[94] Cena i. Nov. 3, is in its main motive modeled on that novel.
[95] The contrast between the amiable manners of the young men and women described in the introduction to Le Cene, and the stories put into their mouths; between the profound immorality, frigid and repellent, of the tales and Ghiacinto's prayer at the beginning; need not be insisted on.
[96] As I shall not dilate upon these novels further in the text, I may support the above censure by reference to the practical joke played upon the pedagogue (i. 2), to the inhuman novel of Il Berna (ii. 2), to the cruel vengeance of a brother (ii. 7), and to the story of the priest (ii. 8).
[97] See above, [p. 56], [note].
[98] Cena ii. 3.
[99] Cena ii. 4.
[100] See the Letters of Aretino, vol. ii. p. 239.
[101] All my references are made to the Opere di Messer Agnolo Firenzuola, 5 vols. Milan, 1802.
[102] Storia della Lett. It. lib. iii. cap. 3, sect. 27.
[103] In a letter to Aretino, dated Prato, Oct. 5, 1541, he says he had been ill for eleven years. It seems probable that his illness was of the kind alluded to in his Capitolo "In Lode del Legno Santo" (Op. Volg. iv. p. 204).