148 EXAMINATION of an HIS'tORICJL HrPOTHESIS 



In the 13th Canzone (Se H penfier), the poet addrefles hinafelf 

 to a beautiful ftream, on the borders of which his miftrefs was 

 wont frequently to walk. The commentators, in endeavouring 

 to identify the fcenery to which this poem refers, have, with 

 ^reat appearance of probability, fuppofed this rivulet to be the 

 Coulon, which runs near to Cabrieres, where Laura is believed 

 to have dwelt, and conclude it to have been the fame rivulet in 

 which he had once furprifed his miftrefs bathing, quite naked, 

 an incident to which he alludes in the firft Canzone. But this 

 fuppoGtion, contradidling his theory, appears to the Abbe de 

 Sade quite unnatural and abfurd. He finds a bafon or pond 

 in a garden clofe by the walls of Avignon, which correfponds to 

 a miracle with every thing here alluded to. As to the rivulet 

 of Coulon, fiiys he, it is no lefs than a mile and a half dLi^znx 

 from Cabrieres, a circumftance which puts its pretenfions out of 

 the queftion ; as this woxild have been rather too long a walk 

 for a lady, promenade un pen forte pour une dame ; and Petrarch 

 himfelf muft have crofTed a fteep hill, and walked at leaft/oar 

 miles and a half, before he could have feen her there. 



In a Gmilar ftrain of weak and inconclufive reafoning, this 

 author attempts to invalidate the evidence of the fonnet with 

 which Petrarch accompanies his prefent of the birds, caught 

 at the foot of thofe hills where lay the birthplace of Laura. 

 Part of the city of Avignon, fays the Abbe, is fituated on a rocky 

 eminence ; and although the foot of that rock is now all built 

 over, and comprehended within the precinds of the city, yet, in 

 thofe days it might have been open ground, and Petrarch might 

 there have amufed himfelf in fowling, and have canght the 

 birds in queftion. 



Sp likewife in the 1 84th fonnet (II cantar nuovo), where the 

 poet defcribes the pleafures of the morning in the country, the 

 valleys refounding with the fweet fong of the birds, and the 



murmuring 



