PETRARCH THE CRITIC AND READER 



of the man's defects, — "his faith, as I hear, being 

 doubtful, and his mind far from meek " (Vita Solitaria, 

 II, vii, i). This was Abelard; not Abelard the philoso- 

 pher, but Abelard the hero of an unhappy love story, 

 one who, like himself, had sought refuge in solitude. 

 And the manuscript of Abelard's and Heloise's letters 

 is, after that of Virgil, the most interesting of his col- 

 lection for the notes which Petrarch jotted down on it 

 — interesting not so much for his comments on the 

 style or the sentiments of the writers (which are mostly 

 in the vein of " just like a woman " or " not inelegantly 

 said, Peter '0 as for a series of mysterious dates which 

 excite one's curiosity, since refer they must to certain 

 unknown episodes of his troubled inner life. 



los 



