Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/23

Rh poetry, and the three candidates proceeded to give public proofs of their sufficiency. The Dean then rose. He applauded these favourites of the Muses, and bitterly reflected upon what had happened: that, through the ignorance and the corruption of the times, the sacred laurel, the peculiar privilege of the Cæsars, was prostituted and sold, so to speak, to men whose harshness, prosiness, and insipidity rendered them unworthy of the name of poets. But he would not hesitate to assure his audience that the University of Strasburg, in the case of the three poets now before them, could never be exposed to such reproaches. The Chancellor next proposed three oaths, which were severally taken; 1. that they would sustain the privileges of the University; 2. that they would not accept the crown from any other University, nor from any Count Palatine, even though he were an hereditary one; and 3. that, in all their compositions, they would propose for their object, the glory of God and the honour of his Imperial Majesty; that they would banish from their work anything that might hurt another's reputation; and that in their conduct, nothing should escape them which might be turned to the disgrace of literature or the dishonour of their University. He then created and crowned them poets-laureate, and accorded them all the honours, ornaments, privileges, prerogatives, and immunities, in the best possible form, in such manner as other poets-laureate use and enjoy them, notwithstanding all laws and customs which would seem to derogate from such imperial grace and concession.

The laureation of Petrarch in the Capitol, will naturally suggest itself to the reader's mind. This proceeding appears to have been an act of homage, and a public assurance of protection on the part of the city or senate to the most distinguished poet and man of letters of the age. Petrarch had coveted some such distinction, and Robert of