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Handbook of Pineapple Technology
Handbook of
Pineapple
Technology
Production, Postharvest
Science, Processing and
Nutrition
Edited by

Dr. María Gloria Lobo

Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias
Canary Islands, Spain

Dr. Robert E. Paull

University of Hawaii
Honolulu, United States
This edition first published 2017 © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Registered office
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
Editorial offices
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030‐5774, USA
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to
apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at
www.wiley.com/wiley‐blackwell.
The right of María Gloria Lobo and Robert E. Paull to be identified as the authors of the editorial work has
been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of
the publisher.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand
names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor
mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author(s) have used their best
efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy
or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is
not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for
damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a
competent professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Lobo, María G. (María Gloria), editor. | Paull, Robert E., editor.
Title: Handbook of pineapple technology : production, postharvest science,
processing and nutrition / edited by Dr. María G. Lobo, Dr. Robert E. Paull.
Description: Chichester, UK ; Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016032547| ISBN 9781118967386 (cloth) |
ISBN 9781118967379 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Pineapple. | Pineapple industry.
Classification: LCC SB375 .H36 2017 | DDC 338.1/74774–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016032547
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not
be available in electronic books.
Cover image: Mr. Patipat Rintharasri / EyeEm
Set in 9.5/13pt Meridien by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India

1 2017
Contents

List of contributors, vi
Preface, viii
1 Overview of pineapple production, postharvest physiology,
processing and nutrition, 1
María Gloria Lobo and Muhammad Siddiq
2 Pineapple breeding and production practices, 16
Robert E. Paull, Duane P. Bartholomew and Ching‐Cheng Chen
3 Biology and postharvest physiology of pineapple, 39
María Gloria Lobo and Elhadi Yahia
4 Pests, diseases and weeds, 62
Brent Sipes and Koon‐Hui Wang
5 Pineapple harvesting and postharvest handling, 89
Robert E. Paull, Nancy Jung Chen and Parson Saradhuldhat
6 Packaging technologies for pineapple and pineapple products, 108
Vanee Chonhenchob, Daisy Tanafranca and S. Paul Singh
7 Canned, frozen and dried pineapple, 126
Lee‐Fong Siow and Kar‐Hing Lee
8 Pineapple juice and concentrates, 140
Lucia Maria Jaeger de Carvalho, Gloria Panadés Ambrosio, María Gabriela Bello
Koblitz, Flavio de Souza Neves Cardoso and José Luiz Viana de Carvalho
9 Fresh‐cut pineapple, 153
Marta Montero‐Calderón and Olga Martín‐Belloso
10 Innovative processing technologies for pineapple processing, 175
Jasim Ahmed and Muhammad Siddiq
11 Value added processing and utilization of pineapple by‐products, 196
Eva Dorta and Dalbir S. Sogi
12 Pineapple composition and nutrition, 221
Begoña de Ancos, Concepción Sánchez‐Moreno and Gustavo Adolfo González‐Aguilar
13 Functional properties of pineapple, 240
Gustavo Rubén Valderrain‐Rodríguez, Begoña de Ancos, Concepción
Sánchez‐Moreno and Gustavo Adolfo González‐Aguilar
Index, 258

v
List of contributors
Jasim Ahmed, PhD
Kuwait Institute of Technology
Safat, Kuwait
Gloria Panadés Ambrosio, PhD
Fruit and Vegetable Department
Research Institute for the Food Industry
Carretera Guatao, La Lisa, La Habana, Cuba
Duane P. Bartholomew, PhD
Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Flavio de Souza Neves Cardoso, MSc
Departamento de Produtos Naturais
Faculdade de Farmácia
Rio de Janeiro Federal University
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ching‐Cheng Chen, PhD
Department of Horticulture
National Chung Hsing University
Taichung, Taiwan, ROC
Nancy Jung Chen, PhD
Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Vanee Chonhenchob, PhD
Department of Packaging and Materials
Technology
Kasetsart University
Bangkok, Thailand
Begoña de Ancos, PhD
Institute of Food Science, Technology
and Nutrition (ICTAN)
vi
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Madrid, Spain
Lucia Maria Jaeger de Carvalho, PhD
Departamento de Produtos Naturais
Faculdade de Farmácia
Rio de Janeiro Federal University
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
José Luiz Viana de Carvalho, MSc
Embrapa Food Technology
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Eva Dorta, PhD
Departamento de Farmacia, Pontificia
Universidad Catolica de Chile
Macul, Santiago de, Chile
Gustavo Adolfo González‐Aguilar, PhD
Centro de Investigación en Alimentación
y Desarrollo, A.C. (CIAD)
Hermosillo, Sonora, México
María Gabriela Bello Koblitz, PhD
Rio de Janeiro Federal University
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Kar‐Hing Lee, Honours
Nestle Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
María Gloria Lobo, PhD
Postharvest & Food Technology
Laboratory
Tropical Fruits Department
Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Olga Martín‐Belloso, PhD
Department of Food Technology
University of Lleida
Agrotecnio Center, Lleida, Spain
Marta Montero‐Calderón, PhD
Postharvest Technology Laboratory
Agronomic Research Center and
Agricultural Engineering Department
University of Costa Rica
San Pedro de Montes de Oca
San José, Costa Rica
Robert E. Paull, PhD
Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Concepción Sánchez‐Moreno, PhD
Institute of Food Science, Technology and
Nutrition (ICTAN)
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Madrid, Spain
Parson Saradhuldhat, PhD
Department of Horticulture
Kasetsart University
Kamphaeng Saen, Thailand
Muhammad Siddiq, PhD
Department of Food Science & Human
Nutrition
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan, USA
S. Paul Singh, PhD
Professor Emeritus
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan, USA
List of contributors   vii
Lee‐Fong Siow, PhD
School of Science
Monash University Malaysia
Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Selangor, Malaysia
Brent Sipes, PhD
Plant and Environmental Protection
Sciences
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Dalbir S. Sogi, PhD
Department of Food Science and
Technology
Guru Nanak Dev University
Amritsar, India
Daisy Tanafranca
Division Chief Science Research Specialist
The Packaging Technology Division
Industrial Technology Development
Institute
Department of Science and Technology
Bicutan, Philippines
Gustavo Rubén Valderrain‐Rodríguez,
PhD
Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y
Desarrollo, A.C. (CIAD)
Hermosillo, Sonora, México
Koon‐Hui Wang, PhD
Plant and Environmental Protection
Sciences
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Elhadi Yahia, PhD
Faculty of Natural Sciences
Autonomous University of Queretaro,
México
Preface

