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As for me, the abhorrence that I feel for absolutely necessary to embrace some this city is so great that nothing can increase profession as a means of livelihood. Imit. (Lib. xx. Lett. 14.)

O my friends, who dwell in the most wicked

of all cities. (Ib. Lett. 9.)

The Rhone swallows up all the honours which should belong to the Tiber; and alas! what monsters are to be seen upon her banks! (Lib. i. Lett. 36.)

agining that at Avignon, the seat of Papal power and patronage, a means of subsistence would be most easily obtained, he and his brother submitted to the tonsure. They did not take holy orders, and in those days of laxity nothing further than the tonsure was required in order to obtain the highest ecclesiastical preHow sorely against the grain am I compelled ferment. But Petrarch had no desire for to remain beside the banks of the impetuous riches. "Such is the nature of riches," Rhone, and to sojourn in this most ungrateful he says, "that as they increase the thirst city! (Lib. xiv. Lett. 7.) for them increases also, and consequently the more room is there for poverty."

I came on purpose to this most hateful of cities. (b. Lett. 13.)

It (Valchiusa) is too near to this Western Babylon, the worst of all the habitations of men, and but little better than the infernal re

gions from whence, with fear and loathing, I naturally seek to escape. (Lib. xi. Lett. 6.) Besides these passages from his letters, there are three famous sonnets

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against the Court of Rome established at
Avignon, and the first of these is directed
against the city itself :-

May fire from heaven fall upon thy head,
O wicked Court! Thy former frugal fare
Is now exchanged for luxury and pride,
The spoils of others whom thou hast oppressed
With evil deeds which are thy sole delight.
O nest of treachery! in which is nursed
Whatever wickedness o'erspreads the world,
&c. &c.

John XXII. had succeeded Clement V. in the Papal chair. The corruption of his court was imitated by the town; but in the midst of the general depravity which surrounded him, Petrarch remained uncontaminated. He was strikingly handsome when, at the age of twenty-two, he began life at Avignon: according to some biographers, he was vain of his personal appearance, but this failing lasted only a little while, and he was never tempted by frivolities to neglect his mental improvement.

Being now free to choose his own employment, he returned to his favourite study of the classics, which he pursued in peaceful content, his only anxiety Various attempts have been made to caused by the extent of the vast field of explain the abhorrence thus so strongly knowledge which lay open before him, expressed. One is that Avignon was con- and which seemed to stretch to an imnected, in Petrarch's mind, with the death measurable distance the further he adof Laura. It is observed that the male-vanced into it. He was universally dictions against the city date only from courted by the rich and sought after by 1348, the year in which Laura died of the the learned, and it was at this time that plague at Avignon. But this would seem he renewed the intimacy which he had to be hardly sufficient ground for so spe- formed at Bologna with Giacomo Coloncific and continued a condemnation; and na, one of that noble and ancient family probably a strong sense of the vices which whose well-known rivalries with the famcorrupted the Papal Court then estab-ily of the Ursini make an essential part lished at Avignon, to say the least, con- of the history of modern Rome. The tributed largely to inspire the loathing first of the Colonna family in fame and which his language has so fiercely ex-spirit was Stefano, the father of Giacomo, pressed.

Petrarch and his brother Gherardo, the only two children of Petraccolo and his wife, found themselves at the death of their parents in very narrow circumstances. The executors of the will had betrayed their trust and seized most of the property, and when the two brothers had collected what little remained to them of their inheritance, they found it

Sonnets xiv., xv., xvi., Part IV. As there are scarcely two editions of Petrarch which are numbered alike, it is necessary to state that the references to the Canzoniere quoted in this paper are taken from the edition published by Bárbère at Florence, 1863.

whom Petrarch esteemed as a hero worthy of ancient Rome. In his distress, when his estates were confiscated and himself and his family banished, he was not an object of pity but of reverence. It is said that on being asked, "Where is now your fortress?" he laid his hand on his heart and said, "Here." Doubtless this answer was present to Petrarch s mind when he addressed to him the sonnet "Gloriosa Colonna, in cui s'appoggia nostra speranza,"† and others.

