1 66 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HTPOTHESIS 



towards her lover, thofe alternate marks of favour and of cold 

 refcrve, and that tedious protra(5tion of the final reward of a 

 paffion, unexampled in its ardour and duration. 



In the 185th fonnet, where the female companions of Laura 

 complain that envy or jealoufy had deprived them of her com- 

 pany, the expreffion may be meant either of her own jealoufy, 

 as in the former inftance, or more probably, in this place, of the 

 jealoufy of her parents. " Rejlatn in cafa per invidia gelofia de 

 " parent!,'* fays Castelvetro : and the fame author remark- 

 ing that fome have fufpedted from this pafTage that Laura was 

 a married woman, acvitely obferves, that the context plainly in- 

 dicates that the expreffion will not admit of that conftrudlion : 

 Her companions lament, that they are deprived of her company 

 by that envy or jealoufy which repines at the happinefs of ano- 

 ther, as if it were its own misfortune : 



DogUofe per fua dolce compagnia 

 La qual ne toglie invidia e gelo/ia 

 Che d'altrui ben, quajifuo mal,Ji dole. 



*' The man who is truly jealous," he well obferves, " cannot be 

 ** faid to repine at the happinefs of another, as if it were his own 

 " misfortune ; for, in reality, // is his own misfortune." 



4?5, The author of the Memoir es is equally ill-founded in the 

 argument he endeavours to draw from the title of the Trionfo 

 della Cajlita, as in moflof his other critical remarks. Cajlita-va. 

 Italian, cajlitas in Latin, and chajlity in Englilh, are equally ap- 

 plicable to a virgin as to a married woman. Diana is cele- 

 brated for her chaftity as well as Penelope. Some of the 

 Docflors have even limited the application of the term ChaJHty 

 to fuch as are unmarried. ** Cajlus et continens^' fays Aquinas, 

 '* Jic differunt, quod cajlus dicitur ante nuptias, contiaens verb poji 



«• eas:' 



But, 