Pineapple, after banana and citrus, is the third most important tropical fruit in
international trade. Production occurs throughout the tropics, mainly in devel-
oping countries. The world production of pineapple is 23.3 million metric tons
(2012 data, latest year FAO data is available) that has almost doubled since 1990.
The market for fresh pineapples is one of the fastest growing in the world, fruit
is shipped mainly to the European and North America markets where the
imports of this fruit and its processed products has more than tripled since 2000.
Moreover, there has been a marked increase in North American imports since
2005, especially for fresh and frozen pineapple. Part of this significant growth in
fresh products has been the shift to varieties more suited to the fresh fruit mar-
ket, having lower acids than the typical canning varieties.
Regionally, countries in tropical America (Central and South America), Asia
and Africa have seen significant increases in pineapple production during the
last two decades. Pineapple fresh fruit or fresh‐cut products have shown a greater
increase in volumes traded than that for processed products (canned, dried, juice
and concentrate). Given the significance in trade and importance to producing
countries of pineapple fruit and its processed products, this book provides
­contemporary information that brings together current knowledge and practices
in the value‐chain of pineapple fruit from production through consumption.
Recent developments in the areas of pineapple breeding with emphasis on the
new low acid hybrids, production, postharvest physiology and storage, novel
processing technologies (high‐pressure processing, pulse‐electric field, ­membrane
separation and ohmic heating), packaging, quality management (HACCP, ISO
and food safety), nutritional value and health benefits (bioactive and phyto-
chemical compounds), and value‐added utilization of pineapple by‐products are
covered.

viii
Chapter 1

Overview of pineapple production,

postharvest physiology, processing
and nutrition
María Gloria Lobo1 and Muhammad Siddiq2
1
Postharvest & Food Technology Laboratory, Tropical Fruits Department, Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias,
Carretera del Boquerón s/n, 38270, Valle de Guerra, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
2
Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

1.1 Introduction

Pineapple, Ananas comosus (L.) Merr., is the only species in the Bromeliaceae ­family
grown commercially for its greatly appreciated and nutritional fruit. Production
occurs both in the tropics and subtropics. After banana and citrus, it is the third
most important fruit in world production. Asia (Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia,
India and China), South Central America (Costa Rica and Brazil) and Africa
(Nigeria and South Africa) are the main producers. In 2012, Thailand was the
world’s largest producer of pineapple, followed by Costa Rica, Brazil and Philippines.
Cultivated types of pineapple are called ‘clones’, since they are vegetatively
propagated. The many named clones are classed in 4–5 groups that include
‘Cayenne’, ‘Spanish’, ‘Queen’ and ‘Pernambuco’. Pineapples as non‐climacteric
fruits should be harvested when ready to eat. Changes in the skin color from
green to yellow at the base of the fruit, a minimum soluble solids content
of ~12% and a maximum acidity of 1% will assure a baseline flavor that is
­acceptable to consumers. This delicious tropical fruit is consumed fresh, dehy-
drated, canned, in juice and jams and contains fiber, bromelain, manganese,
­copper, v ­ itamin C, vitamin B complex, calcium, zinc and β‐carotene. The flesh is
free of cholesterol and fat, and low in sodium and calories. Pineapple is the only
source of ­bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme complex used in the pharmaceutical
market, beer making and as a meat‐tenderizing agent. The consumption of this
fruit offers great benefits as it supports the immune system, aids digestion of
proteins, a­lleviates symptoms of the common cold, and strengthens bones.
­
Because of its nutritional properties, texture, and juiciness its use is appropriate
at all stages of life.

Handbook of Pineapple Technology: Production, Postharvest Science, Processing and Nutrition, First Edition.
Edited by María Gloria Lobo and Robert E. Paull.
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

1
2    Handbook of Pineapple Technology

As with many tropical fruits, pineapples are susceptible to chilling injury and
exposure of pineapples to temperatures below 12°C can cause this physiological dis-
order, depending upon the duration of storage. Therefore, ripe fruit should be stored
at 7–10°C, as they are less susceptible than unripe or partially ripe fruit that should
be stored at 10–13°C for no more than three to four weeks. Symptoms of chilling
injury include dull green wilting and discoloration of leaves (the greening of the
properly ripened), translucent or water‐soaked flesh, darkening of the heart tissue,
increased susceptibility to decay, and wilting and discoloration of the crown leaves.
The stems and leaves of pineapple plants are also a source of fiber which can
be processed into paper and cloth with remarkable qualities of thinness, smooth-
ness and pliability. Parts of the plant are used for silage and hay for cattle feed.
Processing wastes (shell or core material) and centrifuged solids from juice
­production are also used as animal feed. Alcoholic beverages can also be made
from the juice or nutrient‐rich fruit core.

1.1.1 History and origin

Pineapples originated from South America, particularly in the region around
Brazil and Paraguay. Laufer (1929) reported that the Native Americans in the
lowland tropics consumed this fruit and it was widely distributed in the Americas
and the Caribbean prior to the arrival of Columbus (Collins 1960). In 1493
Columbus found the fruit on the island now known as Guadaloupe and called it
‘piña’, due to its resemblance to a pinecone, and brought the ‘exotic’ fruit back to
Spain. The antiquity of this fruit, even at that time, is evidenced by the ­presence
of distinct types, all of which were nearly or completely seedless. Its wide use as
food, wine and medicine at the time of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas and
the absence of recognizable wild progenitors of the cultivated pineapple are fur-
ther evidence of the pineapple’s antiquity (Collins 1960). Pineapple fruit was a
staple of South American Indian feasts and rites related to tribal affirmation. The
fruit was spread around the world on sailing ships that carried it for protection
against scurvy. The Spanish introduced it into the Philippines early in the 16th
century. The pineapple reached England in 1660 and began to be grown in
greenhouses in the early 1700s for its fruit and as an ornamental feature.
Portuguese traders introduced pineapples into India from the Moluccas in 1548,
and also into the east and west coasts of Africa. The plant was growing in China
in 1594 and in South Africa about 1655. In 1819 the ‘Cayenne Lisse’ variety
(‘Smooth Cayenne’) from French Guyana (South America) was introduced into
Europe and spread over the world in the 19th and 20th centuries (Collins 1951)
with other varieties; ‘Queen’ and ‘Singapore Spanish’.
Early commercial trade was limited to relatively short transportation routes
due to the short shelf life of fresh pineapple. Thus, Florida, the Bahamas, Cuba
and Puerto Rico supplied the North American market, and the Azores the
European market. In the early 19th century, fresh pineapples were sent from the
West Indies to Europe attached to the entire plant (Loudon 1822).
 Overview of pineapple production    3