Epist. ad Post.

† Sonnets ii. xi. Part IV.

This year (1327) may be looked upon as the close of the first period of Petrarch's life. A new era was about to open upon him. The independence and pleasures of youth were now before him, with apparent liberty to choose whatever career he preferred; but in the next year the whole aspect of his existence was changed by an accident which impressed a peculiar stamp upon his life, and without which, perhaps, he would never have obtained the fame of a great poet, whatever other celebrity he might have achieved as an orator, a philosopher, or a patriot.

Inside the cover of Petrarch's own copy of Virgil, which is now to be seen in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, we read the inscription to which so much importance has been attached by all his historians. The original is in Latin.

"Laura, illustrious for her own virtues, and long celebrated by my verses, first appeared to my eyes at the time of my early youth, in the year of our Lord 1327, in the morning of the 6th day of April, in the church of Santa Chiara at Avignon. And in the same city, the same month, the same sixth day of April, the same first hour of dawn, but in the year 1348, from this light of day that light was taken away, when I, alas! was in Verona, ignorant of my fate. But the unhappy rumour reached me at Parma the same year, in the month of May, on the morning of the tenth. Her most chaste and fair body was laid in the burying-place of the church of the Cordeliers at vespers on the day of her death; but her soul, I am persuaded, as Seneca said of Scipio Africanus, returned to heaven whence it

came."

life was wasted; but, on the contrary, to us it seems as if the very fact of this allabsorbing interest made the life of Petrarch an exception to the general rule applicable to the lives of learned men. Whereas the romantic and poetical sides of Petrarch's character are so intertwined that it is difficult, almost impossible, to examine them separately, let us begin by considering the lady who inspired so fervent an attachment that it has become a matter of history.

Who was Laura?

There appear to have been three theories respecting her.

I. That she was not a person at all, but an allegorical representation of Fame, her name Laura signifying "the laurel wreath." But this is at once demolished by Petrarch's own letter to Giacomo Colonna.*

This theory is to be traced to the pedants of the sixteenth century, who with heavy prolixity poured forth their admiration by commentaries upon every word of every sonnet. They sought to extract a hidden meaning from the simplest language, to spiritualize his meaning, as they supposed; and the paradox of denying the reality of Laura's existence was one result of these refinements.

2. That she was the daughter of Henri Chiabau d'Ancezume, Seigneur de Cabrières, a little village about three miles from Vaucluse (Valchiusa). It was the custom of the inhabitants of Cabrières to make a pilgrimage every Good Friday to visit the relics of St. Véran, which are kept in the church of St. Véran at Vaucluse. Laura, according to this custom, went there also, for the same purpose. Petrarch saw her in the church, was

Some may think this simple and touch-struck by her beauty, and from that day ing inscription a more remarkable tribute never ceased to love her. This theory, to Laura than all the sonnets which have first started by Vellutello, has no foundaimmortalized her name. At all events it tion except some misunderstood verses strikes the very key-note of Petrarch's of Petrarch, and it is contradicted by future life. It reveals the source of that other much clearer passages. It was, stream of beautiful ideas which, though however, believed for some time in Italy; still the same, flows on in ever-varying and although it has been entirely overmetaphors. All readers of Italian po- thrown, there are some people who still etry have some acquaintance with his give it credit: witness the pamphlet pubSonnets and Elegies, with what his coun-lished in 1869 by Louis de Bondelon, trymen have called the "Canzoniere," called "Vaucluse et ses Souvenirs," and the names of Petrarch and Laura which is thrust into the hands of travelhave become inseparable in life and lers who visit Avignon and Vaucluse. death. No one can visit that Valchiusa It contains merely Vellutello's theory which he immortalized without recalling slightly amplified, with the addition of a the long period of years which Petrarch good deal of French vehemence. But suffered to be filled by one absorbing the best refutation is to point out the thought, one hopeless passion. The question always arises as to whether his

