174 EXAMINATION of an HISTORIC A L HTPOTHESIS 



whole of thofe works, there is not to be found a Jingle pajfage^ 

 which intimates that Laura was a married woman. Is it to 

 be conceived that the poet, who has exhaufted language itfelf 

 in faying every thing poffible of his miftrefs ; who mentions 

 not only her looks, her drefs, her geftures, her converfations ; 

 but her companions, her favourite walks and her domeftic occu- 

 pations, would have omitted fuch capital facts, as her being 

 married, and the mother of many children ; married too, as the 

 author of the Memoir es aliens, to a man who was jealous of her, 

 and who ufed her with harihnefs and unkindnefs on Pstr arch's 

 account ? 



idb. Would this harm and jealous hufband have permitted 

 this avowed admirer of his wife, this importunate gallant, who 

 followed her as her fhadow wherever fhe went, and attended 

 her in town and in the country, to fee her daily, and converfe 

 with her alone, to write to her, to make amgnations with her, 

 and to fend her prefents as tokens of his attachment ? Yet, that 

 Petrarch enjoyed all thefe liberties, is evident from number- 

 lefs pafTages of his works *. That the poet and his miftrefs 

 were wont even to walk together in the public gardens, is 

 evident from the incident alluded to in the 208th fonnet, 

 Due rofe frefche : A friend, who met them together in a gar- 

 den, taking them both by the hand, prefented each with a 

 rofe, declaring, at the fame time, that the fun never flione on a 

 truer pair of lovers. And that their pafTion was the common 



difcourfe 



* Son. 41. Perch' to t' hiihbia. Son. 59. ^jiando glunfe. Canz. 14. Perche quel. 

 Canz. 15. Volgendo gli occhi. Son. 49. Se voi potejle. Canz. 12. Perch' al vifo. 

 Canz. 4. Nel dolce tempo. Son. 19. Milk Jiate. Canz. 8 St e dehile. T'rionf. di 

 Morte, cap. 2.&c. &c In the 420" fonnet, (Se col cieco dejir), Petrarch complains 

 that Laura had failed to keep an appointment that fhe had made with him, and in 

 which, he had flattered' himfelf, be was to be indulged in freely declaring his 

 paffion. 



