;

Petrarch, and his desire to soften his privations as much as he could: his "wish was father to his thought," and no other father it seems ever to have had. In this year he obtained letters of legitimation for his son John and afterwards left Avignon for his fifth journey into Italy. At an assembly at Avignon he met Laura for the last time. She was serious and thoughtful, and Petrarch says, "The expression of her eyes seemed to predict the sorrows that threatened him." In March 1348 he was at Parma, which he probably intended for his future residence; in April he heard of the death of Laura, who had fallen a victim to the terrible plague which was then devastating Europe. She died on the 1st of April, and her husband in a few months married again. But Petrarch remained faithful to the memory of his mistress ; he not only wrote a note in his Virgil on the subject, "but he spent (says a Dominican friar) so much in charities, since her death, to the Church, for masses, that if she had lived a profligate woman† they would have redeemed her from the hands of the Devil. Not long after the death of Laura he lost his friend Card. Colonna, who, it is supposed, sank under grief brought on by the desertion of his family; for in the short space of five years he had lost his mother and six brothers; but in compensation, he was magnificently received by the Carraras at Padua, who, in two years after, bestowed on him the canonicate of that cathedral, and in the same year he received the appointment of the archdeaconry of Parma. Two of his intimate friends, Luca Christiano and Mainardo Accursio, who had left Avignon for the purpose of visiting him, were slain by banditti, in some of the passes of the Apennines. Petrarch wrote indignantly to the magistrates of Florence on the subject. The robbers were protected by the Ubaldini, one of the most powerful families of Tuscany; but the Florentine cavalry were sent against them, and the miscreants were dispossessed of their strongholds, and scattered or slain. Petrarch had lost many friends, but he had still a few left. Lucius and Socrates, and Guido Settino, and Barbato of Salnino; and among them, for the first time, we meet with the name of Boccaccio. In October 1350 he departed for Rome, to attend the jubilee, in company with an old abbot, whose horse or mule kicked Petrarch on the knee, and with such injury that he kept his bed at Rome. He looked on the jubilee as a sacred bath which would wash away all the spots from his soul; and as for the future, he was now proof against all female fascination. In his way back he passed through Arrezzo, the town of his birth, and was welcomed by the citizens, who received him with regal honours. In the same month he discovered a literary treasure, a bad copy of Quintilian de Inst. Oratioriâ, which till then had escaped all researches. The better MS. of Poggius is now in the noble library of Blenheim. From Padua he made frequent excursions

Mr. Campbell says "this precious MS. of the Virgil is no longer in Italy; " but he is under a mistake. It was restored by the French, and we saw it in the Ambrosian library in the year 1822.

+We must confess that we are still much puzzled about Laura and her virtuous inflexibility. Mr. Campbell has not mentioned an anecdote De Sade gives on the authority of Sennuccio (vol. ii. p. 489), that Laura was used to bathe in the river, and that Petrarch at one time surprised her: "Honteuse d'etre surprise en cet etat, soit pour se venger, soit pour derober la vue de ses charmes, qui rien ne couvroit, elle lui jetta de l'eau au visage." De Sade mentions that in the heats of the summer, it is the custom for the ladies of Avignon to bathe in the Rhone. De Sade adds (p. 20, notes,) "Les dames se baignoient alors sans chemise." Tomaisin has given a print of Laura in this interesting state." V. Petrarcha Redivivus, p. 136.

