Jacopo de' Benedetti da Todi [pp. 630-642]

634 J~coro DE' BEArEDETTI DA ToDi [Aug.,
s~lf was real and practical, and the details are-perhaps as he in t~nded them to be-almost repulsive.
Through the streets of Todi a strange figure is pursued by
the taunts and gibes of the children. "Jacopone! " they cry (mad
Jacopo), and throw mud and stones at him. He is clothed in a few
rags; his long, straggling locks hang over and nearly cover his
face; his looks are wild and terrible. Sometimes he stops, and,
raising his eyes to heaven, heaves a deep sigh and wrings his
hands, upon which the cry is raised again: "Jacopone! Jaco pone!" The people said he became mad on the death of his
wife, but often in the midst of his exhibitions of folly he would
suddenly stand upright in the market-place and begin to preach
to the astonished crowd collected around him for idle pastime.
On these occasions words of such burning eloquence would fall
from his lips, he would lash them with such s~~athing tru~hs, that
his hearers soon forgot to laugh, or lost all desire to do so, and,
slinking away out of hearing of his denunciations, they would
say to each other with scared looks: "He is no fool.' Once he
appeared at the marriage-feast of his niece entirely covered with
feathers and presenting the most ridiculous appearance. His
presence disturbed and cast a shadow over the frivolous am use ments of the guests, upon which his relations remonstrated with
him. His answer is remarkable. "My brother," he replied,
"thinks to render our name illustrious by his magnificence. I
do so by my folly." On another occasion he met one of his re
lations coming from the market, where he had bought two fowls.
The man begged him to carry them to his house and to leave
them there. Instead of this Jacopo took them straight to the
church of San Fortunato and laid them in the burial vault of his
family. A few hours afterwards his relation came to him,
complaining that he had not found the animals on his return
home.
"Did you not charge me," replied Jacopo, "to take them to
your dwelling-place? And what is your house but that in which
you will dwell for ever?" "Et sepulcra eorum domus illorum
in ~ternum" (Psalm xlviii. 12).
Jacopo continued t9 lead this kind of existence for ten years,
preaching to his fellow-citizens by his austerities, by his sermons
of burning eloquence, and by his pretended madness; and per~ haps this mysterious madness, more than all else, caused men to
marvel and look into their own lives as they compared the once
brilliant Jacopo with the humble penitent before them. Many
would retire pensive and disturbed at the sight of him, ponder