DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0411
886 COUNT BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE
recollect the precise date on which I gave you those
100 ducats to send to Naples. But I know this,
that it was when our two Lady Duchesses left Rome
and I stayed behind for ten or twelve days, intending
to go to Naples, and then changed my mind and
gave V. S. the money, and returned to Urbino with
the Cardinal of Pavia. Now you will remember the
whole thing!
' I send you my Marine Elegy, which please pass
on to M. Pietro Bembo. I beg V. S. to read it and
give me your opinion on the poem. I know not if
it is worth your perusal, but 1 know well that it
cannot possibly equal your expectations or he worthy
of your praise. As for my delays, V. S. is aware how
many reasons I have to excuse them. Our comedies
have gone off well, most of all the " Calandria," which
was represented in a truly magnihcent style, which
I need not describe, since you will have heard full
accounts from many who were present. But I will
tell you this much. The scene represented was an
outer street of the town, between the city wall
and its last houses. The wall with its two towers
was represented in the most natural way possible,
rising from the Aoor of the stage to the top of the
hall. One tower was occupied by the pipers, the
other by the trumpeters, and between the two there
was another hnely constructed rampart. The hall
itself, where the audience sat, occupied the place of
the moat, and was crossed as it were by two
aqueducts. The back of the wall above the tiers
of seats was hung with the tapestries of the Trojan
War. Above these was a large cornice in high
relief, hearing the following inscription in large white
letters on a blue ground, running the whole length of
the hall:
' Bella foris, ludosque domi exercebat et ipse
Caesar magni etenim est utraque cura animi.'
Both in wars abroad and in games at home, Caesar displays
his strength, for both alike are ht work for great minds.
recollect the precise date on which I gave you those
100 ducats to send to Naples. But I know this,
that it was when our two Lady Duchesses left Rome
and I stayed behind for ten or twelve days, intending
to go to Naples, and then changed my mind and
gave V. S. the money, and returned to Urbino with
the Cardinal of Pavia. Now you will remember the
whole thing!
' I send you my Marine Elegy, which please pass
on to M. Pietro Bembo. I beg V. S. to read it and
give me your opinion on the poem. I know not if
it is worth your perusal, but 1 know well that it
cannot possibly equal your expectations or he worthy
of your praise. As for my delays, V. S. is aware how
many reasons I have to excuse them. Our comedies
have gone off well, most of all the " Calandria," which
was represented in a truly magnihcent style, which
I need not describe, since you will have heard full
accounts from many who were present. But I will
tell you this much. The scene represented was an
outer street of the town, between the city wall
and its last houses. The wall with its two towers
was represented in the most natural way possible,
rising from the Aoor of the stage to the top of the
hall. One tower was occupied by the pipers, the
other by the trumpeters, and between the two there
was another hnely constructed rampart. The hall
itself, where the audience sat, occupied the place of
the moat, and was crossed as it were by two
aqueducts. The back of the wall above the tiers
of seats was hung with the tapestries of the Trojan
War. Above these was a large cornice in high
relief, hearing the following inscription in large white
letters on a blue ground, running the whole length of
the hall:
' Bella foris, ludosque domi exercebat et ipse
Caesar magni etenim est utraque cura animi.'
Both in wars abroad and in games at home, Caesar displays
his strength, for both alike are ht work for great minds.