by Mark Musa
55. surpass or even reach: Cf. 342.5: “But she, who had no equal or a second.”
56. your holy thoughts: Cf. 211.9–10: “Virtue, honor, beauty, gracious bearing, / sweet words have caught me in her lovely branches.”
57. living temple: Cf. 325:16–30; and 1 Cor. 3:17, “templum Dei, quod estis vos.”
58. rich virginity: Cf. 337.9–10: “And more, I built my nest of chosen thoughts / within that fertile tree.”
59. what joy is like: loconda has been used once before, in 94.8, where the first and the second miracles of love are explained.
60. through your prayers, O Mary: This is the only time he addresses Mary by name, here in line 60, the number named “support” (sostegno) in the Hebrew alphabet.
61. Virgin so sweet: Cf. the Salve Regina: “O clemens, o pia, o dulcis virgo Maria.”
62. grace will abound: Cf. Rom. 5:20, “ubi abundavit delictum, superabundit gratis.”
63. knee of my mind bent: Cf. 128.103–104. A similar image appears in a poem by Guittone and in the Prayer of Manasseh: “flecto genu cordis mei precans a te bonitatem.” Cf. also Luke 1:51, “dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.”
64. I beg you be my guide: Recalling Lauras role since the beginning.
66. bright and stable star: Here in line 66 in the sixth stanza of poem 366 he locates the still point—by which one plots one’s course through the seas of life—with the word stabile. Cf. Rev. 12–13, in which Mary prevails against the Antichrist numbered 666; cf. also 3 Kings 2:45, “stabilis coram Domino usque in sempiternum.”
68. faithful helmsman: Who navigates under her star.
69. consider now: Another prayer in the imperative mode.
how frightening is the storm: That is building over his times, his world.
70. without a tiller: Intended also in the political sense of being without a leader, continuing the theme of the last days. Cf. Rev. 13:2–3, 132:11, 206:40, 235:14, and 277:7.
73. though it, no doubt, be sinful: Proven in all he has written.
75. let your foe have the last laugh: The Devil, who listens. Cf. Ps. 11:12 and 24:2. In Dante’s Inferno (XXXIII, 129–35), THE Devil is said to operate out of bodies of living men whose souls have already fallen into Hell. Zingarelli notes that this “contrasto tra la Vergine e il demonio” was a commonplace of the time.
78. virginal cloister: An expression used in many holy texts.
79. Virgin, how many tears: The seventh and eighth stanzas change the emphasis of the first six, moving from praise in the first part to personal history, maintaining prayer in the second part.
89. more swift than arrows: Cf. Wis. of Sol. 5:9–12, “transierunt omnia ilia … aut tamquam sagitta emissa in locum destinatum.”
91. Death awaiting me: Cf. Job 17:1, “et solum mihi superest sepulcrum.”
92. that one is dust: Laura. The eighth stanza returns to the subject of Mary’s eternal stability and power.
94. knew not one: The mortal Laura had always stood apart, like the number “I,” and he had observed her from afar. These words are consistent with an unrequited love but also with the just person’s detachment from wretchedness and sin.
96. would still have happened: Was fated to happen, and he was helpless to change it. had she wished otherwise: Had she given in to his desire.
98. Lady of Heaven: Ruler of herself and all others.
you our Goddess: A divine role mistakenly given to Laura. Cf. 294.4, 311.8, and 337.8.
99. be fitting: Permissible in the eyes of God.
100. Virgin of superb senses: Alti sensi literally “all-seeing,” “all-knowing.” Here, in line 100, the humanity and understanding of Mary—mother, daughter, bride—are raised above all other models.
101–102. could not be done / by others: Such as Laura, or other mortals in whom he once placed his faith.
102. your great power: To detach herself from evil and nurture good.
104. bring honor to you: In support of this dubious concept, that her interceding for him might add a star to her crown, One commentator cited a secret of the Roman missal: “et in honorem b. Mariae semper Virginis, et b. Johannis Baptistae et ss. Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, et istorum et omnium sanctorum; ut illis proficiat ad honorem, nobis autem ad salutem.” Cf. 289.14.
