Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... dark eyes, a much admired type. According to Sismondi, Lit. of South of Europe, this memorable event occurred on April 6, 1327. Petrarch was twenty-three years old. were not written for Laura at all, but for another lady, and were later incorporated into the Canzoniere. Perhaps his comparative constancy is due to the fact that she furnished him a literary inspiration which, even after her death, he used as a spur to his genius; yet that she at times meant more to him than a terrestrial muse we cannot question. Taste and tradition warned him from complaining against the long-suffering Hugh de Sade, who has the doubtful honor of being known to fame because another man loved his wife. In refraining from expressions of jealousy he was, like Dante, following the'Provencal tradition in which the husband never appears save under the name of Lo Gelos--the Jealous One. All the multifarious phases of his long passion find utterance in the sonnets and other lyrical poems of the Canzoniere grouped about two main themes, the praise of Laura living and the celebration of her after death. These two major themes are Dante's own, and in some minor ones as well the Canzoniere and the Vita Nuova show certain resemblances. Both are constructed on the Provencal motive of cruel chastity and unrewarded love, both describe the biTth and life of that unhappy love, and both carry on the theme far beyond the death of the bella donna sdegnosa. Yet beyond these fundamental likenesses, whatever others may exist seem to me rather such as are inherent in the subjectmatter of love itself than in any conscious imitation. Dante's ideal was the quintessential incarnation of theology; his work, an allegory. Petrarch humanizes the love-theme and brings it down to earth. One records...
