XXV. Written on the same sheet as the foregoing sonnet, and composed
probably in the same year. The thought is this: beauty passing from the
lady into the lover's soul, is there spiritualised and becomes the
object of a spiritual love.
XXVII. To escape from his lady, either by interposing another image of
beauty between the thought of her and his heart, or by flight, is
impossible.
XXVIII. Compare Madrigal VII. in illustration of lines 5 to 8. By the
analogy of that passage, I should venture to render lines 6 and 7 thus:
He made thee light, and me the eyes of art;
Nor fails my soul to find God's counterpart.
XXX. Varchi, quoting this sonnet in his _Lezione_, conjectures that it
was composed for Tommaso Cavalieri.
XXXI. Varchi asserts without qualification that this sonnet was
addressed to Tommaso Cavalieri. The pun in the last line, _Resto
prigion d'un Cavalier armato_, seems to me to decide the matter, though
Signor Guasti and Signor Gotti both will have it that a woman must have
been intended. Michelangelo the younger has only left one line, the
second, untouched in his _rifacimento_. Instead of the last words he
gives _un cuor di virtù armato_, being over-scrupulous for his
great-uncle's reputation.
XXXII. Written at the foot of a letter addressed by Giuliano Bugiardini
the painter, from Florence, to M.A. in Rome, August 5, 1532. This then
is probably the date of the composition.
XXXIV. The metaphor of fire, flint, and mortar breaks down in the last
line, where M.A. forgets that gold cannot strike a spark from stone.
XXXV. Line 9 has the word _Signor_. It is almost certain that where
M.A. uses this word without further qualification in a love sonnet, he
means his mistress. I have sometimes translated it 'heart's lord' or
'loved lord,' because I did not wish to merge the quaintness of this
ancient Tuscan usage in the more commonplace 'lady.'
XXXVI. Line 3: _the lord, etc_. This again is the poet's mistress. The
drift of the sonnet is this: his soul can find no expression but
through speech, and speech is too gross to utter the purity of his
feeling. His mistress again receives his tongue's message with her
ears; and thus there is an element of sensuality, false and alien to
his intention, both in his complaint and in her acceptation of it. The
last line is a version of the proverb: _chi è avvezzo a dir bugie, non
crede a nessuno_.
XXXVII. At the foot of the sonnet is written _Mandato_. The two last
lines play on the words _signor_ and _signoria_. To whom it was sent we
do not know for certain; but we may conjecture Vittoria Colonna.
XXXIX. The paper on which this sonnet is written has a memorandum with
the date January 6, 1529. 'On my return from Venice, I, Michelagniolo
Buonarroti, found in the house about five loads of straw,' etc. It
belongs therefore to the period of the siege of Florence, when M.A., as
is well known, fled for a short space to Venice. In line 12, I have
translated _il mie signiore, my lady_.
XL. No sonnet in the whole collection seems to have cost M.A. so much
trouble as this. Besides the two completed versions, which I have
rendered, there are several scores of rejected or various readings for
single lines in the MSS. The Platonic doctrine of Anamnesis probably
supplies the key to the thought which the poet attempted to work out.
XLI., XLII., XLIII., XLIV. There is nothing to prove that these four
sonnets on Night were composed in sequence. On the contrary, the
personal tone of XLI. seems to separate this from the other three.
XLIV. may be accepted as a palinode for XLIII.
XLV., XLVI. Both sonnets deal half humorously with a thought very
prominent in M.A.'s compositions--the effect of love on one who is old
in years. Cp. XLVIII., L.
XLVII. The Platonic conception that the pure form of Beauty or of
Truth, if seen, would be overwhelming in its brilliancy.
XLIX. The _dolcie pianto_ and _eterna pace_ are the tears and peace of
piety. The _doloroso riso_ and _corta pace_ are the smiles and
happiness of earthly love.