Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Travel -- Italy; Italy -- Description and travel; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Biography
On the Thursday, we went to see the Pope convey the Sacrament from the
Sistine chapel, to deposit it in the Capella Paolina, another chapel in
the Vatican;—a ceremony emblematical of the entombment of the Saviour
before His Resurrection. We waited in a great gallery with a great crowd
of people (three-fourths of them English) for an hour or so, while they
were chaunting the Miserere, in the Sistine chapel again. Both chapels
opened out of the gallery; and the general attention was concentrated on
the occasional opening and shutting of the door of the one for which the
Pope was ultimately bound. None of these openings disclosed anything
more tremendous than a man on a ladder, lighting a great quantity of
candles; but at each and every opening, there was a terrific rush made at
this ladder and this man, something like (I should think) a charge of the
heavy British cavalry at Waterloo. The man was never brought down,
however, nor the ladder; for it performed the strangest antics in the
world among the crowd—where it was carried by the man, when the candles
were all lighted; and finally it was stuck up against the gallery wall,
in a very disorderly manner, just before the opening of the other chapel,
and the commencement of a new chaunt, announced the approach of his
Holiness. At this crisis, the soldiers of the guard, who had been poking
the crowd into all sorts of shapes, formed down the gallery: and the
procession came up, between the two lines they made.
There were a few choristers, and then a great many priests, walking two
and two, and carrying—the good-looking priests at least—their lighted
tapers, so as to throw the light with a good effect upon their faces: for
the room was darkened. Those who were not handsome, or who had not long
beards, carried _their_ tapers anyhow, and abandoned themselves to
spiritual contemplation. Meanwhile, the chaunting was very monotonous
and dreary. The procession passed on, slowly, into the chapel, and the
drone of voices went on, and came on, with it, until the Pope himself
appeared, walking under a white satin canopy, and bearing the covered
Sacrament in both hands; cardinals and canons clustered round him, making
a brilliant show. The soldiers of the guard knelt down as he passed; all
the bystanders bowed; and so he passed on into the chapel: the white
satin canopy being removed from over him at the door, and a white satin
parasol hoisted over his poor old head, in place of it. A few more
couples brought up the rear, and passed into the chapel also. Then, the
chapel door was shut; and it was all over; and everybody hurried off
headlong, as for life or death, to see something else, and say it wasn’t
worth the trouble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account