DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0509
CH. xvi] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI 425
unfinished I kept covered up. I immediately went to
complain to the Lord Don Francesco, the son of the
Duke, who displayed a liking for me, and I told him that
they had unveiled my figure, which was incomplete,
for if it had been complete I should not have minded.
Upon this the said prince answered me, threatening me
somewhat with his head, and said: " Benvenuto! Do not
mind that it has been uncovered, for it does them so much
the more injury. But if however it pleases you that I
have it covered up again I will have it covered up:" and
with these words His Most Illustrious Excellency added
many others very favourable to me, in the presence
of many lords. Thereupon I said that I besought His
Excellency to afford me the means whereby I might be
able to finish it, since I would make a present of it,
along with the small model, to His Excellency. And he
answered that he gladly accepted both, and that he
would afford me all the assistance that I should ask.
So I fed myself upon this small amount of favour, which
was the cause of saving my life; for since there had
come upon me so many inordinate evils and unpleasant-
nesses at one blow, I saw myself collapsing; through
that small amount of favour I comforted myself with
some hope of life. A year having already passed, since
I had held that farm of the Fountain from Sbietta, and
besides all the injuries done to me both by poison and
their other extortions, when I saw that the said farm
did not produce for me half of that which they had
offered me, and I had regarding it, over and above the
deeds of contract, a writing under the hand of Sbietta,
who had bound himself to me before witnesses to keep
up the said income, I went to the Lords of the Council:
unfinished I kept covered up. I immediately went to
complain to the Lord Don Francesco, the son of the
Duke, who displayed a liking for me, and I told him that
they had unveiled my figure, which was incomplete,
for if it had been complete I should not have minded.
Upon this the said prince answered me, threatening me
somewhat with his head, and said: " Benvenuto! Do not
mind that it has been uncovered, for it does them so much
the more injury. But if however it pleases you that I
have it covered up again I will have it covered up:" and
with these words His Most Illustrious Excellency added
many others very favourable to me, in the presence
of many lords. Thereupon I said that I besought His
Excellency to afford me the means whereby I might be
able to finish it, since I would make a present of it,
along with the small model, to His Excellency. And he
answered that he gladly accepted both, and that he
would afford me all the assistance that I should ask.
So I fed myself upon this small amount of favour, which
was the cause of saving my life; for since there had
come upon me so many inordinate evils and unpleasant-
nesses at one blow, I saw myself collapsing; through
that small amount of favour I comforted myself with
some hope of life. A year having already passed, since
I had held that farm of the Fountain from Sbietta, and
besides all the injuries done to me both by poison and
their other extortions, when I saw that the said farm
did not produce for me half of that which they had
offered me, and I had regarding it, over and above the
deeds of contract, a writing under the hand of Sbietta,
who had bound himself to me before witnesses to keep
up the said income, I went to the Lords of the Council: