up a rough sketch of a
will, which I will send you by the next courier if I am able, and you
can tell me what you think." The will provided that Gismondo and
Lionardo Buonarroti should be his joint-heirs, without the power of
dividing the property. This practically left Lionardo his sole heir
after Gismondo's life-tenancy of a moiety. It does not, however, seem
to have been executed, for Michelangelo died intestate. Probably, he
judged it simplest to allow Lionardo to become his heir-general by the
mere course of events. At the same time, he now displayed more than
his usual munificence in charity. Lionardo was frequently instructed
to seek out a poor and gentle family, who were living in decent
distress, _poveri vergognosi_, as the Italians called such persons.
Money was to be bestowed upon them with the utmost secrecy; and the
way which Michelangelo proposed, was to dower a daughter or to pay for
her entrance into a convent. It has been suggested that this method of
seeking to benefit the deserving poor denoted a morbid tendency in
Michelangelo's nature; but any one who is acquainted with Italian
customs in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance must be aware that
nothing was commoner than to dower poor girls or to establish them in
nunneries by way of charity. Urbino, for example, by his will bound
his executors to provide for the marriage of two honest girls with a
dowry of twenty florins apiece within the space of four years from his
death.

The religious sonnets, which are certainly among the finest of
Michelangelo's compositions, belong to this period. Writing to Vasari
on the 10th of September 1554, he begins: "You will probably say that
I am old and mad to think of writing sonnets; yet since many persons
pretend that I am in my second childhood, I have thought it well to
act accordingly." Then follows this magnificent piece of verse, in
which the sincerest feelings of the pious heart are expressed with a
sublime dignity:--

_Now hath my life across a stormy sea,
Like a frail bark, reached that wide fort where all
Are bidden, ere the final reckoning fall
Of good and evil for eternity.
Now know I well how that fond phantasy
Which made my soul the worshipper and thrall
Of earthly art is vain; how criminal
Is that which all men seek unwillingly.
Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed,
What are they when the double death is nigh?
The one I know f