THE LAST LAY OF PETRARCH'S CAT.
In the year 1820 I saw the following Latin verse inscribed under the skeleton of a cat in one of the rooms of Petrarch's favourite villa at Arqua, near Padua. If you choose to print them, with or without the accompanying English version, they are at your service:—
Etruscus gemino vates ardebat amore:
Maximus ignis ego; Laura secundus erat.
Quid rides? divinæ illam si gratia formæ,
Me dignam eximio fecit amante fides.
Si numeros geniumque sacris dedit illa libellis
Causa ego ne sævis muribus esca forent.
Arcebam sacro vivens à limine mures,
Ne domini exitio scripta diserta forent;
Incutio trepidis eadem defuncta pavorem,
Et viget exanimi in corpore prisca fides.
The Tuscan bard of deathless fame
Nursed in his breast a double flame,
Unequally divided;
And when I say I had his heart,
While Laura play'd the second part,
I must not be derided.
For my fidelity was such,
It merited regard as much
As Laura's grace and beauty;
She first inspired the poet's lay,
But since I drove the mice away,
His love repaid my duty.
Through all my exemplary life,
So well did I in constant strife
Employ my claws and curses,
That even now, though I am dead,
Those nibbling wretches dare not tread
On one of Petrarch's verses.
J. O. B.