Lorenzo Valla, Letter to Giacomo Moro (March 1433)
Your letters seemed so decorated, so serious, so crammed with the best lines, that I have not dared to write to you until now. And so, you ought to be angry with and impute the delay to your superabundance of good taste than to my superfluity of negligence. Come on, who could look at the rays of the sun? In just such a way, your letters have wounded my eyes with their excessive splendor. And so it is now, after a long time, with my sight regained and my strength recovered, that I write to you.
Littere tue ita ornate, ita graves, ita optimis sententiis referte vise sunt, ut adhuc scribere ad te non sim ausus. Itaque debes magis succensere et imputare tue nimie elegantie quam mee nimie negligentie. Quis enim audeat in solis radios inspicere? Ita tue littere pernimio fulgore oculos meos perstrinxerunt. Nunc itaque post longum tempus quasi resumpto visu recuperatisque viribus ad te scribo.
this is going straight to the top of reply emails from now on
I was thinking the same thing! The old pandemic excuses are still just as valid, but sound a little played out now.