to Venice, and there formed acquaintance with Andrea Dandolo, who for his extraordinary merit was made Doge at the early age of 36. In April 1351 he received a visit from Boccaccio, who was sent by the republic of Florence to announce to him the recall of his family to their native land, and the restoration to his fortune. They also offered to him the situation of Principal in their new University: this, however, he declined, and turning his horse's bridle towards France, arrived at Vaucluse 27th June, 1351. His romantic hermitage-his grotto-his sequestered gardens-his cherished library-had lost no charms for him. He thought of remaining there two years, but he added "that he had now experienced that change of place is the only thing which can long keep us from the ennui inseparable from a sedentary life; a sentence of undoubted truth, not sufficiently weighed by those, who, in too early life, are eager to bind themselves in those soft but unrelaxing chains which, according to the Canon of St. Paul's, holy matrimony, united to holy orders, wreathe around their incautious votaries. Petrarch would have liked the emoluments and ease of a cathedral stall in England, but he was not better fitted for a "working clergyman" than for a Carthusian monk. In the last year of the life of Clement the Sixth he occupied the office of his secretary, but Clement died soon after, and was buried at Avignon. In 1562 the Huguenots rifled his tomb, made a football of his head, and the Marquis of Courton converted his skull into a drinking-cup. In May he departed for Italy, and we find him in the palace of John Visconti, at Milan, whom he used to call the greatest man in that land, always famous for its renowned men. Petrarch took up his abode near the Vercellina gate and the church of St. Ambrosio, for he bargained that he should have a house sufficiently far from the town, and that he might live as he pleased. His windows commanded a beautiful prospect, as far even as the Alpine summits, tipped with snow. For Saint Ambrosio Petrarch had a peculiar veneration, and to his eyes the majestic sculpture of the saint seemed instinct with breath and life. His friends, however, at a distance, those at Avignon and those at Florence, were scandalized at the recluse and the republican living in the court of the tyrant of Italy. Petrarch thanked them for their kindness and concern, and gave them certain reasons for his conduct; but the real one is supposed to be, that he might save money for his natural children. Some persons have said that he had an intrigue at Milan with a young lady of the name of Beccaria, but of this there is no proof; indeed, the universal respect in which his character was held, both in France and Italy, prove the folly of such imputations: it is making the canon of Padua a coureur des filles. The splendours of Milan, however, soon disgusted him, and he went to the monastery of St. Columba, which belonged to the Carthusian monks of Pavia. He has given a beautiful description of this edifice, and of the magnificent views it commands. While he was here he received a letter from his friends Socrates and Guido Settino, to say that they had gone to Vaucluse. He wrote back, beseeching them to make use of the house and books, and lamenting his absence.* did not, however, know, that at the time a troop of robbers burst into the valley, burnt his house, and would have burnt his books, but his rustic servitor, or rather his son, had conveyed them to the castle. Petrarch still

He

* There is a strange mistake in vol. ii. p. 114, of Mr. Campbell's book, in which he mentions the presents Petrarch sent to the Bishop of Cavaillon. Some fish (probably the crusius, or golden carp), and secondly a flat drake! On reading this we stared, but on looking in De Sade found it was a fat duck!-un canard gras.

loved Vaucluse, and endeavoured to get preferment in the church in Provençe, but he had written too freely on the church, or rather on the manners and morals of churchmen, and his wishes were frustrated. In 1354 he received a present which gave him great delight, a Greek Homer sent him by Nichola Sigeros, prætor of Romagna. Petrarch in his letter of thanks confessed that he could not translate a word of him, but begged additional copies of Hesiod and Euripides. He then went as the chief of the embassy to Venice, to negotiate peace between them and the Genoese, but he failed in his negotiation, and, returning in dudgeon, remained with the Viscontis at Milan. We must now rapidly touch on the remaining events of our poet's life. The Emperor King of Bohemia was solicited to enter Italy, to put an end to the war then raging between the Venetian states and Milan, united with Genoa. Visconti's death induced him to accept the invitation, and Mr. Campbell says on the subject "and thus a carbuncle and a surgeon influenced the fate of Europe." Petrarch met him at Mantua; the Emperor asked him what kind of life pleased him most?-Petrarch answered, a secluded one: if possible, among woods and mountains; if not, in the midst of cities. The Emperor combated his opinion, but Petrarch said that the crowned head had the worst of the cause. He asked Petrarch to accompany him to Rome, which he declined; and the King, at the request of a Neapolitan nobleman, gave the laurel crown, in the cathedral of Pisa, to Zanobi di Strata: thus there were two crowned poet-laureates in Italy. Petrarch was, of course, much offended; he called the laurel a barbarous one, conferred by a German; but the prior of the Holy Apostles said "he could not forgive the phantom of a Cæsar for having laureated a citizen who troubled the fountain of Parnassus ; and Barbato addressed a letter to Francis Petrarch, the King of the Poets. Petrarch answered "There are only two King poets-one in Greece, one in Italy: the old Lord of Moonia, and the Shepherd of Mantua. As for me, I can only reign in my transalpine solitude, on the banks of the Sorga." In 1356 he was sent by the Viscontis to the Emperor at Prague, whom he found occupied with his golden bull. He soon, however, returned, partly to look out for a clean, clever housekeeper, and partly to write condoling letters to the French princes on the loss of the battle of Poitiers. He also wrote an ecologue, in which he introduces the King of France as Pan, and the King of England as Articus. At this time he received a diploma from the Emperor, creating him count palatine, with all rights and privileges, the chief of which consisted in legitimizing children born out of matrimony, and crowning poets. In the summer of this year he lived, to avoid the summer heats, at the college of Garignano, on the banks of the Adda, three miles distant from Milan. There was a Carthusian monastery there, which attracted him. He called his villa Linterno, in memory of Scipio Afri canus, whose country-house bore that name. The peasants called it L'inferno; and, in truth, there was something remaining of the old concupiscence haunting him everywhere, for he tells a friend "that neither abstinence, nor study, nor penance, can totally subdue the kicking ass on whom he is making war." However, he trusted to the good Saint Ambrosio. He was well in health, and easy in fortune, but he complains feelingly of the loss of his friends. He now composed his treatise de Remediis utriusque Fortunæ, which made a great noise when it appeared. It was translated into Italian and Spanish, and of late, some of it into English. Mr. Campbell says "it has long ceased to be read" -we have just finished it. In the autumn he retired to Milan, and had

