effaced, was a little younger than himself, and dressed in a green mantle sprinkled with violets, on which her golden hair fell in plaited tresses. This is the lady in whose history the world has now felt so lively an interest for nearly five centuries, as Petrarch's Laura; this is the name so familiar even to the echo of every beautiful valley in all countries in which the tenderer emotions of our nature receive any cul

ture.

It is impossible to doubt that Laura possessed great personal charms. There is sufficient evidence of this, altogether independently of the numerous compliments paid to her beauty by her lover; although, much as Petrarch praises her physical attractions, he is still more enthusiastic in praising her modesty and virtue. Of all the biographers who have attempted to group her various characteristics, both physical and mental, so as to form a complete and faithful portrait, Ginguenè seems to us the most successful, and accordingly we transcribe his description in his own words:

"Ses yeux, étaient à la fois brillants et tendres, ses sourcils noirs et ses cheveaux blondes, son teint blanc et animé, se taille fine, souple et légère: sa démarche, son air avient quelque chose de céleste. Une grâce noble et facile régnait dans toute sa personne. Ses regards étaient pleins de gaieté, d'honnêteté, de douceur. Rien de si expressif que sa physionomie, de si modeste que son maintien, de si angélique et de si touchant que le son de sa voix. Sa modestie ne l'empêchait pas de prenche soin de sa parure, de se mettre avec goût, et lorsqu'il le fallait, avec magnificence. Souvent l'éclat de sa belle chevelure etait relevé d'or ou de perles; plus souvent elle n'y mêlait que des fleurs. Dans les fêtes et dans le grand monde elle portait une robe verte parsemée d'etoilles d'or, ou une robe couleur de pourpre, bordée d'azur semé de roses, ou enrichie d'or et de pierreries. Chez elle et avec ses compagnes, délivrée de ce luxe dont on faissait une loi dans des cercles de cardinaux, de prélats et à la cour d'un pape, elle préférait dans ses habits une élégante simplicité." ""*

There are circumstances in the story of Laura which are much more remarkable than the passion which she inspired by

Ginguenè Hist. Litt. d'Italie, t. 11, p. 342.

VOL. XXVII.-NO. LIII.

4

her beauty, accomplishments, and amiable qualities. It is a disputed point among those who have most thoroughly investigated the subject whether the lady was married or remained single; but the preponderance of evidence is undoubtedly in favor of the former. This, however, is by no means the strangest fact in the history of Petrarch and Laura. It is not more so than the love of Dante for Beatrice, or the love of Goethe for Frau Von Stein, and many other loves indulged by those who have bestowed, perhaps, too much thought and admiration on the beautiful and fascinating portraitures of the classic poets.

But the case of Petrarch is unique, at least in one particular. There have been instances in all ages of distinguished men being known to be in love with the wives of their neighbors without exciting any serious resentments. But the case of Petrarch is the only well-authenticated one in which a descendant of the husband whose wife had been the object of such a passion has come forward to claim that distinction as an honor to his family. This the Abbé de Sade has boldly and ably done in his elaborate Memoires pour la Vie de Petrarque; and, what is more, it is now almost universally admitted that by his learned and careful researches he has settled the ques

tion.

Another curious feature of the controversy is, that while the Abbé devotes so much labor and time to claiming for his ancestor the honor of having a wife who was beloved by Petrarch, he tells us, that that ancestor himself regarded the whole matter in a very different light-that, in fact, he was so jealous with Laura on account of the passion of Petrarch for her that his reproaches caused her many a bitter tear. The main facts put forward by the Abbé may be briefly stated thus: Laura was of ancient and noble extraction. She was the daughter of Audibert de Noves by his wife Esmessenda, born at Avignon, probably in 1308; she inherited a considerable fortune, and was married in 1325 to Hugh de Sade, by whom she had eleven children. The lady was already married when Petrarch first saw her and was smitten by her

*

charms. Although the amour was carried on throughout her married life, and the love of Petrarch terminated only with his life, it was nevertheless une passion honnête. In order to keep alive the ardor of his passion," says the Abbé, “Laura thought proper to feign a coldness of demeanor, and to show some marks of rigor; for by this succession of kindness and reserve, she contrived, though a woman of sensibility and prudence, to enslave the greatest poet of the age, without the smallest imputation on her character."+ All these facts and allegations the Abbé supports with strong arguments-certainly by more solid arguments than those adduced either by those who maintain that Laura was an allegorical personage, those who claim that she is to be regarded as a type of the Virgin Mary, or those who allege that, after all, Petrarch was a happy lover, and that his mistress was accustomed to meet him in

* It is related by several of Petrarch's biographers that soon after Charles of Luxemburg was made emperor he visited Avignon; and that, being aware of the celebrity of Laura, and meeting her at a ball, he went up to her and kissed her forehead and her eyes. Referring to this, her lover says: "This sweet and strange action filled me with envy." There are not many lovers at the present day who would regard such an "action" as a "sweet" Still the story is not incredible, for if the admiration of the poet for his wife flattered the vanity of Hugh de Sade, there is no reason why the admiration of the emperor for the same lady should not flatter the vanity of Petrarch, especially as no one had a stronger faith than he in the "divine right" of kings and emperors.

one.

