PETRARCH THE MAN 



III 



What is to be said now of Petrarch's attitude towards 

 Dante and his relations to his friends ? In 1359 Boc- 

 caccio, who felt that Petrarch did not approve of Dante, 

 sent him a copy of the Divine Comedy, with a Latin 

 poem in which he begged him to read the work of his 

 great fellow-citizen. It seems strange that Petrarch 

 should have waited all these years, until he was fifty- 

 five years old, to read the greatest poem that Italy had 

 produced. Had he himself written only Latin, been 

 interested only in that language, like the later human- 

 ists, such indifference might have been credible. Quite 

 naturally, the cause of his neglect is said to have been 

 jealousy. He himself, when speaking of the vanity of 

 fame, refers to the distress of the older famous man, 

 when he sees himself crowded out by younger men who 

 are becoming noted. Would he not necessarily have 

 been vexed by the tremendous enduring fame of Dante ? 

 The fact that such a sincere, good soul as Boccaccio was 

 troubled by his friend's attitude is perhaps the most 

 important testimony against Petrarch. But it should 

 not be accepted without close scrutiny. At any rate, 

 some account should be made of the letter which 

 Petrarch wrote in reply to Boccaccio's poem. He says: 

 " My enemies assert that I hate and despise Dante, and 

 in this way stir up the common herd against me, for 

 with them he is very popular. How could I bear any 

 ill-will towards a man whom I never saw but once, and 



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