Canning industry started at the beginning of 19th century in South‐East

Asia, Australia, South Africa, the Caribbean and Kenya. The South‐East Asian
industry was devastated during the Second World War, and Hawaii gained
importance at the end of the 1960s superseded by Côte d’Ivoire, the Philippines
and Thailand (Rohrbach et al. 2003). The fresh‐fruit market started expanding
after the Second World War, because refrigerated sea transport developed and
the need for proximity to the market was reduced (Anonymous 2003).

1.1.2 Ecology and regional distribution

Pineapples are tropical plants that can grow in most warm climates with tem-
peratures between 20°C and 36°C. Frost is not well‐tolerated, but mild cool
weather in winter improves fruit quality and induces flowering. Pineapples can
grow up to 1800 meters above sea level, although at the higher elevation the
fruit is more acidic (Morton 1987).
Pineapples should be watered regularly to ensure quality fruit production,
but they can be harmed if too much water accumulates in the soil due to poor
drainage. Because of their stomata and use of the CAM pathway for photosyn-
thesis, pineapples withstand droughts very well for a tropical plant, although
fruit mass and yields are reduced (Min & Bartholomew 2005). A well distributed
annual rainfall of 839–1742 mm and high relative humidity is important for opti-
mal growth. Pineapple grows well in partial shade. Acidic soil with pH between
4.5 and 5.5 and good internal drainage is ideal, as soil‐borne diseases are reduced
and iron in the soil become more readily available to the roots of plants. In areas
where soil pH is close to neutral, foliar application of FeS2O4 is necessary to sup-
port normal growth. Inability to obtain iron from an iron‐rich soil under certain
conditions is a peculiarity of the pineapple not shared by other plants.
Pineapple is one of the most cultivated tropical fruits introduced into warm
climates worldwide because of the sweet, desirable fruit. It is believed that the
Guarani Indians were the first growers in Brazil and Paraguay, and introduced
the pineapples into the Caribbean islands. Christopher Columbus introduced the
pineapple to Europe, where it was grown in greenhouses and became a favorite
fruit of kings and the wealthy. Charles the II of England had his picture painted
receiving a pineapple in 1677.

1.2 Production, trade and consumption trends

1.2.1 World production and leading producers

The world production of pineapples in 2012 was 23.33 million metric tons (MT)
and the area planted has similarly increased from 1990 to 2012 (Figure 1.1).
From 1990 to 2012, pineapple production almost doubled (97.04% increase,
compared to 11.84 million MT in 1990). This increase in production has
been consistent over the long‐term, with a 27.87% and 34.61% increase during
 4    Handbook of Pineapple Technology

996
25 971
952 1000
Production Area
861 853 877

23.33
841
806 809

21.93
20 782 765 768 775
800

20.38
720

19.90
713 707

19.64

19.49

19.49
668 683 651 655

17.67
615 627 620
Million metric tons

16.80

‘000’ hectares
15

16.16
15.83
600

15.76
15.14
14.90
13.29
13.12

13.06

13.06

13.06
12.87
12.31
11.84

11.66

10 400

5 200

0 0
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Figure 1.1 World pineapple production and area harvested from 1990 to 2012.
Source: FAO (2014).

1990–2000 and 2000–2010, respectively. The area under pineapple cultivation

from 1990 to 2012 increased by only 62%, demonstrating that significant
increases (about 35%) in production resulted from varietal improvement and
adoption of better agricultural practices. Regionally, Asia leads in pineapple pro-
duction with 10.88 million MT, followed by 8.68 million MT in the Americas
(North, Central, and South America), and 3.65 million MT in Africa; these figures
accounted for 46.62%, 37.18%, and 15.65% share of the total world production,
respectively.
The global demand for pineapple, according to a market survey, is projected
to grow, which will result in further increases in its production (CBI 2008). The
large agro‐multinationals will capture most of the projected growth since they
are the major suppliers to the large supermarkets in the EU and North America,
the main outlets of pineapple marketing (CBI 2008; Perez & Plattner 2013). In
recent years, organic pineapple production has also increased globally due to
increased demand for organically grown fruit. For the EU markets, most organic
pineapples are produced in Ghana, with an increasing share coming from Costa
Rica (CBI 2008). It is to be noted that organic pineapples are still a niche market
and organic pineapples must be produced according to organic standards, i.e.,
without the use of most synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers (CBI 2014).
Weed control is a major issue in organic pineapple production.
The top‐ten pineapple producing countries in 2012 were Thailand, Costa
Rica, Brazil, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Nigeria, China, Mexico, and
Colombia (Table 1.1). The leading five countries contributed about 50% of
Table 1.1 Leading pineapple producing countries for selected years since 1990 (million metric tons).

1990 2000 2010 2012 % Share1

Thailand 1.865 Thailand 2.248 Brazil 2.206 Thailand 2.650 11.36%

Philippines 1.422 Brazil 2.004 Philippines 2.169 Costa Rica 2.485 10.65%
Brazil 1.104 Philippines 1.560 Costa Rica 1.977 Brazil 2.478 10.62%
India 0.881 India 1.020 Thailand 1.966 Philippines 2.398 10.28%
Nigeria 0.763 Nigeria 0.912 Nigeria 1.487 Indonesia 1.781 7.63%
USA 0.522 Costa Rica 0.903 Indonesia 1.406 India 1.456 6.24%
Vietnam 0.468 China 0.857 India 1.387 Nigeria 1.420 6.09%
China 0.463 Kenya 0.607 China 1.000 China 1.000 4.29%
Mexico 0.455 Mexico 0.522 Mexico 0.702 Mexico 0.760 3.26%
Costa Rica 0.424 Indonesia 0.399 Viet Nam 0.522 Colombia 0.551 2.36%
World total2 11.84 15.14 20.38 23.33

1
For 2012 world production; 2 including all other countries not listed here.
Source: FAO (2014).
6    Handbook of Pineapple Technology

the total pineapple production globally. Costa Rica, ranked 10th in 1990, and
rose to s­econd position in 2012, thereby exhibiting a six‐times increase in
production. The USA, which was the 6th leading producer of pineapples in
1990, was not among the top‐ten producers in 2012. Thailand, the Philippines,
and Brazil are the countries with sustained production among the top‐five
producers.

