[509] See Lettere, ii. 257; iii. 340; v. 251.
[510] See the Capitolo al Duca di Fiorenza.
[511] Marcolini's letter (Lettere all'Aretino, vol. iv. p. 352), and some letters from obscure scholars (for example, ib. vol. ii. pp. 118-121), seem to prove that he was really openhanded in cases of distress.
[512] There is a letter from Barbarossa to Aretino in the Lettere all'Ar. vol. iii. p. 269.
[513] See the frank admissions in Lettere, ii. 52; iv. 168; i. 19, 30, 142.
[514] See the plates prefixed to Mazzuchelli's Life of Aretino. Compare a passage in his Letters, vi. 115, and the headings of the Letters addressed to him, passim.
[515] After studying the Lettere scritte all'Aretino—epistles, it must be remembered, from foreign kings and princes, from cardinals and bishops, from Italian dukes and noblemen, from illustrious ladies and great artists, and from the most distinguished men of letters of his day—I am quite at a loss to comprehend the furore of fashion which accompanied this man through his career. One and all praise him as the most powerful, the most virtuous, the bravest, the wittiest, the wisest, or, to use their favorite phrase, the divinest man of his century. Was all this a mere convention? Was it evoked by fear and desire of being flattered in return? Or, after all, had Aretino some now occult splendor, some real, but now unintelligible, utility for his contemporaries?
[516] The Papal Court was attacked by him; but none other that I can discover. The only Prince who felt the rough side of his tongue was the Farnese:
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Impara tu, Pierluigi ammorbato, Impara, Ducarel da sei quattrini, Il costume d'un Rè si onorato. |
Cardinal Gaddi and the Bishop of Verona were pretty roughly treated. So was Clement VII. But all these personages made their peace with Aretino, and paid him homage.