OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
123
but was justly offended with the gloomy and un- chap.social temper of the man. Discontented with LXVI -the world and with himself, Leo depreciatedhis present enjoyments, while absent personsand objects were dear to his imagination. InItaly he was a Thessalian, in Greece a native ofCalabria ; in the company of the Latins he dis-dained their language, religion, and manner; nosooner was he landed at Constantinople , than heagain sighed for the wealth of Venice and theelegance of Florence. His Italian friends were j
deaf to his importunity; he depended on their j
curiosity and indulgence, and embarked on a I
second voyage; but on his entrance into the !
Adriatic, the ship was assailed by a tempest,and the unfortunate teacher, who, like Ulysses,had fastened himself to the mast, was struckdead by a flash of lightning. The humane Pe-trarch dropt a tear on his disaster; but he was t
most anxious to learn whether some copy of Eu-ripides or Sophocles might not be saved from thehands of the mariners.'
But the faint rudiments of Greek learning, Fonnda .which Petrarch had encouraged and Boccace had planted, soon withered and expired. Thegnagei i
succeeding generation was content for a while Manueiwith the improvement of Latin eloquence; nor^a^ 0 'was it before the end of the fourteenth century, j^'/ 390 *that a new and perpetual flame was rekindled in
c Leontius, or Leo Pilatus, is sufficiently made known by Hody(p. 2-11) and the Abbe de Sadc (Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii, p. 625-634, 670-673), who has very happily caught the lively and dramaticmanner of his original.