Aelia Laelia Crispis: Not Born, Rising Again

...And although envious fate original: "fors invida" impiously stood in the way, when with cursed daring, the wicked hand of a villainous thief did not hesitate to snatch it away, you did not long allow me to live deprived of such splendor, or to waste away almost entirely with intolerable anguish. An Italian poem concerning that sacrilegious crime, which my anger and sorrow had dictated with a rushing Muse, was most humbly offered to You through the famous Le Brun Charles Le Brun (1619–1690), the dominant figure in 17th-century French art and director of the Academy., truly the Apelles Apelles of Kos was the most famous painter of ancient Greece; this comparison identifies Le Brun as the greatest artist of the modern era. of our age. You received it kindly, and once received, you presented it to the KING. Having thus obtained a new gift, you prove the singular magnanimity of our Hero [the King], which—like the Elysian Tree A reference to a mythical or paradisiacal tree that remains eternally fruitful; here, it symbolizes the King's inexhaustible generosity.—is never lacking in precious branches, and you ordered it to be sent to me once again.

While, therefore, I receive this second Image of our Monarch, which is encircled by a double ring of diamonds brighter than the stars themselves and crowned with a diadem—radiating more than the SUN itself, which represents the KING, or more truly...