t of _The Deformed Transformed_ represents, in three
scenes, the Siege and Sack of Rome in 1527. Byron had read Robertson's
_Charles the Fifth_ (ed. 1798, ii. 313-329) in his boyhood (_Life_, p.
47), but it is on record that he had studied, more or less closely, the
narratives of contemporary authorities. A note to _The Prophecy of
Dante_ (_Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 258) refers to the _Sacco di Roma_,
descritto da Luigi Guicciardini, and the _Ragguaglio Storico ... sacco
di Roma dell' anno_ MDXXVII. of Jacopo Buonaparte; and it is evident
that he was familiar with Cellini's story of the marvellous gests and
exploits _quorum maxima pars fuit_, which were wrought at "the walls by
the Campo Santo," or on the ramparts of the Castle of San Angelo.

The Sack of Rome was a great national calamity, and it was something
more: it was a profanation and a sacrilege. The literature which it
evoked was a cry of anguish, a prophetic burden of despair. "Chants
populaires," writes M. Emile Gebhart (_De l'Italie_, "Le Sac de Rome en
1527," 1876, pp. 267, _sq._), "_Nouvelles_ de Giraldi Cintio, en forme
de Decameron ... recits historiques ... de Cesar Grollier, _Dialogues_
anonymes ... poesies de Pasquin, toute une litterature se developpa sur
ce theme douloureux.... Le _Lamento di Roma_, [oe]uvre etrange,
d'inspiration gibeline, rappelle les esperances politiques exprimees
jadis par Dante ... 'Bien que Cesar m'ait depouillee de liberte, nous
avons toujours ete d'accord dans une meme volonte. Je ne me lamenterais
pas si lui regnait; mais je crois qu'il est ressuscite, ou qu'il
ressuscitera veritablement, car souvent un Ange m'a annonce qu'un Cesar
viendrait me delivrer.'... Enfin, voici une chanson francaise que
repetaient en repassant les monts les soldats du Marquis de Saluces:--

"Parlons de la deffaiete
De ces pouvres Rommains,
Aussi de la complainete
De notre pere saint.

"'O noble roy de France,
Regarde en pitie
L'Eglise en ballance ...
Pour Dieu! ne tarde plus,
C'est ta mere, ta substance;
O fils, n'en faictz reffus.'"

"Le dernier monument," adds M. Gebhart, in a footnote, "de cette
litterature, est le singulier drame de Byron, _The Deformed
Transformed_, dont Jules Cesar est le heros, et le Sac de Rome le
cadre."

It is unlikely that Byron, who read everything he could lay his hands
upon, and spared no trouble to master his "period," had not, either at
first or second hand, acqua