i54 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HTPOTHESIS 



who, while joined in wedlock to a refpectable hufband, and the 

 mother of eleven children, continued, for above twenty years, 

 to put in practice every artifice of a finifhed coquette, to enfnare 

 the affections, and keep alive the paflions, of a gallant, whofe 

 attachment, from the celebrity of his name, was flattering to 

 her vanity. 



I must indeed acknowledge, that thefe notions are drawn 

 from a fyftem of morals, with which the Abbe de Sade and 

 moft of his countrymen are but very little acquainted. I know 

 that, in the opinion of moft Frenchmen, a handfome married 

 woman derogates not in the flighted degree from the rules either 

 of virtue or of ftrict propriety, while me amufes herfelf with 

 the gallant attentions of all the young men of her Acquaintance ; 

 and the moft intimate reciprocation of tender fentiments, while 

 it is only an affair of the heart, is termed une belle. paffion *. This 

 is precifely what the Abbe de Sade fuppofes to have been the 

 connection of Petrarch and of Laura. Petrarch befieged 

 her with ardent and importunate folicitations, which had for 

 their object the ordinary rewards of a lover. She never actually 

 difhonoured her hufband's bed j but £he made no fcruple to 

 avow to her lover that her heart was fenfible to his flame; 

 though at times fhe found it necelTary to feign a rigour and 

 coldnefs of demeanour in order the better to keep alive the ar- 

 dour of his paflion. " Par ce petit manege," fays the Abbe, 

 41 cette alternative de faveurs et de rigueurs bien menagee, une 

 '* femme tendre et fage amufe, pendant vingt et un ans, le plus 

 4 * grand poete de fon fie.cle, fans faire.la moindre breche a fon 



" honneur*" 



* Our author has even termed this amour, vne paffion honnete, (an honourable 

 paffion). Thus, in fpeaking «f Avignon, he fays :. "Une ville qui fait gloire de 

 l'avoir eleve dans fon fein, et d'avoir ete le theatre d' une, pnjfion bonnete, qui lui a.in- 

 fpire de fi beaux vers." Mem. de Pet. torn. i. p. 29. And the fame expreffion 

 occurs, torn. i. p. 1 n. where the Abbe-propofes this paffion of the poet for the wife 

 of another man, " as a model for all tender and virtuous hearts," 



