e doing this, a thought came to me
of saying words in rime, as if for an anniversary poem of her, and of
addressing those persons who had come to me.

After this, two gentle ladies sent to ask me to send them some of
these rimed words of mine; wherefore I, thinking on their nobleness,
resolved to send to them and to make a new thing which I would send
to them with these, in order that I might fulfil their prayers with
the more honor. And I devised then a sonnet which relates my
condition, and I sent it to them....

After this a wonderful vision appeared to me, in which I saw things
which made me resolve to speak no more of the blest one, until I could
more worthily treat of her. And to attain to this, I study to the
utmost of my power, as she truly knows. So that, if it shall please
Him through whom all things live that my life be prolonged for some
years, I hope to say of her what was never said of any woman.

And then may it please Him who is the Lord of Grace, that my soul may
go to behold the glory of its lady, namely of that blest Beatrice, who
in glory looks upon the face of Him _qui est per omnia saecula
benedictus_ [who is blest forever].

FRANCIS PETRARCH

Born in 1304, died In 1374; his father banished from
Florence at the same time as Dante; settled at Avignon in
1313; studied at Montpelier; first saw the Laura of his
sonnets in 1327; became a canon at Lembez in 1335; settled
at Vaucluse in 1337, where he wrote his best works; called
both to Rome and Paris in 1340 to be crowned poet laureate;
settled in Milan in 1353; employed on various diplomatic
missions; removed to Padua in 1362; met Boccaccio in Venice
in 1362, for the last time; besides his sonnets, odes and
other poems, wrote controversial and polemical treatises,
letters and orations.

OF GOOD AND EVIL FORTUNE[28]

When I consider the instability of human affairs and the variations of
fortune, I find nothing more uncertain or restless than the life of
man. Nature has given to animals an excellent remedy under disasters,
which is the ignorance of them. We seem better treated in
intelligence, foresight, and memory. No doubt these are admirable
presents; but they often annoy more than they assist us. A prey to
unuseful or distressing cares, we are tormented by the present, the
past, and the future; and, as if we feared we should not be miserable
enough, we join to the evil we