Shakespeare Anyone? Mini: Shakespeare and Petrarch
Feb 14, 2024
Dive into the intriguing world of Francesco Petrarch, the 14th-century poet whose influence shaped European humanism and poetry. Discover his chaste love for Laura and how his vivid sonnet style spread throughout Europe. Explore how Shakespeare both embraced and satirized Petrarchan tropes in his works, highlighting characters like Romeo and contrasting styles in 'As You Like It.' The journey reveals a fascinating interplay between admiration and parody, reflecting the evolution of romance in literature.
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Petrarch's Early Life And Courtly Years
- Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) moved with his family to Provence and studied law before turning to writing and church service.
- He entered Cardinal Giovanni Colonna's household and cultivated courtly, dandyish life in Avignon while writing early vernacular poems.
The Laura Romance And The Canzoniere
- Petrarch claimed a chaste, lifelong love for a woman called Laura after first seeing her on April 6, 1327, and wrote many sonnets about her.
- He organized his Canzoniere into poems from Laura's life and poems after her death, revising them across his lifetime.
Petrarchan Tropes Became Renaissance Clichés
- Petrarch's sonnets popularized intense similes and hyperbolic metaphors like burning and freezing to express love.
- These conventions became clichés for Elizabethan sonneteers including Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser, Drayton, and influenced Shakespeare.