been intended. Michelangelo the younger has only left one line, the
second, untouched in his _rifacimento_. Instead of the last words he
gives _un cuor di virtù armato_, being over-scrupulous for his
great-uncle's reputation.

XXXII. Written at the foot of a letter addressed by Giuliano Bugiardini
the painter, from Florence, to M.A. in Rome, August 5, 1532. This then
is probably the date of the composition.

XXXIV. The metaphor of fire, flint, and mortar breaks down in the last
line, where M.A. forgets that gold cannot strike a spark from stone.

XXXV. Line 9 has the word _Signor_. It is almost certain that where
M.A. uses this word without further qualification in a love sonnet, he
means his mistress. I have sometimes translated it 'heart's lord' or
'loved lord,' because I did not wish to merge the quaintness of this
ancient Tuscan usage in the more commonplace 'lady.'

XXXVI. Line 3: _the lord, etc_. This again is the poet's mistress. The
drift of the sonnet is this: his soul can find no expression but
through speech, and speech is too gross to utter the purity of his
feeling. His mistress again receives his tongue's message with her
ears; and thus there is an element of sensuality, false and alien to
his intention, both in his complaint and in her acceptation of it. The
last line is a version of the proverb: _chi è avvezzo a dir bugie, non
crede a nessuno_.

XXXVII. At the foot of the sonnet is written _Mandato_. The two last
lines play on the words _signor_ and _signoria_. To whom it was sent we
do not know for certain; but we may conjecture Vittoria Colonna.