456 
Perhaps the thunder in Italy may mo- 
eulate its voice to the mufical ears of the 
matives; but certainly an Englifhman 
does not affociate much of the ‘ dolce 
falute ¥* with the idea of thunder, and 
would be apt to tranflate the paflage, in 
the words cf a countryman of his own. 
€¢ ¥f fhe all hearts with love furprize, 
Pray where’s the mighty wonder? _ 
She bears Jove’s lightning in her eyes, 
And in her voice his thunder !” 
But, I fuppofe, if you would exprefs 
your obje‘tions on thefe fubjecis, he 
would anfwer, as he does on the other 
perfetions of his miftrefs : 
<¢ And he that will not believe, let him) 
come and fee her, 
«¢ & chi nol crede venga egli e vedella.”” 
An appeal equal to that on the wonder- 
fal ram of Derby.— 
ss And indeed, fir, it is true, fir, I never 
was. ufed to lie, 2 
¢© And if you'd been at Derby you'd feen 
it as well as I.” 
Perhaps it would not be frigtly juf& to 
aceule Petrarch of all the infipidity of 
the common-place phrafes and fenti- 
ments, of which his pieces generally con- 
Gi. For perhaps the celebrity of his pro- 
ductions rendered common-place many 
modes of expreffion, which, in him, were 
original. But {weet bitters, and bitter 
fweets; burning ice, and frozen fire, are 
very common phenomena in his land of 
wonders. - In Sonn. 124, he undertakes 
to defcribe the charms of Laura, feparate- 
ly confidered:—now hearken to the 
bright imagination of the elegant Pe- 
trarch! Her head is fine gold—her face 
warm fhow—ebony her eye-brows—and 
her eyes two ftars—pearls and vermillion 
rofes form her words of grief—flame are 
her fighs—and chryftal are her tears f. 
Another chara&ter, however, is given of 
Eaura in the truc {pirit of poetry. (Sonn, 
¥798, p.1-} But when the character he 
has drawn of his miftrefs, juftifies, in the 
the reader’s mind, the enthufiafm with 
whicl: he adds—‘ and there is an inde- 
fcribeable fomething in her eyes, thatcan, 
in a moment, cloud my day, or illumine 
‘my night’—who would not exeerate the 
fonnetteering bathos, that thus concludes 
the climax of wonders performed by the 


* The expreffion might be vindicated on 
inte = - ~ 
the Franklinian hbypothefis; for furely a 
s¢ fweet kifs’ might have an eleé?rical effe, 
on fuch a heart as Petrarch’s. a Oe 
La tefta or fino, e caida neve il yoite 
5) 5) 
Sec. &C. \ 
e 
Remarks on the principal Ttaltan Poets. 
5 ’ 
[July 
je ne fais quoi of Laura’s ‘eyes >—** that 
can make honey bitter, or wormwood 
{weet.”’-—But the Sonnet infifted on hav- 
ing a fourteenth line, and ‘ Silenzio”* in-= 
fited on that line ending with a found- 
that fhould rhyme to itlelf, the poet pa- 
tiently fubmitted and wrote 
‘© E’] mel? amare ed addolcir Vaffentio.” 
If every folly, however, were as amply 
repaid, Petrarch would be another -Shak- 
fpeare. The name of Laura feems as 
fluent a fource of pains to Petrarch, as 
the cuckold’s horn to our Bard: and, 
in his gricf for the lofs of his friend, 
he never forgets that colonna is a column, 
as wellas acardinal. But of all puerili- 
ties, the sth Sonuec of the rt Part, affords 
one of the moft contemptible examples : 
—a Sonnet on the name of Lauretta, di- 
vided into fyllables !—a degree even be- 
low the lowly acroftic !—fcr the author 
contents himfelf with imtroducing the 
component fyllables m any part of the 
notable oompofition: thus we find Laz- 
dando in one line, rea/ in another, and 
taci ina third '—But, what is fill more 
abfurd, the ingenious author has not been 
fuccefsful, even in this miferable conceit : 
for the letters that he has made thus con- 
-{picuous, fall fhort of the intended word, 
by the deficieney of a T,—as the critical 
acumen of his erudite commentator has 
difeovered. 
From an author, who could fo perpe- 
tually plume himlelf on the adoption, or 
invention of fuch frivolities, we cannot 
expect much delicacy of fentiment, or 
tafte :—and yet thefe are what I had con- 
ceived to be the characteriftics of Petrarch. 
Sometimes, no doubt, they do appear ;— 
but they are not the predominant traits ; 
and render themfelves remarkable rather 
by the rarety, than the beauty of their 
appearance :—a fine paflage in his works 
ftands, like the poet himielf in his own 
times,—** a column in a melancholy 
wafte §° 
In the firft two parts, at leaft, the verfr- 
fication is uniformly mufical : though 
even inthis quality, he appears to have 
failed in his trionfi, and to have worn out 
the patience of the patient Caftelvetro. 
Upon the whole, the 2d part of his Son- 
nets, &c. is tome the moft pleafing: the 
mind of the author feems to have been 
foftened into more fentiment, by the death 
of Laura—and, for the age in which he 
lived, his fentiment, his expreffion, and 
his verfification, are certainly of a very 
extraordinary chara¢ter: but I would not, 
therefore, praife him, as if he were fupe-. 
rior to all that fucceeded——or as if the 
time 

