-^ Of the Able de SAT) I.. 155 



♦« honneur." Mm, pour la Vie de^Ytt. Prefaef aax Fran got s^&cc. 

 And in the following paflages he defcribes this petit manege more 



particularly 5 



■ '' LrAURE, qui ne vouloit ni fe donner a lui, ni le perdre, n'eut 

 "pas plutot apper^u les noaveaux efForts qu'il faifoit pour brifer 

 ^' fes fers, qu'elle mit en ufage pour Vj retenir les petites rufes 

 " qui lui avdient jufqu'alors fi bien reuffi: air moins fevere, 

 " regards plus doux, petits mots en paflant," &c. Mem. vol. ii. 



p^ ^11, « I,AURE ne pouvoit fe refoudre a perdre un amant 



«' de cette trempe, qui I'aimoit depiiis onze ans, et qui faifoit de 

 " fi beaux vers' pour elle : le rencontrant un jour dans les irues 

 " d' Avignon, elle jetta fur lui un de ces regards qui favoient fi 



" bien le ramencr '' Ibid, p. 383. " Ces petites rufes dune 



" coquet teri^ intiocente, qne Lav RK favoit fi bien mettre en 

 *' oeuvrfe, eurent bitntot produit leur efFet- ordinaire." Ibid. 



p. 386. 



From thefe pafTages we rftay judge, what idea this Reverend 

 Abbe has formed to himfelf of the charader of a refpedable 

 married woman, and the mother of a family ; ttnefemnie tendre 

 ttjagij, whdhas the art- to keep alive, by all the tricks of a co- 

 quette, the paflions of her gallant for no lefs than twenty-one 

 years ; and- all x!a\.% [am faire la moindre breche afon honneur. Ob- 

 ferve too, that, for the better part of this period of fafcination, 

 the lady herfelf could owe little of her power to her perfonal 

 charms; fdf, if Our author's hypothefis be true, and Laura de 

 NovES, the wife of Hugh de Sade, was the miftrefs of Pe- 

 trarch, this lady muft have been a grown woman before her 

 rtiarriage in the year 1325 ; fhe had been married three years be- 

 fore Petrarch firft faw her ; fhe bore eleven children in the pe- 

 riod of their acqttaintante ;" and ftie died when fhe was about 

 forty years of age, with all thefymptoms of an exhaujled conjlitution. 

 Yet all the while, this hackneyed and antiquated coquette, re- 

 gardlefs (rf the charader of a wife and a mother, is pradifing 



