Petrarch (69 page)

the beech tree:
Petrarch alters Ovid’s version, where the tree was the ilex or holly, coincidentally
sacred to Christ. The beech commonly symbolizes literature.

118.
the wet road:
The path of tears.

119.
who ever heard:
The question begs an answer, for Petrarch was unique in investing in himself these
transformations. Dante also claimed to break precedent in a sequence where metamorphosis
was the peculiar characteristic of the thief. Cf.
Inferno XXV, 97 ff.

120.
clear and well-known things:
This might compare accessible writings with those more mysterious and difficult,
that is, those lines he pens to express his pain rather than to praise his lady. The
distinction is Augustinian.

121.
The soul:
Laura’s, created in the image of God.

124.
she never stops forgiving:
The nature of God is to forgive; therefore by praying to her likeness in God he comes
to mercy.

127–131.
unlike herself …:
She has, instead, silenced him.

129.
be more feared:
That the prayer might also be an atonement for the sin.

134.
punishment was equal:
Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XXX, 108.

135.
restored:
In a sense, she dried his tears and restored him to a state of grace.

136.
wise men count on nothing:
Echoing the pessimism of the Stoic.

138.
she turned to hardest stone:
This is the fifth metamorphosis, patterned after Echo’s into flint in Ovid,
Metamorphses
II, 390. The nymph Echo loved Narcissus, who loved only the image of himself. Since
Narcissus always started his own fire, and Echo’s flint struck sparks that never ignited,
they were of no use to each other.

140.
for Death and only her by name:
He is reduced to a disembodied voice endlessly repeating itself. Narcissus died by
the pool, yearning for his reflection, Echo’s mourning call repeating his dying syllables.

142.
deserted caves:
Where no one listened.

144.
I found freedom:
He found a new voice.

147–160.
The sixth metamorphosis is based on the myth of Actaeon, Ovid,
Metamorphoses
III, 183. Acteon, while out hunting, came upon Diana in a grotto bathing in the waters
of a spring. Angered by his seeing her naked, the goddess splashed water in his face,
turning him into a stag hunted to death by his own dogs.

149.
cruel and lovely beast:
Cf. 22.19–22.

151.
hottest time of day:
When creatures seek the deepest woods and cooling waters.

152.
no other sight:
No other than the naked virgin goddess.

154.
to revenge herself or else to hide:
The language echoes Ovid and also the original experience of poem 2, in which Love’s
assault is graceful revenge, secretly delivered.

155.
splashed some water:
To erase the traces of what he saw.

156.
I’ll tell the truth:
Cf. Dante,
Inferno
XVI, 124 ff. Dante and Petrarch use this mode of address to announce an event of
extraordinary importance. Petrarch’s final inscriptions on this canzone, written in
1356, appear next to this line.

a lie:
In
Seniles
XII, 2, Petrarch wrote: “He who simply pretends cannot be classified by the word
‘poet,’ nor honored as a wise man, but can only be termed a liar,” a belief similar
to one expressed by Dante in
Vita nuova,
XXV.

157.
from my very image:
Of himself as a man. Ovid’s Actaeon dies, torn apart by his own dogs while trying
to shout, “I am he, I am Actaeon!”

159.
wandering deer:
Graves (p. 54) writes that the roebuck, forever fleeing through the woods, is a symbol
in poetic literature of the keeper of the secret.

160.
I flee the rage:
The line has the effect of a freeze frame of the poet in flight.

my own hounds:
The dogs have been variously identified as his thoughts, his desires, his contemporaries.
In the Book of Job, “dogs” hound Job, first in the form of his friends and later as
unworthy men who want to bring him down.

161–169.
Canzone …:
There is no agreement about the myths the
congedo
(leave-taking) refers to, other than that of Jove and Danaë (ll. 161–163), source
of the image of the “golden cloud” described in Horace’s
Odes
III, 16. Also mentioned are the myths of Jove and Aegina (Ovid,
Metamorphoses
VI, 113); Jove and Semele (
Metamorphoses
III, 250); Jove and Ganymede (
Metamorphoses
X, 155), and Jove and Asteria (
Metamorphoses
VI, 106).

162.
precious rain:
Because the issue of this seed was the birth of Perseus, but also because it symbolizes
a first cause for poetry.

flame lit by Love’s glance:
Probably the enamored Semele desiring to behold her divine lover.

165.
the bird that rises:
An eagle carried Ganymede to Olympus, and Aegina to the island where Jove sequestered
her. Petrarch claims to be merely the medium of transport and not the object of transport.
Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
IX, 13–24.

168.
the first laurel:
That is, the first metamorphosis. Cf. lines 38–39.

169.
lesser pleasure:
Anything short of the one true figure.

Written between 1330 and 1333 (in Petrarch’s late twenties) to Stramazzo da Perugia,
whose sonnet “La santa fama de la qual son prive” praised Petrarch’s qualifications
for poet laureate. This poem repeats Stramazzo’s rhymes.

1.
illustrious branch:
That of the laurel, crown of emperors and poets.
Fronde
(branch) carries the sense of collective critical judgment.

1–2.
can control / the wrath of heaven:
The laurel was believed to be immune to lightning and as the symbol of poetry to
be invulnerable to temporal power.

2.
when Jove thunders down:
When the temporal power threatens.

3–4.
had not refused… poetry:
Petrarch writes
poetando,
as in poem 10.8, to reflect with irony a prevailing opinion that poetry was a form
of literature inferior to philosophy and theology.

5.
those goddesses:
Minerva and the Muses.

