Aretino put his
name to all he wrote, and openly gloried in his notorious
'Ragionamenti.' His literary talent, his clear and sparkling style, his
varied observation of men and things, would have made him a
considerable writer under any circumstances, destitute as he was of the
power of conceiving a genuine work of art, such as a true dramatic
comedy; and to the coarsest as well as the most refined malice he added
a grotesque wit so brilliant that in some cases it does not fall short
of that of Rabelais.
In such circumstances, and with such objects and means, he set to work
to attack or circumvent his prey. The tone in which he appealed to
Clement VII not to complain or to think of vengeance, but to forgive,
at the moment when the wailings of the devastated city were ascending
to the Castel Sant' Angelo, where the Pope himself was a prisoner, is
the mockery of a devil or a monkey. Sometimes, when he is forced to
give up all hope of presents, his fury breaks out into a savage howl,
as in the 'Capitolo' to the Prince of Salerno, who after paying him for
some time refused to do so any longer. On the other hand, it seems that
the terrible Pierluigi Farnese, Duke of Parma, never took any notice of
him at all. As this gentleman had probably renounced altogether the
pleasures of a good reputation, it was not easy to cause him any
annoyance; Aretino tried to do so by comparing his personal appearance
to that of a constable, a miller, and a baker.
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