OS FLORA DOMESTICA. 



" When I behold Aurora descending from heaven, with her cheek 

 of roses, and her locks of gold,, love assails me : I turn pale, and I say, 

 sighing, where is Laura now? Oh, happy Tithonus, thou knowest 

 well the hour when thou wilt recover thy dear treasure : hut what 

 shall I do for the sweet laurel, which would I see again, I first must 

 die ! Your parting is less cruel ; for night at least restores to thee her 

 who scorns not thy white locks : she makes my nights sorrowful, and 

 my days dark, who has borne away my thoughts, and of herself has 

 left me nothing but the name." 



But unless Petrarch's whole works are inserted, it will 

 be a vain attempt to give all the passages in which he thus 

 celebrates both his mistress and the tree. One or two more 

 only shall be mentioned : the canzone beginning 



and 



Standomi un giorno solo a la fenestra " 



CANZONE 42. 



" Quando il soave mio fido conforto." 



CANZONE 47. 



It was but just that he should be crowned with this be- 

 loved Laurel, as it is well known that he was, publicly, at 

 Rome; having been offered the same honourable distinc- 

 tion at Paris also. 



" The Laurel seems more appropriated to Petrarch, 

 (says Mr. Hunt), than to any other poet. He delighted 

 to sit under its leaves ; he loved it both for itself and for 

 the resemblance of its name to that of his mistress; he 

 wrote of it continually ; and he was called from out of 

 its shade to be crowned with it in the Capitol. It is a 

 remarkable instance of the fondness with which he che- 

 rished the united ideas of Laura and the Laurel, that he 

 confesses it to have been one of the greatest delights he 

 experienced in receiving the crown upon his head *." 



Chaucer bestows the Laurel upon the Knights of the 

 Round Table, the Paladines of Charlemagne, and some of 

 the Knights of the Garter, 



* Indicator, No. XL. vol. i. page 316. 



