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Book FirstPart XXXII
Part XXXII
I shall be obliged to digress a little from the history of my art, unless
I were to omit some annoying incidents which have happened in the course of my
troubled career. One of these, which I am about to describe, brought me into
the greatest risk of my life. I have already told the story of the artists`
club, and of the farcical adventures which happened owing to the woman whom I
mentioned, Pantasilea, the one who felt for me that false and fulsome love.
She was furiously enraged because of the pleasant trick by which I brought
Diego to our banquet, and she swore to be revenged on me. How she did so is
mixed up with the history of a young man called Luigi Pulci, who had recently
come to Rome. He was the son of one of the Pulcis, who had been beheaded for
incest with his daughter; and the youth possessed extraordinary gifts for
poetry together with sound Latin scholarship; he wrote well, was graceful in
manners, and of surprising personal beauty; he had just left the service of
some bishop, whose name I do not remember, and was thoroughly tainted with a
very foul disease. While he was yet a lad and living in Florence, they used in
certain places of the city to meet together during the nights of summer on the
public streets; and he, ranking among the best of the improvisatori, sang
there. His recitations were so admirable, that the divine Michel Agnolo
Buonarroti, that prince of sculptors and of painters, went, wherever he heard
that he would be, with the greatest eagerness and delight to listen to him.
There was a man called Piloto, a goldsmith, very able in his art, who,
together with myself, joined Buonarroti upon these occasions. ^1 Thus
acquaintance sprang up between me and Luigi Pulci; and so, after the lapse of
many years, he came, in the miserable plight which I have mentioned, to make
himself known to me again in Rome, beseeching me for God`s sake to help him.
Moved to compassion by his great talents, by the love of my fatherland, and by
my own natural tenderness of heart, I took him into my house, and had him
medically treated in such wise that, being but a youth, he soon regained his
health. While he was still pursuing his cure, he never omitted his studies,
and I provided him with books according to the means at my disposal. The
result was that Luigi, recognising the great benefits he had received from me,
oftentimes with words and tears returned me thanks, protesting that if God
should ever put good fortune in his way, he would recompense me for my
kindness. To this I replied that I had not done for him as much as I desired,
but only what I could, and that it was the duty of human beings to be mutually
serviceable. Only I suggested that he should repay the service I had rendered
him by doing likewise to some one who might have the same need of him as he
had had of me.
[Footnote 1: Piloto, of whom we shall hear more hereafter, was a prominent
figure in the Florentine society of artists, and a celebrated practical joker.
Vasari says that a young man of whom he had spoken ill murdered him. Lasca`s
Novelle, Le Cene, should be studied by those who seek an insight into this
curious Bohemia of the sixteenth century.]
The young man in question began to frequent the Court of Rome, where he
soon found a situation, and enrolled himself in the suite of a bishop, a man
of eighty years, who bore the title of Gurgensis. ^2 This bishop had a nephew
called Messer Giovanni: he was a nobleman of Venice; and the said Messer
Giovanni made show of marvellous attachment to Luigi Pulci`s talents; and
under the pretence of these talents, he brought him as familiar to himself as
his own flesh blood. Luigi having talked of me, and of his great obligations
to me, with Messer Giovanni, the latter expressed a wish to make my
acquaintance. Thus then it came to pass, that when I had upon a certain
evening invited that woman Pantasilea to supper, and had assembled a company
of men of parts who were my friends, just at the moment of our sitting down to
table, Messer Giovanni and Luigi Pulci arrived, and after some complimentary
speeches, they both remained to sup with us. The shameless strumpet, casting
her eyes upon the young man`s beauty, began at once to lay her nets for him;
perceiving which, when the supper had come to an agreeable end, I took Luigi
aside, and conjured him, by the benefits he said he owed me, to have nothing
whatever to do with her. To this he answered: "Good heavens, Benvenuto! do you
then take me for a madman?" I rejoined: "Not for a madman, but for a young
fellow;" and I swore to him by God: "I do not give that woman the least
thought; but for your sake I should be sorry if through her you come to break
your neck." Upon these words he vowed and prayed to God, that, if ever he but
spoke with her, he might upon the moment break his neck. I think the poor lad
swore this oath to God with all his heart, for he did break his neck, as I
shall presently relate. Messer Giovanni showed signs too evident of loving him
in a dishonourable way; for we began to notice that Luigi had new suits of
silk and velvet every morning, and it was known that he abandoned himself
altogether to bad courses. He neglected his fine talents, and pretended not to
see or recognise me, because I had once rebuked him, and told him he was
giving his soul to foul vices, which would make him break his neck, as he had
vowed.
[Footnote 2: Girolamo Balbo, of the noble Venetian family, Bishop of Gurck, in
Carinthia.]
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