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第28节

the hunchback of notre dame-第28节

小说: the hunchback of notre dame 字数: 每页4000字

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ere were some everywhere。  The amusingly varied crests of these beautiful edifices were the product of the same art as the simple roofs which they overshot; and were; actually; only a multiplication of the square or the cube of the same geometrical figure。  Hence they complicated the whole effect; without disturbing it; completed; without overloading it。 Geometry is harmony。  Some fine mansions here and there made magnificent outlines against the picturesque attics of the left bank。  The house of Nevers; the house of Rome; the house of Reims; which have disappeared; the H?tel de Cluny; which still exists; for the consolation of the artist; and whose tower was so stupidly deprived of its crown a few years ago。 Close to Cluny; that Roman palace; with fine round arches; were once the hot baths of Julian。  There were a great many abbeys; of a beauty more devout; of a grandeur more solemn than the mansions; but not less beautiful; not less grand。 Those which first caught the eye were the Bernardins; with their three bell towers; Sainte…Geneviève; whose square tower; which still exists; makes us regret the rest; the Sorbonne; half college; half monastery; of which so admirable a nave survives; the fine quadrilateral cloister of the Mathurins; its neighbor; the cloister of Saint…Benoit; within whose walls they have had time to cobble up a theatre; between the seventh and eighth editions of this book; the Cordeliers; with their three enormous adjacent gables; the Augustins; whose graceful spire formed; after the Tour de Nesle; the second denticulation on this side of Paris; starting from the west。 The colleges; which are; in fact; the intermediate ring between the cloister and the world; hold the middle position in the monumental series between the H?tels and the abbeys; with a severity full of elegance; sculpture less giddy than the palaces; an architecture less severe than the convents。  Unfortunately; hardly anything remains of these monuments; where Gothic art combined with so just a balance; richness and economy。 The churches (and they were numerous and splendid in the University; and they were graded there also in all the ages of architecture; from the round arches of Saint…Julian to the pointed arches of Saint…Séverin); the churches dominated the whole; and; like one harmony more in this mass of harmonies; they pierced in quick succession the multiple open work of the gables with slashed spires; with open…work bell towers; with slender pinnacles; whose line was also only a magnificent exaggeration of the acute angle of the roofs。

The ground of the University was hilly; Mount Sainte… Geneviève formed an enormous mound to the south; and it was a sight to see from the summit of Notre…Dame how that throng of narrow and tortuous streets (to…day the Latin Quarter); those bunches of houses which; spread out in every direction from the top of this eminence; precipitated themselves in disorder; and almost perpendicularly down its flanks; nearly to the water's edge; having the air; some of falling; others of clambering up again; and all of holding to one another。  A continual flux of a thousand black points which passed each other on the pavements made everything move before the eyes; it was the populace seen thus from aloft and afar。

Lastly; in the intervals of these roofs; of these spires; of these accidents of numberless edifices; which bent and writhed; and jagged in so eccentric a manner the extreme line of the University; one caught a glimpse; here and there; of a great expanse of moss…grown wall; a thick; round tower; a crenellated city gate; shadowing forth the fortress; it was the wall of Philip Augustus。  Beyond; the fields gleamed green; beyond; fled the roads; along which were scattered a few more suburban houses; which became more infrequent as they became more distant。  Some of these faubourgs were important: there were; first; starting from la Tournelle; the Bourg Saint…Victor; with its one arch bridge over the Bièvre; its abbey where one could read the epitaph of Louis le Gros; ~epitaphium Ludovici Grossi~; and its church with an octagonal spire; flanked with four little bell towers of the eleventh century (a similar one can be seen at Etampes; it is not yet destroyed); next; the Bourg Saint… Marceau; which already had three churches and one convent; then; leaving the mill of the Gobelins and its four white walls on the left; there was the Faubourg Saint…Jacques with the beautiful carved cross in its square; the church of Saint… Jacques du Haut…Pas; which was then Gothic; pointed; charming; Saint…Magloire; a fine nave of the fourteenth century; which Napoleon turned into a hayloft; Notre…Dame des Champs; where there were Byzantine mosaics; lastly; after having left behind; full in the country; the Monastery des Chartreux; a rich edifice contemporary with the Palais de Justice; with its little garden divided into compartments; and the haunted ruins of Vauvert; the eye fell; to the west; upon the three Roman spires of Saint…Germain des Prés。  The Bourg Saint…Germain; already a large community; formed fifteen or twenty streets in the rear; the pointed bell tower of Saint… Sulpice marked one corner of the town。  Close beside it one descried the quadrilateral enclosure of the fair of Saint… Germain; where the market is situated to…day; then the abbot's pillory; a pretty little round tower; well capped with a leaden cone; the brickyard was further on; and the Rue du Four; which led to the common bakehouse; and the mill on its hillock; and the lazar house; a tiny house; isolated and half seen。