nearly met the fate of Jacob Bryant. He let a large volume of Cicero fall on his left leg; and this was repeated; the doctors told him it must be amputated; but it got well in spite of them, and he took a trip to Bergamo. On his return, he received Boccaccio at his house, who stayed with him some days. It was a wholesome custom in which Petrarch indulged, to lecture his friends, whether high or low; and he accordingly made Boccaccio sensible that at his age (forty-five) it was not reasonable to be courting women, and worshipping earthly beauties. Boccaccio made it the subject of an eclogue called Philostratos, and profited by the advice. The Empress Anne wrote Petrarch a letter from Bohemia, to inform him of the birth of a daughter. He answered it, and mentioned to her the names of several illustrious women famous for their courage, as Isis, Carmenta, the Mother of Evander, Sappho, the Sybils, Semiramis, an Amazon or two, Tomiris, Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi, finally Martia, Portia, Livia, Lucretia, &c. &c. In October 1359, he found one morning, on rising, that his house had been robbed of every thing valuable, but his books. His son John was the perpetrator, who, to supply his debaucheries, pillaged his father. Petrarch turned him and his loose companions out of the house, and went and settled in the monastery of St. Suplician, an abbey of the Benedictines of Monte Cassino. He was, however, soon called from his tranquillity, by Galeazzo Visconti, to go to Paris to congratulate the king, John, on his release from captivity. When he was admitted to an audience, he offered advice to the monarch, as usual, to which he listened, he says, with profound attention. Petrarch never liked the English; and he did not hate them without cause, for the Marquis of Monserrat engaging a body of English troops to escort him, they entered Italy by Nice, and by ravaging lands, killing men, and violating women, young and old, did much to establish the national character. Petrarch, to oppose them, invoked the shades of Brutus, Camillus, and others; when a second scourge appeared in the plague, of which his son John died. In the year 1361, he married his daughter Francesca to a gentleman of Milan. Boccaccio speaks highly of the son-in-law, and says that his daughter, without being handsome, had an agreeable face, and resembled her father. His joys and sorrows were tolerably balanced here below; and he had scarcely finished the marriage feast, before he whom he called the friend dearest to his heart, Socrates, died at Avignon; while the continuance of the plague drove Petrarch from Padua to Venice. He took his books with him, and bequeathed them after his death to the Library of St. Mark. In return, the procurators assigned the Palace of the Two Towers as his lodging. The books have been long since lost and destroyed: Tomasini says, in his time they were spoiled and petrified; and Tomasini was also petrified on beholding them.* Boccaccio came to visit Petrarch at Venice, and brought with him the old Greek Leontio Pilato. The two poets spent the summer delightfully together; but Petrarch had already lost his friend Azzo, and he now had to mourn over the tombs of Lælius and Simonides. From Boccaccio he received a Latin translation of Homer, made by himself and Pilato, which delighted him much; and he gave in return to Boccaccio, in a long letter, a curious and interesting description of the Jongleurs of Italy. The pope appointed him to the canonry of Carpentras, but on a false rumour of his death recalled the gift. Petrarch, nothing appalled, wrote a

