1G0xxeB

Ancients and Moderns under the Empire of Circe: Machiavelli’s The Ass, Translation2 5 9and with a lovely countenance, all happy,15 kissed my face ten times and more;then said celebrating: “Discreet soul,this voyage of yours, this difficulty of yours,will be sung by a historian or poet.But because I feel the night passing by,20 I want us to take some consolationand change this reasoning.And first we will find something light to eat,because I know that your need for it may not be small,if iron is not your condition;25 and we will enjoy it together in this place.”Having said this, she set one of her little clothson a certain table by the fire.Then she took a box out of an armoire,in which were bread, glasses, and knife,30 a chicken, a salad prepared and neatand other things of that type.Then, she turned to me, and said: “Every nighta girl prepares this dinner for me.Even this carafe she brings full35 of wine, which will seem, if you taste it,like what Val di Grieve and Poppi produce.Let us be joyous, therefore, and, like the wise do,think that good may come again;and he who is upright, in the end must fall.40 And when evil comes, which comes always,send it down like a medicine;what a fool is one who tastes or savors it.Let us now live happily, until tomorrow morningwhen it is time to go out with my herd,45 to obey my high queen.”So leaving behind our cares and pains,happy together we had dinner: and reasoned abouta thousand little songs and a thousand loves.Then, since we had dined, she got undressed,50 and into the bed with her she made me enter,as if I were her lover or her husband.Here I must burden the Muses,