It has previously been supposed that Lodge rendered in English Des Portes’ sonnet 34 from Diane, Book 1, twice. In the present paper I shall show that the first of these renderings was based on a madrigal in Watson's The First Sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished and shall try to interpret this fact.

Des Portes’ sonnet reads as follows:

Celuy que l'Amour range à son commandement
Change de jour en jour de façon differente;
Helas! j'en ay bien fait mainte preuve apparente,
Ayant esté par luy changé diversement.

The letter is preserved in MS. w 340 of the Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln, a volume of collected writings of the author, which is probably autograph and which I found in 1955. I hope to discuss the author, and especially his letters, in another study, and wish to thank Dr. H. Gerig of the Historisches Archiv for his permission to publish this letter ahead of the others which I promised to contribute to the Mitteilungen published by the archive itself. The author begins his letter by stating that he had read a letter from Erasmus to Arnoldus Bostius, in which Erasmus complained about the bad treatment he had received from an Englishman. Rutgerus comforts Erasmus, combining pious admonitions with a quotation from Plato. Bostius had sent him Erasmus’ letter that he may know the latter's ‘hand', which I take to mean not only his handwriting, but also his literary style.