• Tomasini says, "Partim, dictu mirum, in saxa mutatum," p. 72. He gives a list of the few books preserved.

a fit,

letter of advice to him to remove his seat from Avignon to Rome. After that he went to Pavia; and on the 20th July of this year, reflected that he was in his sixty-third year. This he considered to be a dangerous crisis in a man's life; and Mr. Campbell says that he has heard sensible physicians agree in the opinion. We recollect that Sir H. Halford has an essay on the subject, and we sincerely hope that Mr Campbell has safely passed that dangerous station. Lionel duke of Clarence, son of Edward III., came to Milan to espouse Violante, daughter of Galeazzo. Froissart was in his suite; and though Petrarch was at Milan at the time, and was seated in the places of honour when there were any princes or nobles of the first rank, there is no trace of their having even spoken to each other. De Sade, however, accounts for it by saying, that Froissart was very fond of pleasure in his youth, and that he was fully employed in making love to the fair ladies of Milan. When tired of the marriage fêtes and ceremonies, Petrarch went to Padua, and arrived there safely 9th June, 1368. Bodily infirmities now came on him: he complains of the fever, and that his constitution is worn out; but the pope wrote with his own hand, pressing him to come to Rome. Petrarch could not refuse, and spent the winter in preparations, and in making his will. His little property at Vaucluse he left to the hospital of that diocese He now set out, but when he reached Ferrara he fell down in in which he continued thirty hours, and was supposed to be dead, The whole city was in grief. Crowds came from all parts to his burial. The news spread to Padua, Vicenza, Milan, Pavia, &c.; but he was attended with kindness, and brought back by water to Padua. To recover his health, he went to the village of Arqua, situated on a hill, celebrated for the salubrity of its air, and the beauty of its orchards.* Petrarch built himself a small house on the southern slope of the hili, which still exists; its situation is very pleasant, and the views it commands cheerful and varied. We rode to it some years since from Padua, through wild lanes of the most sequestered beauty, and amidst the rich and flowery vegetation, which the Italian sun awakens into life. The hedges were formed entirely of the judas tree and the pomegranate; the latter then flinging its bright scarlet blossoms in the utmost profusion around. We thought that the nightingale had chosen well its solitary nest. Petrarch, who loved gardening, though he wrote against it, as a luxury, in his philosophic mood, added to the vines of the country a great number of other fruit trees; even in this preserving his classical taste; for the ancients, unlike the moderns, mixed the fruit-bearing and useful trees with the "steriles platani,” the "pinus ingens," and the "invisus cupressus." He had scarcely settled himself at Arqua, before he finished a work which he had begun in 1367. De sui ipsius et aliorum ignorantiâ. It originated in some disgust the poet had taken with the licentious conversation and arrogant pretensions of some young men his companions at Venice. They were disciples of Averroes, and disputed against the creation of the world, and the writings of Moses. Petrarch engaged Ludovico Morsili an Augustine monk of

* Mr. Campbell says "the beauty of its vineyards," but De Sade says "la beauté de ses vergers (orchards) et la bonté de ses vins ;" besides vineyards are seldom beautiful. Mr. Campbell is not so faithful to his original as he ought to be; the best return for his obligation to De Sade would be to translate him faithfully.

† See his Dialogue lviii. De Vindiciis, in the first book of the work De Remediis utriusque fortunæ. In it he mentions his own river. "Quid si lucidus Ticinus, si amoenus Athesis, si sonorus Sorga?"

GENT. MAG. VOL. XVI.

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