Of the Abbe de SJDE. 167 



But, fays the Abbe de Sade, had Laura been a virgin, the 

 poet would, in this compofition, have given her virgins for her 

 attendants, and not married women. Thofe who follow her to 

 the Temple of Chaftity, fays he, are all married women, with 

 the exception of a Vejial Virgin. Here our author is guilty of 

 a grofs mifreprefentation. In the poem of the Trionfo delta 

 Cajlita, Petrarch, fo far from citing examples only of married 

 women, as Lucretia, Penelope, &c. fays : 



Io non perria le /acre benedette 

 Vergini ch' ivi fur chiuder' in rima. — 



" I could not comprehend in rhyme all the facred virgins that 

 "** were prefent :" and he enumerates the nine mufes, 



— Calliope e Clio con V altre fette*; — 



together with Vi r g i n i a and the Veftal Tu c c 1 a . We have here an 



Y 2 example 



* I am well aware of the doubt that has been entertained by certain grave 

 and learned authors, with regard to the virginity of the Mufes. As to Calliope, 

 indeed, the matter was pad a doubt -, for her amour with CEagrus, king of Theffa- 

 ly, was proclaimed by the birth of a fon, who made fufficient noife in the world, 

 the famous Orpheus > and therefore Buchanan has vexy guardedly expreffed 

 himfelf, with refpeft to her, in his epigram : 



Calliope longum coelebs cur vixit in avum? 

 Nempe, nihil doti quod numeraret, eraU 



For this lady, though a mother, was certainly coelebs, or unmarried ; and this is quite 

 fufficient to refute our author's affertion that the poet had here given Laura an at- 

 tendance only of married women. As to the other Mufes, whatever may have been 

 their failings in private, (and every one of them has fuffered from the breath of 

 fcandal j fee Menagiana, t. 2.), their ftate of celibacy is authenticated beyond all que- 

 ftion ; and I muft in confcience believe, that Petrarch had never heard any of thofe 

 curious and fecret anecdotes of the lives of thofe ladies, which the penetrating re- 



fearch 



