Note 1. The first eight lines of D. G. Rossetti’s translation of this sonnet are as follows:—
“Two ladies to the summit of my mind
Have clomb, to hold an argument of love;
The one has wisdom with her from above,
For every noblest virtue well design’d;
The other beauty’s tempting power refined
And the high charm of perfect grace approve:
And I, as my sweet Master’s will doth move,
At feet of both their favours am reclined.”
The expression, “the summit of my mind,” may, perhaps, appear to some to be rather prosaic, but Rossetti seems to have taken it from Lyell’s blank-verse rendering of this sonnet, published nearly fifty years ago, beginning—
“Two ladies on the summit of my mind
Their station take, to hold discourse of love.”
Mr. Lyell was a friend, it will be remembered, of Rossetti’s father. The third and fourth lines of this sonnet in the original are—
“L’una ha in sè cortesia e valore,
Prudenzia ed onestate ’n compagnia.”
None of Rossetti’s translations have been included in this volume, as the permission of the publishers could not be obtained. [back]
