Page:A History of Italian Literature - Garnett (1898).djvu/94

76 My bliss, too high for wan to understand, Yet needs thee, and the veil that so did please, Now unto dust for briefest season given.'  ''Why ceased she speaking? why withdrew her hand?  For, rapt to ecstasy by words like these,'' Little I wanted to have stayed in Heaven."

This latter mood is in general the more characteristic of Petrarch. Towards the end it prevails more and more, but the same falling-off is observable as in the former book. Petrarch's religious sonnets are exquisite when they involve a direct vision of Laura, but otherwise they are apt to become tame and conventional. It is almost a pity that the most notable exception should ever have been written, though it ranks among his masterpieces:

Were this more than a passing mood, it would be painful indeed that Petrarch should have lived to deem his devotion to Laura misspent, and nothing short of ludicrous that he should have accused himself of missing by his Canzoniere the renown which epics or tragedies might have ensured him. Such a passing mood it must