It is not necessary to relate the scandals of Marozias and Theodoras female reign, the infamies of John XII.
When it was thought sufficient to say with Boileau that Corneille excited, not pity or terror, but admiration which was not a tragic passion; or that "D'un seul nom quelquefois le son dur ou bizarre Rend un poeme entier ou burlesque ou barbare;" when Voltaire could think it crushing to add to his exposure of the "infamies" of Theodore - " apres cela comment osons-nous condamner les pieces de Lope de Vega et de Shakespeare?"
But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist--I really believe he is Antichrist--I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself!
To dwell upon such literary infamies would be below the dignity of the historian, were it not that these habits of the early Italian humanists imposed a fashion upon Europe which extended to the later age of Scaliger's contentions with Scioppius and Milton's with Salmasius.