well.

In Goethe's "Elective Affinities," the great German philosopher explains
how a sublime passion can be preserved in all its purity on the Platonic
plane for a long term of years. Laura was a married woman, wedded to a
man she respected, but could not love. He ruled her--she was his
property. She found it easier to accept his rule than to rebel. Had his
treatment of her descended to brutality, she would have flown to her
lover or else died. One critic says: "Laura must have been of a
phlegmatic type, not of a fine or sensitive nature, and all of her wants
were satisfied, her life protected and complete. The adoration of
Petrarch was not a necessity to her--it came in as a pleasing diversion,
a beautiful compliment, but something she could easily do without. Had
she been a maid and been kept the prisoner that she was, the flame of
love would have burned her heart out, and life for her would have been a
fatal malady, just as it was for Simonetta."

And so we find Goethe coldly reasoning that a great Platonic love is
possible where the woman is married to a man who is endurable, and the
man is wedded to a woman he can not get rid of. "Thus four persons are
required to work the miracle," says Goethe, and glides off casually into
another theme.

Laura was flattered by Petrarch's attentions: she became more attentive
than ever to her religious obligations. She wore the dresses he liked
best. In her hair or on her breast there always rested a laurel-leaf.
She was nothing loath to being worshiped.

"You must not speak to me," she once whispered as they passed. And again
she wrote on a slip of parchment, "Remember my good name and protect
it."

A note like that would certainly rouse a lover's soul. It meant that she
was his in heart, but her good name must be protected, so as not to
start a scandal. The sin was in being found out.

A sonnet, extra warm, quickly followed.

Petrarch was full of unrest. His eyes burned with fever; he walked the
streets in despair. Colonna seeing his distress, and knowing the reason
of it, sought to divert him. He offered to secure him a bishopric, or
some other high office, where his energies would be absorbed.

Petrarch would not accept office or responsibility. His heart was all
bound up in Laura and literature.

Colonna, in order to get his friend away from Avignon, then had himself
appointed Bishop of Lombes, and engaged Petrarch as his secretary. So
the two friends started away