_Here the Fifth Charles reposes, at whose name Eyes of superbest monarchs seek the ground, Whom Story’s tongue and Honour’s trump resound, Quelling all loudest blasts of meaner fame. How hosts and legioned chiefs he overcame, Kings, but for him invincible, discrowned, Swayed realms beyond Imagination’s bound, And his own mightier soul did rule and tame-- This knows the admiring world, 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?'_ GIOVANNI DELLA CASA (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: _To woodland fount or solitary cave In sunlit hour I plained my amorous teen; Or wove by light of Luna’s lamp serene My song, while yet to song and love I clave; Nor by thy side the sacred steep to brave Refused, where rarely now is climber seen; But cares and tasks ungrateful intervene, And like the weed I drift upon the wave. And idly thus my barren hours are spent In realms of fountain and of laurel void, Where but vain tinsel is accounted blest. Forgive, then, if not wholly unalloyed My pleasure to behold thee eminent On pinnacle no other foot hath prest._ ANGELO DI COSTANZO (1507-91), already noticed as an historian, is another example of a writer of sonnets who rose from the crowd by the individuality which he contrived to impress upon his performances. His great characteristic is an exquisite elegance, not, as in some other instances, veiling inanity, but usually the accompaniment of something well worth saying. The following piece is a good instance of his power of enhancing, by ingenious embellishment, a thought interesting and attractive in itself: