Spreads through the ambient air the seeds of death,
Obscure and still thou wind’st thy crooked way,
And unsuspecting virtue falls thy prey.[236]
The publication of this poem again roused the vindictive spirit of Poggio, who retorted the acrimony of his adversary in a second invective, in which he accused him of the basest ingratitude to those who had treated him with the most distinguished kindness. Amongst these he particularly enumerated Niccolo Niccoli, Ambrogio Traversari, Carlo and Leonardo Aretino, Francesco Barbaro, Guarino Veronese, and several others, all of whom, he asserted, being disgusted by the petulance and scandalous immorality of Filelfo, had found themselves compelled to withdraw from him their countenance and support. Warmed by his subject, Poggio concluded this philippic with the following impassioned burst of scurrility. “Thou stinking he-goat! thou horned monster! thou malevolent detracter! thou father of lies and author of discord! May the divine vengeance destroy thee as an enemy of the virtuous, a parricide who endeavourest to ruin the wise and good by lies and slanders, and the most false and foul imputations. If thou must be contumelious, write thy satires against the suitors of thy wife—discharge the putridity of thy stomach upon those who adorn thy forehead with horns.”
Such was the style in which Poggio and Filelfo, two of the most learned men of their age, conducted their disputes. In their mutual accusations, so evidently do they aim at exhausting every topic of obloquy, without the slightest regard to veracity, that it is impossible for the acutest judgment, by the most careful examination of the odious mass of their allegations, to distinguish truth from falsehood. Thus does their acrimony defeat its own purpose: for who will give credit to those, who, in the heat of altercation, set decency at defiance; and forgetting what is due to their own dignity, concentrate all their powers in an endeavour to overwhelm their adversary by virulent and foul abuse? It may, however, be observed, that in this unmanly warfare Filelfo had the advantage, in consequence of his superior sagacity in the choice of his weapons. In these encounters, a prose invective is like a ponderous mace, the unmanageable weight of which is the best security of him at whom the blow is aimed. But he who annoys his antagonist by poetic effusions, assails him with an instrument, which affords full scope for the exercise of the most consummate dexterity. The effect of abusive attacks against character or talents upon him who is the subject of obloquy, is generally proportionate to the reception which those attacks experience from the public. And it is obvious to remark, that a dilated oration is almost uniformly wearisome to the reader, and few of its passages are remembered after its perusal; but the happy turn of an epigram, or the pointed numbers of a lengthened satire, captivate the fancy, strongly arrest the public attention, and make a durable impression on the memory. Thus do the lashes of poetic wit produce a poignant and a lasting smart; and truly unfortunate is he who, in consequence of the provocation of literary wrath, becomes
“The sad burthen of some merry song.”
CHAP. VII.
The Romans submit to the arms of the pontiff—Severities exercised upon the revolters by Vitelleschi—Eugenius concludes a peace with his enemies—He seizes a part of the Neapolitan territories—Proceedings of the council of Basil—Poggio purchases a villa, in Valdarno—He is exempted from the payment of taxes—His love of ancient sculptures and monuments of art—His dispute with Guarino Veronese—His marriage—His dialogue “An seni sit uxor ducenda”—His letter on his marriage to a learned ecclesiastic—Poggio accompanies the pontiff to Bologna—His letter to the cardinal of St. Angelo on the subject of his matrimonial felicity—His letter to the Marquis of Mantua—His reconciliation with Guarino Veronese—He publishes a collection of his letters—Death of Niccolo Niccoli—Poggio’s funeral oration on that occasion—Character of Niccolo Niccoli.