share the blessing which he has bequeathed to all who should advance and extend the fame of his beloved:

"Benedette sian' le voce tante ch' io

Chiamando il nome di mia donna ho sparte,

E benedette sian' tutte le charte

Ove io fama ne acquisto."

My "papers" may promote his wishes in this respect. Disengaged from all the ties that bind others to existence, solitary, childless, what occupation more suitable to my remnant of life could I adopt than the exercise of memory and mind of which they are the fruit? When I shall seek my lonely pillow to-night, after "outwatching the bear," I shall cheerfully consign another document to "the chest," and bid it go join, in that miscellaneous aggregate, the mental progeny of my old age. This "chest" may be the coffin of my thoughts, or the cradle of my renown. In it

my

meditations may be matured by some kind editor into ultimate manhood, to walk the world and tell of their parentage; or else it may prove a silent sarcophagus, where they may moulder in decay. In either case I am resigned. I envy not the more fortunate candidates for public favour: I hold enmity to none. For my readers, if I have any, all I expect on their part is, that they may exhibit towards a feeble garrulous old man the same disposition he feels for them. Όσην διανοιαν εγω διατελω εχων προς παντες ὑμας τοσαυτην διατέλεσται μοι προς τουτονι τον αγώνα. (Δημοσθ. περι στεφαν.)

This exordium of that grand masterpiece, in which the Athenian vindicates his title to a crown of gold presented by his fellow-citizens, leads me, by a natural transition, to a memorable event in Petrarca's life, that ebullition of enthusiasm, when the senators of Rome, at the suggestion of Robert, King of Naples, and with the applause and concurrence of all the free states of Italy, led the poet in triumph to the Capitol, and placed on his venerable head a wreath of laurel. The coronation of the laureate who first bore the title, is too important to be lightly glanced at. The ingenious Mad. de Staël (who has done more by her. "De l'Allemagne" to give vogue to Germanic literature than the whole schüttery of Dutch authorship and the

landesfolge of Teutonic writers), in her romance of "Corinna," has seized with avidity on the incident.

In

Concerning this solemn incoronation, we have from the pen of an eye-witness, Guido d' Arezzo, details, told in style most quaint, and with sundry characteristic comments. In those days of primeval simplicity, in the absence of every other topic of excitement (for the crusades had well nigh worn themselves out of popular favour), the éclat attendant on this occurrence possessed a sort of European interest. The name of the "Laureate" (now worn by the venerable dweller of the lakes, the patriarch Southey) was then first proclaimed, amid the shouts of applauding thousands, on the seven hills of the Eternal City, and echoed back with enthusiasm from the remotest corners of Christendom. a subsequent age, when the same honour, with the same imposing ceremonial, was to be conferred on Tasso, I doubt whether the event would have enlisted to the same extent the sympathies of Europe, or the feelings even of the Italian public. It were bootless, however, to dwell on the probabilities of the case; for Death interposed his veto, and stretched out his bony hand between the laurel wreath and the poor maniac's brow, who, on the very eve of the day fixed for his ovation, expired on the Janiculum hill, in the romantic hermitage of St. Onufrio. Oft have I sat under that same cloister-wall, where he loved to bask in the mild ray of the setting sun, and there, with Rome's awful volume spread out before me, pondered on the frivolity of fame. The ever-enduring vine, with its mellow freight dependent from the antique pillars, clustered above my head; while at my feet lay the flagstone that once covered his remains; and "OSSA TORQUATI TASSI," deep carved on the marble floor, abundantly fed the meditative mind. Petrarca's grave I had previously visited in the mountain hamlet of Arquà during my rambles through Lombardy; and while I silently recalled the inscription thereon, I breathed for both the prayer that it contains

cc FRIGIDA FRANCISCI TEGIT HIC LAPIS OSSA PETRARCE: SUSCIPE, VIRGO PARENS, ANIMAM! SATE* VIRGINE, PARCE! FESSAQUE JAM TERRIS, CŒLI REQUIESCAT IN ARCE.'

