In order to complete the picture of the Florentine circle, we have in the last place to notice two men raised by the Medici from the ranks of the people. 'I came to the republic, bare of all things, a mere beggar, of the lowest birth, without money, rank, connections, or kindred. Cosimo, the father of his country, raised me up, by receiving me into his family.' So wrote Bartolommeo Scala,[322] the miller's son, who lived to be the Chancellor of Florence. The splendour of that office had been considerably diminished since the days when Bruni, Marsuppini, and Poggio held it; nor could Scala, as a student, bear comparison with those men. His Latin history of the first crusade was rather a large than a great work, of which no notice would be taken if Tasso had not used it in the composition of his epic. Honours and riches, however, were accumulated on the Chancellor in such profusion that he grew arrogant, and taunted the great Poliziano with inferiority. The feud between these men was not confined to literature. Scala's daughter, a far better scholar than himself, attracted Poliziano's notice, and Greek epigrams were exchanged between them. The dictator of Italian letters now sought the hand of the fair Alessandra, who was rich not only in learning but in world's gear also. When she gave herself to Michael Marullus Tarcagnota, a Greek, his anger knew no bounds; instead of penning amatory he now composed satiric epigrams, abusing Marullus in Latin no less than he had praised Alessandra in Greek.[323] [Footnote 322: Born at Colle in 1430.] [Footnote 323: The following verses on Alessandra are so curious a specimen of Poliziano's Greek style that I transcribe them here (_Carmina Quinque Illustrium Poetarum_, p. 304):-- [Greek: heurêch' heurêch' hên thelon, hên ezêteon aiei, hên êtoun ton erôth', hên kai oneiropoloun; parthenikên hês kallos akêraton, hês hoge kosmos ouk eiê technês all' aphelous physeôs; parthenikên glôttêsin ep' amphoterêsi komôsan, exochon ente chorois exochon ente lyra; hês peri sôphrosynê t' eiê charitessi th' hamilla, tê kai tê tautên antimethelkomenais. heurêk' oud' ophelos, kai gar molis eis eniauton oistrounti phlogerôs estin hapax ideein]. The satires on Mabilius (so he called Marullus) are too filthy to be quoted. They may be read in the collection cited above, pp. 275-280.]