il suono

"Voi ch' ascoltate in rime sparse
Di quei sospiri ond' io nudriva il core
In sul mio primo giovenile errore
Quand' era in parte altr' uom da quel ch' i'

sono;

Del vario stile in ch' io piango e ragiono Fra le vane speranze e 'l van dolore, Ove sia chi per prova intenda amore, Spero trovar pietà, non che perdono. Ma ben veggi' or sì come al popol tutto Favola fui gran tempo: onde sovente Di me medesmo meco mi vergogno: E del mio vaneggiar vergogna è 'l frutto E 'l pentirsi e 'I conoscer chiaramente Che quanto piace al mondo è breve sogno." (Le Rime di Francesco Petrarca, Sonn. i. Part I.)

PERHAPS the attempt to compress so interesting a subject as the life and writings of Petrarch into a brief notice of a few pages may at first sight seem presumptuous; more especially when we consider that for the last five centuries there has been no lack of biographies of so remarkable a It would add another page to this NEW SERIES.-VOL. XVIII., No. 6

man.

Old Series Complete in 63 vols.

The

essay merely to mention their names, and it would take many to enter into any details respecting them. Still, as the writer is more or less indebted for information to their labors, it is only right to mention, as briefly as possible, some of the most celebrated biographies of Petrarch. Abbé de Sade divides them into five classes :-those who were his contemporaries and began to write before or immediately after his death. The first of these, and the earlist known, is Domenico Aretino. He was invited to Padua, by Francesco da Carrara, at the time when Petrarch, having attained his seventieth year, was living there. Domenico, notwithstanding the direct encouragement which he received from the poet himself, has only left us a short sketch of his life. Coluccio Salutati and Pietro Paolo Vergerio also wrote their biographies at this time, but their enthusiasm for the great genius who

4I

had just ceased to exist led them to fill up their pages with vague and indiscriminate praise, neglecting to investigate closely his life and history. They contented themselves with merely copying Petrarch's own Epistle to Posterity," which source of information has been the natural refuge of all his biographers in every century. It is a curious autobiographical sketch, related with ingenuous candor, dwelling more upon the motives which influenced his actions than upon the actions themselves, and describing with unaffected simplicity his abilities, his feelings, and even his personal appearance.

66

The fame of Petrarch was at its height at the time of his death. It declined in the fifteenth century. The accomplished Latin and Greek scholars which this age produced set themselves the task of commentating upon the works of Petrarch. They despised his Latin, style, and thus the depreciation of his works in that language may have helped to involve the famous Canzoniere in a similar fate. "The fourteenth century," observes Crescimbeni, we have rightly called an evil century, on account of the cruel maiming of the Italian language by the critics of that time." The third order of biographers was headed by Lorenzo de' Medici, and to it Vellutello, Gesualdo, and Beccadelli also belonged. The coldness and indifference of the preceding century were now exchanged for the greatest enthusiasm. Editions of Petrarch were multiplied, Academies formed for the purpose of explaining his works, and the critics of this age would acknowledge no defect in him nor any excellence to exist in a style different from his. But at the beginning of the seventeenth century the fame of the poet was again destined to receive a rude shock. It was at the hands of a certain Giovanni Battista Marina, who, while his own writings were filled with fantastical allegories and extravagant metaphors, cast ridicule upon the simple natural beauties of the poetry of Petrarch. Unfortunately he had only too many followers. Petrarch was despised and neglected, his works ceased to be printed, and were scarcely read, while his biographers dwindled down to a very small number, although Filippo Tomasini published his "Petrarcha Redivivus," and Tassoni critical remarks and observations upon his poems. The historians of the eighteenth century-the age when

history, and especially the history of literature, was well written-may be placed in the fifth and last class. Among these are Muratori and, to mention no other names, the Abbé de Sade. His book, bearing the modest title of "Mémoires pour la Vie de Pétrarque," has ever since its publication in 1764 been the inexhaustible reservoir whence the greater part of the information of subsequent biographers has been drawn. The value of this work is especially enhanced by one circumstance, viz. that of the author having finally decided the question concerning the family and history of Laura, as to which he has succeeded in bringing forward such satisfactory proofs that there scarcely remains room for any further doubt upon the subject. This is admitted by Tiraboschi,* while, to justify his countrymen for not having made the discovery before, he ascribes the success of the Abbé to the free access which, as a descendant, he had to all the archives of the House of Sade; that is to say, of Laura's husband. Many writers also, not only of his own nation, such as Tiraboschi, Maffei, Bardelli, Alfieri, and Professor Marsand of Padua-who collected a "Biblioteca Petrarchesca," consisting of 900 volumes illustrative of his history-but of other nations besides have since written upon Petrarch, and the subject has been fully treated by Ginguéné in his "Histoire Littéraire de l'Italie.”

