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Utterly venal and unscrupulous, we find him at one time enjoying the
patronage of Francis I. of France, and then abusing that monarch and
basking in the favour of the Emperor Charles V., who paid him more
lavishly. His death took place at Venice in 1557. Some say that he, the
_flagellum_ of princes, was beaten to death by command of the princes of
Italy; others narrate that he who laughed at others all his life died
through laughter. His risible faculties being on one occasion so violently
excited by certain obscene jests, he fell from his seat, and struck his
head with such violence against the ground that he died.
The town of Zuerich was startled in the fifteenth century by finding itself
the object of the keen satire of one of its canons, Felix Hemmerlin, who
wrote a book entitled _Clarissimi viri jurumque Doctoris Felicis Malleoli
Hemmerlini variae oblectationis Opuscula et Tractatus (Basileae_, 1494,
folio). The clergy, both regular and secular, were also subjected to his
criticism. The book is divided into two parts; the first is a dialogue _de
Nobilitate et Rusticitate_, and the second is a treatise against the
mendicant friars, monks, Beghards, and Beguines. The town of Zuerich was
very indignant at this bold attack, and deprived the poor author of his
benefices and of his liberty.
Italian air seems to have favoured satire, but Italian susceptibility was
somewhat fatal to the satirists.
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