Of the JbSe de S J D E. 173 



works of Petrarch himfelf, or what may be termed the intrin- 

 fic evidenee in fupport of the material part of his hypothefis, 

 namely, that Laura was a married woman; nor do I think I 

 prefume too much when I fay, that I have {hewn their abfokite 

 infufficiency to prove that propofition. The queftion might 

 therefore be fafely left here ; in the confidence, that an hypo- 

 thefis which is newly brought forward * in oppoficion to long 

 eftabliihed belief, and the concurring affent, for ages, of all who 

 have been converfant with the matter of inquiry, and which is 

 ihewn to reft on no bafis, either of hiftorical evidence or of 

 found reafoning, does not require the confutation of oppofite 

 proof to lay it in the duft : But, as I have already had occafion 

 incidentally to produce fome of thofe teftimonies from the works 

 of the poet himlelf, which tend moft pofitively to difprove 

 this hypothefis, and an abundance of matter of fimilar import 

 muft offer itfelf to all who have examined thofe works with 

 any attention, I am prompted to draw yet a little more from, 

 this ftock of the internal evidence, before I take my leave of the 

 flibjeifl. 



\mb. Petrarch has compofed 318 fonnets, 49 canzoni or 

 fongs, and 6 trionfi ; a large volume of poetry, entirely on the,- 

 fubjedl of his paflion for Laura ; not to mention a variety of 

 paffages in his profe works, where that favourite topic is occa- 

 fionally treated, and even difcuffed at very great length. In the. 



Vol. v.— P. n. Z whole 



*■ This hypothefis may certainly be termed a new one ; fince, although Tassoni, 

 and fome of the commentators on the Sonnets of Petrarch have, in their obfer- 

 vations on certain paffages which the Abbe de Sade produces as proofs of hia 

 theory, remarked, that a fufpicion might thence arife that Laura was a married, 

 woman, none of them have ventured to affirm (as our author) for certain, that 

 ftie was fo. On the contrary, Velutello's conclufion, after confeffmg the very 

 imperfeft information which could be collefted relative to the family, ftate and con.. ■ 

 dition of Laura, is : " Per cofa certa hiihbiamo da tcnere ch' ella nonfojfe mat mari- 

 " tata." — " We muft hold it for a point alfolutely certain, that fhe was never roar-.- 

 " ried." 



