Excerpt from The Romancists: Bohemian Life This fever of genius which suddenly breaks out with epidemic violence in the Italian peninsula, spreads its glori ous contagion throughout Europe. Art, the rival of God, stands on an equal footing with hings. Charles V. Stoops to pich up Titian's pencil and Francois I. Holds a recep tion in the printing-ofice where Etienne Dolet is, for aught we know, correcting the proofs of Pantagruel. In the midst of this resurrection of the intelligence, Bohemia continues, as in the past, to sech a bone and a niche, as Balzac expresses it. Cle'ment Alarm, having become a frequenter of the antechambers of the Louvre, becomes, even before he has been a hing's favorite, the fa vorite of the fair Diane, whose smile illumined three reigns. From the boudoir of Diane de Poitiers, the poet 's unfaith ful muse passes to Marguerite de V alois, a perilous favor for which Marot paid by imprisonment. Almost at the same period, another Bohemian, whose childhood had been caressed by the hisses of an epic muse on the strand of Sorrentw - Tasso - entered the court of the Duhe of Fer rara as Marot entered that of Francois I. But, less for tanate than the loverof Diane and Marguerite, the author of Jerusalem atoned for his audacious love for a daughter of the house of Este by the loss of his reason and his genius. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.