versifiers, and he was forced to cry out, "Woe is me! even the copyist
fixes his verses upon me, and every one bestows on me his silly
trifles."

The application of these verses was alike appropriate to the life of
the Pope, or to the reigns of Alexander VI., Julius II., and the one
just beginning.

"Me miserum! Copista etiam mihi carmina figit;
Et tribuit nugas jam mihi quisque suas."

He seems to have been successful in putting a stop to this injurious
treatment; for not long after he declared, with a sarcasm directed
against the prominent qualities of his fellow-citizens, "There is no
better man at Rome than I. I seek nothing from any one. I am not
wordy. I sit here and am silent."

"Non homo me melior Rome est. Ego nil peto ab ullo.
Non sum verbosus. Hic sedeo et taceo."

It had become the custom, upon occasions of public festivity, to adorn
Pasquin with suits of garments, and with paint, forcing him to assume
from time to time different characters according to the fancy of his
protectors. Sometimes he appeared as Neptune, sometimes as Chance or
Fate, as Apollo or Bacchus. Thus, in the year 1515, he became Orpheus,
and, while adorned with the _plectrum_ and the lyre of the poet,
Marforio addressed a distich to him in his new character, which hints
at the popular appreciation of the Pope. The year 1515 was that of the
descent of Francis I, into Italy, and of the bloody battle of
Marignano. "In the midst of war and slaughter and the sound of