All the world have heard of these _statues_: they have served as
vehicles for the keenest satire in a land of the most uncontrolled
despotism. The _statue of Pasquin_ (from whence the word _pasquinade_)
and that of _Marforio_ are placed in Rome in two different quarters.
_Marforio_ is an ancient _statue_ of _Mars_, found in the _Forum_, which
the people have corrupted into _Marforio_. _Pasquin_ is a marble
_statue_, greatly mutilated, supposed to be the figure of a
gladiator.[62] To one or other of these _statues_, during the
concealment of the night, are affixed those satires or lampoons which
the authors wish should be dispersed about Rome without any danger to
themselves. When _Marforio_ is attacked, _Pasquin_ comes to his succour;
and when _Pasquin_ is the sufferer, he finds in _Marforio_ a constant
defender. Thus, by a thrust and a parry, the most serious matters are
disclosed: and the most illustrious personages are attacked by their
enemies, and defended by their friends.
Misson, in his Travels in Italy, gives the following account of the
origin of the name of the statue of _Pasquin_:--
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_!"