to
wrest the city of Rome from the temporal sovereignty of its bishop. Nor
was the friendship and society of Petrarch less courted by the most
respectable Italian princes; by Robert king of Naples, by the Visconti,
the Correggi of Parma, the famous doge of Venice, Andrew Dandolo, and
the Carrara family of Padua, under whose protection he spent the latter
years of his life. Stories are related of the respect shown to him by
men in humbler stations which are perhaps still more satisfactory.[884]
But the most conspicuous testimony of public esteem was bestowed by the
city of Rome, in his solemn coronation as laureat poet in the Capitol.
This ceremony took place in 1341; and it is remarkable that Petrarch had
at that time composed no works which could, in our estimation, give him
pretensions to so singular an honour.

The moral character of Petrarch was formed of dispositions peculiarly
calculated for a poet. An enthusiast in the emotions of love and
friendship, of glory, of patriotism, of religion, he gave the rein to
all their impulses; and there is not perhaps a page in his Italian
writing which does not bear the trace of one or other of these
affections. By far the most predominant, and that which has given the
greatest celebrity to his name, is his passion for Laura. Twenty years
of unrequited and almost unaspiring love were lightened by song; and the
attachment, which, having long survived the beauty of its object,[885]
seems to have at one time nearly passed from the heart to the fancy, was
changed to an intenser feeling, and to a sort of celestial adoration, by
her death. Laura, before the time of Petrarch's first accidental meeting
with her, was united in marriage with another; a fact which, besides
some more particular evidence, appears to me deducible from the whole
tenor of his poetry.[886] Such a passion is undoubtedly not capable of a
moral defence; nor would I seek its palliation so much in the prevalent
manners of his age, by which however the conduct of even good men is
generally not a little influenced, as in the infirmity of Petrarch's
character, which induced him both to obey and to justify the emotions of
his heart. The lady too, whose virtue and prudence we are not to
question, seems to have tempered the light and shadow of her countenance
so as to preserve her admirer from despair, and consequently to prolong
his sufferings and servitude.

The general excellences of Petrarch, are his command over the