The charm of Venice

THE
CHARM OF VENICE
AN ANTHOLOGY
COMPILED BY ALFRED H. HYATT
LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1908
All rights reserved
It is always delightful to read about Venice. This city, so exceptionally situated, and to which belongs so fascinating a history, has inspired almost countless authors to extol its many beauties, to retell its historic episodes, and to recount the treasures of its art and architecture.
The praise of London is sung by the Londoner, that of Paris by the Parisian, and so on, city by city. But of the beauty of Venice members of every nation have written, and perhaps in a greater measure than the Venetians themselves. It is from these eulogies that I have endeavoured to place before the reader those prose passages and poems that paint in a few words some of the varied charms belonging to Venice.
A. H. H.
Thanks are due to the following publishers and authors for having so kindly allowed the inclusion of copyright poems and extracts in this volume:
To Lady Ritchie and Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co. for an extract from ‘Miss Angel’; to Lady Lindsay for two poems contained in ‘From a Venetian Balcony’ (Messrs. Kegan Paul); to Messrs. George Bell and Sons for extracts from Charles Yriarte’s ‘Venise’ (translated by Mr. F. J. Sitwell); to Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons for an extract from ‘The Life of George Eliot’; to Mr. Arthur Symons for poems from his ‘Collected Poems’ (Mr. W. Heinemann) and an extract from ‘The Cities of Italy’ (Messrs. Dent); to Mr. W. Heinemann for an extract from Gabriele D’Annunzio’s ‘The Flame of Life’; to Mr. Horatio F. Brown and Messrs. Smith, Elder for extracts from J. Addington Symonds’s ‘A Venetian Medley,’ and a poem from this same author’s volume, ‘Old and New’; to Messrs. Gay and Bird and Mr. Percy Pinkerton for poems from ‘Adriatica’; to Messrs. Maclehose and Sons for ‘A Vision of Venice’ from David Gray’s ‘Poems’; to Messrs. Macmillan and Co. , Ltd. , for extracts from Mrs. Oliphant’s ‘Makers of Venice’ and Mr. F. Marion Crawford’s ‘Gleanings from Venetian History’; to the Rev. Stopford A. Brooke for poems from his volume published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. , Ltd. ; to Messrs. Duckworth and Co. for extracts from the Rev. Stopford A. Brooke’s ‘The Sea Charm of Venice’; to Miss Braddon for an extract from ‘The Venetians’ (Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall); to Messrs. George Newnes, Ltd. , for an extract from Mr. F. Eden’s ‘A Garden in Venice’; to Mr. W. D. Howells for extracts from ‘Venetian Life’; to Messrs. Rivingtons for an extract from Mr. Horatio F. Brown’s ‘Life on the Lagoons’; to Mrs. Lee-Hamilton for a poem by Eugene Lee-Hamilton; to Miss Margaret Newett for an extract from her translation of ‘Casola’s Pilgrimage’ (the Clarendon Press); to Madame Duclaux (Mary A. F. Robinson) for ‘A Venetian Nocturne’ from her ‘Collected Poems’ (Mr. T. Fisher Unwin); to Vernon Lee for extracts from ‘The Enchanted Woods’ and ‘The Sentimental Traveller’ (Mr. John Lane), and ‘Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy’; to Mr. S. Rosen, of Venice, for an extract from Pompeo Molmenti’s ‘The Renaissance in Venice,’ published by the Liberia Rosen, Venice; to Mr. Lloyd Mifflin for various poems; to Mrs. Moulton for an extract from ‘Random Rambles’; to the Baroness Swift for a poem; to Mr. Fred G. Bowles for the use of his translation of Hélène Vacaresco’s poem; to Messrs. Chatto and Windus for extracts from Ouida’s ‘Santa Barbara,’ Beryl de Sélincourt and May Sturge Henderson’s ‘Venice,’ and Edith Seeley’s translation of Vasari’s ‘Stories of the Italian Artists’; and to Mr. Mackenzie Bell for a sonnet from ‘Collected Poems’ (the Kingsgate Press).