CARDINAL BEMBO AND HIS VILLA 



volous pursuit, unworthy of a modest and honourable 

 lady. " Besides which," he adds, "you will never play 

 well, unless you devote ten or twelve years to this 

 exercise, which you know would be impossible. And 

 if you play badly, your music will bring you little 

 pleasure and much disgrace. So give up this foolish 

 desire, and tell your companions that you are not 

 going to learn the clavichord for them to laugh at 

 you." l 



On his seventy-first birthday May 20, 1541 

 Bembo wrote to Cola, thanking him for all his loving 

 care of the children, and rejoicing to hear that Elena 

 was writing Latin verses and learning grammar, and 

 that Torquato showed some taste for antiques, the sure 

 sign of a gentle nature. " This month he enters his 

 seventeenth year, and is no longer a child, but a man. 

 Elena, too, will be thirteen on the last day of June. 

 Tell me if she is growing up as tall and beautiful 

 as she promised to be. For certainly there is nothing 

 dearer in the world to me, or that I love half as 

 well as I do this child." That summer was spent 

 by Torquato and Elena with Cola at the Villa, where 

 they were as merry as crickets. " I am glad," wrote 

 the Cardinal, "to hear that you are staying longer 

 than usual at my Villetta, especially for Elena's sake, 

 for this is one of the two seasons of the year when 



1 Lettere, iv. 105, 107. 



161 L 



