PETRARCH THE MAN 



and that pierces the new pilgrun with love, if he hears 

 from afar a bell that seems to mourn the dying day." 

 And then comes the singing of the hymn, Te lucis 

 ante terminum. In Petrarch's works, beautiful pic- 

 tures are, on the whole, comparatively rare; I think 

 too much has been made of them. What one does find, 

 as might be imagined, is the modern, sentimental note 

 to a striking degree. While the Hterary recluse loved 

 his hermitage, among other reasons, because it brought 

 him more strikingly before the eyes of the public of 

 men, another motive took the place of this in moments 

 when he would have willingly forgotten his human 

 audience. For him, as for a primitive race of men, or 

 for such a people as the modem Greeks, all nature 

 was animate, shared his joys and pleasures, was his 

 confidant. 



This aspect of Petrarch's love for nature we find best 

 expressed in the Canzoniere. There are many examples 

 of it. Here are one or two. In Mai non fui in parte 

 ove St chiar vedessi, written after the death of Laura, he 

 says of Vaucluse: " Never was I in a place where so 

 clearly I saw her whom I might rightly long to see, now 

 that I could see her no more; nor where I had such 

 liberty to fill the heavens with my cries of grief. Never 

 did I see a vale with so many secret nooks where I could 

 sigh in solitude. Nor do I believe that Love in Cyprus 

 or on any other strand had so sweet an abode. The 

 waters speak of love, and the breeze, and the boughs, 

 the little birds, the fishes, the flowers, the grass, all 



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