DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0089
CH. xxv] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI 57
nized everything as coming from the God of Nature.
Then he said to me: "Do you despise His Works, in
desiring to injure them? Allow yourself to be guided by
Him and lose not the hope of His Power;" with many
other similar admirable words, of which I do not recall
the thousandth part. I began to consider that this angel
shape had told me the truth; and casting my eyes
around the prison, I saw a little piece of rotten brick, I
therefore rubbed one (fragment) against another, and
made it into the form of a little paste;' then crawling
thus I approached one of the edges of that door of my
prison, and I managed with my teeth, so that I broke off
a small splinter: and when I had done this, I waited
for that hour of daylight that came into my prison, which
was from twenty and a half to twenty-one and a half of
the clock. Then I began to write in the best way that I
could upon certain scraps of paper that were left over in
the volume of my Bible, and I rebuked the despicable
spirits of my intellect for not desiring to remain any
longer in life; who replied to my body, excusing them-
selves on account of their misfortunes; and the body
gave them hope of well-being : thus I wrote it in dialogue
form :
AFFLITTI SPIRITI MlEI, ETC.
Afflicted soul of me,
How cruel, thus to hate this life!
If against Heav'n you be,
Who shall protect us in the strife?
Nay, let us go to hnd a better life.
Ah! stay yet, do not go!
* A thin paste to serve instead of ink.
nized everything as coming from the God of Nature.
Then he said to me: "Do you despise His Works, in
desiring to injure them? Allow yourself to be guided by
Him and lose not the hope of His Power;" with many
other similar admirable words, of which I do not recall
the thousandth part. I began to consider that this angel
shape had told me the truth; and casting my eyes
around the prison, I saw a little piece of rotten brick, I
therefore rubbed one (fragment) against another, and
made it into the form of a little paste;' then crawling
thus I approached one of the edges of that door of my
prison, and I managed with my teeth, so that I broke off
a small splinter: and when I had done this, I waited
for that hour of daylight that came into my prison, which
was from twenty and a half to twenty-one and a half of
the clock. Then I began to write in the best way that I
could upon certain scraps of paper that were left over in
the volume of my Bible, and I rebuked the despicable
spirits of my intellect for not desiring to remain any
longer in life; who replied to my body, excusing them-
selves on account of their misfortunes; and the body
gave them hope of well-being : thus I wrote it in dialogue
form :
AFFLITTI SPIRITI MlEI, ETC.
Afflicted soul of me,
How cruel, thus to hate this life!
If against Heav'n you be,
Who shall protect us in the strife?
Nay, let us go to hnd a better life.
Ah! stay yet, do not go!
* A thin paste to serve instead of ink.