. It is dated Rome, 1545. Vittoria had evidently
sent him poems, and he wishes to make her a return in kind: "I
desired, lady, before I accepted the things which your ladyship has
often expressed the will to give me--I desired to produce something
for you with my own hand, in order to be as little as possible
unworthy of this kindness. I have now come to recognise that the grace
of God is not to be bought, and that to keep it waiting is a grievous
sin. Therefore I acknowledge my error, and willingly accept your
favours. When I possess them, not indeed because I shall have them in
my house, but for that I myself shall dwell in them, the place will
seem to encircle me with Paradise. For which felicity I shall remain
ever more obliged to your ladyship than I am already, if that is
possible.

"The bearer of this letter will be Urbino, who lives in my service.
Your ladyship may inform him when you would like me to come and see
the head you promised to show me."

This letter is written under the autograph copy of a sonnet which must
have been sent with it, since it expresses the same thought in its
opening quatrain. My translation of the poem runs thus:

_Seeking at least to be not all unfit
For thy sublime and-boundless courtesy,
My lowly thoughts at first were fain to try
What they could yield for grace so infinite.
But now I know my unassisted wit
Is all too weak to make me soar so high,
For pardon, lady, for this fault I cry,
And wiser still I grow, remembering it.
Yea, well I see what folly 'twere to think
That largess dropped from thee like dews from heaven
Could e'er be paid by work so frail as mine!
To nothingness my art and talent sink;
He fails who from his mortal stores hath given
A thousandfold to match one gift divine_.

Michelangelo's next letter refers to the design for the Crucified
Christ, described by Condivi. It is pleasant to find that this was
sent by the hand of Cavalieri: "Lady Marchioness,--Being myself in
Rome, I thought it hardly fitting to give the Crucified Christ to
Messer Tommaso, and to make him an intermediary between your ladyship
and me, your servant; especially because it has been my earnest wish
to perform more for you than for any one I ever knew upon the world.
But absorbing occupations, which still engage me, have prevented my
informing your ladyship of this. Moreover, knowing that you know that
love needs no taskmaster,