Page:The National Idea in Italian Literature.djvu/22

 membra reggi, the address to the new ruler of Rome (whether Cola di Rienzo or another), the man of destiny on the Capitol must restore Rome to her ancient way as a prelude to the regeneration of Italy, for Italy herself is not yet aroused:—

But the poet has no settled convictions as to how this peace of the nation in the fulfilment of her destinies is to be accomplished. Somewhat alien from the world of reality, Petrarca dreamed constantly of the restoration of the sovereignty of the Roman People. He set his hopes now upon the Angevin monarchy of Robert of Naples, now upon the new Roman Republic of Cola di Rienzo, now in the Holy Roman Empire as represented by Charles of Luxemburg, now in the "papa angelico" of the religious ideal—whose features, disgusted as he was with the corruption of preceding popes and their neglect of Italy, he seemed for a moment to discern in Urban V (2).

The second half of the thirteenth century offers a notable series of political lyrics. Fazio degli Uberti, an exiled Florentine and great-grandson of that Farinata whom Dante saw rising indomitable from his fiery tomb in the Inferno, composed—probably in 1368—a striking canzone 10