PETRARCH THE CRITIC AND READER 



rima, the Trionfi, and also in the name he bestows on 

 the Canzoniere, Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta, 



These are arguments which might well be adduced to 

 prove a literary change of view on Petrarch's part. 

 Another is the extreme care that he took in polishing 

 his verses. He speaks of crudeness of style, but this 

 means nothing. A sixteenth century Italian, Ludovico 

 Beccadelli (1502-72), speaking of some Petrarchan 

 manuscripts, says that, apart from the handwriting, 

 which resembles that of the poet's other works, they 

 were corrected and altered in so many ways that no 

 other than the author could have done it. In the said 

 rhymes " one sees evidences of Petrarch's great care in 

 improving them, changing his phrases four and five 

 times; and it is a noticeable thing that, aside from the 

 corrections, everything is written in Latin, which 

 sometimes gives the reasons for the alteration and 

 always notes down the date of writing." In the poems 

 themselves Petrarch has not a little to say about style. 

 In one, SHo avesse pensato che si care, he says that if 

 he had known his love poetry would give such pleasure, 

 he would have written much more, and in a more pol- 

 ished manner; his one desire at first having been to 

 relieve his heart and not to acquire fame. But now that 

 Laura is dead, and the time has come when he would 

 like to please the fastidious, he no longer possesses so 

 soft a file as to make the dull rh3anes sweet and clear. 

 In another, Mentre che^l cor da gli amorosi vermi, he says 

 almost the contrary: when he was young and loved 



