Venice
differed almost as much from other Italian cities as from those of the
rest of Europe. From the fanciful stone embroidery of her churches and
palaces to a hundred singularities in dress and manners--the
full-bottomed wigs and long gowns of the nobles, the black mantles and
head-draperies of the ladies, the white masks worn abroad by both sexes,
the publicity of social life under the arcades of the Piazza, the
extraordinary freedom of intercourse in the casini, gaming-rooms and
theatres--the city proclaimed, in every detail of life and architecture,
her independence of any tradition but her own. This was the more
singular as Saint Mark's square had for centuries been the meeting-place
of East and West, and the goal of artists, scholars and pleasure-seekers
from all parts of the world. Indeed, as Coeur-Volant pointed out, the
Venetian customs almost appeared to have been devised for the
convenience of strangers. The privilege of going masked at almost all
seasons and the enforced uniformity of dress, which in itself provided a
kind of incognito, made the place singularly favourable to every kind of
intrigue and amusement; while the mild temper of the people and the
watchfulness of the police prevented the public disorders that such
license might have occasioned. These seeming anomalies abounded on every
side. From the gaming-table where a tinker might set a ducat against a
prince it was but a few steps to the Broglio, or arcade under the ducal
palace, into which no plebeian might intrude while the nobility walked
there. The great ladies, who were subject to strict sumptuary laws, and
might not display their jewels or try the new French fashions but on the
sly, were yet privileged at all hours to go abroad alone in their
gondolas. No society was more haughty and exclusive in its traditions,
yet the mask leveled all classes and permitted, during the greater part
of the year, an equality of intercourse undreamed of in other cities;
while the nobles, though more magnificently housed than in any other
capital of Europe, generally sought amusement at the public casini or
assembly-rooms instead of receiving company in their own palaces. Such
were but a few of the contradictions in a city where the theatres were
named after the neighbouring churches, where there were innumerable
religious foundations but scarce an ecclesiastic to be met in company,
and where the ladies of the laity dressed like nuns, while the nuns in
the a