Little Poems in Prose

more cruel and despotic than any of his peers. A passionate lover of the fine arts, and more- over an excellent connoisseur, he was truly in- satiable of pleasure. Indifferent enough where men and morals were concerned, himself a true artist, he knew no enemy so dangerous as boredom, and the bizarre efforts that he made to flee from or to conquer that tyrant of the world would certainly have endowed him (on the page of a severe historian) with the epithet of monster; if in his dominions it had been permitted to write anything at all whose sole tendency was not towards pleasure, or towards wonder, which is one of the most delicate forms of pleasure. The great misfortune of this Prince was that he had never possessed a theatre vast enough for his genius. These are young Neros who are stifled within too narrow limits, and whose name and goodwill posterity will ignore; an un- foreseeing Providence had given to this Prince capacities larger than his dominions. Suddenly the rumour ran about that the Sovereign intended to pardon all the conspira- tors, and the origin of this rumour was the an- nouncement of a grand night when Fanciullo should play one of his chief and best rôles, and at which would be present (the rumour ran) even the condemned noblemen, a clear sign,