Lett. Fam. ii. 9.

grounds for belief on which the third the- appeared in the church at Avignon, and ory is founded. that that lady was Petrarch's Laura,

Negli occhi ho pur le violette, e 'l verde,
Di ch' era nel principio di mia guerra
Amor armato sì, ch' ancor mi sforza.*
Her countenance and her aspect sur-
passed all human beauty:

Pensando nel bel viso più che umano. (Canz. xii. Part I.) Her manner and carriage had a proud grace

3. That she was Laure de Noves, would seem to be unquestionably proved the daughter of Audibert and Ermes- by the manuscript inscription in the sende de Noves. The House of Noves, Virgil, whose authenticity has been which is of great antiquity, takes its further established by a discovery made name from the village of Noves, situated in 1795 by the Milanese librarian, of a about a mile from Avignon. At the age continuation of the inscription on the of eighteen she married Hugues de Sade, cover of the book itself. This continuaon January 16th, 1325. Two years after- tion contains records, added from time wards, on April 6th, 1327, at the first to time in the same handwriting, of the hour, that is to say towards six in the deaths of Petrarch's friends as they morning (for it was then the custom to occurred. When this note was first discount the hours from the dawn), Petrarch covered in the Virgil, Vellutello, perceivsaw her in the church of Santa Chiara ing how entirely it overthrew his theory, at Avignon, whither he had gone to pay took refuge in saying that it was a forhis morning's devotions. She was dressed gery; but the later discovery of 1795 in green, and her gown was besprinkled puts a stop to any imputation of this with violets : kind, and the fact is now established by the unanimous consent of the Italian calligrafi, by the authority of De Sade, of Tiraboschi, and above all of Bandelli, whose work, "Del Petrarca e delle sue opere," was published at Florence in 1837. One other curious circumstance helps to maintain the truth of this theory respecting Laura. In 1533, according to the Abbé de Sade,* Girolamo Manelli, of Florence, Maurice de Sève, and Mgr. Bontemps, Archbishop of Avignon, undertook to make investigations concerning Laura's family. In their search among all the ancient sepulchres at Avignon, they finally came to the church of the Cordeliers, where Petrarch says in his note Laura is buried. They found in the chapel of the House of Sade, which is in that church, among the tombs, a great stone, bearing no inscription, but two escutcheons obliterated by time, and a rose above the escutcheons. The stone being raised by order of the Archbishop, they discovered a coffin, inside which were a few small bones and a leaden box fastened down with a band of iron. The box contained a parchment folded and sealed with green wax, and a bronze medal, bearing on one side the figure of a woman with the initial letters, “ M. L. M. J.," and nothing on the reverse. Maurice de Sève suggested the meaning of the initials to be Madonna Laura morta jace” (the old form of Italian spelling having been used). . A sonnet was written on the parchment, which was deciphered with some difficulty. It is supposed to have been written by Petrarch, and begins thus:

Il leggiadro portamento altero.
(Sonn. i. Part II.)
Her eyes were tender and brilliant :

Gli occhi sereni, e le stellanti ciglia.
(Sonn. cxlviii. Part I.)

Her eyebrows were black as ebony:

Ebeno i cigli. - (Sonn. cvi. ¿b.)
Her golden hair floated on her shoul-

ders:

E il primo dì ch' i' vidi a l'aura sparsi
I capei d' oro onde si subit arsi.

Her hands were whiter than snow
ivory :

or

Man ch' avorio, e neve avanza.
(Sonn. cxxix. ib.)
The sound of her voice was soft and
sweet:

Chiara, soave, angelica, divina.
(Sonn. cxv. ib.)

And she was full of

grace:

Atto gentile, &c. - (Sonn. clxxv.) Such is only the outline of the portrait of Laura as delineated by Petrarch: many finishing touches of exquisite grace and delicacy are still to be found in his poetry. That this was the lady who

Canz. xii. Part I. See also Canz. ii.

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PETRARCH.

