The Voyages of Marco Polo. Марко Поло

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ leon descaenai

       Tuti criando "Alor! Alor!"

      This Alor! Alor! ("Up, Boys, and at 'em"), or something similar, appears to have been the usual war-cry of both parties. So a trumpet-like poem of the Troubadour warrior Bertram de Born, whom Dante found in such evil plight below (xxviii. 118 seqq.), in which he sings with extraordinary spirit the joys of war:—

      "Le us die que tan no m'a sabor

       Manjars, ni beure, ni dormir,

       Cum a quant ang cridar, ALOR!

       D'ambas la partz; et aug agnir

       Cavals voits per l'ombratge. … "

      "I tell you a zest far before

       Aught of slumber, or drink, or of food,

       I snatch when the shouts of ALOR

       Ring from both sides: and out of the wood

       Comes the neighing of steeds dimly seen. … "

      In a galley fight at Tyre in 1258, according to a Latin narrative, the Genoese shout "Ad arma, ad arma! ad ipsos, ad ipsos!" The cry of the Venetians before engaging the Greeks is represented by Martino da Canale, in his old French, as "or à yaus! or à yaus!" that of the Genoese on another occasion as Aur! Aur! and this last is the shout of the Catalans also in Ramon de Muntaner. (Villemain, Litt. du Moyen Age, i. 99; Archiv. Stor. Ital. viii. 364, 506; Pertz, Script. xviii. 239; Muntaner, 269, 287.) Recently in a Sicilian newspaper, narrating an act of gallant and successful reprisal (only too rare) by country folk on a body of the brigands who are such a scourge to parts of the island, I read that the honest men in charging the villains raised a shout of "Ad iddi! Ad iddi!"

      [9] A phrase curiously identical, with a similar sequence, is attributed to an Austrian General at the battle of Skalitz in 1866. (Stoffel's Letters.)

      [10] E no me posso aregordar

       Dalcuno romanzo vertadé

       Donde oyse uncha cointar

       Alcun triumfo si sobré!

      [11] Stella in Muratori, xvii. 984.

      [12] Dandulo, Ibid. xii. 404–405.

      [13] Or entram con gran vigor,

       En De sperando aver triumpho,

       Queli zerchando inter lo Gorfo

       Chi menazeram zercha lor!

      And in the next verse note the pure Scotch use of the word bra:—

      Sichè da Otranto se partim

       Quella bra compagnia,

       Per assar in Ihavonia,

       D'Avosto a vinte nove di.

      [14] The island of Curzola now counts about 4000 inhabitants; the town half the number. It was probably reckoned a dependency of Venice at this time. The King of Hungary had renounced his claims on the Dalmatian coasts by treaty in 1244. (Romanin, ii. 235.) The gallant defence of the place against the Algerines in 1571 won for Curzola from the Venetian Senate the honourable title in all documents of fedelissima. (Paton's Adriatic, I. 47.)

      [15] Ma sé si gran colmo avea Perchè andava mendigando

      Per terra de Lombardia

       Peccunia, gente a sodi?

       Pone mente tu che l'odi

       Se noi tegnamo questa via?

      No, ma più! ajamo omi nostrar

       Destri, valenti, e avisti,

       Che mai par de lor n' o visti

       In tuti officj de mar.

      [16] In July 1294, a Council of Thirty decreed that galleys should be equipped by the richest families in proportion to their wealth. Among the families held to equip one galley each, or one galley among two or more, in this list, is the CA' POLO. But this was before the return of the travellers from the East, and just after the battle of Ayas. (Romanin, ii. 332; this author misdates Ayas, however.) When a levy was required in Venice for any expedition the heads of each contrada divided the male inhabitants, between the ages of twenty and sixty, into groups of twelve each, called duodene. The dice were thrown to decide who should go first on service. He who went received five lire a month from the State, and one lira from each of his colleagues in the duodena. Hence his pay was sixteen lire a month, about 2_s._ a day in silver value, if these were lire ai grossi, or 1_s._ 4_d._ if lire dei piccoli. (See Romanin, ii. 393–394.)

      Money on such occasions was frequently raised by what was called an Estimo or Facion, which was a force loan levied on the citizens in proportion to their estimated wealth; and for which they were entitled to interest from the State.

      [17] Several of the Italian chroniclers, as Ferreto of Vicenza and Navagiero, whom Muratori has followed in his "Annals," say the battle was fought on the 8th September, the so-called Birthday of the Madonna. But the inscription on the Church of St. Matthew at Genoa, cited further on, says the 7th, and with this agree both Stella and the Genoese poet. For the latter, though not specifying the day of the month, says it was on a Sunday:—

      "Lo di de Domenga era

       Passa prima en l'ora bona

       Stormezam fin provo nona

       Con bataio forte e fera."

      Now the 7th September, 1298, fell on a Sunday.

      [18] Ma li pensavam grande error

       Che in fuga se fussem tuti metui

       Che de si lonzi eram vegnui

       Per cerchali a casa lor.

      [19] "Note here that the Genoese generally, commonly, and by nature, are the most covetous of Men, and the Love of Gain spurs them to every Crime. Yet are they deemed also the most valiant Men in the World. Such an one was Lampa, of that very Doria family, a man of an high Courage truly. For when he was engaged in a Sea-Fight against the Venetians, and was standing on the Poop of his Galley, his Son, fighting valiantly at the Forecastle, was shot by an Arrow in the Breast, and fell wounded to the Death; a Mishap whereat his Comrades were sorely shaken, and Fear came upon the whole Ship's Company. But Lampa, hot with the Spirit of Battle, and more mindful of his Country's Service and his own Glory than of his Son, ran forward to the spot, loftily rebuked the agitated Crowd, and ordered his Son's Body to be cast into the Deep, telling them for their Comfort that the Land could never have afforded his Boy a nobler Tomb. And then, renewing the Fight more fiercely than ever, he achieved the Victory." (Benvenuto of Imola, in Comment. on Dante. in Muratori, Antiq. i. 1146.)

      ("Yet like an English General will I die,

       And all the Ocean make my spacious Grave;

       Women and Cowards on the Land may lie,

       СКАЧАТЬ