but it's that depressed state that he describes his writing of "the prince" to his old friend francesco vittori, probably the most famous letter written in the renaissance. it is a letter in which he talks about his day collecting wood to sell back to his own friends in florence and how they cheat him about catching birds to feed his family and how we spent the afternoon with an innkeeper, up butcher a miller into baker's gambling and they fight over their wages. and then at the end of the evening this famous passage about him returning home. when the evening comes i returned to my home and i go into my study and on the threshold i take off my everyday clothes which are covered with mud and mire. and i put on curio robes. i assume these were his old robes of office. interest in a more appropriate manner. i enter into the ancient courts of ancient men and am welcomed by them kindly. and there i taste the food that alone is mine and for which i was born. and there i am not ashamed to speak, to ask them their reasons for their actions and daythey, in their humanity, answer me and for four hours i