A View of Society and Manners in Italy, Volume 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes Relating to some Eminent CharactersMoore, John
History
A View of Society and Manners in Italy, Volume 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes Relating to some Eminent Characters
Moore, John
Italy -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Italy -- Social life and customs -- Early works to 1800
I have now, my dear Sir, complied with your request; and although I have
endeavoured to avoid technical verbosity, and all unnecessary detail,
yet I find my letter has swelled to a greater size than I expected. I
shall be exceedingly happy to hear that any hint I have given has been
serviceable to our friend. If the cough should still continue, after he
has passed two or three months at Bristol, I imagine the most effectual
thing he can do will be, to take a voyage to this place; he will by that
means escape the severity of a British winter. The voyage itself will be
of service, and at the end of it he will have the benefit of the mild
air of the Campagna Felice, be refreshed and nourished by the finest
grapes, and, when tired of riding, he will have continual opportunities
of sailing in this charming bay.
LETTER LXIII.
Naples.
As I was walking a few days since in the street with two of our
countrymen, T—— and N——, we met some people carrying the corpse of a
man on an open bier, and others following in a kind of procession. The
deceased was a tradesman, whose widow had bestowed the utmost attention
in dressing him to the greatest advantage on this solemn occasion; he
had a perfectly new suit of clothes, a laced hat upon his head, ruffles,
his hair finely powdered, and a large blooming nosegay in his left hand,
while the right was very gracefully stuck in his side. It is the custom
at Naples to carry every body to church in full dress soon after their
death, and the nearest relations display the magnitude of their grief
by the magnificent manner in which they decorate the corpse. This poor
woman, it seems, was quite inconsolable, and had ornamented the body of
her late husband with a profusion she could ill afford. When the corpse
arrives in church, the service is read over it. That ceremony being
performed, and the body carried home, it is considered as having no
farther occasion for fine clothes, but is generally stript to the shirt,
and buried privately.
“Can any thing be more ridiculous,” says N——, “than to trick a man out in
his bed clothes after his death?” “Nothing,” replied T——; “unless it be
to order a fantastical dress at a greater expence on purpose, as if the
dead would not be satisfied with the clothes they wore when alive, but
delighted in long flowing robes in a particular style of their own.”
T—— has long resided abroad, and now prefers many foreign customs to
those of his own country, which frequently involves him in disputes with
his countrymen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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