Salvator Rosa is said never to have suffered the rank or office of his
auditors to interfere with the freedom of his expressions in his poetic
recitations. Cardinal Sforza Pullavicini, one of the most generous
patrons of the fine arts, and a rigid critic of his day, was curious to
hear the improvisatore of the Via Babbuina, and sent an invitation
requesting Salvator's company at his palace. Salvator frankly declared
that two conditions were annexed to his accepting the honor of his
Eminence's acquaintance; first, that the Cardinal should come to his
house, as he never recited in any other; and second, that he should not
object to any passage, the omission of which would detract from the
original character of his work, or compromise his own sincerity. The
Cardinal accepted the conditions. The next day all the literary coxcombs
of Rome crowded to the levee of the hypercritical prelate to learn his
opinion of the poet, whose style was without precedent. The Cardinal
declared, with a justice which posterity has sanctioned, that
"Salvator's poetry was full of splendid passages, but that, as a whole,
it was unequal."