DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0061
FRENCH OUTRAGES
23
At the age of twenty it was only natural to be
moved by the sight of all these splendours, and yet
Baldassare could not repress a sigh at the sight of
Gascon archers and foreign soldiery camping in these
halls decorated by Leonardo and Bramante, where the
foremost scholars and artists of the age had met at the
Moro s court. ' The French are a dirty people/ wrote
another eyewitness of the scene, a Venetian, who,
with all his hatred of the Moro, could not hut feel
saddened at the sight of the present condition of
Milan. 'Everywhere in the Gastello there is dirt and
foulness, such as Signor Lodovico would not have
allowed for all the world ! The French captains spit
upon the door of these splendid halls, and their
soldiers outrage women openly in the streets. ^ A
touch of contempt for these foreigners from beyond
the Alps, with their rude speech and manners, is
apparent throughout Castiglione s narrative, and
certain passages in the ' Cortegiano' show that these
first impressions were not dispelled by closer ac-
quaintance with the French invaders. ' The French/
he writes, ' only believe in the nobility of arms, and
count all the rest as nothing. They not only despise
learning, but they abhor it, and hold scholars to be
the vilest of men, and think that the worst reproach
they can address to anyone is to call him a clerk U It
was necessary, however, to put aside these prejudices
for the moment. King Louis and the Marquis
Francesco had become fast friends, and the best that
Mantua had to give—the paintings of Mantegna,
and falcons and horses of rarest breed, were laid at
the victor s feet. Henceforth the Gonzagas and the
Bourbons were to be close allies, and it was under
i Marino Sanuto, 'Diarii,' iii. 31.
2 Book i. 42.
23
At the age of twenty it was only natural to be
moved by the sight of all these splendours, and yet
Baldassare could not repress a sigh at the sight of
Gascon archers and foreign soldiery camping in these
halls decorated by Leonardo and Bramante, where the
foremost scholars and artists of the age had met at the
Moro s court. ' The French are a dirty people/ wrote
another eyewitness of the scene, a Venetian, who,
with all his hatred of the Moro, could not hut feel
saddened at the sight of the present condition of
Milan. 'Everywhere in the Gastello there is dirt and
foulness, such as Signor Lodovico would not have
allowed for all the world ! The French captains spit
upon the door of these splendid halls, and their
soldiers outrage women openly in the streets. ^ A
touch of contempt for these foreigners from beyond
the Alps, with their rude speech and manners, is
apparent throughout Castiglione s narrative, and
certain passages in the ' Cortegiano' show that these
first impressions were not dispelled by closer ac-
quaintance with the French invaders. ' The French/
he writes, ' only believe in the nobility of arms, and
count all the rest as nothing. They not only despise
learning, but they abhor it, and hold scholars to be
the vilest of men, and think that the worst reproach
they can address to anyone is to call him a clerk U It
was necessary, however, to put aside these prejudices
for the moment. King Louis and the Marquis
Francesco had become fast friends, and the best that
Mantua had to give—the paintings of Mantegna,
and falcons and horses of rarest breed, were laid at
the victor s feet. Henceforth the Gonzagas and the
Bourbons were to be close allies, and it was under
i Marino Sanuto, 'Diarii,' iii. 31.
2 Book i. 42.