105. Virgin, in whom: Stanza 9 takes him into the sight of the goddess and back to his original error, his “insane vow,” an act of pride for which he will ask forgiveness in the next stanza.
I place all of my hope: Cf. line 3: “that inside you He chose to hide his light”; and Eccles. 24:25, “in me omnis spes vitae et virtutis.”
107. at the last pass: From life to death and God’s final judgment. Cf. 333.12.
109. His own high likeness: Cf. Gen. 1:26, “creavit hominem ad imaginem suam”; and Wis. of Sol. 2:13.
110. one so low: He of inferior senses who now implores her.
111. Medusa and my sin: That of gazing with desire at the goddess Laura. Medusa’s image is in keeping with this stanza’s extreme comparisons. In one mythic age she was supremely beautiful, in another supremely ugly.
turned me to stone: Cf. 179.9.
114. tears fill up my weary heart: Let not his tears be useless; let them be preserved.
115. be devout: Redeeming.
116. mud of earth: The flesh of Adam, the dross. Cf. the Easter hymn, “Imaginem vultus tui Tradens Adamo nobilem Limo iugasti spiritum.”
117. first and insane vow: His idealistic vow to praise Laura, in a tumultuous mix with his need to tell the whole truth about her. Cf. poems 5 and 6.
118. Virgin so kind: Benignly sensitive and forgiving (umand). The tenth stanza begins with a prayer and concludes with a vow.
enemy of pride: Because no person who seeks her help is more deserving than another; each stands equal before her.
119. love of our same origin: As a creature of God.
121. a bit of mortal, fleeting dust: Laura.
122. marvelous faith: Wholly invested in that one bit of dust whose origin was God.
123. a noble thing: Gentile, in its extreme simplicity, humanizes Mary while casting Laura’s nobility in a new light.
125. I rise up at your hands: If Mary accepts his plea and helps him.
126. in your name: Dedicating all that he will write in repentance to the Virgin.
130. changed desires: Put the good and the bad into perspective.
131. The day draws near: Cf. Ezek. 7:12, “Venit tempus, appropinquavit dies”; and Heb. 10:25, “tanto magis, quanto videritis appropinquantem diem.”
134. death and conscience now stab: Cf. poem 363: “out of the hands of him (Love) who stabs and soothes.”
136. man and the truth of God: God (Dio) rhymes internally with mio in line 137; the word verace is repeated in lines 135 and 136, establishing a link between man, God, and spirit in the final harmonic scheme.
137. accept my final breath in peace: This act reverses the act of God breathing life into Adam and brings an end to the poet’s war against himself and his fate. Compare this with the closing words of St. Augustine’s Confessiones: “Domine Deus, pacem da nobis.”
WORKS CITED
I. ITALIAN EDITIONS OF THE Canzoniere
Carducci, Giosuè, and Severino Ferrari, eds. Le rime di Francesco Petrarca. Florence: Sansoni, 1899.
Chiari, Alberto, ed. Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere. Rome: Mondadori, 1985.
Chiòrboli, Ezio. Le “Rime Sparse.” Casa Editrice Trevisini, 1923.
Contini, Gianfranco, ed. Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca. Includes “Preliminari sulla lingua del Petrarca” by Gianfranco Contini, and notes by Daniele Ponchiroli. Turin: Einaudi, 1968.
Dotti, Ugo, ed. Francesco Petrarca. Canzoniere. Introduction by Ugo Foscolo, notes by Giacomo Leopardi. Milan: Feltrinelli, 1992.
Neri, F., G. Martellotti, E. Bianchi, and N. Sapegno, eds. Rime, “Trionfi” e poesie latine di Francesco Petrarca. Milan: Ricciardi, 1951.
Sapegno, Natalino. La poesia del Petrarca. R
ome: Bulzoni, 1965.
Zingarelli, Nicola, ed. Le Rime di Francesco Petrarca. Bologna: Zanichelli, 1963.
II. ENGLISH EDITIONS OF THE Canzoniere
Armi, Anna Maria. Petrarch Sonnets and Songs. New York: Pantheon, 1946.
Auslander, Joseph. The Sonnets of Petrarch. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1931.
Durling, Robert M. Petrarch’s Lyric Poems. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976.
