Page:The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Vol 1.djvu/74

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; he was readily exalted to the fever-point of delirium (as in the case of Charon, who obsessed him during his Roman illness, the visions of S. Angelo when his leg was broken, and the apparition of the gravedigger during his short fever at night of casting Perseus); but there is nothing in his confidences to make us suppose that the phantasmagoria of the Coliseum was a deliberate invention.

The most convincing proofs of Cellini's trustworthiness are not, however, to be sought in these minor details. I find the far stronger and far more abundant in the vast picture-gallery of historical portraits which he has painted. Parini, while tracing the salient qualities of his autobiography, remarked: "He is particularly admirable in depicting to the life by a few salient touches the characters, passions, personal peculiarities, movements, and habits of the people with he came into contact.

Only one who has made himself for long years familiar with Cellini's period can appreciate the extraordinary vividness and truth of Cellini's delineation. Without attempting to do more than record his collection of what happened to himself in commerce with men of all sorts, he has dramatised the great folk histories, chronicles and diplomatic despatches exactly as our best authorities in their more colourless and cautious style present them to our fancy. He enjoyed the advantages of the alcove and the ante-chamber; and without abusing these in the spirit of a Voltaire or a valet, he has gravely