Note 311 — Chapter IV

One of the last plebeian rhymes on politics comes from Siena, where, in the year 1552, the people used to sing this couplet in derision of the Cardinal of the Mignanelli family sent to rule them:

Mignanello, Mignanello, Non ci piace il tuo modello.

See Benci's Storia di Montepulciano (Fiorenza, Massi e Landi, 1641), p. 104. An anecdote from Busini (Lettere al Varchi, Firenze, Le Monnier, p. 220) is so characteristic of the popular temper under the oppression of Spanish tyranny that its indecency may be excused. He says that a law had been passed awarding, "quattro tratti di corda ad uno che, tirando una c—— disse: Poi che non si può parlare con la bocca, io parlerò col c——."