1.2.2 Trade and commerce

The top‐ten pineapple exporting and importing countries for 2011 are listed in
Table 1.2. Costa Rica led the total world pineapple exports with a 55.60% share
or 1,749,360 MT. The predominant position of Costa Rica is ­supported by the
fact that second leading exporter, the Philippines, exported 263,019 MT or
8.36% share of the total world exports. The United States, though not in the
top‐ten producers, was the fifth largest pineapple exporter. Among pineapple
importers, the United States led with 817,131 MT, followed by the Netherlands,
Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom. As reported by the CBI (2008), the
export prices of pineapples are determined mainly by the supply and demand on
the world market, making price fluctuation considerable over time. In addition,
fruit variety, quality and country of origin are some of the other important
­factors that affect price.
In the USA, imports are a key component of the domestic market for fresh
pineapples, maintaining about 90% of market share annually in recent years.
USA fresh pineapple imports showed a continued increase from 1996 through
2012, fulfilling the ever growing demand for fresh pineapples aided by the
­availability of newer low acid hybrid clones (Perez & Plattner 2013). Costa Rica,

Table 1.2 Leading pineapple exporting and importing countries in 20111.

Exporters Metric tons % Share2 Importers Metric tons % Share2

Costa Rica 1,749,360 55.60% USA. 817,131 28.00%

Philippines 263,019 8.36% Netherlands 232,850 7.98%
Belgium 217,359 6.91% Belgium 232,054 7.95%
Netherlands 184,464 5.86% Germany 191,956 6.58%
USA 103,300 3.28% United Kingdom 167,513 5.74%
Ecuador 88,632 2.82% Japan 152,864 5.24%
Panama 65,613 2.09% Italy 151,300 5.18%
Cote d’Ivoire 64,116 2.04% Spain 135,915 4.66%
Ghana 45,999 1.46% Canada 108,672 3.72%
Honduras 42,578 1.35% France 99,477 3.41%
World total3 3,146,211 World total3 2,918,151

1
Latest data available; 2 for 2011 world total; 3 including all other countries not listed here.
Source: FAO (2014).
18    Handbook of Pineapple Technology

(A) (B)

(C) (D) (E)

Figure 2.1 The five most common pre‐Columbian pineapple cultivars: ‘Perola’ (A), ‘Queen’
(B), ‘Manzana’ (C), ‘Red Spanish’ (D) and ‘Cayenne’ (E). Source: Sanewski (2011); used with
permission.

‘Motilona’, ‘Capachera’ or ‘Tachirense’, ‘Monte Lirio’, also called ‘Cambray’ or

‘Milagreña’; ‘Black Antigua’; ‘Samba’ and ‘Roja Trujillana’. Amazonian cultivars
include ‘Gigante de Tarauacá’ or ‘Cabeça de Onça’(a triploid); ‘Cabeça de Arara’
and ‘Roxo de Tefé’ (Chan et al. 2003; Scherer et al. 2015). Breeding programs in
Puerto Rico, Brazil, Taiwan, Philippines, Australia and South Africa maintain the
major cultivars in their germplasm collections.
 Pineapple breeding and production practices    19

Only the pineapple cultivar ‘Smooth Cayenne’ and its hybrid ‘MD‐2’ are
grown on a large scale. The greatest area is devoted to ‘Smooth Cayenne’ grown
primarily for processing on large plantations in Indonesia, Philippines and
Thailand. Large plantations in Costa Rica, Honduras, Columbia and the Philippines
grow ‘MD‐2’. ‘Smooth Cayenne’ is also grown by smallholders for export and for
the local fresh fruit market in many parts of the tropics and subtropics. Brazil is
one of the largest producers of pineapple and ‘Perola’ is the principle cultivar
grown there; almost exclusively for the local fresh market. Other Brazilian grown
pineapples are ‘MD‐2’, ‘Smooth Cayenne’, ‘BRS Vitória’ and ‘BRS Imperial’
(Viana et al. 2013). The latter two have been developed by EMBRAPA and have
resistance to Fusariosis. ‘Queen’ is the only other cultivar grown on a large scale,
mainly because it is the main cultivar grown to supply the Chinese fresh market
(Sun 2011). Many smallholders in Africa grow the ‘Queen’ cultivar for local fresh
markets and limited amounts are exported to Europe.
As noted above, pineapple hybrids have become important in the fresh fruit
market. The hybrid ‘MD‐2’ and its sibling ‘CO‐2’ (US Patent PP8863) better
known by its breeder number 73‐050, were bred by the PRI in Hawaii and
selected from seedlings of crosses between PRI hybrids 58‐1184 and 59‐443.
‘MD‐2’ was developed into a commercial cultivar by Del Monte Fresh Produce
Hawaii Inc. (Bartholomew 2009). When compared with ‘Smooth Cayenne’,
‘MD‐2’ is sweeter and higher in ascorbic acid, has a ‘distinct tropical flavor’,
greater pigmentation and flesh fiber content, and greater resistance to cold that
normally induce internal browning (IB) (Rohrbach & Paull 1982; Paull &
Rohrbach 1985). ‘MD‐2’ has a better overall appearance after refrigerated
­storage than either parent. Hawaii’s consumers preferred ‘MD‐2’ variety over
‘Smooth Cayenne’ when presented in three different forms: whole, pineapple
spears and single‐strength juice and similar responses were found in Malaysia
(Ramsaroop & Saulo 2007; Wardy et al. 2009; Syahrin 2011). ‘CO‐2’ (73‐50) is
more suited to cooler tropics and is the main fresh fruit cultivar grown in Hawaii
and in Queensland, Australia.
Other hybrids have also been developed (Bartholomew et al. 2010), but none
has risen to the prominence of ‘MD‐2’. In Malaysia, ‘Josapine’, the result of a
cross between ‘Johor’ (‘Spanish’) and ‘Sarawak’ (‘Smooth Cayenne’) (Chan &
Lee 1996), is recommended as a fresh fruit variety having good storage life and
is resistant to IB. ‘Scarlett’ is a hybrid between ‘Smooth Cayenne’ and ‘Manzana’
developed by CIRAD‐FLHOR in Martinique with less vegetative vigor, shorter
production cycle and better fruit quality (Coppens d’Eeckenbrugge & Marie
1998). Four new hybrids in Brazil are SC × PRI‐21, SC48 × PRI‐02, PE × SC‐73
and PA × PE‐01 (Viana et al. 2013). Hybrids SC 48 × PRI‐02, PE × SC‐73 and
PA × PE‐01 had higher soluble solids (TSS), reducing and total sugars contents
than ‘Smooth Cayenne’, ‘BRS Vitória’ and ‘Pérola’. The hybrid ‘PE × SC‐73’ was
highlighted for its intense yellow pulp, high TSS, carotenoids and vitamin C and
is considered to be a promising commercial cultivar.
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Roman pictures
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
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you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Roman pictures