"

* The Rev. Lawrence Sterne, in his very reputable work called

But a truce to this moralising train of thought, and turn we to the gay scene described by Guido d' Arezzo. Be it then understood, that on the morning of Easter Sunday, April 15, 1341, a period of the ecclesiastical year at which crowds of pilgrims visited the shrine of the apostles, and Rome was thronged with the representatives of every Christian land, after the performance of a solemn high mass in the old Basilica of St. Peter's (for religion in those days mixed itself up with every public act, and sanctified every undertaking), the decree of Robert, King of Naples, was duly read, setting forth how, after a diligent examination and trial in all the departments of poetry and all the accomplishments of elegant literature, in addition to a knowledge most extensive of theology and history, Francis Petrarca had evinced unparalleled proficiency in all the recognised acquirements of scholarship, and given undoubted proofs of ability and genius; wherefore, in his favour, it seemed fit and becoming that the proudest mark of distinction known among the ancient Romans should be conferred on him, and that all the honours of the classic triumph should be revived on the occasion. It will be seen, however, from the narrative of Guido, that some slight variations of costume and circumstance were introduced in the course of the exhibition, and that the getting up of the affair was not altogether in literal accordance with the rubrics which regulated such processions in the days of Paulus Æmilius, when captive kings and the milk-white bulls of Clytumnus adorned the pageantry

66

"Romanos ad templa Deûm duxêre triumphos."

Georg. II.

They put on his right foot (Guido loquitur) a sandal of red leather, cut in a queer shape, and fastened round the ankle with purple ligatures. This is the way tragic poets are shod. His left foot they then inserted into a kind of

"Tristram Shandy," has the effrontery to translate the curse of Ernelphus, Ex autoritate Dei et Virginis Dei genetricis Mariæ, "By the authority of God and of the Virgin, mother and patroness of our Saviour!" thus distorting the original, to insinuate prejudice against a class of fellow-Christians. Objection may be felt to the predominance of the feeling in question,-but fair play, Yorick !-PROUT.

ouskin of violet colour, made fast to the leg with blue thongs. This is the emblem worn by writers in the comic line, and those who compose agreeable and pleasant matters. Violet is the proper colour of love.

"Over his tunic, which was of grey silk, they placed a mantle of velvet, lined with green satin, to show that a poet's ideas should always be fresh and new. Round his neck they hung a chain of diamonds, to signify that his thoughts should be brilliant and clear. There are many mysteries in poetry.

They then placed on his head a mitre of gold_cloth, tapering upwards in a conical shape, that the wreaths and garlands might be more easily worn thereon. It had two tails, or skirts, falling behind on the shoulders like the mitre of a bishop. There hung by his side a lyre (which is the poet's instrument), suspended from a gold chain of interwoven figures of snakes, to give him to understand that his mind must figuratively change its skin, and constantly renew its envelope, like the serpent. When they had thus equipped him, they gave him a young maiden to hold up his train, her hair falling loose in ringlets, and her feet naked. She was dressed in the fur of a bear, and held a lighted torch. This is the emblem of folly, and is a constant attendant on poets!"

When the business of day" was over, the modern fashion of winding up such displays was perfectly well understood even at that remote period, and a dinner was given to the lion of the hour in the still-sumptuous hall of the Palazzo Colonna. His "feeding-time" being duly got through, poetry and music closed the eventful evening; and Petrarca delighted his noble host and the assembled rank and fashion of Rome by dancing a Moorish pas seul with surprising grace and agility.

Covered with honours, and flushed with the applause of his fellow-countrymen, the father of Italian song was not insensible to the fascinations of literary renown, nor deaf to the whisperings of glory; but love, the most exalted and refined, was still the guiding star of his path and the arbiter of his destiny. He has left us the avowal himself, in that beautiful record of his inmost feelings which he has entitled "Secretum Francisci Petrarchæ," where, in a fancied dia