Petrarch (74 page)

55.
without bells:
The bells were placed in the towers to praise and thank God; now they serve as a
signal to attack.

59.
hate themselves:
Alluding to their profane lives. Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XVI, 121; Lucan,
Pharsalia
II, 64; and Ovid,
Metamorphoses
VIII, 549.

60.
friars:
Franciscans, Benedictines, or Dominicans. Their scattered numbers suggest they are
a factor in the breakdown of culture.

65.
Hannibal feel pity:
Even Rome’s most implacable enemy would feel a pity unfelt by the men currently in
power.

67.
all aflame:
The fire of ambition and pride burning unrestrained in Rome.

71.
bears and wolves:
These names refer to the crests of Italian families whose willfulness causes such
suffering as he describes. The Orsini are the bears; the wolves the counts of Tusculum;
the lions the Savelli; the eagles the Annibaldi; the snakes the Caetani.

72–73.
great column … :
The Colonna family, not only friends and benefactors of Petrarch, but according to
him almost standing alone in their defense of Rome against armed opposition. In 1333
the Orsini opposed the Colonnas at San Cesario and were overcome, therefore “harming
themselves.”

74.
that noble lady:
Rome.

76.
bad plants:
Ezekiel prophesied that parasitical plants will be destroyed by God.

77.
a thousand years:
Before the transfer of the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium, when the
Golden Age ended.

80.
you newcomers:
They who did not descend directly from the Romans. Even the Colonnas derived from
the region of Bologna; the Orsini were from Spoleto. Their family pride, coming first,
denies the Church.

82.
Be husband, be her father:
Rome, as the new Jerusalem, is daughter, wife, and mother. Cf. 366.47.

84.
the greater Father:
The pope. The papal seat was Avignon, not Rome.

85.
injurious fortune:
The daring virtuous man, seizing the day, defies the pitiless randomness of fortune.

88.
cleared the way:
Fortune had always seemed to him to reward evil and punish virtue until this man
liberated himself from her hindrances, opening the way to grand enterprises.

93.
reach eternal fame:
For the first time the combination of circumstances is ideal for a new hero to arise.

94.
that monarchy most noble:
Rome as
caput mundi.

98.
when she was old:
Perhaps an even greater heroic act would be to save the mother.

99.
Tarpeian Mount:
The Campidoglio, site of the Senate and the rock from which Titus Manlius hurled
himself for love of liberty (Virgil,
Aeneid
VIII, 652).

102.
One who’s not seen you yet:
The exiled citizen of Italy who has heard of him only by reputation.

This madrigal dramatizes the history of his love in another way.

1.
Love’s colors:
Red and white.

2.
pilgrim soul:
As a fellow traveler on life’s road but also, perhaps, as someone foreign—strange
and new. Cf. poem 52, the madrigal of the mountain shepherdess.

4.
along green grass:
Cf. 23.1—2.

5.
loud voice:
Clear and authoritative. Cf. St. Augustine,
Confessiones
VIII, 12.

6.
in the woods:
Symbol of moral confusion.

7.
I sought shade:
Forgetfulness.

10.
around midday:
Quasi
at midday is in contrast with Dante’s unequivocal “Nel mezzo del cammin” (
Inferno I
, 1). In the next poem he sets off on a new path possibly as errant as the last.

This ballata introduces a new phase in his love—the possibility of a
secondo errore.

1.
That fire:
Love for Laura.

2.
by the cold times:
Cf. the Vulcan series beginning with poem 41, but especially poem 46.

3.
renews… suffering:
A new desire to speak out is born.

5.
covered up a bit:
By the ashes of defeat. Cf. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
VII, 80: “Parva sub inducta latuit: Scintilla favilla.”

7.
tears I scatter by the thousands:
All the words sent abroad telling of his pain.

8.
drip out of my heart:
Si distille.
Cf. Dante,
Inferno
XXIII, 97.

9.
both the sparks and tinder:
“Sparks” are the memories of her eyes he holds there, “tinder” the noble love awakened
by those sparks.

11–12.
What fire:
Cf. poem 48, where fire diluted fire and water, water. He confirms that he continues
to burn in spite of the deaf ears turned to his pain.

14.
between two opposites:
Between fire and ice, desire and remorse, innocence and experience.

17.
her fair face:
Hope and despair are the opposites struggling in his heart.

The rhyme scheme of this sonnet is the first to alternate
abab
in the quatrains. It gives form to the opposition between the lover’s passionate
hopes and his feared disappointment.

1.
counting all the hours:
Vainly numbering his days. 4.
to my pity: Mercé,
a merciful judgment.

5–8.
What shadow … :
Three proverbs are echoed in these lines, all foreshadowing bitter disappoinitment
of his hopes for peace in a new age.

7.
what wild beast is roaring?:
What agent of destruction.

8.
Between the grain and hand:
Between sowing and reaping.
what wall exists?:
Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XXVII, 36.

10.
that Love:
Early commentators reconstructed a scenario for this poem that had Petrarch waiting
with fear and joy beneath Laura’s balcony while her jealous husband roared inside
(Carducci).

13.
finally depart:
Come to judgment.

14.
consider himself blest:
Cf. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
III, 136–38: “But always, always, / A man must wait the final day, and no man / Should
ever be called happy before burial.”

He waited and despaired, and when she appeared it was only for a moment.

