Of the Abhe de SADE. 173 



works of Petrarch himfelf, or what may be termed the intrin- 

 fic evidence in fupport of the material part of his hypothecs, 

 namely, that Laura was a married woman; nor do I think I 

 prefume too much when I fay, that I have {hewn their abfolute 

 infufficiency to prove that propoirtion. The queftion might 

 therefore be fafely left here ; in the confidence, that an hypo- 

 thefis which is newly brought forward * in oppolition to long 

 eftabliihed belief, and the concurring aiTent, for ages, of all who 

 have been converfant with the matter of inquiry, and which is 

 fhewn to reft on no bafis, either of hiftorical evidence or of 

 found reafoning, does not require the confutation of opposite, 

 proof to lay it in the duft : But, as I have already had occafion 

 incidentally to produce fome of thofe teftimonies from the works 

 of the poet himfelf, which tend mod pofitively to difprove 

 this hypothecs, and an abundance of matter of fimilar import 

 mu ft offer itfelf to all who have examined thofe works with 

 any attention, I am prompted to draw yet a little more from 

 this ftock of the internal evidence, before I take my leave of the 

 fubject. 



imb. Petrarch has compofed 318 fonnets, 49 canzoni or 

 fongs, and 6 trionfi ; a large volume of poetry, entirely on the- 

 fubject of his paflion for Laura ; not to mention a variety of 

 paffages in his profe works, where that favourite topic is occa- 

 fionally treated, and even difcuffed at very great length. In the 



Vol. V.— P. II. Z whole 



*■ This hypothecs may certainly be termed a new one ; fince, although Tassoni, 

 and fome of the commentators on the Sonnets of Petrarch have, in their obser- 

 vations on certain paffages which the Abbe de Sade produces as proofs of his 

 theory, remarked, that a fufpicion might thence arife that Laura was a married, 

 woman, none cf them have ventured to affirm (as our author) for certain, that 

 {he was fo. On the contrary, Velutello's conclusion, after confefling the very 

 imperfect information which could be collected relative to the family, flate and con- 

 dition of Laura, is : " Per cofa certa habbiamo da tcnere ch' ella nonfojfe mat tnari- 

 " tata." — " We muft hold it for a point alfolutely certain, that fhe was never mar- 

 " ried." 