III. OTHER WORKS OF PETRARCH CITED
Africa
Epistolae metricae
Familiares (Rerum familiarum libri)
Secretum
Seniles (Rerum senilium libri)
I trionfi
IV. EARLY COMMENTATORS CITED BY CARDUCCI AND ZINGARELLI
Albertini, Carlo (1835)
Alfieri, Vittorio (1766)
Biagioli, G. (1823)
Castelvetro, Lodovico (1582)
Daniello, Bernardino (1549)
DeSanctis, Francesco (1883)
Foscolo, Ugo (1859)
Gesualdo, Andrea (1540)
Leopardi, Giacomo (1826)
Muratori, Lodovico (1711)
Salvini, Anton Maria (1473)
Tassoni, Alessandro (1609)
Ubaldini, Federigo (1642)
Vellutello, Alessandro (1538)
V. CLASSICAL, BIBLICAL, MEDIEVAL LATIN, PROVENÇAL, AND ITALIAN SOURCES CITED
Aquinas, St. Thomas, Summa Theologica
Ariosto, Ludovico, Orlando Furioso
Aristotle, De generatione animalium
Augustine, St., Confessiones, De Civitate Dei, De doctrina Christiana, De ordine, De Trinitate, Sermones
Bernard de Ventadorn, Provençal lyrics
Bertran de Born, Provençal lyrics
Bible (English): New English Bible (with the Apocrypha). New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
———(Vulgate): Sacra Bibbia, ed. Antonio Martini (“Vecchio Testamento secondo la volgate”). Naples: Giuseppe Marghieri, 1896.
Boccaccio, Giovanni, The Decameron. Trans. Mark Musa and Peter Bondanella. New York: Norton, 1982.
Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus), De Consolatione Philosophiae
Catullus, Gaius Valerius, Latin lyrics
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De inventions; De senectute; Somnium Scipionis; Tusculum (Tusculanae disputationes); Rhetorica ad Herennium
Daniel, Arnaut, Provençal lyrics
Dante Alighieri, Convivio, De monarchia; Divina commedia (trans. Mark Musa. Inferno, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971; Purgatory, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973; Paradise, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984); Rime (Italian lyrics); Vita nuova (trans, and with an essay by Mark Musa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973)
Guinizelli, Guido, Italian lyrics
Hesiod, Theogony
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Ars poetica, Epistles, Odes
Isidore of Seville, Etymologies
Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis), Satires
Latini, Brunetto, Li Livres dou Trésor
Livy (Titus Livius), History of Rome (Ab urbe condita libri)
Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucannus), Pharsalia
Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus), De rerum natura
Milon, Pierre, Provençal lyrics
Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), Ars amatoria; Epistulae ex Ponto; Fasti; Heroides; Metamorphoses (trans. Rolfe Humphries, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955); Remedia amoris
Plato, Phaedo, Republic, Timaeus, Phaedrus
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus), Historia naturalis
Propertius, Sextus, Latin poetry
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, De clementia, De ira, Epistulae
Shakespeare, William, Venus and Adonis
Solinus, Gaius Julius, Collectanea rerum memorabilium
Statius, Publius Papinius, Thebais, Silvae
Tasso, Torquato, Gerusalemme Liberata
Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), Aeneid, Eclogues, Georgics
VI. CRITICAL STUDIES CITED
Bernardo, Aldo S. Rerum familiarum libri, I-VIII. Translated and with an Introduction. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975.
Bishop, Morris. Letters from Petrarch. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966.
Curtius, Ernst. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Trans. Willard Trask. Princeton: Bollingen, 1973.
Derrida, Jacques. The Margins of Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
DeSanctis, Francesco. History of Italian Literature. Trans. Joan Redfern. New York: Basic Books, 1931.
Gellrich, Jesse M. The Idea of the Book in the Middle Ages. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985.
Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966.
Huizinga, J. The Waning of the Middle Ages. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1924.
Lanyi, Gabriel. “The 129th Poem in Petrarch’s Canzoniere: An Analysis.” Forum Italicum 13, no. 2 (1979).
Mazzotta, Giuseppe. “The Canzoniere and the Language of Self.” Studies in Philology 75, no. 2 (Summer 1978).