Author: Percy Lubbock

Release date: October 6, 2023 [eBook #71818]

Language: English

Original publication: NYC: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923

Credits: Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMAN

PICTURES ***
 FONTANA DELLE TARTARUGHE

ROMAN PICTURES
By
PERCY LUBBOCK
Author of Earlham & The Craft of Fiction
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
Made and printed in Great Britain by Charles Whittingham and Griggs
(Printers), Ltd., London.
 CONTENTS

PAGE

I. FONTANA DELLE TARTARUGHE 9

A lonely young pilgrim, Deering, a citizen of the world, his
Roman accent, the English ghetto, the real Rome, plump but elegant,
the newest culture, the raw world, the way to reality, Roman
pictures.

II. VIA NAZIONALE 23

Crowded tables, Mr. Bannock, the pride of the artist, a grievance,
the young dancer, coils of oratory, tribute to Deering, Jaff’s
sweetheart, Edna’s way, college style, the report of Buffalo, a
substantial Briton.

III. PIAZZA DELLA CANCELLERIA 38

Near the Vatican, the company of the priestcraft, the palace and
the cardinal, Cooksey, secrets of the backstairs, Father Jenkins’s
joke, Amerigo, Cooksey’s profanity, his rebuke to the stranger,
inside the fortress, a gentleman of feeling.

IV. ST. PETER’S 52

An early reveller, the hum of the pilgrims, a faltering cheer, Father
Holt, a secret society, Lady Mullinger, poor Charlotte, a very great
lady, finer shades, homage to Rome, Rome itself.

V. VIA GIULIA 65
Mr. Fitch, the Cheltenham furniture, the seminarist, Maundy’s
fancy, the path to Rome, the burnt sonnet, Gina, historical research,
the golden evenings, a point of ritual, art in the void, an uneasy
neophyte.

VI. VILLA BORGHESE 79

An aged relic, Teresa and Berta, a fluent antiphon, some English
speaking, troubles of a patriot, country days, the Virginian
 sculptress, Luigi, a gentleman in Rome, precious refinements, a
chance worth seizing, Rome the inexhaustible.

VII. VIA DELLA PURIFICAZIONE 94

A tangle of byways, the medieval challenge, Teresa at home, Mr.
Daponte, Rome on the house-tops, Teresa in London, English
freedom, Luigi on Rome, the end of his chances, a spoilt tea-party, a
prospect of Rome.

VIII. ALBANO 107

A day in the country, Teresa’s party, an English ramble, mother
and child, Mimi in society, Olga and the arts, the forgotten
pensioners, the Russian waif, despair and disillusion, a page of
Dostoevsky, a dusty road-side, the Virgilian forest.

IX. CASTEL GANDOLFO 121

Fräulein Dahl, a piece of nature, an Arcadian walk, Erda’s villa,
the great saloon, Miss Gilpin, the accent of Dante, a woman of
letters, the clever touch, a reposeful friend, the accent of Dresden,
Erda in solitude.

X. VIA SISTINA 135

Deering again, the Clarksons, privileges of travel, Mr. Bashford, a
cousin of the Marshams, golf at Torquay, the true Ruskin, an English
babe, the sheep in the bunker, Bashford’s sort, England in Rome.

XI. PIAZZA NAVONA 149

Miss Gainsborough, Lady Mullinger again, a sedulous Roman, the
old guard, majestic wrath, the imperial race-course, a British
monument,

XII. CORSO 163

A sumptuous background, familiar faces, Miss Gadge, the chant of
the pilgrims, things Franciscan, a woman and an artist, chords of the
heart, the plane of art, the youth Pole, Mr. Champerdown, a Jesuit in
a drawing-room, the moon of May, the city gate.

XIII. THE FORUM 178

 Julia’s discovery, the Professor, an inspired lecture, the origin of
Rome, Mrs. Rollesby’s attack, poetic imagination, privilege of a
scholar, the buried statue, the Professor’s secret, a divided audience,
a single-minded pilgrim.

XIV. VIA MARGUTTA 191

A studio of romance, the old Bohemian, pictures and friends, the
study of type, the eagle-feather, an artist’s wife, an honest
tradesman, dreams of an artist, business and a studio-chat, a blander
age, the light of the great days, worldly protection.

XV. VIA DELLE BOTTEGHE OSCURE 205

The great name, the Marchesa at home, Roman guile, the
Principessa, the rustle of expense, Miss Gilpin again, Madame de
Baltasar, the knightly Latin, a young barbarian, a wonder of art,
English daylight, Deering’s stroke, back to the tortoises, the end of
the quest.
ROMAN PICTURES
 I. FONTANA DELLE TARTARUGHE

