[Footnote *163: A good edition of the _Lettere_ of ARETINO was published under the care of Vanzolini and Bacci della Lega, in four volumes, in Bologna, 1873-75. The best edition, now very rare, of _I Ragionamenti_ is that of Florence, 1892. See also FABI, _Opere da P.A._, Milano, 1881. For his life, consult LUZIO, _P.A. nei primi suoi anni a Venezia e la corte dei Gonzago_ (Torino, 1888); GAUTHIEZ, _L'Aretin_, 1492-1556 (Paris, 1895); and SINIGAGLIA, _Saggio di uno studio su P.A. con scritti e documenti inediti_ (Roma, 1892). It was, I think, Mr. Claude Phillips who wittily called Aretino not the scourge but "the screw of princes." Nevertheless, those who knew Aretino best will appreciate him most. Titian was wise enough to have him for a friend, and, indeed, he was capable of many very human and even beautiful actions, as when he would daily throw wide his doors at nightfall and take the lost and the beggars into his house. After all, those he blackmailed were blackmailers themselves. He made even the Pope fear him.] [Footnote 164: _Orlando Furioso_, XLVI., st. 14.] [Footnote *165: These designs have lately been found and photographed and published in Paris. They are impossible, but extremely vigorous and lovely. The verses are even more terrible than the drawings, but splendid too, with a sort of fullness of joy.] [Footnote *166: His writings have much of the undoubted fascination of the daily paper, but are on the whole less vulgar and probably less harmful and enervating.] [Footnote *167: This is sheer hypocrisy. Aretino's intercourse with Urbino was so slight as to be easily ignored, and Dennistoun, as a fact, says next to nothing of it.] [Illustration: _Alinari_ PIETRO ARETINO _After the picture by Titian in the Pitti Gallery, Florence_] Still more pungent was the epigrammatic epitaph proposed for him by Francesconi: "Arezzo's hoary libeller here is laid, Whose bitter slanders all save CHRIST essayed: He for such slip this reason good can show,-- 'How could I mock one whom I do not know?'" Aretino, returning a Roland for his Oliver, rejoined: "Francescon, wretched rhymer, here is laid, Who of all things save asses evil said: His plea in favour of the long-eared race, A cousinship that none could fail to trace."[168] [Footnote 168: "Qui giace l'Aretino, poeta Tosco, Che d'ognun disse male fuorchè di Christo, Scusandosi col dir--'Non lo conosco.'" "Qui giace Francescon, poeta pessimo, Che disse mal d'ognun fuorchè del asino, Scusandosi col dir--che egli era prossimo."]