“Seeing Foreign Parts” 1638–1639since 1502, it was ruled by a resident Spanish viceroy; the upper classes aped Span-
ish fashion and spoke a language that was more than half Spanish. But the power of
the nobility had declined, the lower classes and the general economy suffered under
heavy taxation, and intellectual life was rigorously controlled by strict censorship of
books and by suppressing dissident native sons like Telesio and Bruno.^46 Naples had
made some attempts to overturn Spanish rule: the philosopher Tommaso Campanella
served a 30-year prison term for his part in an abortive uprising in 1598,^47 and other
revolts occurred in 1622 and 1636.
Milton traveled by coach to Naples, in a large caravan so as to deter the notorious
brigands that plagued travelers on that route. Evelyn’s party a few years later laid on
30 armed guards to convoy them through the cork woods along the Appian Way
south.^48 Milton had the company of a “certain Eremite Friar” (CPW IV.1, 618)
who promised to, and did, introduce him to Giovanni Battista Manso, Marquis of
Villa – statesman, soldier, author, and notable exemplar of generous and intelligent
literary patronage. After the Italian epic poet Tasso was released from a distressing
period of incarceration as a lunatic, he was Manso’s guest at his villa near Naples,
where he revised his great epic, Gerusalemme Liberata (1581) into Gerusalemme
Conquistata (1593) and wrote a poem on the Creation, Le Sette Giornate del Mondo
Creato (1592) as well as a dialogue on friendship titled Il Manso (1596), in tribute to
his host.^49 Manso was also patron and sometimes host to the most famous narrative
poet of the next generation, Giovanni Battista Marino, author of the sensuous,
langorous, and elaborately ornamented L’Adone (1623) on the subject of Venus and
Adonis, and of La Strage degl’Innocenti (1632) on the Massacre of the Innocents.^50
Manso erected a splendid tomb and monument for Marino and wrote a Life of
Tasso.^51 He was also founder, director, and patron of the most famous Neapolitan
academy, the Otiosi (the Idlers), and of the Collegio dei Nobili, a school to educate
young Neapolitan nobles in intellectual culture, the arts, and martial practices.^52
Milton may have attended meetings of the Otiosi, held in Manso’s beautiful Puteoli
villa on the sea coast, and enjoyed Manso’s hospitality there on other occasions.
When Milton met him, Manso was 78 years old. Milton states that “he person-
ally conducted me through the various quarters of the city and the Viceregal Court,
and more than once came to my lodgings to call” (CPW IV.1, 618). Besides the
viceroy’s splendid palace on the great central avenue, flanked by many other pal-
aces, churches, and public buildings, the sightseeing tour(s) likely included the
magnificent bay, the tombs of Virgil and Sannazaro, the villa of Cicero, the spa-
cious squares with their fountains, and perhaps Vesuvius, Lake Avernus, Cumae
and the Cumaean Sibyl’s cave, and the beautiful Isle of Capri. All about Milton
swirled the noisy and flamboyant life of this crowded city, with at least 200,000
people, eight times the population of Rome. There were more than four hundred
churches, thousands of clergy, hundreds of beggars, fashionable courtesans, and a
steady stream of street musicians, wandering players, Commedia dell’Arte masquers,
and fervent religious processions.