shall perceive thereby that thy love was feigned for her, which thou must now feign for another." And when he had spoken thus, all my imagining was gone suddenly, for it seemed to me that Love became a part of myself: so that, changed as it were in mine aspect, I rode on full of thought the whole of that day, and with heavy sighing. And the day being over, I wrote this sonnet :

A day agone, as I rode sullenly

Upon a certain path that liked me not,

I met Love midway while the air was hot,
Clothed lightly as a wayfarer might be.
And for the cheer he show'd, he seem'd to me
As one who hath lost lordship he had got;
Advancing tow'rds me full of sorrowful thought,
Bowing his forehead so that none should see.
Then as I went, he call'd me by my name,
Saying "I journey since the morn was dim
Thence where I made thy heart to be: which now
I needs must bear unto another dame."

Wherewith so much pass'd into me of him
That he was gone, and I discern'd not how.

This sonnet has three parts. In the first part, I tell how I met Love and of his aspect. In the second, I tell

quello ch' egli mi disse, avvegna che non compiutamente, per tema ch' io avea di non iscovrire lo mio segreto; nella terza dico com' egli disparve. La seconda comincia quivi : Quando mi vide;" la terza quivi: "Allora presi."

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Appresso la mia tornata, mi misi a cercare di questa donna, che lo mio signore m' avea nominata nel cammino de' sospiri. Ed acciò che il mio parlare sia più breve, dico che in poco tempo la feci mia difesa tanto, che troppa gente ne ragionava oltra li termini della cortesia; onde molte fiate mi pesava duramente. E per questa cagione, cioè di questa soverchievole voce, che parea che m' infamasse viziosamente, quella gentilissima, la quale fu distruggitrice di tutti i vizii e regina delle virtù, passando per alcuna parte mi negò il suo dolcissimo salutare, nel quale stava tutta la mia beatitudine. Ed uscendo alquanto del proposito presente, voglio dare ad intendere quello che il suo salutare in me virtuosamente operava.

what he said to me, although not in full, through the fear I had of discovering my secret. In the third, I say how he disappeared. The second part commences here," Then I went;" the third here," Wherewith so much.”

as

On my return, I set myself to seek out that lady whom my master had named to me while I journeyed / sighing. And because I would be brief, I will now narrate that in a short while I made her my surety, in such sort that the matter was spoken of by many in terms scarcely courteous; through the which I had oftenwhiles many troublesome hours. And by this. ́it happened (to wit: by this false and evil rumour which seemed to misfame me of vice), that she who was the destroyer of all evil and the queen of all good, coming where I was, denied me her most sweet salutation, in the which alone was my blessedness. And here it is fitting for me to depart a little from this present matter, that it may be rightly understood of what surpassing virtue her salutation was to me.

Dico che quando ella apparia da parte alcuna, per la speranza dell' ammirabile salute nullo nemico mi rimanea, anzi mi giungea una fiamma di caritade, la quale mi facea perdonare a chiunque m' avesse offeso : e chi allora m' avesse addimandato di cosa alcuna, la mia risponsione sarebbe stata solamente, "Amore," con viso vestito d' umiltà. E quando ella fosse alquanto propinqua al salutare, uno spirito d' Amore, distruggendo tutti gli altri spiriti sensitivi, pingea fuori i deboletti spiriti del viso, e dicea loro: "Andate ad onorare la donna vostra ; " ed egli si rimanea nel loco loro. E chi avesse voluto conoscere Amore, far lo potea mirando lo tremore degli occhi miei. E quando questa gentilissima donna salutava, non che Amore fosse tal mezzo, che potesse obumbrare a me la intollerabile beatitudine, ma egli quasi per soperchio di dolcezza divenia tale, che lo mio corpo, lo quale era tutto sotto il suo reggimento, molte volte si movea come cosa grave inanimata. Sicchè appare manifestamente che nella sua salute abitava la mia beatitudine, la quale molte volte passava e redundava la mia capacitade.

ness.

To the which end I say that when she appeared in any place, it seemed to me, by the hope of her excellent salutation, that there was no man mine enemy any longer; and such warmth of charity 、 came upon me that most certainly in that moment I would have pardoned whosoever had done me an injury; and if one should then have questioned me concerning any matter, I could only have said unto him "Love," with a countenance clothed in humbleAnd what time she made ready to salute me, the spirit of Love, destroying all other perceptions, thrust forth the feeble spirits of mine eyes, saying, "Do homage unto your mistress," and putting itself in their place to obey: so that he who would, might then have beheld Love, beholding the lids of mine eyes shake. And when this most gentle lady gave her salutation, Love, so far from being a medium beclouding mine intolerable beatitude, then bred in me such an overpowering sweetness that my body, being all subjected thereto, remained many times helpless and passive. Whereby it is made manifest that in her salutation alone was there any beatitude for me, which then very often went beyond my endurance.

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