that warms the world where'er you go,
O Febo, light eterne for mortal eyes!
Why dark to me alone, elsewhere not so?_

These verses seem to have been written as part of a long Capitolo
which Michelangelo himself, the elder, used indifferently in
addressing Febo and his abstract "donna." Who Febo was, we do not
know. But the sincere accent of the letter and the lyric cry of the
rough lines leave us to imagine that he was some one for whom
Michelangelo felt very tenderly in Florence.

Milanesi prints this letter to Febo with the following title, "_A Febo
(di Poggio)_." This proves that he at any rate knew it had been
answered by some one signing "Febo di Poggio." The autograph, in an
illiterate hand and badly spelt, is preserved among the Buonarroti
Archives, and bears date January 14, 1534. Febo excuses himself for
not having been able to call on Michelangelo the night before he left
Florence, and professes to have come the next day and found him
already gone. He adds that he is in want of money, both to buy clothes
and to go to see the games upon the Monte. He prays for a gratuity,
and winds up: "Vostro da figliuolo (yours like a son), Febo di
Poggio." I will add a full translation here:--

"Magnificent M. Michelangelo, to be honoured as a father,--I came back
yesterday from Pisa, whither I had gone to see my father. Immediately
upon my arrival, that friend of yours at the bank put a letter from
you into my hands, which I received with the greatest pleasure, having
heard of your well-being. God be praised, I may say the same about
myself. Afterwards I learned what you say about my being angry with
you. You know well I could not be angry with you, since I regard you
in the place of a father. Besides, your conduct toward me has not been
of the sort to cause in me any such effect. That evening when you left
Florence, in the morning I could not get away from M. Vincenzo, though
I had the greatest desire to speak with you. Next morning I came to
your house, and you were already gone, and great was my disappointment
at your leaving Florence without my seeing you.

"I am here in Florence; and when you left, you told me that if I
wanted anything, I might ask it of that friend of yours; and now that
M. Vincenzo is away, I am in want of money, both to clothe myself, and
also to go to the Monte, to see those people fighting, for M. Vincenzo
is there. Accordingly, I went to visit that friend at the bank, and he
told me