132 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL IITPOTHESIS 



In the Trionfo delta Morte, Part 2. the poet feigns that 

 Laura , on the night after her death, appeared to him in a vifion: 

 and, in the courfe of a long converfation, in which fhe acknow- 

 ledges, that fhe had ever felt for him a mutual paffion, and en- 

 deavours to fatisfy him, that every Angularity of her conduct, 

 however harfhly he might at the time have judged it, was 

 prompted by the fmcerity of her affection for him ; fhe fays in 

 one paflage, 



In tutte V alt re cofe qffai beata, 

 In ana JoJa a me Jleffa difpiacqui j 

 Che h troppo umil terren mi trovai nata : 



Duolmi ancor veramente cVio non nacqui 

 Almen phi prejfo al tuo fiorito nido ; 

 Ma qffai fu bel paefe ov* io ti piacqui. 



" Fortunate enough I was in other refpects : this only I 

 " regretted, that the place of my birth was too humble : at lead 

 " I had caufe to repine at this circumftance, that it was not 

 " nearer to the beautiful country of thy nativity. Yet that 

 " region was indeed fufBciently beautiful where I had the hap-. 

 " pinefs to pleafe thee." It was impoffible that Laura could 

 have termed the city of Avignon umil terrene* or that fhe could 

 have been afhamed of it as the place of her birth. At that time 

 Avignon was the Papal refidence, and one of the molt fplendid 

 cities in the fouth of Europe; a city, indeed, where luxury and 

 corruption of manners had attained to fuch a height, that Pe- 

 trarch himfelf characterizes it by the epithet of the Gallic 

 Babylon *. 



In the fourth fonnet of the ift Part of his Sonet ti e Canzoni^ 

 the poet has the following remarkable allufions, which may per- 

 haps 



* Epist. lib. fine tit. Ep. 16. 



