and sonnet in honor of the fair
Donati. But she was indeed a divinity rather than a friend, and his
oft-expressed delight in her many charms was rather intellectual than
emotional and passionate. She becomes for him, in truth, a very sun of
blazing beauty, which he looks upon to admire, but the fire of the lover
is entirely wanting. While it was no such mystic attachment as that
professed by Dante for Beatrice, it no doubt resembles it from certain
points of view, as, in each case, the lover has little actual
acquaintance with the object of his affections. But there this
comparison must end, for it has been explained how Dante derived a
certain moral and spiritual benefit from his early brooding love, and in
the more modern instance nothing of the kind is apparent. On the
contrary, everything seems to show that Lorenzo was at an age when his
"fancy lightly turned to thoughts of love," and, being of a poetic
temperament, he amused himself by writing amorous poetry which came from
the head and not the heart. The characteristic traits of this poetry,
then, are grace and elegance, sonority and rhythm; it lacks sincerity
and that impetuous flow of sentiment which is generally indicative of
intense feeling. It cannot be denied, however, that he often reached a
high plane; perhaps the following lines show him at his best:

"Quale sopra i nevosi ed alti monti
Apollo spande il suo bel lume adorno,
Tal' i crin suoi sopra la bianca gonna!
Il tempo e'l luogo non ch'io conti,
Che dov'e si bel sole e sempre giorno;
E Paradiso, ov'e si bella Donna!"

[As Apollo sheds his golden beams over the snowy summits of the lofty
mountains, so flowed her golden tresses over her gown of white. But I
need not note the time and place, for where shines so fair a sun it can
be naught but day, and where dwells my lady fair can be but Paradise!]

While still preoccupied with what Mrs. Jameson terms his visions of love
and poetry, he was called upon by his father, at the age of twenty-one,
to marry, for political reasons, a woman whom he had never seen--Clarice
Orsini. That the marriage was unexpected is attested by a note in his
diary to this effect: "I, Lorenzo, took to wife, Donna Clarice Orsini,
or rather she was given to me," on such and such a day. The ceremony was
performed in Naples, it appears, but the wedding festivities were
celebrated in Florence, and never was there a more brilliant scene in
all the city's histo