“Laughter, on the other hand,” Petrarch went on, “is an explosion that tears us away from the world and throws us back into our own cold solitude. Joking is a barrier between man and the world. Joking is the enemy of love and poetry. That’s why I tell you yet again, and want you to keep in mind: Boccaccio doesn’t understand love. Love can never be laughable. Love has nothing in common with laughter.”
