id Vittoria, who mourned
bitterly if somewhat theatrically over her departed hero. The Lady of the
Rock was now in her thirty-fifth year, and her beauty, so we are told,
still remained undimmed; in fact it was rather improved by a tendency
towards plumpness, for sorrow and poetry are not necessarily associated
with a meagre appearance. Spending her time partly in the great Italian
cities, but chiefly on her beloved _scoglio superbo_, the widow of Pescara
now set herself to write that series of sonnets in memory of her dead
husband which have rescued his unworthy name from oblivion and have
rendered her own famous in Italian literature. For the sonnets of Vittoria
Colonna, though appearing cold classical and pedantic to our northern
ideas, evidently appeal to the Italian temperament, so that the praises of
Pescara and his widow's stilted complaints, couched in the elegant
language of the Renaissance, are still read and appreciated to-day by her
compatriots. As time passed, and the ghost of sorrowful remorse was
supposed to be decently laid, the sonnets contain somewhat less of
hero-worship, and assume a religious and speculative character. Some
critics have even gone so far as to affect to perceive a latent spirit of
Protestantism underlying the graceful platitudes and commonplace but
grandly expressed ideas. Very likely the Lady of the Rock dabbled in the
fashionable heterodoxy of the hour, as it is at least certain that she was
on terms of intimacy with the celebrated Princess Renee, the "Protestant"
Duchess of Ferrara. On the other hand, several of her acquaintances and
correspondents were amongst the most prominent of the unyielding Churchmen
of the day; in their number being, it is interesting to note, Cardinal
Reginald Pole, great-nephew of King Edward IV. of England and afterwards
Queen Mary's Archbishop of Canterbury, who was certainly not likely to
encourage Vittoria's unorthodox or reforming tendencies. "The more
opportunity," so writes the poetess to Cardinal Cervino, afterwards Pope
Marcellus II., "I have had of observing the actions of his Eminence the
Cardinal of England, the more clear has it seemed to me that he is a true
and sincere servant of God. Whenever, therefore, he charitably condescends
to give me his opinion on any point, I conceive myself safe from error in
following his advice." And on the strength of Cardinal Pole's astute
counsels, Vittoria promptly broke off all communication with the leading