this proverb.

The Italian history of its own small principalities, whose well-being so
much depended on their prudence and sagacity, affords many instances of
the timely use of a proverb. Many an intricate negotiation has been
contracted through a good-humoured proverb,--many a sarcastic one has
silenced an adversary; and sometimes they have been applied on more
solemn, and even tragical occasions. When Rinaldo degli Albizzi was
banished by the vigorous conduct of Cosmo de' Medici, Machiavel tells us
the expelled man sent Cosmo a menace, in a proverb, _La gallina covava!_
"The hen is brooding!" said of one meditating vengeance. The undaunted
Cosmo replied by another, that "There was no brooding out of the nest!"

I give an example of peculiar interest; for it is perpetuated by Dante,
and is connected with the character of Milton.

When the families of the Amadei and the Uberti felt their honour wounded
in the affront the younger Buondelmonte had put upon them, in breaking
off his match with a young lady of their family, by marrying another, a
council was held, and the death of the young cavalier was proposed as
the sole atonement for their injured honour. But the consequences which
they anticipated, and which afterwards proved so fatal to the
Florentines, long suspended their decision. At length Moscha Lamberti
suddenly rising, exclaimed, in two proverbs, "That those who considered
everything would never conclude on anything!" closing with an ancient
proverbial saying--_cosa fatta capo ha!_ "a deed done has an end!" The
proverb sealed the fatal determination, and was long held in mournful
remembrance by the Tuscans; for, according to Villani, it was the cause
and beginning of the accursed factions of the Guelphs and the
Ghibellines. Dante has thus immortalised the energetic expression in a
scene of the "Inferno."

Ed un, ch' avea l'una e l'altra man mozza,
Levando i moncherin per l'aura fosca,
Si che 'l sangue facea la faccia sozza,
Grido:--"Ricorderati anche del Mosca,
Che dissi, lasso: _Capo ha cosa fatta_,
Che fu 'l mal seme della gente Tosca."

----Then one
Maim'd of each hand, uplifted in the gloom
The bleeding stumps, that they with gory spots
Sullied his face, and cried--"Remember thee
Of Mosca too--I who, alas! exclaim'd
'The deed once done, there is an end'--that proved
A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race."

CARY'S _Dante_.

This Italian prove