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Jam vos revisam, jam juvabit arbores Manu paternâ consitas Videre, jam libebit in cubiculo Molles inire somnulos.[493] |
Nor is it an idle prayer he addresses to the Muses in these lines:—
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At vos, o Heliconiæ puellæ, Queis fontes et amœna rura cordi, Si carâ mihi luce cariores Estis, jam miserescite obsecrantis, Meque, urbis strepitu tumultuosæ Ereptum, in placido locate agello.[494] |
He is never tired of contrasting the pleasures of the country with the noise and weariness of Rome:—
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Ipse miser tumultuosâ Urbe detinear; tibi benignus Dedit Jupiter in remoto agello Latentem placidâ frui quiete, Inter Socraticos libros, et inter Nymphas et Satyros, nihil profani Curantem populi leves honores.[495] |
Flaminio's thought of the country is always connected with the thought of study. The picture of a tranquil scholar's life among the fields, diversified by sport and simple pleasures of the rustic folk, gives freshness to his hendecasyllables, whether addressed to his patron Alessandro Farnese, or to his friends Galeazzo Florimonte and Francesco Torriani:[496]—
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Inde ocellos Ut primum sopor incubans gravabit, Jucundissime amice, te sub antrum Ducam, quod croceis tegunt corymbis Serpentes hederæ, imminensque laurus Suaviter foliis susurrat: at tu Ne febrim metuas gravedinemve; Est enim locus innocens: ubi ergo Hic satis requieveris, legentur Lusus Virgilii, et Syracusani Vatis, quo nihil est magis venustum, Nihil dulcius, ut mihi videtur. Cum se fregerit æstus, in virenti Convalle spatiabimur; sequetur Brevis cœna; redibis inde ad urbem.[497] |
One of Flaminio's best poems is written from his friend Stefano Sauli's villa near Genoa.[498] It describes how he spends his time between the philosophy of Aristotle and the verses of Catullus, while Sauli at his side devotes himself to Cicero. The fall of evening lures them from their study to the sea-beach: perched upon a water-girded rock, they angle with long reeds for fishes, or watch the white sails on the purple waves. The same theme is repeated in a copy of hexameters addressed to Sauli.[499] Flaminio had fallen ill of fever at Rome. To quit the city was his cure:—
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Scilicet ut Romæ corruptas fugimus auras, Et riguos patriæ montes saltusque salubres Venimus, effœtos venit quoque robur in artus: Diffugit macies, diffugit corpore pallor; Et somnus vigiles irrepsit blandus ocellos, Quem neque desiliens crepitanti rivulus undâ, Nec Lethea mihi duxere papavera quondam.[500] |
Sauli, for his part, is congratulated on having exchanged the cares of Church and State for Ciceronian studies among his laurel groves and gleaming orange gardens.