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The XLVII. ADVERTISEMENT.
Apollo having appointed Hospitals to every Nation, for their fools, puts down that of Florence, by reason of the few fools that are found amongst the Florentines, and adds the Revenue thereof to the Lombards Hospital, which by reason of the greater number of fools that flock thither, was run far in Arrears.
IT being found by long experience, that there is no Nation in the world, wherein there are not great store of fools, Apollo, that he might find timely remedy, according to his custom, for mens miseries, erected many hundred years ago, an Hospital for fools in every Nation; which he indowed with rich Revenues; to the end that they might be furnished with all things requisite for the cure of such as Divine Justice had for their misdemerits punisht, by making them shallow braind. And because the Hospital of the noble Florentine Nation, by reason of the very few fools that it produceth, is at little or no cost, and it being on the contrary seen, that there is so great a concourse of Lombard fools, as their Hospital is not able to receive them all, nor can supply the great expence which it is forced to be at; his Majesty some few daies ago, of his own meer motion, put down the Hospital of the Florentine fools, and gave the Revenues thereof to that of Lombardy, the Lombards being for the most part besotted with the foul indignity of playing the Hectors, holding it to be a great honor, to be followed by a great num∣ber of Swashbucklers.