Page:The National Idea in Italian Literature.djvu/21



We pass into another atmosphere with Petrarca. It has been said: "The italianità of Petrarca is one of his finest and most salient characteristics; that italianità still somewhat mediaeval, still somewhat too enamoured of ancient Rome, but which already presents and foretells modern Italy" (1). "From my boyhood," he writes, "I have been inflamed—beyond all my contemporaries whom I have known—with a love of the name of Italy" He exalts her beauty above that of all other lands, declaring that she lacks nothing—save only peace. And that peace is constantly upon his lips.

"I'vo gridando: Pace, pace, pace";

is the close of the great canzone, Italia mia; in which, as prelude to this peace, he confidently asserts that Italian arms can still achieve the destiny of the nation:—

When war breaks out between Venice and Genoa, he bids the contending states remember that they are both Italian, exhorting them to shrink from their fratricidal conflict and turn their arms against the foreigner. "If there is any reverence left for the Latin name," he writes to the Doge of Venice, "remember that those whose ruin you are preparing are your brothers." In the most famous of his lyrics, Spirto gentil che quelle 9