De Alexandro VI. Pont.
Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et iste:
Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit.
The following is given for an epitaph on Lucretia Borgia, pope Alexander’s profligate daughter:—
Hoc tumulo dormit Lucretia nomine, sed re
Thais, Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus.
In another of a rather later date, Rome, addressing herself to Pasquil, is made to complain of two successive popes, Clement VII. (Julio de Medicis, 1523–-1534) and Paul III. (Alexandro Farnese, 1534–1549), and also of Leo X. (1513–1521). “I am,” Rome says, “sick enough with the physician (Medicus, as a pun on the Medicis), I was also the prey of the lion (Leo), now, Paul, you tear my vitals like a wolf. You, Paul, are not a god to me, as I thought in my folly, but you are a wolf, since you tear the food from my mouth”—
Sum Medico satis ægra, fui quoque præda Leonis,
Nunc mea dilaceras viscera, Paule, lupus.
Non es, Paule, mihi numen, ceu stulta putabam,
Sed lupus es, quoniam subtrahis ore cibum.
Another epigram, addressed to Rome herself, involves a pun in Greek (in the words Paulos, Paul, and Phaulos, wicked). “Once, Rome,” it says, “lords of lords were thy subjects, now thou in thy wretchedness art subject to the serfs of serfs; once you listened to the oracles of St. Paul, but now you perform the abominable commands of the wicked”—