THE LIFE OF PETRARCH. Collected from MEMOIRES POUR LA VIE DE PETRARCH, BY MRS. DOBSON. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. THE SEVENTH EDITION, EMBELLISHED WITH EIGHT COPPERPLATES, DESIGNED BY KIRK, Rarò magni errores nisi ex magnis ingeniis prodiêre. PETRARCH. LONDON: Printed by W. Wilson, St. Joi.n's Square, FOR VERNOR, HOOD, AND SHARPE; CUTHELL AND MARTIN; 1807. Seancy C. Eastman 4.25-1940 THE LIFE OF PETRARCH. BOOK IV. WE have seen, in the Life of Petrarch, that his sorrows seldom came single. His eyes were still wet with tears for the death of Laura, when (the 3d of July, 1348) he lost cardinal Colonna, the man who had been so many years his friend and protector. Petrarch seems to think he was destroyed by grief, brought on by the disasters in his family. By some it was said he died of the plague. He lost, in the space of five years, his mother and six of his brothers. Some time before the tragical death of his brother Etienne, he had a conversation with Petrarch, in which he deplored the losses he had sustained. Your father predicted them,' said Petrarch. The cardinal demanded an account of this prediction. Petrarch was unwilling to comply with this request: but the cardinal insisted. Struck with what he heard, Alas!' says he, I fear my father will prove too good a prophet.' This venerable old man was yet alive, and had attained almost the age of an hundred years. Petrarch wrote him a letter of condolence, as follows: · |