n summer and the water in winter, dissolving into
sweat or shivering with cold according to the season.

I could not reckon all the pleasantries, for ever new and always witty,
which we played off upon our Prince, and which his stupid vanity made
him accept as honours. Each time the Academy met, these diversions acted
like an antidote to melancholy. And since he never would admit that he
was ignorant of anything a member asked, at one time he was made to
rhyme extempore, at another to sing a song, and sometimes even to
descend and strip to the shirt and fence with a master in the noble art,
who rained down whacks with the foil upon his hide and sent him spinning
like a peg-top round the room. Arcigranellone as he truly was, the man
essayed everything, and never failed to triumph in the deafening
derisive plaudits which he raised.

This novel kind of Calandrino,[18] of whom I am sketching a mere
outline, served chiefly as a lure to young men who care more for mirth
than serious scholarship, and drew them to enroll themselves with zeal
beneath the banner of the owl.

When we had amused ourselves enough, at the commencement of our
sessions, with the marvellous diatribes, wholly unexpected answers, and
harlequinesque contortions of our Arcigranellone, we left him up there
alone upon the chair of Bembo, and drew from our portfolios compositions
in prose and verse, serious or facetious as the theme might be, but
sensible, judicious, elegant in phrase, varied in style, and correct in
diction. An agreeable reading followed, which entertained the audience
for at least two hours. Each reader, when he had finished his
recitation, turned to the Arcigranellone, whose whimsical opinions and
distorted reasonings renewed the clatter of tongues and laughter.

This serio-comic Academy had for its object to promote the study of our
best old authors, the simplicity and harmony of chastened style, and
above all the purity of the Italian tongue. It drew together a very
large number of young men emulous of these things; and few foreigners of
culture came to Venice without seeking to be admitted to its sessions. I
shall not attempt to catalogue the names of its innumerable members. But
I may observe that many names might be found upon our books whose owners
had no inkling of the fact; for the following reason. Some of our
merriest wags used to amuse themselves and the company by inflating the
Arcigranellone's vanity with burlesque epistles