[50] "Dietro al mio legno, che cantando varca."--_Dante._
[51] Michel Angelo lived until the beginning of the year 1564, the
seventieth after the death of Luigia de' Medici.
[52] In the Florentine style, 1474. The Florentine year began at Easter.
[53] Michel Angelo was the fourth and last of the sons of Ludovico.
[54] The Platonic Academy was established at Florence in 1474.
Politiano's death, twenty years later, was the cause of its entire
dispersion.
[55] "But, perhaps, thy compassion regards with more justice than I
thought in the beginning, my pure and loyal ardour, and the passion
which thy looks have kindled in me for noble actions.
"Oh, most happy day! if it ever arrive for me, let my days and hours
concentrate themselves in that moment! and, to prolong it, let the sun
forget his accustomed course!"
[56] He was born in 1475.
[57] The first sonnet of the collection; that commencing with the
celebrated proposition--
"_Non ha l'ottimo artista alcun concetto._"
[58]
"Dal mortale al divin non vanno gli occhi
Che sono infermi." * * * *
[59]
"Veggendo ne tuo' occhi il Paradiso,
Per ritornar la dove io t'amai pria,
Ricorro ardendo sotto le tue ciglia."
[60]
"Non so se e' _l'immaginata luce_
Del suo primo Fattor che l'alma sente,
O se dalla memoria. * * *
Alcuna altra bella nel cor traluce,
* * * * * * *
_Del tuo primiero stato il raggio ardente_
Di se lasciando un non so che cocente." * * *
[61]
"La buona coscienza che l'uom franchigia,
Sotto l'usbergo di sentirsi pura."--_Dante._
[62] "To what am I reserved?" writes Angelo in another piece. "To live
long? that terrifies me. The shortest life is yet too long for the
recompense obtained in serving with devotion."
[63] "Ahi, che null altro che pianto al mondo dura!"--_Petrarca._
[64] "_Ogni altro ben val men ch'una mia doglia!_"
[65]
* * * * "Chi t'ama con fede
Si leva a Dio, e fa dolce la morte."