STERN CHARACTER OF LAURA. 43 the scenes of a gay and profligate court, they appear seldom to have held any personal intercourse. Petrarch was not admitted to her house. There is no evidence that she shared his tender sentiments, but the reverse.. He describes her as indifferent to the charms of poetry and song. A veiled figure, intent, probably, on other affections and cares, haunted him like a spirit; but that spirit breathed life, not unmingled with suffering, into his heart, and burst forth in his verses with a splendour and a warmth not its own. There is not the smallest evidence that Laura de Sade returned or requited his passion. He speaks of her countenance as "severe," and this stern demeanour was only relaxed by a rare passing gleam of consideration and courtesy. In his letters he never mentions her at all, except on one occasion, when his friend Giacomo Colonna had rallied him playfully on the unsubstantial nature of the object of his affections, and hinted, as some critics have done in later times, that, except as an object of poetical enthusiasm, his Laura might have no real existence. To this Petrarch replied: "Look at what I suffer. To fall in love with a purely ideal object might be a folly, but to love as I do, without hope, is a scourge." In his "Triumph of Death," which I shall cite hereafter, he describes the interest felt by Laura in his fate in more tender language. But that was the dream of a poet after the death of his mistress, when he believed that the shadows and obscurities of the human heart had vanished in the light of eternity. On earth and in life an unfathomable abyss ( seemed to separate him from her. He loved as one might love an angel or a star. The poetic language in which he depicts her charms-the golden-threaded hair -the angelic smile-the eyes that reflected the light of heaven-may be that of imagination or enthusiasm. But tradition can hardly err in ascribing to Laura de Sade uncommon beauty, though there are doubts of the authenticity of the portraits which exist of her. Petrarch states in his letters that he had known two great painters - Giotto and Simon Memmi; the latter undoubtedly gave a portrait of Laura to his friend, and received in return two complimentary sonnets. One can hardly recognise, in the portraits attributed to Memmi in the gallery of the Louvre, the traces of so great a beauty; and the bas-relief of Petrarch and Laura found at Siena is of still more questionable authenticity. CHAPTER V. PETRARCH AT VAUCLUSE. THE passion which Petrarch had conceived for this lady, and perhaps the disappointments attending it, strengthened his taste for rural life and retirement; and he found at Vaucluse, within easy reach of Avignon, a spot singularly adapted to his convenience. The valley has been described with great force and fidelity by Ugo Foscolo: "The house of Petrarch at Vaucluse has disappeared, nor can his frequent descriptions help antiquarians to discover the site of his gardens; but the valley of Vaucluse is one of those works of nature which five centuries have been unable to disturb. On leaving Avignon, the eye of the traveller reposes on an expanse of beautiful meadow, till he arrives on a plain varied by numerous vineyards. At a short distance the hills begin to ascend, covered with trees, which are reflected on the Sorgia, the waters of which are so limpid, their course so rapid, and their sounds so soft, that the poet describes them truly when he says that 'they are liquid crystal, the murmurs of which mingle with the songs of birds to fill the air with harmony.' Its banks are covered with aquatic plants; and in those places where the falls or the rapidity of the current prevent their being distinguished, it seems to roll over a bed of green marble. Nearer the source the soil is sterile; and, as the channel grows narrow, the waves break against the rocks, and roll in a torrent of foam and spray, glittering with the reflection of the prismatic colours. On advancing still further up the river, the traveller finds himself enclosed in a semicircular recess, formed by rocks inaccessible on the right, and abrupt and precipitous on the left, rising into obelisks, pyramids, and every fantastic shape, and from the midst of them a thousand rivulets descend. The valley is terminated by a mountain, perpendicularly scarped from the top to the bottom, and, through a natural porch of concentric arches, he enters a vast cavern, the silence and darkness of which are interrupted only by the murmuring and the sparkling of the waters in a basin, which forms the principal source of the Sorgia. This basin, the depth of which has never yet been fathomed, overflows in the spring, and it then sends forth its waters with such an impetuosity as to force them through a fissure in the top of the cavern, at an elevation of nearly a hundred feet on the mountain, whence they gradually precipitate themselves from height to height in cascades, sometimes showing and sometimes concealing, in their foam, the huge masses of rock which they hurry along. The roar of the torrents never ceases during the long rains, while it seems as if the rocks themselves were dissolved away, and the thunder re-echoed from cavern to cavern. The awful solemnity of this spectacle is varied by the rays of the sun, which, towards evening particularly, refract and reflect their various tints on the cascades. After the dog-days, the rocks become arid and black, the basin resumes its level, and the valley returns to a profound stillness." The sources of the Sorgia had Petrarch from his earliest years. pentras, where he was at school. been well known to They were near CarThey had been visited by his friend and patron, King Robert of Naples (to whom, in fact, the little principality belonged 1), on his passage to the Court of Avignon. He fled there in youth to The Comté Venaissin and Provence had been ceded absolutely by Philip le Bel, in 1290, to Charles II., King Robert's father. SOLITUDE AT VAUCLUSE. 47 escape from the turmoil of society and the violence of his passion; and as he advanced in life, he made the retreat of Vaucluse the central seat of his contemplative life. Let us go with Petrarch to "the sources of the Sorgia,1 the well-known haven of his soul, where he was wont to wander solitary at evening, and in the morning the melancholy ripple of the stream against the bank found him. there still." If we would meditate, it shall be "in that delightful valley,2 under the morning shadows of the mountains, where the fountain gurgles from beneath the tangled roots, and over an hundred rocks, welling forth its silver waters and its many waves, which burst in loud rapidity down the glen, till they swell into an enchanting river. In this spot we will sit upon our chosen seats, under the shadow of the ivy, feeding our eyes with the sweet prospect. There we will task the fruitful powers of the mind, there read the secrets of the soul." There we may learn, as he says, "exigui laudasse silentia ruris." And whilst we recollect that "The unquiet man, through years of anxious breath, Still hastens death-ward: his best friend is Death!" we shall remember that Petrarch had hopes and meditations which his Mago never knew; and that, whilst he sang of the troubled end of the Carthaginian warrior, the greater part of his own life was only agitated by sweet sorrows, or enlivened by pure joys. "I ever sought a life of solitude, This know the shores, and every lawn and wood : 1 Epist. Fam., lib. v. cap. 1. 3 Africa, lib. vi. 2 Epist. Variar. |