4.
swifter than a tiger:
Cf. Lucan,
Pharsalia
V, 405; Statius
Thebais
IV, 315.

5–8.
the snow will fall… :
Proverbial expressions for unimaginable outcomes. Cf. Virgil,
Eclogues
I, 60, where he uses similar language to speak of the impossibility of forgetting
Augustus Caesar.

9.
find in this:
In this world of “waiting and foresaking” (1. 3).

10.
find another way:
Love and Laura promised him mercy but will lead him instead back into war. Cf. 56.10–11.

11.
plotted wrongfully:
As he was enslaved by one and aroused by the other.

12.
when I taste sweet:
Corresponding to “good fortune” in line 1.

13.
through my scorn:
The pleasure is not worth the waiting and forsaking.

This sonnet accompanied three little gifts sent to Agapito Colonna, according to a
note on Vat. Lat. 3196. Agapito had recently suffered disappointment in love.

2.
rest upon one of these:
Perhaps a pillow. One of the remedies for love was thought to be repose and meditation.

4.
that cruel one:
Love.

5.
With the next one:
The second gift, perhaps a book.

block to the left:
On the side of the heart.

8.
little time is left:
Reminiscent of Horace’s “Ars longa, vita brevis.”

9.
with the third one drink:
Perhaps a cup or glass.

the juice of herbs:
An extract for his affliction.

12.
put me:
The poem itself.

where all pleasure is reserved:
In the heart or memory. The poem begs to be remembered with pleasure (Durling).

13.
captain of the Styx:
Charon, who ferries souls into the Underworld.

Deprived of the sight of Laura, he intends to love her nonetheless, with a new emphasis
on her golden hair.

3.
my fixed desire:
Cf. 22.24.

4.
hid the noose:
Referring to the conical shape of her golden tendrils. Later he speaks of the golden
threads with which he has spun his cocoon.

6.
cold ice:
The effect of a distant star. The memory of Laura’s cold glance, instead of stifling
his ardor, increases it.

15.
though through a good death:
Cf. 5.7–8, 23.31, 140.14, and 207.65.

17.
from such a knot:
The knot and the noose are one—his tie to the “unexpected splendor” (1. 8) that memory
of her calls up.

The bitterness Petrarch now feels is put into the mouth of his successor in this harsh
judgment of himself.

1.
the gracious tree that I loved hard:
The laurel. Petrarch speaks in the past tense of youthful, idealistic love born of
intense study. Cf. Dante,
Paradiso
XI, 63.

4.
in all my troubles:
The plant grew strong by struggling against adversity.

6.
it turned:
The disdain of Laura—her sudden turning away from him—produced a corresponding change
in his verse.

bitter wood:
Pitiless, mirroring the maiden’s unyieldingness. Cf. 22.37.

9–11.
What would he say … :
A younger poet might ask (as he does now) whether he had been hopelessly deceived
by the predecessor’s sweet words of love.

12–13.
nor Jove / grant it favor:
Nor grant it immunity from lightning.

13.
let the sun pour anger:
At midday, metaphorically the period of a man’s life when cynicism may replace idealism.

As if to respond to the raveled nature of the preceding sonnet, this benedictory poem
gathers up and blesses in a grand embrace all the contradictory elements of his love.

1.
blessèd be the day:
Echoing the beatitudes of the Gospel of Matthew has a number of precedents in Provençal
poetry.

2.
the season and the time, the hour:
Spring, in the morning, at the first canonical hour, 6–9
A.M.

3.
the place:
Avignon.

5.
the first sweet agony:
More than his joy, he blesses his pain, which in its sweetness was unique and sudden.

7.
all the arrows:
Renewals of his wounds on other occasions.

9–10.
all of the poetry / I scattered:
Compare the title Petrarch gave the collection,
Rime sparse.
Blessing all his verse written in her name expresses joy in its variety.

14.
shared with no one else:
His thoughts at all times have been faithful to Laura.

Third among the anniversary poems, this sonnet commemorates the eleventh year of his
love, Good Friday, 1338, with a prayer to God.

2.
spent in delirium:
Cf. 23.3.

5.
your light:
The illuminating light of grace.

6.
to deeds more beautiful:
He prays directly to God for guidance, whereas before he invoked Love,
la donna,
or Apollo.

7.
spread his nets in vain:
He has turned at midday, as he wrote in 54.10, thus escaping the snares of the adversary.

8.
may be disarmed:
Scornare,
with a root meaning of “break the horns of,” thus depriving Satan of his power.

10.
pitiless yoke:
His subjection to Love. Cf. 29.7 and 50.61.

11.
harshest to those:
Those most loyal to the pursuit of truth.

14.
crucified today:
Cf. poem 3. According to Salvini, Petrarch observed the Passion every year by taking
only bread and water.

As if to give evidence of the healing effects of his prayer, this ballata makes a
fresh start.

1.
Turning your eyes:
Demonstrating her quality of majesty.

my strange color:
The pallor of one wounded in the heart.

3.
you did so out of pity:
Cf. 23.121–135.

8.
I owe to them:
First the eyes, then the voice of Laura are the sources of his inspiration. Cf. Dante,
Vita nuova
II and III.

9.
for, as the rod will to the lazy beast:
The nature of his falling in love was sudden and splendid. Now memory of Laura’s
greeting acts as a prod to his conscience.

10.
the heavy soul in me:
The soul is weighted down by the body. Cf. poems 6 and 33.