But that which attracted the eye most of all; and fixed it for a long time on that point; was the abbey itself。  It is certain that this monastery; which had a grand air; both as a church and as a seignory; that abbatial palace; where the bishops of Paris counted themselves happy if they could pass the night; that refectory; upon which the architect had bestowed the air; the beauty; and the rose window of a cathedral; that elegant chapel of the Virgin; that monumental dormitory; those vast gardens; that portcullis; that drawbridge; that envelope of battlements which notched to the eye the verdure of the surrounding meadows; those courtyards; where gleamed men at arms; intermingled with golden copes;the whole grouped and clustered about three lofty spires; with round arches; well planted upon a Gothic apse; made a magnificent figure against the horizon。

When; at length; after having contemplated the University for a long time; you turned towards the right bank; towards the Town; the character of the spectacle was abruptly altered。 The Town; in fact much larger than the University; was also less of a unit。  At the first glance; one saw that it was divided into many masses; singularly distinct。  First; to the eastward; in that part of the town which still takes its name from the marsh where Camulogènes entangled Caesar; was a pile of palaces。  The block extended to the very water's edge。  Four almost contiguous H?tels; Jouy; Sens; Barbeau; the house of the Queen; mirrored their slate peaks; broken with slender turrets; in the Seine。

These four edifices filled the space from the Rue des Nonaindières; to the abbey of the Celestins; whose spire gracefully relieved their line of gables and battlements。  A few miserable; greenish hovels; hanging over the water in front of these sumptuous H?tels; did not prevent one from seeing the fine angles of their fa?ades; their large; square windows with stone mullions; their pointed porches overloaded with statues; the vivid outlines of their walls; always clear cut; and all those charming accidents of architecture; which cause Gothic art to have the air of beginning its combinations afresh with every monument。

Behind these palaces; extended in all directions; now broken; fenced in; battlemented like a citadel; now veiled by great trees like a Carthusian convent; the immense and multiform enclosure of that miraculous H?tel de Saint…Pol; where the King of France possessed the means of lodging superbly two and twenty princes of the rank of the dauphin and the Duke of Burgundy; with their domestics and their suites; without counting the great lords; and the emperor when he came to view Paris; and the lions; who had their separate H?tel at the royal H?tel。  Let us say here that a prince's apartment was then composed of never less than eleven large rooms; from the chamber of state to the oratory; not to mention the galleries; baths; vapor…baths; and other 〃superfluous places;〃 with which each apartment was provided; not to mention the private gardens for each of the king's guests; not to mention the kitchens; the cellars; the domestic offices; the general refectories of the house; the poultry…yards; where there were twenty…two general laboratories; from the bakehouses to the wine…cellars; games of a thousand sorts; malls; tennis; and riding at the ring; aviaries; fishponds; menageries; stables; barns; libraries; arsenals and foundries。  This was what a king's palace; a Louvre; a H?tel de Saint…Pol was then。  A city within a city。

From the tower where we are placed; the H?tel Saint…Pol; almost half hidden by the four great houses of which we have just spoken; was still very considerable and very ma

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