“All Rome is pleased when Statius will rehearse, And longing crowds expect the promised verse; His lofty numbers with so great a gust They hear, and swallow with such eager lust: But while the common suffrage crowned his cause, And broke the benches with their loud applause, His Muse had starved, had not a piece unread, And by a player bought, supplied her bread.”

Dante shows his admiration of him by placing him here. ↩