, one of those learned Greeks who retired into Italy after the Turks
, one of those
learned Greeks who retired into Italy after the Turks had
taken Constantinople, where he was born. It is said that
it was not his zeal for the Christian religion, but the fear
of slavery, which made him abandon his country; but if,
according to Tiraboschi, he was brought into Italy in his
infancy, this insinuation may be spared. He studied Greek
and Latin at Venice, and philosophy at Padua; but for a
subsistence was obliged to embrace the profession of arms,
and served in the troop of horse under Nicholas Rhalla,
a Spartan general. Rejoined the two professions of letters and arms, and would be no less a poet than a soldier:
and, as he suspected that it would not be thought any extraordinary thing in him to be able to write Greek verses,
he applied himself diligently to the study of Latin poetry,
and acquired a good deal of reputation by his success in
it. His Latin poems consist of four books of epigrams, and
as many of hymns, which were published at Florence in
1197, 4to. He bad begun a poem on the education of a
prince, which he did not finish: as much of it, however,
as was found among his papers was published along with
his epigrams and hymns; and this whole collection has
passed through several editions. He appears to have had
a poetical mistress, whom he frequently courts under the
name of Neraea; but he married Alexandra Scala, a Florentine lady of high accomplishments, and had Politian for
his rival, which may account for the contempt with which
Politian speaks of his poetry. The critics are divided about
his poems, some praising them highly, while others, as
the two Scaligers, find great fault with them. Erasmus
says, in his “Ciceronianus,
” that the poems of Marullus
would have been tolerable, if they had savoured less of
Paganism: “Marulli pauca legi, tolerabilia si minus haberent paganitatis.
” He created himself many enemies
by censuring too freely the ancient Latin authors, for
which he was equally freely censured by Floridus Sabinns
and Politian. The learned men of that time usually rose
to fame by translation; but this he despised, either as too
mean or too hazardous a task. Varillas, in his “Anecdotes of Florence,
” asserts, that Lorenzo de Medici conjured Marullus, by letters still extant, to translate Plutarch’s moral works; but that Marullus had such an aversion to that kind of drudgery, which obliged him, as he
said, to become a slave to the sentiments of another, that
it was impossible for him to get to the end of the first
page. He lost his life in 1499, or 1500, as he was attempting to pass the river Csecina, which runs by Volaterra, in Tuscany. Perceiving that his horse had plunged
with his fore feet in such a manner that he could not disengage them again, he fell into a passion, and gave him
the spur: but both his horse and himself fell; and, as his
leg was engaged under the horse’s belly, there needed but
little water to stifle him. Pierius Valerianus, who relates
these circumstances, observes, that this poet blasphemed
terribly just before his death, and immediately upon his
fall discharged a thousand reproaches and curses against
heaven. His impiety seems unquestionable; and it is imputed to this turn of mind, that he so much admired Lucretius. He gave a new edition of his poem, which is
censured in “Joseph Scaliger’s notes upon Catullus:
” and
he endeavoured to imitate him. He used to say, that
“the rest of the poets were only to be read, but that Virgil and Lucretius were to be got by heart.
” Hody, however, has collected a great many honourable testimonies
to his merit, from the writings of able and learned critics
at or near his time, while be has been equally undervalued by more modern writers.