Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/424

434 boudoirs. We sometimes meet with the good Cenobites, on our rambles in the neighborhood of Naples; their white woolen dresses make them as distinguishable as their good complexions, which are sometimes quite too florid, and make a striking contrast to the sunburnt leanness of the Neapolitan people. Pious Father, pious Camalduli! Do you get such bright complexions from prayers, contemplations, and self-mortification?

Amongst the popular amusements of Naples must be mentioned the theatre, San Carlino, where comic pieces and farces are given, and where an excellent Punchinello represents, in a splendid manner, the Neapolitan popular character in its boldness, cunning, ignorance, shamelessness, frivolity, and good temper, all in one. Men and women act there with so much nature and such a comic abandon, that one is ready to take the whole thing seriously. I have never, since I was young, laughed so heartily at any theatre as at this. Sometimes the piece is improvised for the occasion. The Punchinello of the theatre is a genius in his way.

October 12th. We have also visited the castle, the churches, and the royal parks. I have merely retained in remembrance, from the royal castle, the beautiful portraits of Rembrandt, as well as of other artists of the Netherlands, of which there is here a great number. What mastership is painting, what genius in the conception of human individuality! Never have I comprehended the greatness of Rembrandt, as I have been able to do here. His subjects are seldom beautiful, but what light there is in these eyes, what perfect peculiarity, and what perception of the most delicate