The New York herald., 1874-08-07


to love, honor and obey the grim Aucibert in the
iron clothes, and with chaste peremptoriness they
sent yonnR Petrarch about his business In vain
did he break out into verse and sigh in vain did
MS passion rage and bubble-the beautiful Laura
was the prototype OF Goethe's Charlotte, who dis
played such innexibility to werther; and had Pc
trarch chosen to make away with himself as
Werther did, there is no reason to doubt that
Laura would have evnced the equanimity which
Thackeray has cOmmemOrated-
Charlotte when she saw his body
,ss Borne si before her on shutter
Went OIL cutting bread and butter.
Petrarch did not kill himself bu. finding that
Laura had heart Of adamant, he became
MONK,
and started on walking tour through France and
the Netherlands trying. unsuccessiully to forget
his sorrows. On his return he settled down in a
little house at Vaucluse, near Avignon, and began
to exhale his imperishable love, which travel
seemed rather to have increased than diminished.
in verses, which soon earned him European
celebrity History does not tell us what were the
feelings OF Audibert OF Moves while his wife's
name was being sung to the four winds OF heaven
by shaven headed friar, but perhaps he had
to he satisfied with Lauras fidelity, for that
lady presented him regularly every twelve months
with pledge of her affection, till the number of
these olive branches reached eleven. In the
meantime the afiiicted Petrarch did not make such
bad thing out Of his unrequited love. Benedict
XII, delighted by his s0nnets ana Odes (cnnzoni)
gave him several hirings yielding rich revenues.
King Robert of Naples conferred on him the title
Of Court Almoner; the Duke OF Parma summoned
him to his Duchy, and received him like q prince,
inviting him to take up his permanent residence
in the palace; and in 134l solemn embassy was
sent to Petrarch to beg that he would come TO
Rome and receive the golden crown awarded to the
FIRST POET OF THE TINE.
Admiration for good verses must have been
much more abiding sentiment then than 1t is in
these degenerate days, for Petrarchs journey to
Rome ana his progress to the Capitol was like the
triumphal march Of cOnquerOr. The greatest
mobiles Of Italy walked bareheaded behind the
chariot which he sat enthr0ned; virgins strewed
flowers In his path; priests tossed incense to him
and gave him the Churchs blessing, and, as If all
this were not enough, a casket of jewels worth
about $5OO,00 Of modern money was laid at his
feet as the homage Of the Italian people. But
Petrarch's honOrs did not end here. Taking ad-
vantage Of his presence In the sacred city. the
Romans deputed him to be their ambassador to
Clement W., with the view of begging that distant
Pope to return to Rome, they promising to pay
taxes thencef0rth like true men. Petrarch ac-
cepted the mission, but did not succeed In per.
suading His Holiness that his refractory subjects
were to be relied on. The Pope, however, seeing
Petrarch in so popular way, instantly appointed
him legate and sent him little negotiation ofhis
own, which consisted in urging the rights Of
the Papal See to the Regency OF Naples. In this
affair the poet was successful, and in consequence
q demand for him arose among all the other
princes who wanted delicate business settled for
them with punctuallty and despatch. Louis de
G0nZague, Duke OF Milan. employed the poet to in
tercede with the Emperor Charles w. that peace
might be concluded with Italy; Visconti, Duke OF
Milan, commissioned him to reconcile the Repub-
lies OF Venice and Genoa, and when this had been
done sent him to congratulate John II. of France,
on his release from captivity in England. John
and his court ladies' tried every Establishment 10
retain Petrarch in Paris, but the poet was anxious
to get back to his seclusion OF Vaucluse, and he
was not tempted even by the handsome offers or
the city OF Florence, which bestowed on him the
rights Of citizenship, which Petrarch senior had
forfeited by his exile, and furthermore rendered
to him the rectorshlp of the Tuscan University.
Soon after this Petrarch declined the more glorious
honor Of
CARDINALS HAT,
with an archbishopric, and it was about this time
when human dignitaries could do no more In the
way OF rec0mpenstng him. that Petrarch heard OF
the death OF Laura de Moves, who had succumbed
to the plague at Avignon. Some say-and they are
Frenchmen-that, several years before dying
Laura had rewarded her illustrious adorer for his
constaucy, and that the Seigneur Audibert, in
the iron clothes, had been obliged 10 put smiling
face on the matter. The French guides to the
Fontaine de Vaucluse show you to this day an en-
powered spot where they declare that the mother
OF eleven children met the monk, and listened,
with blushing face and heaving breast to the SON.
npt which da Of n RaS M dY,cho a
princes and prncesses had heard before her, won
dering at the good fortune OF the woman who
could inspire such strains; and the guides add
that 1t was In returning from one OF these tender
appointments that Nine. Laura caught the cold
which led to the plague OF which she died. But
one must always beware Of Frenchmen expound-
Ing history. Enough that at Laura's
death Petrarchs name burst forth into
succession Of funereal odes most touch
ing and grand, and tnat, soon finding 1t too
painful to hnger near the spot where his sweat.
heart was buried, the poet beto0k himself to Italy
He chose Venice for his residence, made q gift to
the city Of his library, containing four thousand
volumes, and was in return lodged for the rest OF
his life free Of charge in OF the palaces on the
Grand Canal. He died at the age OF sixty nine
i'll the little city OF Arqua, near Padua, where ne
had gone to visit Lauras eldest son, and his death
was mourned In Italy as national calamity.
Petrarch indeed. was essentially an Italian poet.
His verses had all the ightness, the fresh decacy,
and yet the fiery glow or poets who live under
summer skies ana it may be said of him
His was the lay that lightly floats
And his the murmuring, dying notes,
That fall as soft snow the
And melt In the heart instantly.
Such is the hero in whose memory all the
HOTELS AND LODGING HOUSES or AvlGNoN
have been crowded to repetion during the last
week, and such the man in whose honor the
authorities of the city have been celebrating q
festival ut once novel and splendid. The proceed
ings began on Sunday, the 10th, with pilgrim.
age Of strangers and natives to the Fountain OF
vaucluse, with a banquet In Pctrarch's garden and
with distribution OF prizes to nity-four local
poets, winners OF prizes In public competition.
The peasantry who live around Avignon--a skinny,
tanned, but believing race-imagfned that all the
poets In Europe were going to be present, and 1t