Among those who have ably opposed the claim of De Sade, and at the same time maintained the purity of Petrarch's love, is Alexander Fraser Tyler, who has written an elaborate paper on the subject in the fifth volume of the Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society. The chief value of this, however, consists in the pains the author takes to show that Petrarch was not merely a poet, but the universal genius of his time. "The works of Petrarch," says Mr. Tyler, "bear evidence of his ability as a politician, theologian, and philosopher, and it is in these characters that he appears to have been chiefly distinguished by his contemporaries; but it is not on these foundations that the lasting structure of his fame has been reared. It is to those incomparable verses, in which he has celebrated the accomplishments, and bewailed the fate, of the beautiful Laura, that Petrarch has been indebted for his permanent reputation. The history of the poet's passion for his lovely mistress must ever be regarded as forming the most interesting portion of his annals."

that delightful Valley of Vaucluse, which he has also invested with undying fame.

Having thus presented the Abbé's theory in miniature, we now proceed to give an outline of his arguments. In the ancient manuscript of Virgil, which was the favorite book of Petrarch, the one which he read oftenest and with most delight, has been found a note in Latin, on the margin, in the handwriting of Laura's lover, bewailing the lady's death. Some have denied the genuineness of this note, but without any stronger reason than that it is incompatible with their own theories. At the present day, however, it is generally, if not universally, regarded as the first outpouring of the poet on hearing of the death of his mistress, before he could sufficiently compose his thoughts for those beautiful sonnets, in which, subsequently, he so tenderly mourns her loss. The following is as nearly literal a translation of that famous obituary as the idiomatic differences between Latin and English render possible and proper; for the benefit of those sufficiently acquainted with the original, we transcribe it at the bottom of the page, so that those who, like certain heads of universities, have an antipathy to the Roman tongue, may pass it by, and still know all that is necessary to be known about Petrarchi's passion for Laura:

"Laura, illustrious for her virtues, and for a long time celebrated in my verses, for the first time appeared to my eyes on the 6th of April, 1327, in the church of St. Clara, at the first hour of the day. I was then in my youth. In the same city, and at the same hour, in the year 1348, this luminary disappeared from our world. I was then at Verona, ignorant of my wretched situation. Her chaste and beautiful body was buried the same day, after vespers, in the church of the Cordeliers. Her soul returned to its native mansion in heaven. I have written this with a pleasure mixed with bitterness, to retrace the melancholy remembrance of my great loss.' This loss convinces me that I have nothing now left worth living for, since the strongest cord of my life is broken. By the grace of God, I shall easily renounce a world where my hopes have been vain and perishing. It is time for me to fly from Babylon when the knot that bound me to it is untied."*

*"Laura, propriis virtutibus illustris, et meis longum celebrata carminibus, primum oculis meis apparuit sub primum adolescentiæ meæ tempus,

The precious manuscript in which this note was written belonged for nearly two centuries to the Ambrosian Library at Milan, but belongs now, or at least did belong recently, to the Imperial Library at Paris. On the same manuscript other obituary notes have been found in the same handwriting, including one on the poet's only son, and several other dear friends. These are so incontestably in the handwriting of Petrarch that they are regarded by all competent, impartial judges as confirming the authenticity of the note on Laura. The one on his son is particularly interesting, showing, as it does, that the young man caused him no slight trouble and anxiety, and was deeply mourned by him when he died. That also we copy below, as affording more than one lesson for the classical student.*

The Abbé proceeds to inform the reader that two hundred years after this period Maurice de Seves, an antiquary of Lyons, made a search in the church of the Cordeliers for the tomb of Laura. In the burial-place of the Sade family he discovered a plain stone which, although without any inscrip

anno Domini 1327, die 6 mensis Aprilis, in ecclesia Sanctæ Claræ, Avenione, hora matutina; et in eadem civitate, eodem mense Aprilis, eodem sexto, eadem hora prima. Anno autem 1348, ab hac luce lux illa subtracta est: quum ego forte tunc Veronæ essem, heu fati mei nescius! Rumor autem infelix, per litteras Ludovici mei, me Parmæ repperit, anno eodem, mense majo, die 19, mane. Corpus illud castissimum atque pulcherrimum in loco fratrum Minorum repositum est, ipso die mortis, ad vesperam. Animam quiden ejus, ut de Africano ait Seneca, in Cælum, unde erat, rediisse mihi persuadeo. Hoc autem ad acerbam rei memoriam amara quadam dulcedine scribere visum est, hoc potissimum loco qui sæpe sub oculis meis redit, ut cogitem nihil esse debere quod amplius mihi placeat in hac vita, et effracto majori laqueo tempus esse de Babylone fugiendi, crebra horum inspectione ac fugacissimæ ætatis æstimatione commoneat. Quod prævia Dei gratia facile erit, præteriti temporis curas supervacuas, spes inanes, et inexpectatos exitus acritur et viriliter cogitanti.”

* "Johannes noster, homo natus ad laborem ad dolorem meum, et vivens gravibus atque perpetuis me curis exercuit, et acri dolore moriens vulneravit, qui cum paucos lætos dies vidisset in vitâ suâ, obiit in anno Dmi 1361, ætatis suæ xxiv. die Julii x. seu ix. medio noctis, inter diem Veneris et Sabatti. Obiit autem Mlni, in illo publico excidio pestis insolito, quæ urbem illam hactenus immunem talibus malis nunc autem reperit atque invasit."