Page:A History of Italian Literature - Garnett (1898).djvu/211

Rh This knows the admiring worlds and this the Sun, That did with envy and amazement see His equal course with equal glory run Wide earth around; which now accomplished, he, From heaven observant of the world he won, Smiling inquires, 'And toiled I thus for thee?' "

(1500–56) emulated Caro in the nobility of his style, which would scarcely have been expected, considering the licentious character of some of his verse and his ecclesiastical profession. He does, however, sometimes attain a dignity and gravity which, apart from the beauty of his diction, lift him high out of the crowd of Petrarchists; nor are his themes invariably amorous. His Galateo, a treatise on politeness, has earned him the name of the Italian Chesterfield. He would have attained greater eminence as a man of letters but for the distractions of politics and business, which he deplores in the following sonnet:

(1507–91), already noticed as an historian, is another example of a writer of sonnets who