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But generally they’re thin and sulky,
With wiry black beard—fino—fino—
Manzoni’s term is mingherlino.
In theory—and this is funny—
They must not ask or beg for coin:
But only bread, cheese, pork, sirloin,
Chestnuts, fat capons, fish, fruit, wine,
Chestnuts, fat capons, fish, fruit,Etcetera.
In practice if you offer bread
They curl their noses, and, instead,
With truculence demand your money,
Chestnuts, fat capons, fish, fruit,Etcetera.
The rule of being paid in kind
Amongst a people agricultural
Was not invented by the blind,
Witness the monuments of sculptural
Art in the convents and certosas
Where fatted these celestial boozers
For heaven’s last fair, mid altars rare
Ablaze with gold and costliest gems
Flaming from frosted diadems
And pyxes—miracles Fontana
And Benvenuto wrought to garner
The bread of life—and walls mosaic
Bade blossom into wonders laic
Imagination ne’er conceived,
With wreaths of agate interleaved
And flowers of lapis-lazuli,
Sprinkled with dewdrops casually
Of pearls and topazes and moonstones:
Here, roused by clarions’ and bassoons’ tones
To costliest viands, costliest vice,
