Note 5. This sonnet is so insipid, so untrue to Cellini’s real place in
art, so false to the far from saintly character of the man, that I would
rather have declined translating it, had I not observed it to be a good
example of that technical and conventional insincerity which was
invading Italy at this epoch. Varchi was really sorry to hear the news
of Cellini’s death; but for his genuine emotion he found spurious
vehicles of utterance. Cellini, meanwhile, had a right to prize it,
since it revealed to him what friendship was prepared to utter after his
decease.