No More Learning

"I have seen the ruins of the grotto of the famous Cumaean sybil; it is a
hideous rock, suspended in the Avernian lake. Its situation strikes the
mind with horror. There still remain the hundred mouths by which the
gods conveyed their oracles; these are now dumb, and there is only one
God who speaks in heaven and on earth. These uninhabited ruins serve as
the resort of birds of unlucky omen. Not far off is that dreadful cavern
which leads, _they say_, to the infernal regions. Who would believe
that, close to the mansions of the dead, Nature should have placed
powerful remedies for the preservation of life? Near Avernus and Acheron
are situated that barren land whence rises continually a salutary
vapour, which is a cure for several diseases, and those hot-springs that
vomit hot and sulphureous cinders. I have seen the baths which Nature
has prepared; but the avarice of physicians has rendered them of
doubtful use. This does not, however, prevent them from being visited by
the invalids of all the neighbouring towns. These hollowed mountains
dazzle us with the lustre of their marble circles, on which are engraved
figures that point out, by the position of their hands, the part of the
body which each fountain is proper to cure.

"I saw the foundations of that admirable reservoir of Nero, which was to
go from Mount Misenus to the Avernian lake, and to enclose all the hot
waters of Baiae.

"At Pozzuoli I saw the mountain of Falernus, celebrated for its grapes,
whence the famous Falernian wine. I saw likewise those enraged waves of
which Virgil speaks in his Georgics, on which Caesar put a bridle by the
mole which he raised there, and which Augustus finished. It is now
called the Dead Sea. I am surprised at the prodigious expense the Romans
were at to build houses in the most exposed situations, in order to
shelter them from the severities of the weather; for in the heats of
summer the valleys of the Apennines, the mountains of Viterbo, and the
woods of Umbria, furnished them with charming shades; and even the ruins
of the houses which they built in those places are superb.
"

Our poet's residence at Naples was evidently disagreeable to him, in
spite of the company of his friends, Barrilli and Barbato. His
friendship with the latter was for a moment overcast by an act of
indiscretion on the part of Barbato, who, by dint of importunity,
obtained from Petrarch thirty-four lines of his poem of Africa, under a
promise that he would show them to nobody. On entering the library of
another friend, the first thing that struck our poet's eyes was a copy
of the same verses, transcribed with a good many blunders. Petrarch's
vanity on this occasion, however, was touched more than his anger--he
forgave his friend's treachery, believing it to have arisen from
excessive admiration. Barbato, as some atonement, gave him a little MS.
of Cicero, which Petrarch found to contain two books of the orator's
Treatise on the Academics, "a work," as he observes, "more subtle than
useful. "

Queen Giovanna was fond of literature. She had several conversations
with Petrarch, which increased her admiration of him. After the example
of her grandfather, she made him her chaplain and household clerk, both
of which offices must be supposed to have been sinecures. Her letters
appointing him to them are dated the 25th of November, 1343, the very
day before that nocturnal storm of which I shall speedily quote the
poet's description.

Voltaire has asserted that the young Queen of Naples was the pupil of
Petrarch; "but of this," as De Sade remarks, "there is no proof. " It
only appears that the two greatest geniuses of Italy, Boccaccio and
Petrarch, were both attached to Giovanna, and had a more charitable
opinion of her than most of their contemporaries.

Soon after his return from the tour to Baiae, Petrarch was witness to a
violent tempest at Naples, which most historians have mentioned, as it
was memorable for having threatened the entire destruction of the city.

The night of the 25th of November, 1343, set in with uncommonly still
weather; but suddenly a tempest rose violently in the direction of the
sea, which made the buildings of the city shake to their very
foundations. "At the first onset of the tempest," Petrarch writes to the
Cardinal Colonna, "the windows of the house were burst open. The lamp of
my chamber"--he was lodged at a monastery--"was blown out--I was shaken
from my bed with violence, and I apprehended immediate death.