My pen was never dipped in gall.
Aucun fiel n’a jamais empoisonné ma plume.
Original text (French)
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Notes from Wikiquote
Cp. Ovid, Tristia, II, 563 | Non ego mordaci destrinxi carmine quenquam,
Nec meus ullius crimina versus habet.
Candidus a salibus suffusis felle refugi:
Nulla venenato littera mixta joco est. | I never wounded soul with verse of mine,
Nor do my works a single charge contain:
My pen is free of gall, and not a line
Breathes poison, tho’ conveyed in joking strain.