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xxviii INTRODUCTION.
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at one and the same time charmed their sense of seeing and hearing by the picturesqueness of their costume and the soft snatches of song they trolled out en route, and for those who have not, by the description written and spoken of it, in which these always play so important a role. I am afraid I must confess for one that Venice is never so much to my mind the city par excellence of historical Italy, as the place of all others where one may most revel in the delightful dolce far niente of being rowed under soft Italian skies, by quaint and time-worn buildings, under gloomy romantic bridges, with a dark-eyed gondolier singing in his rich musical voice :—
In Ven-ice the gold-en to dream, to dream, With
love sto - ries old - en for theme, for theme.
I think most people will be familiar with Moore's exquisite Canadian Boat Song—
Faint - ly as tolls the ev - 'ning chime, Our voi - ces keep tune, and our oars keep time, our
so suggestive of the motion of the dipping of the oars in the water that one can almost fancy one hears the splash, and sees the spray that rises, when it is sung.
As far as I have been able to learn, the songs of the sea take very much the same form and character in all nations, that is, they are sung on the same occasions, are much of |
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