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<font size=3>Another question is how much Petrarch there is here. Laura,
you know.<br><br>
From Wikiland:<br><br>
<br>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/File:Francesco_Petrarca01.jpg">
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Francesco_Petrarca01.jpg/180px-Francesco_Petrarca01.jpg" width=180 height=225 alt="[]">
</a> <br>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/File:Francesco_Petrarca01.jpg">
<img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width=15 height=11 alt="[]">
</a><br>
<div align="center">Laura de Noves<br><br>
</div>
On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/April_6">April 6</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/1327">1327</a>,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Good_Friday">Good Friday</a>,
after giving up his vocation as a priest, the sight of a woman called
"Laura" in the church of Sainte-Claire
d'<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Avignon">Avignon</a> awoke
in him a lasting passion, celebrated in the <i>Rime sparse</i>
("Scattered rhymes"). Later, Renaissance poets who copied
Petrarch's style named this collection of 366 poems
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Il_Canzoniere"><i>Il
Canzoniere</a></i> ("Song Book"). Laura may have been
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Laura_de_Noves">Laura de
Noves</a>, the wife of Count
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//w/index.php?title=Hugues_de_Sade&action=edit&redlink=1">
Hugues de Sade</a> (ancestor of the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Marquis_de_Sade">Marquis de
Sade</a>). There is little definite information in Petrarch's work
concerning Laura, except that she is lovely to look at, fair-haired, with
a modest, dignified bearing. Laura and Petrarch had little or no personal
contact. According to his "Secretum", she refused him for the
very proper reason that she was already married to another man. He
channeled his feelings into love poems that were exclamatory rather than
persuasive, and wrote prose that showed his contempt for men who pursue
women. Upon her death in 1348, the poet finds that his
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Grief">grief</a> is as
difficult to live with as was his former despair. Later in his
"Letter to Posterity", Petrarch wrote: "In my younger days
I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair - my
only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature
death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I
certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from
desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did".<br><br>
While it is possible she was an idealized or pseudonymous character -
particularly since the name "Laura" has a
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Linguistics">linguistic</a>
connection to the poetic "laurels" Petrarch coveted - Petrarch
himself always denied it. His frequent use of <i>l'aura</i>, as in
"Erano i capei d'oro a <i>l'aura</i> sparsi" is also
remarkable: for example, the line may both mean "her hair was all
over Laura's body", and "the wind ("l'aura") blew
through her hair". There is psychological realism in the description
of Laura and Petrarch's love is nothing conventional - unlike some cliché
women of
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Troubadour">troubadours</a>
and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Courtly_love">courtly
love</a>. Her presence causes him unspeakable joy, but his unrequited
love creates unendurable desires, inner conflicts between the ardent
lover and the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Christian_mysticism">mystic
Christian</a>, making it impossible to reconcile the two, his quest for
love a hopeless, endless agony.<br><br>
Laura is unreachable - the few physical descriptions are vague, almost
unpalpable as the love pines for, and such is perhaps the power of his
verse, which lives off the melodies it evokes against the fading,
diaphane image that is no more consistent than a ghost.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Francesco_De_Sanctis">
Francesco De Sanctis</a> remarks much the same thing in his <i>Storia
della lera italiana</i>, and contemporary critics agree on the powerful
music of his verse: Gianfranco Contini, in a famous essay on Petrarch's
language ("Preliminari sulla lingua del Petrarca". Petrarca,
Canzoniere. Turin, Einaudi, 1964) has spoken of linguistic
indetermination - Petrarch never rises above the "bel pié" (her
lovely foot): Laura is too holy to be painted, it is an awe-inspiring
goddess. Sensuality and passion are rather suggested by the rhythm and
music that shape the vague contours of the lady.<br><br>
<br>
Nutria<br><br>
<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
James B. Jordan<br>
Director, Biblical Horizons<br>
Box 1096<br>
Niceville, FL 32588<br>
<a href="http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.biblicalhorizons.com</a></font></body>
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