Rawski, Conrad M. Petrarch’s Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
Vance, Eugene. “Augustine’s Confessions and the Grammar of Selfhood.” Genre 6 (1973).
Waller, Marguerite R. Petrarch’s Poetics and Literary History. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980.
Wilkins, Ernest Hatch. The Invention of the Sonnet and Other Studies in Italian Literature. Rome: Edizione di storia e letteratura, 1959; The Making of the Canzoniere and Other Petrarchan Studies. Rome: Edizione di storia e letteratura, 1951.
INDEX OF FIRST LINES
A bitter rain of tears pours down my face
Across those savage and unfriendly woods
A doe of purest white upon green grass
A fierce, ungracious heart, a cruel will
Ahi bella libertà, come tu m’ài
Ah, lovely liberty, how you have shown me
Ah, now reach out and help my weary mind
A la dolce ombra de le belle frondi
A lady far more lovely than the sun
Alas, badly prepared I was at first
Alas, how well I know that she who pardons
Alas, I burn but she cannot believe it
Alas, Love takes me where I would not go
Alas, whenever Love besieges me
Al cader d’una pianta che si svelse
All day I weep; and then at nighttime when
All of my flowering and my green age
Alma felice che sovente torni
Almo sol, quella fronde ch’io sola amo
Alone and deep in thought I measure out
Although what first drew me to love is now
A marvelous little angel with quick wings
Among a thousand ladies I saw one
Amor, che meco al buon tempo ti stavi
Amor, che ’ncende il cor d’ardente zelo
Amor, che nel penser mio vive et regna
Amor, che vedi ogni pensero aperto
Amor co la man destra il lato manco
Amor con sue promesse lusingando
Amor et io, sì pien di meraviglia
Amor, Fortuna, et la mia mente, schiva
Amor fra l’erbe una leggiadra rete
Amor, io fallo et veggio il mio fallire
Amor m’à posto come segno a strale
Amor mi manda quel dolcepensero
Amor mi sprona in un tempo et affrena
Amor, Natura et la bella alma umile
Amor piangeva et io con lui tal volta,
Amor, quando floria
Amor, se vuo’ ch’i’ torni algiogo antico
And now behind me is the sixteenth year
Anima bella, da quel nodo sciolta
Anima che diverse cose tante
Animals exist on earth of such courageous
Any place I rest or turn my weary eyes
Anzi tre dì creata e
ra alma in parte
A pie’ de’ colli ove la bella vesta
Apollo, if the lovely wish still lives
Apollo, s’ ancor vive il bel desio
A qualunque animale alberga in terra
Arbor vittoriosa triunfale
A regal nature, angels intellect
Ashamed at times that I still have not praised
As long as both my temples are not white
Aspro core et selvaggio et cruda voglia
As sometimes when the sun shines bright
As soon as he has let the bowstring go
As soon as her white foot through the fresh grass
At a tree’s crash just torn up from the ground
A thousand slopes and rivers Love has shown me
A thousand times, O my sweet warrior
At times some of my thoughts would get together
Aura che quelle chiome blonde et crespe
Aventuroso più d’altro terreno
A young maiden beneath the green of laurel
Beato in sogno et di languir contento
Beautiful soul, now loosened from that knot
Because life is so short
Because she bore Love’s colors in her face
Beneath those hills (where she had first adorned
Benedetto sia ’l giorno e ’l mese et ’l anno
Ben mi credea passar mio tempo omai
Ben sapeva io che natural consiglio
Between two lovers I could see a lady
Blest in my dreams and satisfied to languish
Both Jove and Caesar never were so moved
Breeze that surrounds those blond and curling locks
Broken are the lofty column and green laurel
But now that the sweet smile, humble, serene
Caesar, the time that the Egyptian traitor
Cantai, orpiango; et non men di dolcezza, 229
“Cara la vita, et dopo lei mi pare
Cercato ò sempre solitaria vita
Cesare, poi che ’l traditor d’Egitto
Che debb’ io far, che mi consigli, Amore?
“Che fai, alma? che pensi? avrem mai pace
Che fai? che pensi? ché pur dietro guardi
Chiare fresche et doIci acque