148 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HrPOTHESIS 



In the 13th Canzone (Se 7 penfierj, the poet addrefles himfelf 

 to a beautiful flream, on the borders of which his miftrefs was 

 wont frequently to walk. The commentators, in endeavouring 

 to identify the fcenery to which this poem refers, have, with 

 great appearance of probability, fuppofed this rivulet to be the 

 Goulon, which runs near to Cabrieres, where Laura is believed 

 to have dwelt, and conclude it to have been the fame rivulet in 

 which he had once furprifed his miftrefs bathing, quite naked, 

 an incident to which he alludes in the firft Canzone. But this 

 fuppofition, contradicting his theory, appears to the Abbe de 

 Sade quite unnatural and abfurd. He finds a bafon or pond 

 in a garden clofe by the walls of Avignon, which correfponds to 

 a miracle with every thing here alluded to. As to the rivulet 

 of Coulon, fays he, it is no lefs than a mile and a half diftant 

 from Cabrieres, a circumftance which puts its pretenfions out of 

 the queftion ; as this would have been rather too long a walk 

 for a lady, promenade un pen forte pour une dame ; and Petrarch 

 himfelf rauft have croffed a fteep hill, and walked at leaft/02/r 

 miles and a half before he could have feen her there. 



In a fimilar drain of weak and inconclufive reafoning, this 

 author attempts to invalidate the evidence of the fonnet with 

 which Petrarch accompanies his prefent of the birds, caught 

 at the foot of thofe hills where lay the birthplace of Laura, 

 Part of the city of Avignon, fays the Abbe, is fituated on a rocky 

 eminence ; and although the foot of that rock is now all built 

 over, and comprehended within the precincts of the city, yet, in 

 thofe days it might have been open ground, and Petrarch might 

 there have amufed himfelf in fowling, and have caught the 

 birds in queftion. 



So likewife in the 184th fonnet (II cantar nuovo), where the 

 poet defcribes the pleafures of the morning in the country, the 

 valleys refounding with the fweet fong of the birds, and the 



murmuring 