The news of this discovery having reached
the ears of Francis I., King of France,
he stopped at Avignon on his way to
Marseilles, caused the tombstone to be
again raised, and re-opened the box to
He then, him-
read Petrarch's verses.
self, wrote Laura's epitaph, which was
placed inside the box with the sonnet.
If her fame had not already been firmly
established, it would have been secured
by these graceful lines of the chivalrous
king:-

En petit lieu compris vous pouvez voir
Ce qui comprend beaucoup par renommée,
Plume, labeur, la langue et le savoir
Furent vaincus par l'aymant de l'aymée.

O gentil Ame estant tant estimée,
Qui te pourra louer qu'en se taisant ?
Car la parole est toujours reprimée,
Quand le sujet surmonte le disant.*

It is right to say that some Italian
writers refuse to acknowledge that the
by Petrarch, on
sonnet was written
account of its inferiority to his other
poetry; while others give full credit to
the whole story. The arguments on both
sides are too long to be cited here, but
those who wish to find out minute partic-
ulars of the event, with contemporary
evidence to support them, have only to
look in the places already referred to in
Assum-
the Abbé de Sade's Memoirs.
ing, then, that Laura's identity with
Madame Laura de Sade is proved, it
only remains to say a few words upon
the character of Petrarch's passion for
her.

At the epoch known to artists as the "Renaissance," ," after centuries of barbarism, despite the corruption and ferocity which still vitiated the manners of the age, there remained an exaggerated sentiment as to the passion of love. The empire acquired by women in the North, by contrast to the slavery of those of the East and South, had become exalted by chivalry into a kind of religion. The Troubadours were one consequence of chivalry, and the poet was as anxious to consecrate his verses to his mistress as the knight to lay at her feet the Hence the enterprises of his valour. · Corti d' Amore;" and to these courts, which were held in Provence in the time of Petrarch, we owe the invention of his particular species of mystic lyrical poetry.

The manners and customs of the age gave a further stimulus to his already

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Sade, Mémoires," vol. II. Note xii. p. 42.

329

ardent passion, and to write of Laura
became, with him, a kind of romance.
He differs, however, from the early Trou-
badours of Italy, the character of whose
poetry was often vague and undecided,
in the precision of his language: every
verse with him is a portrait, of Laura
herself, of the places where she moved, of
the little incidents of their intercourse.
His romance is made up of the simplest
events of her life: a smile, a look, an
encounter, a passing cloud, a lost glove
even, makes an object for his poetry,
and enables him to present us with a
series of exquisitely finished pictures.
The air, the summer breeze, the water,
the trees, the flowers, and the green
sward, are, if the expression may be al-
lowed, inspired with life, and personified
by Petrarch in order that the most
beautiful productions of nature may do
honour to the object of his poetry and
of his love.

Those who wish to be convinced of the high and noble character of his affection for Laura ought to consult Petrarch himself.

He says, in his "Dialoghi con S. -"Se fosse dato di mirare il Agostino: mio affetto come si mira il viso di Laura, si vedrebbe che quello è puro, è immaculato al par di questo. Dirò di più; debbo a Laura tutto ciò che sono; salito non sarei in qualche fama, se ella non avesse fatto germogliare con nobilissimi affetti quei semi di virtù che la natura avea sparsi nel mio cuore, ella ritrasse il giovanile mio amore da ogni turpitudine e mi diede ali da volar sopra il cielo e di contemplare l' alta Cagione prima; giacchè è un effetto dell' amore il trasformare gli amanti e renderli simili all' oggetto amato."

The love of Petrarch was the glory, if it was also the torment of his existence; and although it may be scarcely credible that such an utterly hopeless love should have absorbed him nearly fifty years, the nature and constancy of it are painted with a charm, a loftiness of tone, and in such brilliant colours, that raise far above all vulgar and ordinary conceptions this the concentrated passion of his life.

