uld have entailed the bankruptcy and death of
all:--

_So that high heaven should have not to distrain
From several that vast beauty ne'er yet shown,
To one exalted dame alone
The total sum was lent in her pure self:--
Heaven had made sorry gain,
Recovering from the crowd its scattered pelf.
Now in a puff of breath,
Nay, in one second, God
Hath ta'en her back through death,
Back from the senseless folk and from our eyes.
Yet earth's oblivious sod,
Albeit her body dies,
Will bury not her live words fair and holy.
Ah, cruel mercy! Here thou showest solely
How, had heaven lent us ugly what she took,
And death the debt reclaimed, all men were broke_.

Without disputing the fact that a very sincere emotion underlay these
verses, it must be submitted that, in the words of Samuel Johnson
about "Lycidas," "he who thus grieves will excite no sympathy; he who
thus praises will confer no honour." This conviction will be enforced
when we reflect that the thought upon which the madrigal above
translated has been woven (1547) had been already used for Cecchino
dei Bracci in 1544. It is clear that, in dealing with Michelangelo's
poetical compositions, we have to accept a mass of conventional
utterances, penetrated with a few firmly grasped Platonical ideas. It
is only after long familiarity with his work that a man may venture to
distinguish between the accents of the heart and the head-notes in the
case of so great a master using an art he practised mainly as an
amateur. I shall have to return to these considerations when I discuss
the value of his poetry taken as a whole.

The union of Michelangelo and Vittoria was beautiful and noble, based
upon the sympathy of ardent and high-feeling natures. Nevertheless we
must remember that when Michelangelo lost his old servant Urbino, his
letters and the sonnet written upon that occasion express an even
deeper passion of grief.

Love is an all-embracing word, and may well be used to describe this
exalted attachment, as also to qualify the great sculptor's affection
for a faithful servant or for a charming friend. We ought not,
however, to distort the truth of biography or to corrupt criticism,
from a personal wish to make more out of his feeling than fact and
probability warrant. This is what has been done by all who approached
the study of Michelangelo's life and writings. Of late years, the
determination to see Vittoria Colonna through every line w