Of the Abbe de SA D E. 167 



But, fays the Abbe de Sade, had Laura "been a virgin, the' 

 poet would, in this compofition, have given her virgins for her 

 attendants, and not married women. Thofe who follow her to 

 the Temple of Chaftity, fays he, are all married women, with 

 the exception of a Vejfal Virgin. Here our author is guilty of 

 a grofs mifreprefentation. In the poem of the Trionfo delta 

 Cq/lita, Petrarch, fo far from citing examples only of married 

 women, as Lucretia, Penelope, &c. fays : ■ '■ '- 1 • i'"'' 



lo non perria le facre henedette 

 Vergini cb* ivi fur chiuder^ in ri7na.^~ 



" I could not comprehend in rhyme all the facred virgins that 

 " were prefent :" and he enumerates the nine mufes, 



— Calliope e Clio con /' altre fette*; — 



together with Vi r g i n i a and the Veftal T u c ci a , We have here an 



Y 2 example 



* I AM well aware of the dotibt that JlaS been 'entertained Ky certain grave" 

 and learned authors, with regard to the virginity xtl the Mufes. As to Calliope^ 

 indeed, the matter was pad a doubt -, for her amour with CEagrus, king of Theffa- 

 ly, was proclaimed by the birth of a fon, who made fufiicient noife in the world, 

 the famous Orpheus ; and therefore Buchanan has very guardedly expreflTed 

 himfelf, with refpe£l to her, in bis epigram : 



Calliope longum ctBlebs cur vtxit in avum? 



Nempi, nihil doti quod numeraret, erat. 



1 

 For this lady, though a mother, was certainly caelebs, or unmarried ; and this is quite 

 fufficient to refute our author's aflertion that the poet had here given Laura an at-, 

 tendance only of married women. As to the other Mufes, whatever may have been 

 their failings in private, (and every one of them has fiiffered from the breath of 

 fcandal ; fee Menagiana, t. 2.), their ftate of celibacy is authenticated beyond all que- 

 ftion ; and I muft in confcience believe, that Petrarch had never heard any of thofe 

 curious and fecret anecdotes of the lives of thofe ladies, which the penetrating re- 



fearch 



