BENEDICTUS

'VII. _TO LUIGI DEL RICCIO._ _Nel dolce d' una._ It happens that the sweet unfathomed sea Of seeming courtesy sometimes doth hide Offence to life and honour. This descried, I hold less dear the health restored to me. He who lends wings of hope, while secretly He spreads a traitorous snare by the wayside, Hath dulled the flame of love, and mortified Friendship where friendship burns most fervently. Keep then, my dear Luigi, clear and pure That ancient love to which my life I owe, That neither wind nor storm its calm may mar. For wrath and pain our gratitude obscure; And if the truest truth of love I know, One pang outweighs a thousand pleasures far'; 'X. TO GANDOLFO PORRINO. _ON HIS MISTRESS FAUSTINA MANCINA._ _La nuova alta beltà._ That new transcendent fair who seems to be Peerless in heaven as in this world of woe, (The common folk, too blind her worth to know And worship, called her Left Arm wantonly), Was made, full well I know, for only thee: Nor could I carve or paint the glorious show Of that fair face: to life thou needs must go, To gain the favour thou dost crave of me. If like the sun each star of heaven outshining, She conquers and outsoars our soaring thought, This bids thee rate her worth at its real price. Therefore to satisfy thy ceaseless pining, Once more in heaven hath God her beauty wrought: God and not I can people Paradise'.