Sometimes we meet with a splendid scene from
classical mythology--Bacchus and Ariadne, Paris and Helen, and others.
Or else a chorus of figures forming some single class or category, as
the beggars, the hunters and nymphs, the lost souls who in their
lifetime were hardhearted women, the hermits, the astrologers, the
vagabonds, the devils, the sellers of various kinds of wares, and even
on one occasion 'il popolo,' the people as such, who all reviled one
another in their songs. The songs, which still remain and have been
collected, give the explanation of the masquerade sometimes pathetic,
sometimes in a humorous, and sometimes in an excessively indecent tone.
Some of the worst in this respect are attributed to Lorenzo the
Magnificent, probably because the real author did not venture to
declare himself. However this may be, we must certainly ascribe to him
the beautiful song which accompanied the masque of Bacchus and Ariadne,
whose refrain still echoes to us from the fifteenth century, like a
regretful presentiment of the brief splendor of the Renaissance itself:
'Quanto ? bella giovinezza,
Che si fugge tuttavia!
Chi vuol esser lieto, sia:
Di doman non c'? certezza.'
Part Six
MORALITY AND RELIGION
Morality and Judgement
The relation of the various peoples of the earth to the supreme
interests of life, to God, virtue, and immortality, may be investigated
up to a certain point, but can never be compared to one another with
absolute strictness and certainty.
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