Bernardo Dovizi

Bernardo Dovizi or Bibbiena (August 4, 1470 – November 9, 1520) was an Italian cardinal and comedy-writer, known best as "Cardinal Bibbiena", for the town Bibbiena, where he was born.

La Calandria (c. 1507)

 * L’uomo mai un disegno non fa, che la fortuna un altro non ne faccia.
 * Act I, scene I. — (Fessenio).
 * Translation: Man never makes a plan but fortune makes another.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 338.


 * Un buon servo non dee mai avere ozio.
 * Act I, scene I. — (Fessenio).
 * Translation: A good servant should never have any leisure.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 431.


 * A donna non si può credere, eziam poi che è morta.
 * Act I, scene II. — (Polinico).
 * Translation: You cannot believe a woman, even when she is dead.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 241.


 * Egli è meglio perdere, dicendo il vero, che vincere con le bugie.
 * Act I, scene II. — (Polinico).
 * Translation: It is better to speak the truth, and lose, than to win by lying.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 298.


 * (Che) bel fin fa chi ben amando muore.
 * Act I, scene II. — (Lidio).
 * Translation: Fair is his end who loving well doth die.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 254.


 * Non può essere superiore di consigli, chi è inferiore di costumi.
 * Act I, scene II. — (Polinico).
 * Translation: He cannot be the better in counsels who is the worse in morals.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 377.


 * Non può il vitello, e vuol che porti il hue.
 * Act I, scene II. — (Fesserio).
 * Translation: He cannot manage the calf, and wants to carry the ox.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 377.


 * Un padrone, quanti ha più servi, tanti più ha inimici.
 * Act I, scene II. — (Polinico).
 * Translation: The more servants a master has, the more enemies he has.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 432.


 * Chi ha amore in seno sempre ha i sproni in fiance.
 * Act II, scene VII — (Samia).
 * Translation: He who has love in his breast has ever the spurs at his flanks.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 264.


 * Chi scappa d’un punto ne schifa cento.
 * Act IV, scene IV. — (Fannio).
 * Translation: Who flies from one danger escapes a hundred.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 271.


 * La donna è sopra la pecunia, come il sol sopra il ghiaccio, che del continue lo strugge e consume.
 * Act V, scene I. — (Samia).
 * Translation: Woman over money is like the sun upon ice, which is all the time: melting and consuming it.
 * Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 340.