166 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HTP0THES1S 



towards her lover, thofe alternate marks of favour and of cold 

 referve, and that tedious protraction of the final reward of a 

 paffion, unexampled in its ardour and duration. 



In the 185th fonnet, where the female companions of Laura 

 complain that envy or jealoufy had deprived them of her com- 

 pany, the expreffion may be meant either of her own jealoufy, 

 as in the former inftance, or more probably, in this place, of the 

 jealoufy of her parents. " Rejlata in cafa per invidia gelofia de 

 " parentis ^ a y s Castelvetro : and the fame author remark- 

 ing that fome have fufpected from this paffage that Laura was 

 a married woman, acutely obferves, that the context plainly in- 

 dicates that the expreffion will not admit of that conftrucflion : 

 Her companions lament, that they are deprived of her company 

 by that envy or jealoufy which repines at the happinefs of ano- 

 ther, as if it were its own misfortune : 



• 



Dogliofe per fua dolce compagnia 

 La qua I ne tog lie invidia e gelofia 

 Che d'altrui ben, quaji fuo mal,Ji dole. 



" The man who is truly jealous," he well obferves, " cannot be 

 ** faid to repine at the happinefs of another, as if it were his own 

 " misfortune ; for, in reality, it is his own misfortune." 



4?o, The author of the Memoir es is equally ill-founded in the 

 argument he endeavours to draw from the title of the Trionfo 

 della Cajlita, as in moft of his other critical remarks. Cajlita An 

 Italian, cajlitas in Latin, and chajlity in Englifh, are equally ap- 

 plicable to a virgin as to a married woman. Diana is cele- 

 brated for her chaftity as well as Penelope. Some of the 

 Doctors have even limited the application of the term Chajlity 

 to fuch as are unmarried. w Cajlus et continens" fays Aquinas, 

 " fie diffierunt, quod cajlus dicitur ante nuptias, contiaens vero poji 



•• WJ." 



But, 



