His father, a jurist of eminence, bred him for the law.

But the attractions of poetry and pleasure were irresistible by this mobile son of the warm South-- La lusinga del Genio in me prevalse, E la toga deposta, altrui lascisi Parolette smaltir mendaci e false.
Ne dubbi testi interpretar curai, Ne discordi accordar chiose mi calse, Quella stimando sol perfetta legge Che de'sensi sfrenati il fren corregge.
Legge omai piu non v' ha la qual per dritto Punisca il fallo o ricompensi il merto.
Sembra quando e fin qui deciso e scritto D'opinion confuse abisso incerto.
Dalle calumnie il litigante afflitto Somiglia in vasto mar legno inesperto, Reggono il tutto con affetto ingordo, Passion cieca ed interesse sordo.
[Footnote 186: Telesio, Bruno, Campanella, Salvator Rosa, Vico, were, like Marino, natives of the Regno.] Such, in the poet's maturity, was his judgment upon law; and probably he expressed the same opinion with frankness in his youth.

Seeing these dispositions in his son, the severe parent cast him out of doors, and young Marino was free to indulge vagabond instincts with lazzaroni and loose companions on the quays and strands of Naples.

In that luxurious climate a healthy native, full of youth and vigor, needs but little to support existence.

Marino set his wits to work, and reaped too facile laurels in the fields of Venus and the Muses.