His Italian poetry was the result of these highly wrought feelings; and we must not forget that, in the estimation of Petrarch, it held a secondary place, and that he was even surprised He trusted his reputation at the success which it obtained during his lifetime. to his Latin works, and expected to win from those almost forgotten imitations

of a dead language the immortality justly | Memmi, with whose painting Petrarch due to his poems in his native tongue. was so enraptured that he exclaims — Posterity has passed a wiser judgment, and all who can thoroughly understand the Italian language will be of opinion that the "Rime del Petrarca" entitle

their author to be considered as the prince of lyrical poetry.

Sure Memmi mine in Paradise hath been,
Whence came but late the lady of all grace,
Whom on his canvas he hath sought to trace

That we on earth might know fair Beauty's

queen.*

If, as it is often said, all true poetry is

In order to read the "Canzoniere " The Ballati, Madrigali, and Sestini, with proper attention and interest, the the other varying forms in which Petrarch mind of the reader should accompany clothes his poetical ideas, are interstep by step the mind of the poet, with spersed throughout the first part, but they reference to the time, place, and circum-are seldom employed in the second, as stance which gave occasion for his poetry. not grave enough for so melancholy a It is a complete history of his life where subject. it touches by the very smallest incident the life of Laura. According to most of tinged with melancholy, the reason for the Italian commentators, the "Canzoni- the second part of the Canzoniere being ere" may be divided into four parts. preferred to the first is easily explained. In the first part are placed the "Rime We can more readily sympathize with in Vita di Madonna Laura." Petrarch now Laura is dead. The exdijalted and romantic nature of his previous sorrow was hard to understand, difficult to compassionate; but there are few who do not know what it is to mourn a dead friend. Our tenderest sympathies and best feelings are enlisted as we follow Petrarch through his years of mourning.

In the second, those "In Morte Madonna Laura.”

In the third, "I Trionfi."

In the fourth, the Sonnets and compositions upon various subjects. The Sonnets in the first part contain some of the most famous "capi d'opera," but the Canzoni are considered the jewels of the collection; and the severest of Petrarch's critics (Tassoni) is forced to own that "there is not one of Petrarch's verses which would not establish his reputation as a poet, but the Canzoni' are, in my judgment, his best claim to honour and renown." There are twenty-one in the first part of these, Nos. viii., ix., x., xiv., and xv. are supposed to be the most celebrated. The first of these three are called by the Italians the "Three Graces," and they affirm that there is no piece of Italian poetry, so pure, so polished and so well sustained. They make altogether one poem in three strophes of fifteen verses. The grace and delicacy of Canzone xi., "Chiare, fresche, e dolci acque," is so well known that it is only necessary to mention it by name. Voltaire translated it into French, because, he said "ces monuments de l'esprit humain délassent de la longue attention aux malheurs qui ont troublé la terre." Canzone xii., apart from its own merits, contains the description of the green and violet dress in which Petrarch saw Laura for the first time. The Sonnets in the first part are 207 in number, far too numerous to attempt to describe in so small a space. The two which relate to Laura's picture are addressed to the Siennese artist Simone

Sonn. xlix l., Part I.

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And twenty-six years of constant love
after her death did Petrarch add to the
twenty-one years which he had already
devoted to her during her lifetime. The
Canzoni of this part, eight in number, are
all very beautiful, and would fully repay a
careful study of them, especially the first,

"Che debb'io far?" Who has not felt
the force of the original lines —
Ah me! that lovely face, prey to the worm!
Which made earth heaven,
Pledge of immortal hue.

Unseen in Paradise now is her form;
The veil is riven

Which o'er her youthful prime its shadow
threw,

Yet to be worn anew,
Radiant and glorified,
And never laid aside,"

But everlasting, and mortals descry

That with Eternity Time cannot vie.‡

Sonn. xlix., Part I. "Ma certo il mio Simon fu in Paradiso." Prints of this picture are still to be procured in the Libreria Laurenziana at Florence. "Trionfo della Morte," cap. ii. "Al creder mio, tu stara' in terra senza me gran tempo."

Canz. i., Part II. "Oimè, terra è fatto il suo bel

viso."

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