The very fact of so much information having been gathered together concerning him is almost enough to discourage from the study of Petrarch those who have not much leisure time at their disposal. The design, therefore, of this essay is not to add to the number of biographies which already exist, but to endeavor to call attention to the more remarkable events of his life, to the critical nature of the times in which he lived, and to the twofold influence, political and literary, which he excercised over his country.

Before we consider the peculiar aspect presented by the romantic side of Petrarch's existence, it is well to cast a brief glance over the times and circumstances of his country at the time of his birth.

The Italian Republics, which had for a long period of years been a prey to the

* Preface to vol. v. of "Storia della Letteratura Italiana."

violence of faction and the horrors of anarchy, now sought to unite the discordant wills of their citizens and to defend themselves from the attacks of their enemies. Some thought the welfare of the State was best provided for by giving full power to some one powerful individual, who, uniting his own forces with the collected strength of the "Commune," would have sufficient power at once to repress factions within and repel hostilies from without. These chiefs were always chosen, either by force of arms or by the vote of the citizens, out of the most illustrious families, and by degree they obtained complete possession of the cities which had elected them. Thus, at the beginning of the fourteenth century the Visconti ruled over turbulent Milan, the Scaligeri governed Verona, the Carraresi Padua, the Estensi Ferrara, the Bonacossi Mantua, &c. &c. The Medici had not yet begun to rule over Florence, which was, in common with many other of the Italian cities, torn in pieces by the feuds of the Bianchi and

Neri.

Meanwhile the Pontiffs, unmoved, beheld from afar the discords and tumults by which Italy was agitated. Bertrand the Goth, Archbishop of Bourdeaux, had, chiefly through the influence of Philip IV. of France, been elected Pope under the name of Clement V.; and the new Pontiff, out of gratitude to the French king, transferred the Papal See and Court to Avignon, to the detriment both of Rome and Italy. "Thus," says Muratori,*" did the Apostolical See pass into France, and remain there seventy years in captivity, like the captivity of Babylon, because of its slavish subservience to the whims of the kings of France."

At the beginning then, of a century which augured most unfavorably for the future of his country, Petrarch was born "at Arezzo, July 20, 1304, on Monday, at the dawn of day, of honest parents, Florentines by birth, although exiled from their native city, of moderate fortunes, inclined to speak the truth, to poverty.' So Petrach himself describes the fact in his Epistle to Posterity." His father, called Petraccolo on account of the smallness of his stature, and his mother, "Eletta Canigiani," had been banished from Florence in 1302. It was the year also of Dante's

* Ann. d'Italia, ann. 1305.

exile, and together with him they had retired to Arezzo, whence on July 20, 1304, Petraccolo and Dante, with the other exiled Bianchi, made a night attack upon Florence, hoping to re-enter their native city by force. Thus the circumstances of Petrarch's birth are in accordance with the condition of his country and times, while they offer a curious contrast to the functions of a peacemaker universally assigned to him during the later years of his life. His early years were passed first at Incisa, in the Val d'Arno. Thence his parents moved to Pisa, where his father anxiously awaited the arrival of Henry VII., Emperor of Germany (the " Arrigo" for whom Dante prepares such an exalted throne in his " Paradiso"*) to restore the Ghibelline party at Florence. But the hopes of his party being crushed by the death of this prince, he fled to the Papal Court at Avignon, which soon became the refuge for exiled Italians.

During his father's lifetime Petrarch was compelled, sorely against the grain, to study the law, which in those times was considered the only road to honors and perferment. These studies were pursued at Carpentras, at Montpellier University, and finally at Bologna, then the great school of canon law. His progress, however, in this branch of learning was materially hindered by his early enthusiasm for the classics. His father was at first proud of his son's proficiency in this line, and encouraged his classical taste; but when he discovered how much it interfered with his more important legal studies, he threw into the fire all the copies of the classics which Petrarch possessed, till at length, moved by the tears and entreaties of his son, he withdrew from the flames one copy of Cicero and one of Virgil, which he allowed him to keep.

