(_For the Mirror._)
Petrarch had a gay and captivating exterior: his complexion was fair,
with sparkling blue eyes, and a ready smile. He was very amusing on the
subject of his own coxcombry; and tells us how cautiously he used to
turn the corner of a street, lest the wind should disorder the elaborate
curls of his fine hair! Dante, too, was in his youth eminently handsome,
but in a style of beauty that was characteristic of his mind: his eyes
were large and intensely black; his nose aquiline; his complexion of
a dark olive; his hair and beard very much curled; his step slow and
measured; and the habitual expression of his countenance grave, with
a tinge of melancholy abstraction. When Petrarch walked the streets
of Avignon, the women smiled, and said, "There goes the lover of
Laura!" The impression which Dante left, on those who beheld him was far
different. In allusion to his own personal appearance, he used to relate
an incident that once occurred to him. When years of persecution and
exile had added to the natural sternness of his countenance, the deep
lines left by grief, and the brooding spirit of vengeance; he happened
to be at Verona, where, since the publication of his _Inferno_, he
was well known. Passing one day by a portico, wherein several women were
seated, one of them whispered, with a look of awe; "Do you see that man?
that is he who goes does down to Hell whenever he pleases, and brings us
back tidings of the sinners below."
"Ay, indeed!" replied her companion; "very likely; see how his face is
scarred with fire and brimstone, and blackened with smoke, and how his
hair and beard have been singed and curled in the flames!"