Abstract: “L’amara partenza” is a poem which reflects the incarceration of beggars in the hospital of San Sisto in Rome. Its author (probably a cantimbanco) does not simply represent the various types of pauper but dramatizes them in dialogues which creates an almost theatrical aspect. More than a testimonial to real practices faithfully reported by the author, the text perpetuates the commonplaces typical of the representations of the fake beggar in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
