DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0088
56 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [BK. i
this erection, and was approaching it, resolved to dash it
down, when I wanted to pull it down with my hands, I
was seized by something invisible and thrown four
away from that spot, and so terrified that I
remained lifeless: and thus I stayed from the dawn of
the day until the nineteenth hour, when they brought
me my dinner. They must have come many times, when
I had not heard them; for when I did hear them, there
entered in Captain Sandrino Monaldi/ and I heard him
say: " Oh, unhappy man! See to what an end has come
so rare a genius." Hearing these words, I opened my
eyes: whereupon I saw priests wearing long gowns, who
said: " Oh, you! You told us that he was dead." Bozza
said: " I found him dead, and therefore I said so." They
immediately raised me from the spot whereon I was, and
having lifted the mattress, which had become wet like
maccaroni, they threw it outside that room; and having
reported these circumstances to the Castellan, he made
them give me another mattress. And so recalling to
myself what thing it could have been that had diverted
me from such an act, I thought that it must be some-
thing Divine and my Defender.^ The following night
there appeared to me in a dream a wondrous Being in
the form of a very handsome youth, and in a tone
of rebuke he said: " Do you know Who it is that has
lent you that body that you wanted to destroy before
His appointed time?" I seemed to answer that I recog-
' Alessandro Monaldi, called Sandrino, Captain of the Florentine
troops during the siege of Florence. He was imprisoned at Piom-
bino in 1530 for his opposition to the Medici, <y VARCHi, SAv.
y<77*., cz'z*. Vol. 11, 410-413.
^ a word used nowhere else but by CELLINI, and not
to be found in DAzbzzzzrA AAz
this erection, and was approaching it, resolved to dash it
down, when I wanted to pull it down with my hands, I
was seized by something invisible and thrown four
away from that spot, and so terrified that I
remained lifeless: and thus I stayed from the dawn of
the day until the nineteenth hour, when they brought
me my dinner. They must have come many times, when
I had not heard them; for when I did hear them, there
entered in Captain Sandrino Monaldi/ and I heard him
say: " Oh, unhappy man! See to what an end has come
so rare a genius." Hearing these words, I opened my
eyes: whereupon I saw priests wearing long gowns, who
said: " Oh, you! You told us that he was dead." Bozza
said: " I found him dead, and therefore I said so." They
immediately raised me from the spot whereon I was, and
having lifted the mattress, which had become wet like
maccaroni, they threw it outside that room; and having
reported these circumstances to the Castellan, he made
them give me another mattress. And so recalling to
myself what thing it could have been that had diverted
me from such an act, I thought that it must be some-
thing Divine and my Defender.^ The following night
there appeared to me in a dream a wondrous Being in
the form of a very handsome youth, and in a tone
of rebuke he said: " Do you know Who it is that has
lent you that body that you wanted to destroy before
His appointed time?" I seemed to answer that I recog-
' Alessandro Monaldi, called Sandrino, Captain of the Florentine
troops during the siege of Florence. He was imprisoned at Piom-
bino in 1530 for his opposition to the Medici, <y VARCHi, SAv.
y<77*., cz'z*. Vol. 11, 410-413.
^ a word used nowhere else but by CELLINI, and not
to be found in DAzbzzzzrA AAz