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character of

HAVING hitherto traced the conduct of Lo- Domestick renzo de' Medici in publick life, we may Lorenzo. now be allowed to follow him to his domestick retreat, and observe him in the intercourse of his family, the education of his children, or the society of his friends. The mind of man varies with his local situation, and before it can be justly estimated, must be viewed in those moments when it expands in the warmth of confidence, and exhibits its true colours in the sun

CHAP. shine of affection. Whether it was from the VIII. suggestions of policy, or the versatility of his natural disposition, that Lorenzo de' Medici turned with such facility from concerns of high importance to the discussion of subjects of amusement, and the levity of convivial intercourse, certain it is, that few persons have displayed this faculty in so eminent a degree. "Think not," says Politiano, writing to his friend," that any of our learned associates, " even they who have devoted their lives to "study, are to be esteemed superiour to Lo(6 renzo de' Medici, either for acuteness in dis"putation, or for good sense in forming a just "decision; or that he yields to any of them "in expressing his thoughts with facility, "variety, and elegance. The examples of history are as familiar to him as the attend"ants that surround his table; and when the "nature of his subject admits of it, his conver"sation is abundantly seasoned with the salt

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collected from that ocean, from which Venus herself first sprung." His talent for irony

was

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Ang. Polit. Lodovico Odaxio. Ep. lib. iii. Ep. 6.

-Lususque Salesque,

Sed lectus pelago, quo Venus orta sales,

says

was peculiar, and folly and absurdity seldom CHA P. escaped his animadversion. In the collections VIII. formed by the Florentines, of the motti e burle of celebrated men, Lorenzo bears a distinguished part; but when expressions adapted to the occasion of a moment are transplanted to the page of a book, and submitted to the cool consideration of the closet, they too often remind us of a flower cropt from its stalk, to be preserved in arid deformity. Possibly too, those who have assumed the task of selection may not have been accurate in their choice, and perhaps the celebrity of his name may have been an inducement to others to attribute to him witticisms unworthy of his character. Yet the bon-mots of Lorenzo may rank with many of those which have been published with importance, and read with avidity.

says Jacques Moisant, Sieur de Brieux. v. Menagiana, tom. i. p. 59, where the author has traced this sentiment from Plutarch to Politiano, and downwards to Victorius, Heinsius, and de Brieux. "Quelque belle et fine, au "reste," says he, 66 que soit cette pensée, usée au"jourd'hui comme elle est, on n'oserait plus la repé"tér."

c

"Quum jocabatur, nihil hilarius ; quum mordebat "nihil asperius." Valori, in vitâ, p. 14.

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CHAP. dity. Grazzini has also introduced this emiVIII. nent man as amusing himself with a piece of meditated jocularity, in order to free himself from the importunate visits of a physician, who too frequently appeared at his table; but for the veracity of this narrative, we have only the authority of a professed novelist". Nor is it

likely

d Several of them are related by Valori, and many others may be found in the Facetie, Motti et Burle, di diversi Signori, &c. Raccolte per Lod. Domenichi. Ven. 1588. One of his kinsmen, remarkable for his avarice, having boasted that he had at his villa a plentiful stream of fine water, Lorenzo replied, If so, you might afford to keep cleaner hands. Bartolommeo Soccini, of Sienna, having observed, in allusion to the defect in Lorenzo's sight, that the air of Florence was injurious to the eyes; True, said Lorenzo, and that of Sienna to the brain. Being interrogated by Ugolino Martelli, why he rose so late in the morning, Lorenzo in return inquired from Martelli, why he rose so soon, and finding that it was to employ himself in trifles, My morning dreams, said Lorenzo, are better than thy morning's business. When Soccini eloped from Florence, to evade his engagements as professor of civil law there, and being taken and brought back, was committed to prison, he complained that a man of his eminence should undergo such a shameful punishment. You should remember, said Lorenzo, that the shame is not in the punishment, but in the crime. Val. p. 14. Dom. p. 121, &c.

• Anton-Francesco Grazzini, detto Il Lasca. Novelle, Ed. Lond. 1756. La terza Cena, Nov. x. The argument

of

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