7.
that offense forces me far away:
On the subject of medieval coronation, Wilkins (1951, p. 65) writes: “The coronation
of… Mussato (1315) was obviously a classicizing adaptation of the medieval academic
graduation ceremony…. Its most obviously academic features are the preliminary examination,
the use of a
Privilegium
or diploma, and the specifically academic awards of the diploma; the designation
as Master; the giving of the ‘legendi disputandi: atque interpretandi… liberam … potestatme’;
and the conferring of the right to enjoy those privilegia immunitates honores et insignia’
commonly enjoyed by professors of liberal and honorable arts.”

8.
inventress:
Minerva. The allusion is to Virgil’s
Georgics
I, 18, “oleacque Minerva inventrix,” and identifies poetry with philosophy.

9.
Ethiopia’s sands do not burn more:
An allusion to Rome’s lost glory. Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
XXVI, 16—21.

11.
from losing something:
The laurel crown, later awarded to him in 1341.

12.
a more peaceful fountain:
One more clear and limpid, unobscured by dark passions such as his own.

Written as early as 1330, this sonnet and the next are addressed to a poet friend
recently returned to the bonds of love.

1–2.
Love at times:
Always himself a willing prisoner of love, he had wept for this friend struggling
against it.

3.
strong and strange effects:
For these effects of love, see note to 29.13.

4.
released your soul:
Gave him a leave of absence.

7.
His mercy:
Cf. Dante,
Purgatorio
II, 2.

9.
returning to the life of love:
To the contemplative life.

10.
on sweet desire:
Cf. line 3.

11.
hills or ditches:
Worldly snares.

12–13.
thorny … hard:
Rising out of the depths to reach the peaks is the test of the man.

Because his friend has turned back to Love, he exults as if rescued from disaster.

1–2.
to land / a ship:
The ship is symbolic of the poet’s craft and of the soul’s journey.

2.
defeated by the waves:
Overwhelmed by circumstance, by the storms of daily life.

3.
piteously painted pale:
Cf. Dante,
Inferno
IV, 19 ff. The color of fear is also that of piety. Cf. also Dante,
Vita nuova
XXIII.

7.
sword back in its sheath:
And peace restored.

8.
against my lord:
Love.

10.
fine weaver:
In medieval times, a complex idea for the author which defines aesthetic principles.
The Italian word
testor
(weaver), from Latin
textor,
provides a connection with revelation literature.

love’s poetry:
Petrarch’s
amorosi detti
echoes Dante,
Purgatorio
XXVI, 112, where Guinizelli speaks of Dante’s
dolci detti.

11.
honor the one who strayed before:
One whose experience has carried him into infernal regions from which he emerged
victorious.

12–14.
more glory shines … :
The lines paraphrase Luke 15:7, “Quod ita gaudium erit in coelo super uno peccatore
poenitentiam agente, quam super nonaginta novem iustis, qui non indigent poenitentia.”

In this sonnet, perhaps directed to Orso dell’Anguillara, Petrarch makes a call to
arms in behalf of the Crusade against the Saracens (declared in 1334 by Philip VI
of France, moral “successor” of Charlemagne), and for the return of Pope John XXII
from Avignon to Rome.

1.
The successor of Charles:
Although Philip’s father was Charles V, Petrarch hopes that he will follow in the
footsteps of Charlemagne, champion of Rome against the “infidels.”

3.
already takes up arms:
Philip joined the Crusade on 25 July 1332 and was subsequently named head of the
expedition by Pope John. Hopes for his departure continued for six years, when the
pope lost faith in him because of his continued war with England.

break the horns:
In biblical literature, the horns signified pride and arrogance.

4.
of Babylon:
Ancient Baghdad; in this case, however, the reference is to Cairo, seat of the caliph.

and those who bear her name:
All those followers of the Muslim religion.

5.
the vicar of Christ:
The pope.

6.
keys and cloak:
The duties of the pope.

6.
returns now to the nest:
To Rome from Avignon, to which the papacy transferred in 1309 under Pope Clement
V.

8.
he’ll see Bologna:
He refers, perhaps, to the French pope Johns intention to take his first journey
to Italy.

9.
Your lamb:
The noun is given in the feminine. Identification of her ranges from the force for
peace among Italians (the Colonna family?), to Florence, to a specific Agnese, wife
of Orso dell’Anguillara and sister of Giovanni and Giacomo Colonna.

10.
savage wolves:
Unidentified political forces hostile to the Church of Rome. They will be subdued
not by predation but by grace and humility.

12.
console her then, the one who still is waiting:
Some say Bologna, others Florence (the lamb). The two events, the Crusade and the
papal return, are awaited by all the principal players.

13.
lamenting her bridegroom:
The pope, as vicar of Christ.

14.
raise your sword:
In the canzone to follow he will exhort Giacomo Colonna to raise the weapon of eloquence
on behalf of the Crusade. Cf. 26.7–8 for another metaphoric use of “sword.”

Taking up the rallying cry of poem 27, Petrarch writes this appeal to Giacomo Colonna,
bishop of Lombez, to lend his eloquence on behalf of the new Crusade proclaimed by
the king of France in 1334.

3.
is clothed:
Not dominated by the flesh, Colonna wears it lightly and is beautified by it.

7. your boat:
His life course is seen as a pilgrimage of the soul over a turbulent sea.

8.
already turned:
Colonna having taken high holy orders.

10.
western wind:
A new breath of religious spirit coming from France, inspired by the king’s proclamation.
See notes to poem 27.

12.
for ours and others’ wrongs:
For the disobedience of Adam.

13.
free of ancient bonds:
Of original sin. He who redeems the Holy Sepulcher is himself redeemed, according
to church doctrine.

14.
straightest course:
The narrow one, pursued with only one purpose in mind.