higher claims than art; but he
adds that the expedient was not necessary: "for these sonnets do not
refer to masculine love, nor yet do any others. In the first (xxxi.)
the lady is compared to an armed knight, because she carries the
weapons of her sex and beauty; and while I think on it, an example
occurs to my mind from Messer Cino in support of the argument. As
regards the second (lxii.), those who read these pages of mine will
possibly remember that Michelangelo, writing of the dead Vittoria
Colonna, called her _amico;_ and on reflection, this sounds better
than _amica,_ in the place where it occurs. Moreover, there are not
wanting in these poems instances of the term signore, or lord, applied
to the beloved lady; which is one of the many periphrastical
expressions used by the Romance poets to indicate their mistress." It
is true that Cino compares his lady in one sonnet to a knight who has
carried off the prize of beauty in the lists of love and grace by her
elegant dancing. But he never calls a lady by the name of _cavaliere._
It is also indubitable that the Tuscans occasionally addressed the
female or male object of their adoration under the title of _signore,_
lord of my heart and soul. But such instances weigh nothing against
the direct testimony of a contemporary like Varchi, into whose hands
Michelangelo's poems came at the time of their composition, and who
was well acquainted with the circumstances of their composition. There
is, moreover, a fact of singular importance bearing on this question,
to which Signor Guasti has not attached the value it deserves. In a
letter belonging to the year 1549, Michelangelo thanks Luca Martini
for a copy of Varchi's commentary on his sonnet, and begs him to
express his affectionate regards and hearty thanks to that eminent
scholar for the honour paid him. In a second letter addressed to G.F.
Fattucci, under date October 1549, he conveys "the thanks of Messer
Tomao de' Cavalieri to Varchi for a certain little book of his which
has been printed, and in which he speaks very honourably of himself,
and not less so of me." In neither of these letters does Michelangelo
take exception to Varchi's interpretation of Sonnet xxxi. Indeed, the
second proves that both he and Cavalieri were much pleased with it.
Michelangelo even proceeds to inform Fattucci that Cavalieri "has
given me a sonnet which I made for him in those same years, begging me
to send it on as a proof and witness that