country the insult of such a conqueror as Charles.  He might with equal justice have pointed out in Lodovico Sforza the actor of a tragi-comic part upon the stage of Italy.  Lodovico, called II Moro, not, as the great historian asserts, because he was of dark complexion, but because he had adopted the mulberry-tree for his device,[2] was in himself an epitome of all the qualities which for the last two centuries had contributed to the degradation of Italy in the persons of the despots.  Gifted originally with good abilities, he had so accustomed himself to petty intrigues that he was now incapable of taking a straightforward step in any direction.  While he boasted himself the Son of Fortune and listened with complacency to a foolish rhyme that ran:  God only and the Moor foreknow the future safe and sure, he never acted without blundering, and lived to end his days in the intolerable tedium of imprisonment at Loches.  He was a thoughtful and painstaking ruler; yet he so far failed to win the affection of his subjects that they tossed up their caps for joy at the first chance of getting rid of him.  He disliked bloodshed; but the judicial murder of Simonetta, and the arts by which he forced his nephew into an early grave, have left an ineffaceable stain upon his memory.  His court was adorned by the presence of Lionardo da Vinci; but at the same time it was so corrupt that, as Corio tells us,[3] fathers sold their daughters, brothers their sisters, and husbands their wives there.  In a word Lodovico, in spite of his boasted prudence, wrought the ruin of Italy and himself by his tortuous policy, and contributed by his private crimes and dissolute style of living no little to the general depravity of his country.[4]

[1] This is Sismondi’s calculation (vol. vii. p. 305).  It must be taken as a rough one.  Still students who have weighed the facts presented in Ferrari’s Rivoluzioni d’ Italia will not think the estimate exaggerated.  In the municipal and civil wars, free burghs were extinguished by the score.

[2] See Varchi, vol. i. p. 49.  Also the Elogia of Paulus Jovius, who remarks that the complexion of Lodovico was fair.  His surname, however, provoked puns.  Me had, for example, a picture painted, in which Italy, dressed like a queen, is having her robe brushed by a Moorish page.  A motto ran beneath, Per Italia nettar d’ ogni bruttura.  He adopted the mulberry because Pliny called it the most prudent of all trees, inasmuch as it waits till winter is well over to put forth its leaves, and Lodovico piqued himself on his sagacity in choosing the right moment for action.

[3] L’ Historia di Milano, Vinegia, 1554, p. 448:  ’A quella (scola di Venere) per ogni canto vi si convenivan bellissimi giovani.  I padri vi concedevano le figliuole, i mariti le mogliere, i fratelli le sorelle; e per sifatto modo senz’ alcun riguardo molti concorreano all’ amoroso ballo, che cosa stupendissima era riputata per qualunque l’ intendeva.’

    [4] Guicciardini, Storia d’ Italia, lib. iii. p. 35, sums up
    the character of Lodovico with masterly completeness.