Petrarch (99 page)

4.
shall have my spoils:
The conflict between the sweet voice and the harsh will be won by the less worthy
opponent, and her “form” will end up lacking soul or humanity.

bring her little honor:
Will not have the ring of truth.

7.
I weep:
His grieving is undifferentiated.

11.
wear its way:
His modus operandi: persistence, constancy, even contumacy.

This sonnet, written to Giovanni Colonna in 1345, mentions the eighteenth year of
his love—two years earlier, therefore, than his last “anniversary” sonnet, poem 221.
On a graph, these commemorations show a zigzag of advances and retreats that may comment
on the poet’s experience of his time. In 1366 Petrarch transcribed in Vatican 3195
a sonnet written by Sennuccio del Bene in response to these words.

1.
Dear lord of mine:
Giovanni Colonna.

3–4.
but fortune now …/… overthrows me:
In February of 1345 Petrarch fled Parma because of war, injuring himself in a fall
from a horse, and for some months lived a generally disrupted existence (
Familiares
V, 10).

7.
two lights:
The two people dearest to him are Laura and the cardinal himself.

11.
it was I, myself:
Cf. 264.111–112.

12.
A Laurel:
Symbol of his ever-renewing love for Laura.

a Column noble:
The cardinal, as well as the Colonna family.

13.
fifteen years:
The length of time he has known Giovanni Colonna.

eighteen the other:
He first saw Laura in 1327.

14.
I’ve kept inside me:
Kept in his heart, corresponding to line 2.

Here Laura’s death is finally acknowledged, although it is not until the next canzone
that the words “Madonna è morta” appear. Petrarch himself noted in his copy of Virgil’s
works that she dies on 6 April 1348 and he received word of it the following 19 May.
He also recorded the date he first saw her, the same 6 April at the same hour of the
day twenty-one years before. Foreshadowing of Laura’s disappearance from the world
began well in advance of this sonnet, however, alternating with reappearances and
“lapses” in chronology that continue to puzzle readers. This physical death scatters
to the wind the poet’s hope of possessing her, but her power of attraction will endure
in other forms.

4.
could tame:
It is he she tamed and filled with courage.

5–6.
arrow/of death:
Of Love. Cf. 2.7.

7.
Royal soul:
Highest good.

worthiest of all:
Cf. poems 225, 260, and 263.

8.
joined us so late:
Born into a corrupt age that could not appreciate her.

11.
I suffer less:
Any other pain is insignificant.

13.
the time I left:
Cf. 250.9.

14.
all those words were scattered:
She did not seem to hear them.

This canzone mourning the death of Laura was painstakingly revised over the years,
beginning with its first drafting sometime before 28 November 1349 and ending with
its transcription in 1356. The poetry shows the effects of a long period of reflection,
his pain having been internalized and made habitual in a new mode of dignified resignation.
Technically, the canzone shows great simplicity and clarity of design. Petrarch asks
Love’s advice and receives it: do not abandon the high goal you set for yourself upon
first loving Laura. Dante’s influence pervades his argument here, particularly the
events of the
Vita nuova.

1.
Can you advise me, Love?:
Cf. 264.135: “I seek new rules by which to lead my life.” Petrarch may have found
Catullus’s line, “Ibimus quaesitum: verum, ne ipsi teneamur, Formido. Quid ago? Da,
Venus, consilium,” in Gellius,
Node atticae XIX,
9, 25 (Zingarelli).

4.
My lady’s dead:
In 1351 Petrarch crossed out the word
morta
and substituted for it
gita,
as if his lady had gone on a trip. It is worth mentioning the change because the
poet includes it and dates it with careful attention to avoiding “ambiguity.” Dante
had used
gita
after Beatrice’s death in the
Vita nuova
XXXII.

6.
interrupt these worst of times:
The inherent violence of the word “interrupt” suggests to some an act of suicide.
On the other hand, his natural death from grief might startle his contempories enough
to make them notice the death of Laura.

7.
I cannot hope:
If Laura was virtue personified, he has lost hope of meeting her embodiment in the
world. Cf. 250.9–14.

16.
wrecked our ship:
Cut off their hopes for salvation.

17.
seen the sun turn dark:
Cf. 3.1–4. According to Petrarch’s notation in his copy of Virgil, Laura died the
same hour he first saw her, Good Friday between 6 and 9
A.M.
(the hour Christ died on the Cross, according to the Vulgate).

19.
could ever match my sorrowful condition:
Reminiscent of Dante’s “Li occhi dolenti” in
Vita nuova
XXXI, and also of Virgil,
Aeneid
II, 362: “Quis … possit lacrymis aequare labores?”

20.
blind, ungrateful world:
Corresponding to “these worst of times” in line 6.

23–28.
Your glory’s fallen
… :
The glory of Laura, her virtue and beauty, were always a thing new and unique to
the world, known in their essence only to him.

23.
you do not see it:
Cf. 261.4.

32.
this is what’s left to me:
To weep in recalling her name.

38.
from that veil:
Her soul released from the body.

40.
reclothed with it:
When her body is restored on the universal day of judgment, her beauty will become
infinite.

48.
this is one column:
The memory of her living form.

53.
while she was flowering:
In his earthly paradise.

55.
close to truth:
To God in Heaven.

56.
Ladies:
Those who have studied her ways in the hopes of learning her angelic style. Cf. poem
261.

59.
let pity vanquish you:
Through his song as catharsis, allowing them to be overwhelmed by emotion.

61.
here at war:
His customary war against himself.

65.
cut the knot:
Giving himself up to death. Critics argue over whether he contemplated suicide, as
they have about Dante. Dying from the inside—the imagination dying—seems a worse threat
to the poet.

