460
NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. n. DEC. 3, 1904.
rooms of the deposed Queen of the Adriatic ; but
even with all the facilities that are now given for
modern research, it is not to be hoped for that
a trade history of the Venetian republic will
ever be produced in a manner which will satisfy
those who desire to have an exhaustive acquaint-
ance with the methods of the great distributor
of the productions of the East among the nations
of the West, whom we cannot doubt that
the merchant-princes regarded as mere money-
spending barbarians. In the rest of Europe, from
the days of Charlemagne to a period not long before
the discovery of America, affluence, and conse-
quently grandeur, followed the career of the suc-
cessful soldier. It was otherwise in the eastern city
on the gulf, where carefully organized trade took at
least as high a position as large estates and a mul-
titude of warlike retainers did elsewhere. The
men of trade, like the men of the sword, were not
Ambitions, at least not in the way that the word
is now commonly misused. They cared for present
power, profit, and pleasure, but not for the fame
which follows after death. The more wide-minded
.and sharper-witted among them became great in
their own day, but they left nothing behind them
in the shape of biographical memoranda their
inner thoughts are unknown to us. We must glean
what we can from the meagre notices in chronicles
and the still less stimulating entries in account
rolls. We know from the architecture they left
^behind them, their tombs, and the scanty remains of
their armour and domestic utensils, that they loved
beautiful things ; but this was in those days hardly
a distinction, for all men then craved after beauty.
The severance between the great traders of Venice
and the Westerns was rather one of geographical
position than of desire or capacity. The English-
man, the German, or the Spaniard had not the
opportunity which topographical position gave the
Venetian traders of exploiting the treasures of
the Orient. It must not, however, be assumed that
the Venetians were merchants only. The glass of
Venice was known from an early period, and her
soap was the best in the world. The writer tells
us the interesting fact that for the latter article
the trade-marks of the three chains, the dove, and
the half-moon were used, as well as others which
he does not specify. Were these equivalent to
heraldic badges, or were they fanciful pictures only,
like most of the trade- marks of our own time?
The fourth Crusade was the culminating period of
the prosperity of the Island City ; but even that
would have been of small advantage to her had not
her powerful navy been able to clear the Levant
of the pirates that infested it. To these things in
a great degree she owed her wealth and her power,
and, what is at the present of far more importance,
she became in a position to elaborate a scheme of
sea law which, if not the foundation, was at least
the substructure of the imperfect systems which
exist at the present time. ' Byzantine Architecture
in Greece' is interesting, though the title is in
some degree a misnomer, as much space is occupied
by a discussion regarding the mosaics of St. Mark's,
Venice. It may be that those which adorn St.
Mark's are, viewed from the standpoint of art alone,
the finest in existence, though the statement is
open to question ; but there is another factor in
the problem. It should ever be borne in mind that
it is impossible to separate art from history. The
paper on Prosper Merimee is the work of an
admirer, but he never becomes enthusiastic. He
realizes Merimee's greatness, but we think he feels
also that it was of a kind which could attract only
in a very imperfect manner the sympathies of a
cultured Englishman. The paper on ' Recent
French and English Plays ' is the work of one
who knows not the playhouse alone, but has
worked out a theory of play-construction which,
though not our own, is worthy of careful con-
sideration. The part where the English drama is
discussed is more helpful than the French portion.
Another point is worth notice. Is the writer
quite sure that what he calls Puritanism is the sole
reason for the dislike of the theatre which in some
minds exists almost as strongly as it did among
those who wrote for the Evangelical Magazine a
hundred years ago ? Surely there are other reasons,
one of which is the conception, quite apart from
any influence of right or wrong, that some of the
stronger emotions are not fitted for scenic repre-
sentation. Another is that the accessories are
frequently so much overdone that comedy and
tragedy are wont to change places in the minds of
the kind of persons whom we have indicated.
to
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