New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-08-10

Christian.
Art before Petrarchs time lowered between two ex-
tremes and sanctty, ascetc exhaustion ana coarse
maeralism joined by the rough and fragile bridge OF
scholastic chivaric conventonality. He felt that
nature is not despicabe that what is beautiful good
that fe has an IDEAL that the soul ennobles itself by
following ideal Of its that the soul so rises 10
God without conventional Intermediates, and chants
Benedict
The discord always remains; but in his poetry the
poet hand exalts his passion ideazes the rea
deihes the human the other. he brings the divine
down TO u.s. humanzes It, conades TO 1t our sentiments
This process initiated by Petrarch was the process OF
the Renaissance, (why may not say In plain bhgSh
the new birth which. interrupted by the Reformat'on'
revealed discord afresh and more strongly henee
Werther and Renato hence Byron and Leopardo'
For Carducc Petrarchs ideazlton of Laura equas
Raphaels TRANSPORTATION After the trouoauours W.,
men, highly coored and feless; after the theoiogic"
Reatrce who has neither color life, Laura moves
respendent and full OF life throughout the poe' aS n
Madonna OF Gotto ever appeared upon the oan'"
make no attempt to give mameu copJ VI W -
breathing delicious, womanly Laura VINO "ouu va. =.
even Carlyle's obdurate heart. Death lor -
no more the death of the middle ages 1t is .,
his terrors: for him no demons exist; ne gnoios non
nab "a the Greek Euanasia which unbinds, resIoros
lus IN seep Laura suffers not; her lovers very 'eo0
are softened become lulng and soothing as ny "o,
and asphodels, hushing poets goddess III n'i u0"''
hour. - or,d.
his picture of Laura's paradise reveals new word
Tho naradise so cruel terrible horrible OF the Pas'' NOS
dsanneared Dapte's paradIse-that vailed desert OF
Theological light where spirits are absorbed ana iost III
mystic conf guratons-has vanished Lauras ID iu Vi
beautiful visions, and is peopled from the eartn'
Then how feminine ia her glory; how she nngers'
reluctantly TO greet the earth on which her lover
Laura bends her head smiling the earth where she
ifnl
extended between paradise and EARTH touches the point
OF union the real and the IDEAL and opens out
10 us the third heavens of the Apostle Paul. What
transformation Of the paradise OF the molly fathers
F,rrar is right. Petrarch "lnnocently BETRAYED inc
middle ages And he dimly perceves this himself; and
then the conflict between the man of grace and the man
OF the world. between the Christian and the Pagan,
between the middle ages and the Renaissance
recommences 1t is summed up the last sonnet, the
most beautiful poem ever breathed by Christian heart
to the Virgin. 1t at once hymn and an elegy'
From the fount Of his cOntrition for mortal sin flow
forth joyful memories OF delights foregone so that the
poet does not seem penitent as he would wish re-
trarcs Virgin is quite different from the Mater Dotorosd
OF Jacopo da Tadi, or the Lady of Heaven to whom
Dante addresses his mystical hymn. AT certain pas
sages of his poem you feel almost that the virgin OF
Jes recipient of the sweet secrets cOmpassionahg Tue
suierngs so patheticaly described, Is about TO quit
Giottos canvas descend to dry the tears OF the
Christian poet.
Petrarch a Latin poet warrod on the middle ages,
and came off conaueror He was the real father OF the
Renaissance once this theme his avorte Cirduccl
deuged US with proofs and combinations Adorer OF
the great Old he hated the barbarous middle age and
the present state society to which 1t had led he be-
Heved in the New Birth, and believed that Italy would
IL it's mother. In this IDEAL conception, one afec-
ton stood prominent the conception of the affection
for Italy. Standing wholly apart thanks to his exile
from petty factions and party strfes, he knew ana
loved but Italy as a whole. Peace, peace among your
selves he cried the SgnOr that you may repe for
eign invaders. and restore to herself within her own
| boundaries, the Latin nation whose head is Rome.
Foscats saying, "To make Italy you must unmakc the
secs" was Petrarchs theory; the proposed league OF
princes in si7 was copied from Perareh When Meter
Mich said Italy but geographical expression" he
erred, and should have said literary expression.
poetca tradition.
The poet, however, did nor. as some preach "peaco,
peace :" when there peace. Concord was his
AIM but he knew that peaceful could not lead
Italy 10 the desired goal john XXII Pope and Philip
Of France aided by their arms the adventnrer JOhn
of Bohemia aud Petrarc though actually at the court
OF Avgnon sent to Italy the cry all ert0 the warning OF
which Manzoni's chorus of CarmagnOla was but a his
toca record. And in that poem, when sezng Italy by
the hair OF her head he shows her past greatness her
present degradation Aud the song 10 the Sgnori who
warred round Parma in 1884, when hate to the foreigners
finds such ferOclous accents, and yet such tender eX
pressions OF courty love. And when Cola d Rien ri
adhered round him in the Capital the messengers OF
the Italian cities Petrarch really believed that the hope
Of all his days about to be realized And he left the
Court Of Avgnon and forgot love, and ungratefu
to the COonna aud only and thought only OF Italy
and Rome. He who had cried peace! peacel peace!
preached determination, determination OF feudal fac
tons war to civil Here Carducc read at length
a wonderful letter OF Perarch to Cola di Rienz which
confess never have read and to which presented
Slv 7 ahould aft tx
any rate 1t justhes Carduccs assertion of Petrarcs
passion.
Then when Cola di Rienz failed and fell. Petrarch
desparng Of the signor turned his hopes to the EN-
peror Charles w., and urged the Pope TO return to
Rome. Even ideally the Empire and the Church could
not at that tins be excluded from Italian life but
Petrarch warned Carl that Italy great, and would
be 80 with him or without him, aud treated the return
of the Papa of the annexation Of Rome to Italy
And with his prophetic vision he saw within the future
The two lights OF the world" he wrote, the Empire
and Papacy, will be extinguished the two swords
rendered pointless " and he strove to exat
the name of Italy Here the orator made most poetic
comparison between the Dome of Milan and the Italy OF
Perarcb's imagination.
Among all the contradictions inherent in the times
and In the poets nature, his greatest merit is that of
having placed at the summit OF the ideal the conception
OF Italy made a nation. His practical theory, the
classical glorifcation of the Republican Signori, was
dispersed by the foreign invasons OF l9 still more
than by the iron policy of Machaven. But the idea
remained and with it Machiavell ends his book, the
Prince Petrarch's more ferociOus than any OF
Dane seem fertile and have the broken breathless
sound OF the charges Varde aud San Martina
Here the orator, remembering the presence of for
eigoers added that they would agree that so
long as foreigners occupied the soil OF Italy hate was
pety and battles civilization" His peroration was sub
lime severe as the granite tomb, calm as
the waters of the lake. bright as the flowers
that surrounded us. Petrarch's hymn to, liberty
was the final theme; his hymn written when after his