In 1326, the sudden death of his father summoned Petrarch from Bologna to Avignon, and at the age of twentytwo he found himself at liberty to abandon those legal studies which had always been so distasteful to him. He is, notwithstanding, anxious to explain that the antiquity of the laws, their authority and force, had not been without attraction for him; " yet," he adds, "their application, had been so much marred and depraved by. the worldliness of mankind, that it dis

*Par. xxx. 135..

tressed him to learn them, because he would have scorned to make a dishonest use of them, and an honest use it would have been very difficult to make, as his integrity would have been attributed to ignorance." * The death of Petrarch's father was succeeded in a few months by that of his mother. She died at the early age of thirty-eight, and the fact is curiously preserved from oblivion by the number of verses which Petrarch wrote in honor of her memory, corresponding exactly with the number of her years. And now Petrarch was to begin his life in Avignon.

"Beside the banks of that river perpetually swept by the winds of heaven I spent my childhood, under the yoke of parental authority, and all my youth subject to another yoke, that of my own passions," he tells us himself, and the description of the river is borne out by the old proverb : "Avenio ventosa, sine vento venenosa, cum vento fastidiosa." The lofty walls of this curious city, which, built by Clement VI., the fourth Avignonese Pope, frown over the left bank of the Rhone; the early Romanesque architecture of its small but very peculiar church; and the tombs of its various Popes, still attract the traveller who loves to have the past recalled to him, and, to linger over the outward expression of its history. It is a strange fact that Petrarch was never able to tear himself for any length of time from a place which is nevertheless the object of

his detestation.

"As for me, the abhorrence that I feel for this city is so great that nothing can increase it." (Lib. xx. Lett. 14.)

"O my friends, who dwell in the most wicked of all cities." (7b. Lett. 9.)

"The Rhone swallows up all the honors which should belong to the Tiber; and alas! what

monsters are to be seen upon her banks !" (Lib.

i. Lett. 36.)

"I came on purpose to this most hateful of cities." (76. Lett. 13.)

"How sorely against the grain am I compelled to remain beside the banks of the impetuous Rhone, and to sojourn in this most ungrateful city.' (Lib. xiv. Lett. 7.)

"It (Valchiusa) is too near to this Western Babylon, the worst of all the habitations of men, and but little better than the infernal regions from whence, with fear and loathing, I naturally seek to escape." (Lib. xi. Lett. 6.)

there are three famous sonnets * against the Court of Rome established at Avignon, and the first of these is directed against the city itself :

66

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 deed which are thy sole delight.
O nest of treachery! in which is nursed
Whatever wickedness o'erspreads the world,"
&c. &c.

Various attempts have been made to explain the abhorrence thus so strongly expressed. One is that Avignon was connected, in Petrarch's mind, with the death of Laura. It is observed that the maledictions against the city date only from 1348, the year in which Laura died of the plague at Avignon. But this would seem to be hardly sufficient ground for so specific and continued a condemnation; and probably a strong sense of the vices which corrupted the Papal Court then established at Avignon, to say the least, contributed largely to inspire the loathing which his language has so fiercely expressed.

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 absolutely necessary to embrace some profession as a means of livelihood. Imagining 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 laxirequired in order to obtain the highest ecty nothing further than the tonsure was clesiastical preferment. But Petrarch had no desire for riches. "Such is the nature of riches," he says, the thirst for them increases also, and con"that as they increase sequently the more room is there for poverty."+

are taken from the edition published by Bárbère at Florence, 1863.

Epist. ad Post.

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 improve

ment.

Being now free to choose his own employment, he returned to his favorite study of the classics, which he pursued in peaceful content, his only anxiety caused by the extent of the vast field of knowledge which lay open before him, and which seemed to stretch to an immeasurable distance the further he advanced into it. He was universally courted by the rich and sought after by the learned, and it was at this time that he renewed the intimacy which he had formed at Bologna with Giacomo Colonna, one of that noble and ancient family whose well-known rivalries with the family of the Ursini make an essential part of the history of modern Rome. The first of the Colonna family in fame and spirit was Stefano, the father of Giacomo, 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.

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

*Sonnets ii. xi. Part IV.

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 rumor 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."

Some may think this simple and touching inscription a more remarkable tribute to Laura than all the sonnets which have immortalized her name. At all events it strikes the very key-note of Petrarch's future life. It reveals the source of that stream of beautiful ideas which, though still the same, flows on in ever-varying metaphors. All readers of Italian poetry have some acquaintance with the Sonnets and Elegies, with what his countrymen have called the "Canzoniere," and the names of Petrarch and Laura have become inseparable in life and death. No one can visit that Valchiusa which he immortalized without recalling the long period of years. which Petrarch suffered to be filled by one absorbing thought, one hopeless passion. The question always arises as to whether his life was wasted; but, on the contrary, to us it seems as if the very fact of this all-absorbing interest made the life of Petrarch an exception to the general rule applicable to the lives of learned 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 fer

men.