"Bellincion Berti vid' io andar cinto
Di cuoio e d'osso"?
Good Lord, when I came to Milan this herd of creeping animals did not know a sonnet from a strambotto. Who is it has taught them the elegancies of the new poetry? Was it not through my facile fingers that the waters of Hippocrene enriched the Lombard plain, and even threatened an inundation? And this is my reward! To lie like a dog in a kennel! To be neglected by all because, forsooth, I am poor! A poet situated as I am, is unknown as he whose face is hidden by a mask or deformed by the smallpox.'
And he recited certain lines from his epistle to Ludovico, the Duke:—
'I cry for aid to every one,
But each in turn replies, "Begone!"
Ah, wretched poet! for his pains,
Thou generous lord, what meed remains?
The very cap and bells to him denied,
Among the beasts of burden harness thou his pride!'