With that fair art endowed, whereby the mind
From heaven that bringeth, Nature doth outvie,
And with itself all being occupy,
If I thereto was born nor deaf nor blind,
Proportionate to heat that I desire,
’Tis fault of him who made for me the fire.
It is well to know that Cavalieri seems to have had a modest and noble nature, and that his personal attachment and artistic appreciation soothed the declining days of Michelangelo, at whose end he was present.
The mention of Michelangelo himself (Lettere, No. 466; Symonds, Life, vol. ii, p. 130) seems to prove that this sonnet was really composed for his young friend. But it is one thing to conclude that the piece was addressed to Cavalieri, quite another to suppose that it was inspired by him. The ideas are the same as those elsewhere appearing in reference to women. The composition does not appear to me one of the most original, and I should be disposed to regard it as ordinary love verse, into which, out of compliment, the writer had introduced the punning allusion. In any case, it is to be observed that in the Platonic compositions treating of male friendship, the whole argument is metaphorical, the comparisons being[76] borrowed from the earlier poetry of sexual love.
Fundamental is the question, What proportion of Michelangelo’s verse was intended to relate to men, and how far can such verse, if existent, be taken to imply that he had no separate way of feeling for women? The opinions of Mr. Symonds have already been cited (see note to No. 6 [XX]). In noticing Michelangelo’s use of the idiomatic Tuscan word signore, lord, as applied in the sonnets to female persons as well as male (the English liege may similarly be used), he says, “But that Michelangelo by the signore always or frequently meant a woman can be disproved in many ways. I will only adduce the fragment of one sonnet” (No. LXXXIII). It is a pity that Mr. Symonds did not enter into detail; I am quite at a loss for any circumstances that can be held to warrant his declaration. For the word, the sonnets only afford information. No. XVI, containing the words signior mie car, is a variant of No. XV, expressly addressed to a lady. In No. XXII, no one will doubt that the reference is to a woman. In No. XXXV the sex is shown by the epithet leggiadre, fair, applied to the arms (Mr. Symonds renders “fragile”). No. XXXVII qualifies signor by donna. No. LV treats of the shyness of a lady in presence of[77] her lover. In No. XL, instead of signior, the variant gives donna. No. XLVII seems obviously addressed to Vittoria Colonna. In No. XXXVI, the feminine application appears to be indicated by the description of the sovereign person as reigning nella casa d’amore. Thus in not a single instance can the suggestion of Mr. Symonds be accepted.
There remains the fragment mentioned, No. LXXXIII, a beautiful and interesting piece, unhappily imperfect. “Yonder it was that Love (amor; variant, signior), his mercy, took my heart, rather my life; here with beauteous eyes he promised me aid, and with the same took it away. Yonder he bound me, here he loosed me; here for myself I wept, and with infinite grief saw issue from this stone him who took me from myself, and of me would none.” It will be seen that the masculine pronoun is rendered necessary by the reference to personified Love, and that the allusion is clearly to sexual passion. Mr. Symonds has not entirely comprehended the scope of the fragment. The mystical description of Love as issuing from a stone (sasso) may probably be an application of the familiar sculpturesque metaphor.