Of the Abbe de S A D E. 157 



" vergine, donzella, appellations aljvays applied to unmarried 

 " women, and which found fo peculiarly graceful in both lan- 

 ** guages. 



" ido, In fonnets 10. 162. &c. the poet fpeaks of the drefs 

 " of liAUR A, of the garlands {he wore on her head, of the jewels 

 " and pearls with which fhe braided her hair ; and, in fonnets 

 " 151. and 158., he mentions the magnificence of her garments. 

 '* Now, in the age of Petrarch, the young unmarried women 

 ' " wore neither garlands, nor pearls, nor jewels; they were 

 '* dreffed in a very fimple manner, and appeared very little in 

 " public. 



" ^tid. In fonnets 162. and 18^. Petrarch complains, that 

 " jealoufy often deprived him of the pleafure of feeing Laura. 

 " Some commentators have indeed fuppofed this to be meant 

 " of the jealoufy of her parents, watchful over the honour of 

 " their daughter : but this is a forced and unnatural conftruc- 

 " tion ; for the term jealoufy, ge/ojta, has never been applied to 

 " the watchful care of parents for the honour of their children. 



" 4^0, Petrarch, with the intention of celebrating the vic- 

 " tory which Laur4 had gained over love, compofed, after her 

 " death, a poem, entitled Th-e Triiunph of Chaftity, Trmifo 

 " della Cajlita. If Laura had been a virgin, it is clear that he 

 ** would have entitled his poem T'rionfo della l^irginita. In this 

 " poem, too, he would have given Laura virgins for her at- 

 " tendants, and not married women. Now, thofe who follow 

 " Laura to the Temple of Chaftity, are Lucretia, Penelope, 

 " Judith, Dido, the Greek Hippo, Hersilia, &c. all married 

 " women. The fingle exception is a Veftal Virgin." 



These, the author of the Memoires acknowledges, ' after all, 

 amount to nothing more than ftrong conjedures. Now fol- 

 lows, fays he, fomething more conclufive. 



" 5/0, Petrarch, in one of his dialogues with St Augustine, 

 " in fpeaking of Laura, fays, that her body was exhaufted by 



Vol. v.— p. II. X frequent 



