Laura'S Lover

This quotation is from Byron's "Childe Harold," Canto IV., and refers to Petrarch, the first and greatest lyric poet of Italy. He was born in Arezzo, July, 1304, and died at Arqua, July, 1374.

The great event of his life (viewed in the light of its literary consequences) was his tenderly romantic and ultimately pure passion for Laura, the golden-haired, beautiful French woman.

He met her on the 6th of April, 1327, in the Church of St. Clara in Avignon, and at once and forever fell deeply in love with her. The lady was then nineteen years old, and had been married for two years to a gentleman of Avignon, named Hugues de Sade.

For ten years Petrarch lived near Laura in the papal city, and frequently met her at church, in society, and at festivities.

He sang her beauty and his love in those sonnets which ravished the ears of his contemporaries, and have not yet ceased to charm.

Laura was not insensible to a worship which made an emperor (Charles IV.) beg to be introduced to her, and to be allowed to kiss her forehead; but she kept the too passionate poet at a proper distance. Only once did he dare make an avowal of his love in her presence, and then he was sternly reproved. After her death he withdrew from Avignon, and passed the rest of his life in Italy.

A most brilliant honor was awarded him in Rome in 1341. Having written an epic poem entitled "Africa," on the Second Punic War, he was crowned, on Easter Day, in the Capitol, with the "laurel wreath" of a poet.

His chief lyric, called the "Rime," in honor of Laura, was composed during a period extending over forty years. It consists of sonnets and madrigals; and the later ones, written long after Laura had been laid in her grave, appear purified from all earthly taint, and have done as much to refine the Italian language as the "Divine Comedy" of Dante.

Petrarch was not only far beyond his age in learning, but had risen above many of the prejudices and the superstitions of his time.

He was found dead in his library, with his head resting on his book (July 18, 1374).