Giunto è già 'l corso della vita mia Con tempestoso mar' per fragil barca Al comun porto, ov'a render' si varca Conto e ragion' d'ogni opra trista e pia. Onde l'affetuosa fantasia, Che l'arte mi fece idolo e monarca, Conosco or' ben' quant'era d'error' carca, E quel ch'a mal suo grado ognun' desia. Gli amorosi pensier' già vani e lieti Che sien'or', s'a due morti mi avvicino? D'una so certo, e l'altra mi minaccia. Nè pinger' nè scolpir' sia più che quieti L'anima volta a quello Amor Divino Ch'aperse a prender' noi in Croce le braccia. Whereby it was evident that he was drawing towards God, abandoning the cares of art on account of the persecution of his malignant fellow-craftsmen, and also through the fault of certain overseers of the fabric, who would have liked, as he used to say, to dip their hands in the chest. By order of Duke Cosimo, a reply was written to Michelagnolo by Vasari in a letter of few words, exhorting him to repatriate himself, with a sonnet corresponding in the rhymes. Michelagnolo would willingly have left Rome, but he was so weary and aged, that although, as will be told below, he was determined to go back, while the spirit was willing the flesh was weak, and that kept him in Rome. It happened in June of the year 1557, he having made a model for the vault that was to cover the apse, which was being built of travertine in the Chapel of the King, that, from his not being able to go there as he had been wont, an error arose, in that the capomaestro took the measurements over the whole body of the vault with one single centre, whereas there should have been a great number; and Michelagnolo, as the friend and confidant of Vasari, sent him designs by his own hand, with these words written at the foot of two of them: "The centre marked with red was used by the capomaestro over the body of the whole vault; then, when he began to pass to the half-circle, which is at the summit of the vault, he became aware of the error which that centre was producing, as may be seen here in the design, marked in black. With this error the vault has gone so far forward, that we have to displace a great number of stones, for in that vault there is being placed no brick-work, but all travertine, and the diameter of the circle, without the cornice that borders it, is twenty-two palms. This error, after I had made an exact model, as I do of everything, has been caused by my not being able, on account of my old age, to go there often; so that, whereas I believed that the vault was now finished, it will not be finished all this winter, and, if it were possible to die of shame and grief, I should not be alive now. I pray you account to the Duke for my not being at this moment in Florence." [Illustration: S. PETER'S (_After =Michelagnolo=. Rome_) _Alinari_] And continuing in the other design, where he had drawn the plan, he said this: "MESSER GIORGIO,