I remember that Madonna returned to the matter of the deception that I had practised, seeking to learn what reasons had impelled me, and I answered her in all truth.
"Madonna mia, I think it must have been to win your love.

When Giovanni Sforza bade me, with many a threat, to write those verses, I undertook the task with ready gladness, for in its performance I was to pour out the tale of the passion that was consuming my poor heart.

It occurred to me that if those verses were worthy, you might come to love their author for their beauty, and so I strove to render them beautiful.

It was the same spirit urged me to don the Lord Giovanni's armour and fight in that splendid if futile skirmish.

Even as you had come to love the author for his verses, so might you come to love the warrior for his valour.