ily forget your name as the food by which
I live; nay, it were easier to forget the food, which only nourishes
my body miserably, than your name, which nourishes both body and soul,
filling the one and the other with such sweetness that neither
weariness nor fear of death is felt by me while memory preserves you
to my mind. Think, if the eyes could also enjoy their portion, in what
condition I should find myself."

This second letter has also been extremely laboured; for we have three
other turns given in its drafts to the image of food and memory. That
these two documents were really addressed to Cavalieri, without any
thought of Vittoria Colonna, is proved by three letters sent to
Michelangelo by the young man in question. One is dated August 2,
1533, another September 2, and the third bears no date. The two which
I have mentioned first belong to the summer of 1533; the third seems
to be the earliest. It was clearly written on some occasion when both
men were in Rome together, and at the very beginning of their
friendship. I will translate them in their order. The first undated
letter was sent to Michelangelo in Rome, in answer to some writing of
the illustrious sculptor which we do not possess:--

"I have received from you a letter, which is the more acceptable
because it was so wholly unexpected. I say unexpected, because I hold
myself unworthy of such condescension in a man of your eminence. With
regard to what Pierantonio spoke to you in my praise, and those things
of mine which you have seen, and which you say have aroused in you no
small affection for me, I answer that they were insufficient to impel
a man of such transcendent genius, without a second, not to speak of a
peer, upon this earth, to address a youth who was born but yesterday,
and therefore is as ignorant as it is possible to be. At the same time
I cannot call you a liar. I rather think then, nay, am certain, that
the love you bear me is due to this, that you being a man most
excellent in art, nay, art itself, are forced to love those who follow
it and love it, among whom am I; and in this, according to my
capacity, I yield to few. I promise you truly that you shall receive
from me for your kindness affection equal, and perhaps greater, in
exchange; for I never loved a man more than I do you, nor desired a
friendship more than I do yours. About this, though my judgment may
fail in other things, it is unerring; and you shall see the proof,
except on