PETRARCH THE MAN 



broad daylight! If you wish to know the cause of so 

 much boldness, learn that I am not afraid of ghosts or 

 phantoms. No wolf has been seen in the valley, and 

 nothing is to be feared from man. Herdsmen pass the 

 night in the meadows, and fishers along the rivers, the 

 former singing, the latter silent. Both treat me at any 

 hour of the day with the greatest respect." Compare 

 with this passage the lovely sestina, Non ha tanti 

 animali il mar fra Vonde. 



This appreciation of the beauty of the country at 

 night is not over-common nowadays, at least it is 

 seldom carried so far as it went with Petrarch. There 

 are plenty of people who Uke to walk in the moonhght 

 or starHght, but few who, after once having gone to 

 bed, care to get up again and wander forth. Never 

 since reading this passage have I doubted the sincerity 

 of Petrarch's love for nature. When we speak of Dante's 

 attitude towards it, we lay stress upon his amazing 

 skill as a landscape painter. He uses his brush with the 

 certain mastery of a Japanese artist, or a Sargent. 

 Each stroke is swift and unerring; there is not one 

 which is unnecessary. In addition to this, there is 

 occasionally in Dante the sentimental note, a feehng 

 for a harmony existing between man's emotions and 

 nature in her different manifestations. You may 

 remember that incomparable passage where he says: 

 " It was now the hour that turns back desire in those 

 who sail the sea and softens their hearts, on the day 

 when they have said to their sweet friends ' Farewell,' 



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