I FOUND myself loitering by that pretty little Fountain of the Tortoises, not
for the first time; but this time (it was an afternoon of late April, long years
ago) I looked stupidly at the boys and the tortoises and the dripping water,
with a wish in my mind for something more. But what? I had drifted hither
and thither about Rome, from the Gate of the People to the Baths of
Caracalla—drifted day after day in my solitude through a month of April
more divinely blue and golden than the first spring-days of the world; and
whether I was in the body or out of the body I scarcely knew, for I moved in
a great bubble of imagination that I had never known the like of in all the
years (perhaps twenty) of my life before I came to Rome. I had escaped from
the poor chamber of myself; for the imagination I dreamed and revelled in
was surely none of my own. It was of the spirit of all time, livelier, lovelier
than I could say, a power and a freedom that a rather lean young soul,
ignorantly aspiring, may enter into and take possession of unconsciously,
without an effort—in Rome.
But I do remember lingering about the Fountain of the Tortoises at last,
between sun and shadow, with a wish that something now, something or
some one, would break into my solitude and my dream; not that I was tired
of either, but because my dream and my solitude would be still more
beautiful if I could look at them for an hour across an interval, across the
kind of division that is created by—yes, exactly!—by the sight to which I
presently raised my eyes, turning away from the dapple and ripple of the
fountain. A young man, passing across the square, met my blank gaze at this
moment and suddenly threw out a sign of recognition; and I saw with
surprise that it was my precious Deering, of whose presence in Rome I had
been quite unaware. Deering it was!—after four or five lonely weeks, in
which I had never happened to see a face that I knew, it was Deering who
linked me to the real world again by crossing the Square of the Tortoises at
that hour of that afternoon. I had left my shining bubble in a flash (he hadn’t
noticed it) and joined hands with common life.
We weren’t really on terms of intimacy; but in the strangeness of Rome
our little English acquaintance had the air of a cordial friendship. I gushed
over with a warmth that surprised me and that would have been impossible
at home; the fountain and the palaces and the Roman sunshine had pushed
me forward into a familiarity that I shouldn’t have ventured upon elsewhere.
He was of my own age, but so much more exquisite and mannerly that I
looked raw indeed at his side; I was an aspiring amateur, he was a citizen of
the world. At school I had tried to avoid him, because I had courted (vainly,
vainly) the society of the more fashionably and the less refined; but I was
eager enough to seize him by both hands in my new freedom and to take
advantage of his riper experience. “Why, Deering—!” He did look
experienced, with his broad-brimmed hat and his neat black clothes, as I
moved towards him and directed my greeting, a little too effusively.
He took it with a brilliant smile, he whipped off his hat and held it to his
stomach. “Eh, come sta?” he said, standing bare-headed; “è pezzo pezzo che
non ci vediamo.” He fluted the words with mellifluous assurance, and I did
my best to meet his humour with my own poor bits and shreds of Italian.
There were no flute-notes in my repertory; but I made a jest of my round
British style and mouthed out some attempt at a Roman compliment. As
quick as thought he countered it with another; and that was surely enough of
the joke—the joke of our standing there bare-headed, flourishing our hats at
each other with Italian airings; so I let loose my pent-up English talk, after
those weeks of unnatural silence, and tumbled out exclamation and question
as they came—I was voluble, enjoying the release of the tongue, and there
were forty things I wanted to say and hear, for this meeting was quite
unexpected and exceedingly opportune; and so I chattered forth my surprise
and pleasure, and then—and then I found them left upon my hands,
somehow, and I looked rather a fool.
“Ma senta, senta,” said Deering. He smiled, but he was firm. He couldn’t
deal with me on these insular terms in Rome; he made me feel it without
explanation, but the fact was that he simply couldn’t allow me to be so
inappropriate, so falsely attuned to the time and place. There we stood in the
heart of Rome, with the palaces of princes around us, secluded among
winding streets all dark with wicked history; and here was Deering,
disguised as a Roman himself, with a great black hat and a suit of dead-black
clothes; and I had stuttered out my poor innocent school-talk, college-gossip,
heaven knows what, a scrannel-pipe to the suave warble of his flute. Had I
come all the way to Rome to be still a British undergraduate even there?
Well, as for that, he very soon put it right. He was kindness itself, but he had
the upper hand of me in these foreign parts, where he was so serenely at
home and I so ecstatically at sea. His was the advantage, as indeed I quite
understood, and he used it from the first. He gently set me in my place, not
without an indulgent smile.
“Senta, senta pure,” he said—or words to that effect; whatever they were
they keenly struck me as the very words I had wanted and missed in my
ignorant solitude. That was the way to talk to a Roman; I might have missed
it for ever, but Deering had picked it up, no doubt, the first time he put on his
broad-brimmed hat. How long had he been in Rome? I was allowed to ask
that question at least, and it appeared that he had come to Rome for a week,
six months before, and had stayed on and on because he had happened to
find rooms that pleased him. They were far from the “English ghetto,” so he
said, meaning that they were far from the hotels and the Piazza di Spagna
and touristry in general; and he had just finished his siesta and was on his
way to a café in the Via Nazionale, where he usually spent some hours of the
afternoon. And I, where was I going? As a matter of fact I had vaguely
thought of wandering away and away, out of the city and into the country—
from whence I should return in the dusk, luxuriously tired, solemnly
enraptured, to climb the long stairs to my own little lodging, my Arcadian
meal and couch. But this I concealed from Deering; I felt at once I must
protect my dear sentimental delights from his ironic eye. Moreover my
lodging, which I had thought so knowingly Roman, proved to be full in the
middle of the English ghetto; I kept this too from him as long as I could.
His siesta, his café, his rooms remote from the vulgar—oh I had such a
vision, as he mentioned these, of the kind of Roman career that I had failed
to go in for hitherto. Deering lived in Rome, I had floated on the surface.
Never mind—I threw over my private romance and adopted Deering’s
reality on the spot. He seemed to be immensely informed, and there was a
charming insolence in his wisdom; I might put my tenderest fancies behind
me and screen them in his presence, but he saw that I was a soft young
enthusiast, and he patronized me with the sweetness of his coo, his smile, his
winning gesture. He delicately blasted whatever had appeared to me of
interest and renown, he showed me the crudity of my standards. I might feel
a passing twinge, for I hadn’t been used to regarding myself as a thing with
which Deering could be indulgent and amused. And yet I was flattered, I
was magnified by his fastidious irony; it brought me into a new world of
mind and taste, more exclusive than my own.
But I obviously couldn’t give way to him in the matter of being so very
Italian that we mightn’t talk our own language. He could take me into
