DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0092
60 LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI [BK. i
in so evil a plight, it may be possible to take the nonsense
out of him " (22^27^? 2'/ 2r<%/t?). Captain Sandrino
Monaldi came at once to my prison with about twenty
of those servants of the Castellan; and they found that I
was upon my knees, and that I did not turn towards
them, rather I was adoring a Uutf 7/^
Cy 2272^/y, and a OU2V 7^2^27^* <3^272 Z72h^7^'<?22y, which I
had drawn upon the wall with a little charcoal that I had
found covered with earth/ after the four months that I
had lain upon my bed with my broken leg; and so many
times had I dreamed that angels came to attend me
that after four months I had become strong as if it had
never been broken. Nevertheless they (the gaolers) came
to me as much armed as if they were afraid that I was
a noxious dragon. The said captain said to me: "You
observe that there are a great many of us, and that we
are come to you with great noise, and (yet) you do not
turn toward us." At these words, having imagined very
well that greater woe which could befall me, and having
become accustomed to and firm in misfortune, I said to
them: "Unto this God who supports me, to Him (the
Ruler) of the heavens have I turned my soul and my
contemplation and all my vital powers, and to you I
have turned just that which belongs to you; for you are
not worthy to behold that which is good in me nor can
you touch it; therefore do to that which belongs to you
all that you can do." This said captain, in fear, not know-
ing what I wanted to do to myself, said to four of the
he died of hunger. G- VARCHi, A7 Vols. II and
III, pp. 386-7; and BusiNi, cf/. ^yj277z.
* On a wall of one of the two cells occupied by Cellini, there is
still shown a fragment of a LAA-iV, but it is doubtless apocryphal.
in so evil a plight, it may be possible to take the nonsense
out of him " (22^27^? 2'/ 2r<%/t?). Captain Sandrino
Monaldi came at once to my prison with about twenty
of those servants of the Castellan; and they found that I
was upon my knees, and that I did not turn towards
them, rather I was adoring a Uutf 7/^
Cy 2272^/y, and a OU2V 7^2^27^* <3^272 Z72h^7^'<?22y, which I
had drawn upon the wall with a little charcoal that I had
found covered with earth/ after the four months that I
had lain upon my bed with my broken leg; and so many
times had I dreamed that angels came to attend me
that after four months I had become strong as if it had
never been broken. Nevertheless they (the gaolers) came
to me as much armed as if they were afraid that I was
a noxious dragon. The said captain said to me: "You
observe that there are a great many of us, and that we
are come to you with great noise, and (yet) you do not
turn toward us." At these words, having imagined very
well that greater woe which could befall me, and having
become accustomed to and firm in misfortune, I said to
them: "Unto this God who supports me, to Him (the
Ruler) of the heavens have I turned my soul and my
contemplation and all my vital powers, and to you I
have turned just that which belongs to you; for you are
not worthy to behold that which is good in me nor can
you touch it; therefore do to that which belongs to you
all that you can do." This said captain, in fear, not know-
ing what I wanted to do to myself, said to four of the
he died of hunger. G- VARCHi, A7 Vols. II and
III, pp. 386-7; and BusiNi, cf/. ^yj277z.
* On a wall of one of the two cells occupied by Cellini, there is
still shown a fragment of a LAA-iV, but it is doubtless apocryphal.