It was with a scathing vigor of satire that Giuseppe
Giusti characterized each of the Italian crowned heads of that period
in burning verses, which were circulated with cautious secresy in
manuscript from hand to hand, long before a surreptitious edition,
which it was dangerous (anywhere in Italy save in Tuscany) to possess,
appeared, to be followed in after years by many an avowed one. These
have given the name of Giusti a high and peculiar place on the roll of
Italian poets. But the satirist's serpent scourge is changed for a
somewhat contemptuously used foolscap when the Tuscan ruler is
introduced in the following lines:
Il Toscano Morfeo vien' lemme, lemme,
Di pavavero cinto e di lattuga.
Then comes the Tuscan Morpheus, creepy, crawly,
With poppies and with lettuce crowned.
These lines, however, represent pretty accurately about the worst that
his subjects had to say of poor old "Ciuco," as the last of the grand
dukes was irreverently and popularly called: "Ciuco," I am sorry to
state, means "donkey." And it must be owned that the two lines I have
quoted from Giusti's verses, with their untranslatable "lemme,
lemme"--of which I have endeavored, with imperfect success, to give
the meaning--present a very graphic picture of the man and the nature
and characteristics of his government.
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