DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0054
24 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [BK. i
in trying to extract one of them I endured very great
labour; however I subsequently succeeded at last. When
I had extracted this first nail, I proceeded to think out
what method I could adopt that they (the gaolers) might
not perceive it. I immediately prepared a little wax with
a few scrapings of rusty iron, which was of the same colour
exactly as those nail-heads (<rzz^V/z ^'zz^zz^z') which I had
extracted; and with this same wax I began diligently
to imitate those nail-heads in their iron bands: and hand
over hand (zfz zzzzzzzc z'zz z/zzzzzt?) as many as I extracted, so
many did I counterfeit in wax. I left the iron bands,
attached each at the top and bottom by some of the
same nails that I had extracted; I had afterwards put
them back, but they were cut short, and then lightly
replaced, so that they held the iron bands in position
for me. This business I accomplished with the greatest
difficulty, because the Castellan dreamed every night that
I had escaped, and therefore sent to inspect my cell from
hour to hour; and the man who came had both the name
and manners of a constable. He was called and
he always brought with him another man who was named
Giovanni, but nicknamed VzYfzg*7zz't77zg; this man was a
soldier, and Bozza was a servant. This Giovanni never
came to that cell of mine, that he did not utter some
insult to me. He was from the neighbourhood of Prato,
and had been in a druggist's shop in Prato: he examined
carefully every evening those iron bands and the entire
cell, and I said to him: "Watch me well, for I want by
all means to escape." These words caused the greatest
i .Sc,?.?# means literally "a bunch, a swelling." Here it may
mean "a bumptious fellow." —"chilblains." (See BAR-
RETTI.)
in trying to extract one of them I endured very great
labour; however I subsequently succeeded at last. When
I had extracted this first nail, I proceeded to think out
what method I could adopt that they (the gaolers) might
not perceive it. I immediately prepared a little wax with
a few scrapings of rusty iron, which was of the same colour
exactly as those nail-heads (<rzz^V/z ^'zz^zz^z') which I had
extracted; and with this same wax I began diligently
to imitate those nail-heads in their iron bands: and hand
over hand (zfz zzzzzzzc z'zz z/zzzzzt?) as many as I extracted, so
many did I counterfeit in wax. I left the iron bands,
attached each at the top and bottom by some of the
same nails that I had extracted; I had afterwards put
them back, but they were cut short, and then lightly
replaced, so that they held the iron bands in position
for me. This business I accomplished with the greatest
difficulty, because the Castellan dreamed every night that
I had escaped, and therefore sent to inspect my cell from
hour to hour; and the man who came had both the name
and manners of a constable. He was called and
he always brought with him another man who was named
Giovanni, but nicknamed VzYfzg*7zz't77zg; this man was a
soldier, and Bozza was a servant. This Giovanni never
came to that cell of mine, that he did not utter some
insult to me. He was from the neighbourhood of Prato,
and had been in a druggist's shop in Prato: he examined
carefully every evening those iron bands and the entire
cell, and I said to him: "Watch me well, for I want by
all means to escape." These words caused the greatest
i .Sc,?.?# means literally "a bunch, a swelling." Here it may
mean "a bumptious fellow." —"chilblains." (See BAR-
RETTI.)