Note 370 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
In sonnet xlii. he says the arch of his age is passed:—
"Perchè passato è l' arco de' miei anni, E ritornar non posso al primo giorno; E l' ultimo già veggio s' avvicina."
Manicardi e Massera, op. cit., think this would mean he was thirty-five; but in my opinion it would mean he was already forty or forty-five. For according to an old writer of 1310 (Cod. Nazionale di Firenze, II, ii. 84), "They say the philosophers say there are four ages; they are adolescence, youth, age, and old age. The first lasts till twenty-five or thirty, the second till forty or forty-five, the third till fifty-five or sixty, the fourth till death. Cf. Della Torre, op. cit., p. 87. In sonnet lxiv. B. says he, growing grey,
"... ed ora ch' a imbiancare Cominci, di te stesso abbi mercede."