When we look back on the long connection of Petrarch with the Colonna family, his acknowledged obligations, and the attachment to them which he expresses, it may seem, at first sight, surprising that he should have so loudly applauded a revolution which struck at the roots of their power.  But, if we view the matter with a more considerate eye, we shall hold the poet in nobler and dearer estimation for his public zeal than if he had cringed to the Colonnas.  His personal attachment to them, who were quite as much honoured by his friendship as he was by theirs, was a consideration subservient to that of the honour of his country and the freedom of his fellow-citizens; “for,” as he says in his own defence, “we owe much to our friends, still more to our parents, but everything to our country.”

Retiring during this year for some time to Vaucluse, Petrarch composed an eclogue in honour of the Roman revolution, the fifth in his Bucolics.  It is entitled “La Pieta Pastorale,” and has three speakers, who converse about their venerable mother Rome, but in so dull a manner, that, if Petrarch had never written better poetry, we should not, probably, at this moment, have heard of his existence.

In the midst of all this political fervour, the poet’s devotion to Laura continued unabated; Petrarch never composed so many sonnets in one year as during 1347, but, for the most part, still indicative of sadness and despair.  In his 116th sonnet, he says:—­

    “Soleo onde, e ’n rena fondo, e serivo in vento.” 
    I plough in water, build on sand, and write on air.

If anything were wanting to convince us that Laura had treated him, during his twenty years’ courtship, with sufficient rigour, this and other such expressions would suffice to prove it.  A lover, at the end of so long a period, is not apt to speak thus despondingly of a mistress who has been kind to him.

It seems, however, that there were exceptions to her extreme reserve.  On one occasion, this year, when they met, and when Petrarch’s eyes were fixed on her in silent reverie, she stretched out her hand to him, and allowed him to detain it in his for some time.  This incident is alluded to in his 218th sonnet.

If public events, however, were not enough to make him forget his passion for Laura, they were sufficiently stirring to keep his interest in them alive.  The head of Rienzo was not strong enough to stand the elevation which he had attained.  Petrarch had hitherto regarded the reports of Rienzo’s errors as highly exaggerated by his enemies; but the truth of them, at last, became too palpable; though our poet’s charitable opinion of the Tribune considerably outlasted that of the public at large.