Note 307 — Chapter IV · THE DIFFERENCING ELEMENTS OF THE POETRY OF ART

“Ego velut in confinio duorum populorum constitutus simul ante retroque prospicio,” a saying of Petrarch, would apply better to Dante. The Vita Nuova has psychological analysis enough for ten moderns; but the mediæval in it all conquers the modern, as one feels the moment one turns to Petrarch’s correspondence. Perhaps Norden, Antike Kunstprosa, II. 732, lays too much stress on Petrarch’s backward gaze; he did look backward to the classics, but he was not mediæval. See the charming extracts given in Robinson and Rolfe’s Petrarca.