PETRARCH THE AUTHOR 



fastidious Petrarch. The latter, having worked with 

 Barlaam on Plato, hoped through Pilatus to become 

 acquainted with Homer; and this desire was gratified. 

 The Calabrian, who was at work on a translation of the 

 Greek poet, made a preliminary version of a part of 

 the Iliad for which Petrarch paid, and which was the 

 dehght of his old age. 



Now, though Petrarch lacked anything like an ade- 

 quate knowledge of Greek literature, and its real 

 relation to Latin, he was a well-equipped scholar, and 

 we have a right to ask the question : did he use his tools 

 inteUigently ? Is he, like Dante, really in advance of 

 men like Cassiodorus, St. Isidore, or Honorius of 

 Autun ? In one respect he disappoints and vexes us: 

 he has the pedant's detestable habit of reeling off quo- 

 tation after quotation from pagan authors. St. Augus- 

 tine (who himself in the Secretum is not guiltless) says 

 to Petrarch: ^' When I recommend you to think of your 

 white hairs, you mention a crowd of illustrious men 

 whose hair has turned gray. What does that prove ? 

 If you had told me that they were immortal, you need 

 not, following their example, have feared white hair. 

 Had I urged baldness, you would appropriately have 

 cited Juhus Caesar." Petrarch, nothing daunted, like 

 Sancho Panza with his proverbs, spins off some more of 

 these examples. " This wealth of instances," St. 

 Augustine replies, " does not displease me, providing 

 that it does not prove negligence, but simply dissipates 

 fear and sadness." This is not a bad excuse for him; 



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