“By that of Divine Love, who accompanies me.”
“What is thy office?”
“I was once an Artist in a certain allegory, and must still be the same.”
“Artist?”
“Yes, since I came to retouch a figure of mine which an error has blotted.”
“Since thou art a painter thou canst do me a favor.…”
“What is it?”
The World then informs him that there is a certain Spouse who has been carried away from her husband, and is now in the power of a Tyrant, who is endeavoring to force her to accompany him to another world, the seat of his rule.
The Artist weeps, because he remembers his own Spouse, whose fate is similar to that of this one.
The world begs the Artist to make a portrait of this fair disconsolate one, that he (the World) may wear it on his breast.