186 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HTPOTHESIS 



Gia incomminciava a prender fecurtade 

 La mia cara nemica a poco a poco 

 De' fuoi fofpetti ; e rivolgeva in gioco 

 Mie pene acerbe, fua dolce hone/lade : 



Prejfo era 7 tempo dov' amor fi /contra 

 Con cajlitate ; e a gli amanti e dato 

 Sederji injieme, e dir che lor'' incontra. Son. 47. Part. 2. 



Tempo era homai da trovar pace tregua 

 Di tantaguerra ; ed erane in via forfe. Son. 48.- Part. 2. 



Tranqiiilk pdrto avea mojlrato amore 

 A la mia lunga e torbida tempefia. — 



Gia traluceva a 1 begli occhi 7 ?tiio core, 

 E r altafede 71071 piu lor molejla. 

 Ahi morte ria, come a fcbiantar fe J prejla 

 II f rut to di moW anni in si pocbe bore ! Son. 49. Part. 2. 



In fupplement of thefe authorities from the fonnets of Pe- 

 trarch, may be added that report which was current at the 

 time, or at lean: among the earlieft writers who have given any 

 account of the poet's life, namely, that the Pope, who held Pe- 

 trarch in the highefl eftimation, and to whom he was indebt- 

 ed for feveral valuable ecclefiaftical preferments, was extremely 

 folicitous that he fhould be united in marriage to Laura, and 

 offered to give him, in that event, a difpenfation for retaining 

 his church-benefices. If the ftory is true, the Pope of whom 

 it is recorded muft have been Clement VI., as he is the only 

 one of the Pontiffs, who were Petrarch's coteinporaries, to 

 whom thefe characteriftics could apply. M. Fl'eury, in his 

 Ecclefiaftical Hijlory, is certainly miftaken when he attributes 

 the proportion here mentioned to Benedict XII. the prede- 

 cefTor of Clement ; for Petrarch owed no favour to that Pon- 

 tiff, whom he has fatirized in many parts of his writings, as a 



man 



