,朝三暮四,脚踩两条船。顾烨却觉得她纯!把她当宝一样宠和疼!别人都说是苏瑶高攀了顾校草。只有顾烨知道他这漫漫的追妻路多艰难!他们一路相携,从校服到婚纱。人前他是她的哥哥。人后他化身为狼,薄唇贴上她的嘴角!“宝贝,良宵苦短,我们来生个小包子好不好?”苏瑶扶着腰逃跑,这家伙需求量太大,总是欲求不满,好烦!男女主身心健康,双洁(1v1甜宠暖虐)推荐阿罗完结作品《妃常嚣张:君上,来战》非常好看的仙侠哦~
  • 晴天不下雨

    晴天不下雨

    毫无建树的寇晴子忽然从小员工直升为董事长的特助,受宠若惊之余发现这份美差其实苦不堪言。不仅要忍受董事长的各种怪癖,还需得随叫随到毫无怨言……奶奶神智清醒的时候最喜欢问我,“小苍,你什么时候给我找个孙媳妇啊?等得奶奶头发都白了。”很多女人对我投怀送抱,惯得我渐渐不懂得如何追求真正喜欢的那个女孩。我想过很多法子,每每事到临头便失了勇气,只能以董事长的姿态淡淡从她身边走过。