The Italian history of its own small principalities, whose well-being so much depended on their prudence and sagacity, affords many instances of the timely use of a proverb. Many an intricate negotiation has been contracted through a good-humoured proverb,--many a sarcastic one has silenced an adversary; and sometimes they have been applied on more solemn, and even tragical occasions. When Rinaldo degli Albizzi was banished by the vigorous conduct of Cosmo de' Medici, Machiavel tells us the expelled man sent Cosmo a menace, in a proverb, _La gallina covava!_ "The hen is brooding!" said of one meditating vengeance. The undaunted Cosmo replied by another, that "There was no brooding out of the nest!" I give an example of peculiar interest; for it is perpetuated by Dante, and is connected with the character of Milton. When the families of the Amadei and the Uberti felt their honour wounded in the affront the younger Buondelmonte had put upon them, in breaking off his match with a young lady of their family, by marrying another, a council was held, and the death of the young cavalier was proposed as the sole atonement for their injured honour. But the consequences which they anticipated, and which afterwards proved so fatal to the Florentines, long suspended their decision. At length Moscha Lamberti suddenly rising, exclaimed, in two proverbs, "That those who considered everything would never conclude on anything!" closing with an ancient proverbial saying--_cosa fatta capo ha!_ "a deed done has an end!" The proverb sealed the fatal determination, and was long held in mournful remembrance by the Tuscans; for, according to Villani, it was the cause and beginning of the accursed factions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Dante has thus immortalised the energetic expression in a scene of the "Inferno." Ed un, ch' avea l'una e l'altra man mozza, Levando i moncherin per l'aura fosca, Si che 'l sangue facea la faccia sozza, Grido:--"Ricorderati anche del Mosca, Che dissi, lasso: _Capo ha cosa fatta_, Che fu 'l mal seme della gente Tosca." ----Then one Maim'd of each hand, uplifted in the gloom The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots Sullied his face, and cried--"Remember thee Of Mosca too--I who, alas! exclaim'd 'The deed once done, there is an end'--that proved A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race." CARY'S _Dante_. This Italian proverb was adopted by Milton; for when deeply engaged in writing "The Defence of the People," and warned that it might terminate in his blindness, he resolvedly concluded his work, exclaiming with great magnanimity, although the fatal prognostication had been accomplished, _cosa fatta capo ha!_ Did this proverb also influence his awful decision on that great national event, when the most honest-minded fluctuated between doubts and fears? Of a person treacherously used, the Italian proverb says that he has eaten of