A satirical tailor, who lived at Rome, and whose name was _Pasquin_, amused himself by severe raillery, liberally bestowed on those who passed by his shop; which in time became the lounge of the newsmongers. The tailor had precisely the talents to head a regiment of satirical wits; and had he had time to _publish_, he would have been the Peter Pindar of his day; but his genius seems to have been satisfied to rest cross-legged on his shopboard. When any lampoons or amusing bon-mots were current at Rome, they were usually called, from his shop, _pasquinades_. After his death, this statue of an ancient gladiator was found under the pavement of his shop. It was soon set up, and by universal consent was inscribed with his name; and they still attempt to raise him from the dead, and keep the caustic tailor alive, in the marble gladiator of wit. There is a very rare work, with this title:--"Pasquillorum Tomi Duo;" the first containing the verse, and the second the prose pasquinades, published at Basle, 1544. The rarity of this collection of satirical pieces is entirely owing to the arts of suppression practised by the papal government. Sallengre, in his literary Memoirs, has given an account of this work; his own copy had formerly belonged to Daniel Heinsius, who, in verses written in his hand, describes its rarity and the price it too cost:-- Roma meos fratres igni dedit, unica Phoenix Vivo, aureisque venio centum Heinsio. "Rome gave my brothers to the flames, but I survive a solitary Phoenix. Heinsius bought me for a hundred golden ducats." This collection contains a great number of pieces composed at different times, against the popes, cardinals, &c. They are not, indeed, materials for the historian, and they must be taken with grains of allowance. We find sarcastic epigrams on Leo X., and the infamous Lucretia, daughter of Alexander VI.: even the corrupt Romans of the day were capable of expressing themselves with the utmost freedom. Of Alexander VI. we have an apology for his conduct: Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum; Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest. "Alexander _sells_ the keys, the altars, and Christ; As he _bought_ them first, he had a right to _sell them_!" On Lucretia:-- Hoc tumulo dormit Lucretia nomine, sed re Thais; Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus! "Beneath this stone sleeps Lucretia by name, but by nature Thais; the daughter, the wife, and the daughter-in-law of Alexander!" Leo X. was a frequent butt for the arrows of Pasquin:-- Sacra sub extremâ, si forte requiritis, horâ Cur Leo non potuit sumere; vendiderat. "Do you ask why Leo did not take the sacrament on his death-bed?--How could he? He had sold it!" Many of these satirical touches depend on puns. Urban VII., one of the _Barberini_ family, pillaged the Pantheon of brass to make cannon,[63] on which occasion Pasquin was made to say:--