CANTO 39
"Change my view of life & love & become a transcendent person My brother, Gherardo retired to a monastery afflicted by his memory of a woman, known to be more liberal in her affections than my Laura And the death of Robert, 1343 C.E. King of Naples, my benefactor And my mission for the Pope to tally the value of His Holiness's property in a claim of regency over Giovanna's, who is Bob's 16 yr old daughter. I'm a brown-noser, sucking up to these Overlords- but my commissions allow me time to write, garden, meditate Yet, how desolate the State, the Hungarian faction in control, a vile and deceitful monk in charge, Roberto and the Queen Dowager, a cypher. A mournful silence reigns in the public assemblies, and in private they converse in
whispers...the least gesture, punished, and to think is denounced as a crime. Rome grows old; but not its hero."