another world, but to endow me at the same time with a new speech was a
miracle beyond him. “Ma come, ma come,” he said encouragingly; he
implied that in the real life of illumination we are all free of the golden
tongue, the tongue of the clear Latin civiltà. It seemed he could hardly frame
his lips to the uncouth noises of the northern Goth. He brought out an
English phrase with an air of handing it over to me between disgustful
finger-tips, and he relapsed unconsciously as he did so into the sweeter
idiom. Ah Deering, Deering! That unconsciousness of his was a finished
performance, I could believe he had practised it before the glass. “But you,
my dear,” he said, “you surely speak the language like the rest of us—eh
magari!” I confessed that I spoke the language like a barbarian fresh from
my native wild; I should listen to him and the rest of them with pleasure, but
to me he must talk our poor old English. “And who are the rest of you?” I
demanded.
He answered my question at some length, inadvertently recovering his
former tongue. In six months of Roman life he had made many friends; he
had fallen into a circle that suited him as aptly as his rooms. “I scarcely
know how it happened,” he said, “but I seemed to find my feet here from the
first.” He apparently attributed a great deal of his fortune to the café of the
Via Nazionale; a right instinct had taken him there in the beginning, and
thereafter all had run smoothly. He had met a journalist, he had met an actor
or a lawyer or a doctor—anyhow he had met somebody whom the ordinary
Cook-driven tourist, slaving round the ruins and the galleries, would have
missed infallibly; and so he had entered a company which belonged—he
insisted on it—to the real Rome, the city unsuspected of our gaping
countrymen. His secret was to “live the life of the place,” he said; and let
there be no mistake, the life of the place is to be found among the shops and
tramways of the business quarter, nowhere else. It must be owned that in
Rome a stranger runs many a risk of overlooking the true life on these terms,
which are the terms that Deering laid down with high lucidity; for even if
you avoid the ghetto of the tourist on one hand, and the romantic desolation
of the Campagna (to which I myself was addicted) on the other, you may
still make a further mistake—and I put it to Deering that it really depends on
what you call the life of Rome. There is the community of the “student,” for
example; and I should have thought that Deering, with his rare vein of taste
in the arts, would haunt the workshops of young sculptors, ragged painters
and poets—weren’t they as plentiful in Rome as summer flies?
 I had interrupted Deering’s exposition; he wanted to tell me more about
the ease with which he had dropped into the heart of Rome. But he broke
away from that, with another of his patient intelligent smiles, to explain to
me how much I failed to understand. There was no more any life of that kind
in Rome—no romantic art. Did I think that those horrible theatrical old men,
those bedizened little boys and girls, who still loaf upon the Spanish Steps
and waylay the foreigner—did I think they were genuine “models,” waiting
for real painters to carry them off and paint them? I supposed then that I was
living in the Rome of Hans Andersen and Nathaniel Hawthorne? He
abounded in his sarcasm. Ragged poets indeed! My notion of the vie de
Bohème was a little behind the times, fifty years or so. “Ah you live in
books,” said Deering—he rallied me on it; “in Rome you must come out of
books—I shall drag you out of Hawthorne.” As a matter of fact he knew the
young poets of Rome, he had several friends among them; it was no use my
looking for them in garrets and operatic wine-cellars near the Tiber; the Via
Nazionale was the place, vulgar as I thought it with its crowds and trams and
plate-glass—and he was off again, with his sweet flat voice and his neat
enunciation, describing the extraordinary favour that the journalists had
shown him, or perhaps the actors.
It was remarkable, he said, how they accepted him as one of themselves.
“There seems to be something of the Italian in me,” he mentioned once or
twice, “nothing to be proud of!”—and he smiled with pride. I could honestly
tell him that there was at least nothing English in his appearance, since he
had taken to powdering his nose and to clothing himself like an undertaker.
The remark about his nose I indeed reserved, but my allusion to his clothes
was a happy one. He immediately glanced with quiet approval at his hands,
and I remembered how in earlier years, when we were both small boys at
school, he had once pointed out to me that he had hands “like a Botticelli.”
He ought to have been grateful to me for the self-restraint I had shown in
withholding that confidence from the light. I had been surprisingly discreet, I
had never used his Botticelli hands against him in our free-spoken circle, and
I was glad of it now. Here in Rome, set free from the old snobberies of
boyhood, I was ready to take his hands quite seriously, and even the paste of
powder with which he had corrected the tint (inclining rather to Rubens) of
his nose. His black clothes were designed to set off his elegant wrists and
tapering fingers; and if a nose invariably scorched by the sun was a weight
on his mind, as I know it was, he found support in the well-drawn oval of his
face. He was not very tall, and unfortunately he was not very slender; it was
only too plain to see that before long he would be plump. But nevertheless
he might reasonably tell himself that his figure, as he stood by the fountain
and thoughtfully eyed his hands, had a hint and a suggestion, I don’t say
more, of something you might call—of something he hoped I was calling—a
lily-droop, swaying lightly.
I can see him bend and sway accordingly; and I can recall the bright
stream of sensation in my own mind, where the old desire to scoff at his
elegancies had apparently changed to respect and envy. What a free world, I
thought, what a liberal and charming, in which a stupid prejudice could
dissolve and drop away so quickly! Perhaps I didn’t quite understand that
my respect was not so much for Deering as for myself, not so much for
Deering’s pretty graces as for my own emancipation; but my envy of his
Italian ease and competence was indeed sincere. I would seize, yes I would,
such an opportunity of learning, discovering, experiencing; I would follow
Deering, accept his guidance and pay him his price—for his price was a
small one, merely a little tacit backing of his own view of himself. He would
expect me to agree with him that his face had a species of haunting charm;
he would expect me, at any rate, not to imply that it hadn’t. It was a trifling
indemnification for the many times he had been told in former days that he
had a face like a rabbit. I would gladly support him in abolishing the
memory of all that ribaldry; I should be rewarded by observing my own
tolerance with satisfaction and by becoming acquainted at the same time
with this “real Rome” of Deering’s—he was still fluting on about its reality.
We shuffled for a while to and fro across the sunny little square. Now and
then a bare-headed woman came pattering by, twisting her neck for a firm
round stare at us as she went; children looked on from a distance, struck
dumb in their play by our oddity. Deering talked and talked; he too felt the
relief of uttering himself, no doubt—for I could well believe that the real
Rome didn’t supply a listener who understood him as I did. Not one of those
actors or poets, for example, could measure the difference between Deering
of old, flouted and derided, and this remarkable young personage, ornament
of a strange society, who was now willing to be the patron of such as I.