66.
He speaks to me within:
His own love reasons with him now—the
amoroso pensiero
that does not die.

67.
Control the pain:
This line received several reworkings by Petrarch, as if to illustrate the need to
restore his unique balanced style to his verse. Cf. 264.76–79.

68.
excessive passion:
Debilitating grief over his personal loss. Plotinus warned against such excess in
the
Enneads.

70.
to others:
The blind world.

71.
her fair remains:
The veil from which she freed herself and on which she gazed lovingly in life.

72.
sighs only for you:
Finds in him her unique envoy.

76.
brighten your voice:
Polish his style, making it more clear and candid in order to praise her shining
name.

78–82.
Flee the clear weather
… :
Love has advised him to brighten his voice, yet instead, in this congedo he sends
forth a message that conceals longing behind a black veil. Before Petrarch made this
final version he composed two others of striking diversity, the first a poignant appeal
for sympathy to the Florentine poet Sennuccio del Bene, and the other an attack on
the pitilessness of the “torbido rio,” the “ramo senz’ ombra.” The version he chose
preserves an authorial detachment, as if he watches himself go forth as part of a
simple cortege.

In July of 1348 Cardinal Giovanni Colonna died of the plague, only a few months after
Laura. Petrarch’s double loss is noted here. Positioning this single sonnet between
two canzoni deepens its significance, as poem 238, also a sonnet, was elevated in
its position between two sestinas. As far back as poem 40 he had linked the generosity
of his cultured patrons with his commitment to express his love for Laura, doubling
his fabric, so to speak, with the Colonnas’ understanding support. Now both his mind
and spirit are bereft.

1.
Broken:
Both this pillar of the Church and the laurel tree have fallen. Cf. 266.12–14.

2.
provided shade:
The opportunity to retreat from the world to study and write.

4.
from Boreas… to Moorish Sea:
From north to south and east to west, referring to winds as well as seas.

5.
my double treasure:
Laura and the cardinal.

6.
with joy… with pride:
Each doubling in lines 6–8 relates either to Laura or the cardinal.

8.
oriental gem:
Frequently evoked to compare with Laura’s beauty.

gold’s own power:
Cf. Cicero,
Tusculum
V, 32: “In pompa cum magna vis auri argentique ferre tur.”

9.
wish of destiny:
A tone of resignation.

11.
my head bent low:
How can he look to Heaven in the face of such calamity?

13.
just one morning:
Both Laura and Colonna died in their prime.

One paradox after another is revealed in this impassioned evocation of Laura now that
she is most grievously dead, not the least of which is that it follows poem 268, where
thought and emotion had been brought under such careful control. Another colloquy
with Love, this canzone does not ask advice but sets out its own terms, buoyed by
joy in the memory of his lady.

1.
ancient yoke:
Cf. 51.12, 62.10, 79.6, 89.10, 129.54, 197.3, and 209.7. Earthly love still tempts
him.

3.
astonishing and new:
A proof of love never experienced by the world before.

4.
subdue me:
Make him a slave again.

5.
Find my beloved treasure:
Laura’s entombed body. The imagery of the canzone draws on Ovid’s accounts of Meleager,
Atalanta, and Adonis in
Metamorphoses
VIII and X.

8.
make its home:
Now with Laura in Heaven.

11.
as the Abyss:
The Underworld, here one and the same with the world.

14.
take back from Death:
As if Laura were Proserpina, seized by Pluto. Cf. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
V.

15.
your colors raise again:
The amorous rosiness, the gold, and the white.

17.
endearing flame:
The loving glance that originally lit his fire.

20.
doe or stag:
Cf. Ps. 41:1, “Quenadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum, ita desiderat anima
mea ad te Deus.”

23.
and more to come:
Knowing that desire grows back even when it is killed. Cf. 264.62.

24.
since well I know myself:
Cf. 264.91–92: “I know myself, and I am not deceived / by a mistaken truth.”

30.
you have no power outside your own kingdom:
Cf. Dante,
Vita nuova
IX: “Cavalcando l’altrier per un cammino.”

36.
dark and heavy mist:
Wintry, in contrast with the aura. Castelvetro interpreted the mist as “d’ogni concupiscevole
e villano appetito.”

38.
cannot reach:
Because he can no longer glory in the living Laura.

40.
soul is stronger in its rights:
Because it is immortal, having a say more pertinent than that of the body.

41.
their proper object:
Restore the soul of Laura to her body.

42.
without which thing:
Without the joy her living form gives him, he lives in torment.

44.
you exert your force:
Love raises his hopes.

47.
sunlight on ice:
Melting his defenses with the warmth of her glance.

48.
passageway:
The eyes of Laura, where Love had posted himself at the beginning.

51.
let me hear:
Cf. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
I, 468.

55.
hooks … bait:
“The hooks are her soft words, the bait her sweet acts and movements” (Vellutello).
In the fifteenth century, Ficino identified
esca
(bait) as analogy, an attraction for like things.

57.
in her hair blond and curly:
Cf. poems 90, 160, 197, and 227.

62.
neglected artfully and thick:
Hair uncared for, as Daphnes was in Ovid,
Metamorphoses
I, 98–99.

64.
sweetly cruel:
At once innocent and severe.

65.
myrtle, laurel:
Spirit is opposed to substance in this comparison. Myrtle was sacred to Mercury and
laurel to Apollo; they were symbolic of the gods’ action but could not be a direct
medium for it.

66.
kept green inside of me:
It was the memory and awareness of both innocence and sensuality that spurred him
to seek her through all the seasons.