Deering talked, I appreciated the difference; I did my part with a will, and he
bloomed in the warmth of my recognition. For six months, moreover, he had
been displaying the new, the very newest culture, and his associates hadn’t
really been in a position to perceive it. An Englishman who avoided the old
ruins and churches, who sat through the April afternoon at a marble-topped
table—why his companions would of course take him for an Englishman
who behaved, for a wonder, in a natural and commendable fashion; and this
was where I again came in so aptly, for I could do justice to the originality
and the modernity of his proceeding. It wasn’t as though Deering sat in a
café because he knew no better, because he was the kind of person whose
ideas are bounded by plush and gilt and plate-glass. He sat there, avoiding
the nightingales on the Aventine, the sunset in the Campagna, because he
knew all that and more, and because the rarity of the perversity of his culture
led him back again, round again, to the scream of the tramway in the
“business quarter.” I, who had watched him of old, could be trusted to
distinguish these niceties; there it was that I came into the game, and he
didn’t hesitate—he brought me into play.
“Yes,” he murmured, musing gently upon my state of romance, “yes, I
should like to drag you out of literature once for all. Come out of your
books, come to Rome—come with me.” I could truthfully say that I would
go with pleasure; and as for my books, I was quite willing to let him label
me as he chose—I accepted the part for which he cast me. I was the victim
of the romantic fallacy, and it all came of my looking for life in antiquated
fiction—in Zola even, in Zola as like as not—instead of looking for it in the
raw red world: such was the part he assigned me, and I have ever been one
to fall in with an arrangement of this kind. People, I long ago found, are
never happy till they have decided that you are this or that, some
recognizable type; and for yourself the line of least resistance is always to let
them have their way. In my time I have played many parts, acting up to the
theory and the expectation of my different companions; it saves trouble, it
spares one the effort of assertion. There are even those with whom I have
been able to assume the very attitude that Deering had now adopted towards
me, the attitude of a liberal patron towards a muddle-headed young innocent;
and then I have patronized as glibly as I now submitted. Deering saw in the
look with which I answered him the exact shade of awkward modesty that he
demanded. It was well; he approved my fluency in the part that had fallen to
me.
It was settled, then, that he was to hale me out of my sentimental twilight
into the broad noon of reality; I had lived for too long in a dream, and now
he promised himself the amusement of dispelling my illusions. So be it; I
told him I asked nothing better than to follow his lead, and I told myself that
at least I had a sharper eye for the “facts of life” (my phrase) than ever
Deering would have. We were both well-pleased, therefore; and I wonder at
which of us the spirit of Rome, glancing that afternoon over the Square of
the Tortoises, smiled and chuckled most benignly. It was Deering at any rate,
of the two of us, who made the more intricate object of study; anybody
might be drawn, even Rome, to pause and consider him as a child of his
time. When he slipped his arm through mine and daintily drew me forward
on our way—the way to reality!—I don’t think the first comer would have
guessed that he was about to become my sponsor in the raw red world. His
graceful hands seemed rather to flutter in deprecation of any world more
earthly than the sea-pallor, say, of a sunrise in the manner of Botticelli. But
that, for Deering, was just the fun of it. Of the sea-pale dawn he could
honestly say, and he did say, “J’ai passé par là”; in an earlier stage of his
culture he had duly swooned in the ecstasy of the burnished moment, the
discriminated pulse of the perfected sensation; but at that time he had worn
an Eton jacket, and years had flown since then, and by now his eye-lids were
more than a little weary of the raptures he had outlived. He, more precocious
than I, had left his books at the moment when I was making the first
discovery of mine; he no longer read any books at all, he told me, and if he
didn’t add that life was his book it was only because the phrase, when he
was about to utter it, struck him as old-fashioned and obvious. “ ‘Youth’s
sweet-scented manuscript’—you remember?”—he ventured on that,
guarding himself with a slightly acid intonation of the pretty words.
And so Deering turned me away from the ilex-shadows and grey spaces
of an evening on the Aventine and in the further country; he clung to my arm
and directed me to the clatter of the city, and that was how it all began. He
gave me a push, with his benediction, and one thing led to another, and I
started to collect some Roman pictures of a new sort. I stored away my more
sentimental bits and notes of impression, carefully saving them from the eye
of Deering; I laid them aside, and certainly they are not worth disturbing
again at this late hour. But as for these others, the new sort, I think it might
be amusing to bring them briefly to the light, one by one; though I don’t
pretend that even with Deering to point the way I penetrated far into Rome
or the world either. After all his offers to induct and indoctrinate me, nothing
came of them to speak of; I saw not a sign of rawness or redness, that I can
remember—so I suppose I must conclude that the heart of life escaped me
still. But even the fringes of life, if that is all they were, seemed strange and
memorable in Rome; nobody who lived in Rome, nobody who breathed the
golden air as a matter of course, nobody who trod the sacred soil as an
everyday affair, could be less than a wonder to a rather lean young northern
soul, whose lodging in the Piazza di Spagna had only been hired by the
month. The spring days were endless, but they flashed away faster than I
could count; presently they would all be gone, and I should have to leave
Rome to the few free happy creatures, such as Deering, who could stay
because they liked it, stay in Paradise because they happened to prefer it—I
should think they might! As Deering and I, arm in arm, left the square and
the babbling fountain, I was quite overcome by my jealousy of his
detachment from cares and ties, from the stupid thrums of responsibility that
so soon drag most of us away from the Rome of our desire.
“So here you are living in Rome,” I said dejectedly, “with nothing to
prevent you from staying for ever.” Deering was his own master, I knew, and
he sedulously cultivated a frosty indifference to any claims at home, such as
they were, that might have hampered him. I didn’t exactly admire his
ruthless way, but I certainly envied it. I should like to have had that faculty
of ignoring, blankly and serenely, what I chose to ignore; it would have been
a great convenience. All I needed was a little of Deering’s real independence
of opinion; for I can’t think I was embarrassed by many good warm qualities
of heart and temper. Deering was no unkinder than I, only bolder, more
secure in his power to stand alone. And then he had another immense
advantage; he could always be sympathetically impressed by his own
performance, he was an excellent audience of himself. “Living in Rome?” he
echoed—“you don’t know me! I shall take to the road again before long. But
you’re not tormented, as I am, by the gypsy in the blood. There are times
when I envy the like of you, the decent, the home-keeping——” He broke
off with a sigh—a sigh in which I could almost hear the involuntary murmur
of applause. Yes, the gypsy in the blood was a good stroke, and I think a new
one.