7 
p et.rarc il 
Cents one mafs of foam ; but, on reaching it, the angry 
Naiads ceafe to (form, and the water expands itfelf into a 
bafm of about fixty feet in circumference ; with a furface 
fmooth and tranquil as a mirror. The barren rock which 
frowns above it, is about fix hundred feet high ; the whole 
fcene is wild, defolate, and fublime. I was far from feel¬ 
ing (as fome of our friends had expreffed themfelves) 
(lifappointed; my expectations, on the contrary, were more 
than gratified ; but I was J'urprifed, as I had been fuffici- 
ently ignorant of the character of this celebrated fpot, to 
expeCl a fcene of piCturefque beauty, inftead of barren 
grandeur. In the centre of the bafin is a pyramid, erefted 
fourteen years ago, by the Academy of Avignon,” in 
honour of the poet; but this pillar, though handfome in 
its fizeand proportions, (the latter being after thofe of the 
famous Trajan column,) by being placed at the foot of a 
perpendicular rock of 6 or 700 feet in height, is by con- 
trait rendered in appearance fo diminutive as to bealmoft 
ridiculous. There are few, who will not coincide with 
the fuperior tafte of thofe who, at the time of its erection, 
propofed that it fhould be railed on the banks of the river, 
on the fpot fo generally fuppofed to have been the garden 
of Petrarch. The column bears no infcription. 
A correfpondent in the Monthly Magazine for Feb. 
1821, has laboured to prove the improbability that Laura 
had lived at Vauclufe, or was ever thereat all. As his 
reafoning goes to the correcting of an error which all 
Petrarch’s commentators have fallen into refpeCting one 
of his principal odes, we (hall leave him to make out his 
cafe in his own words. 
“ During a temporary refidence at Avignon, in the 
autumn of 1815, I vifited Vauclufe, and the fuppofed 
fcene of one of Petrarch’s beft odes, the celebrated foun¬ 
tain of that name. At the back of the valley, within a 
huge mafs of rock, is a cavern, with an entrance-arch 
about eighty feet in depth and fixty in width. Near the 
centre of this cave is an oval bafin from which riles the 
celebrated fpring that fupplies the Sorgue. The water 
being tolerably low, we were enabled to explore this ex¬ 
traordinary fpot. Not far from the fource of the river, 
on the fummit of an ahnoft inacceifible rock, Hands a 
ruin of the wall of Petrarch’s calile. The ftory which 
affigned to the poet this fabric as a refidence, with a fub- 
terranean paffage from thence to the houie of his far- 
famed miftrefs, has long been confidered as a fable. The 
caftle belonged in thole days to the bilhop of Cavailion. 
The attentive reader of Petrarch will readily difcover from 
his poetry, that, fo far from ever having lived, there is no 
evidence of her having,on any one occafion,even vifited Vau¬ 
clufe. Tlie life of the fmali habitation which Petrarch had 
built near to this fpot, and which in one of his letters he 
compares to the houfes of Cato and Fabricius, is now oc¬ 
cupied by a paper-mill. Thepeafantry have the name of 
Petrarch conftantly on their lips, but feem to be totally 
unacquainted with any thing that relates to him, beyond 
the faCt of his having cauled feveral fpots in this neigh¬ 
bourhood to be called after him ; fuch as Petrarch’s caftle, 
Petrarch’s fount, &c. 
“ A very extraordinary error has been circulated by the 
various critics, and commentators on Petrarch’s writings 
which deferves the confideration of all the admirers of 
the poet. It is the affumption that the Ode, (perhaps 
the mod beautiful, certainly the leaft artificial, of ail 
Petrarch’s compofitions,) beginning “ Chiare, frefche, e 
dolci, acque,” was addrelfed to the Fountain of Vauclufe. 
Befides the faCt already premifed of Laura’s never having 
refided at or even vifited Vauclufe, there are other cir- 
cumftances which conduce to determine the abfurdity of 
the univerfally-received opinion on this fubjeCV. The 
poem itfelf-affords evidence lufticient that It was never 
intended to refer to the fountain of Vauclufe. We 
are told in the outfet of this piece, that Laura was in 
the habit of bathing her beauteous limbs in the clear and 
limpid waters to which it may be fuppofed to be infcribed ; 
Chiare, frefche, e doici, acque, 
Ove le bella membra 
Pole colei, che fo la a me par donna, &c. 
and moreover, that green and graceful boughs (Lowered 
their bloffoms into her lap as (he fat befide it (in the hu¬ 
mility of tranfcendent lovelinefs), and covered her with A 
cloud of flowers: 
Da’ be rami fcendea. 
Dolce r.e la memoria, 
Una pioggia di fior fovra ’1 fuo grembo ; 
Ed elia fi fedea 
Umile intanta gloria, 
Coverta gia de l’amorofo nembro, &c. 
and with feveral other matters in a fimilar ftyle of ima¬ 
gery, which may be been by a reference to the Ode itfelf. 
Now the truth is, that during a confiderable portion of 
the year,and efpeciallyat that period to which Petrarch’s 
verfes would feem more particularly to refer, the Sorgue 
invariably rifes above the barrier that feparates it from 
the cavern, and, rulhing over the rocks in a tremendous 
torrent, entirely precludes the poflibility of accefs to the 
fountain. Even at other times it is little calculated for 
a bath for “ beauty’s daughters 5” t.o fay nothing of the 
abfence of “ waving trees, and (Lowering bloffoms.” At 
the conclufion of the ode, Petrarch, alluding to a bower 
in the vicinity of the fountain, informs us that it was 
there his love firft had birth. This may poifibly be a 
poetical flourilh ; if not, what could Laura be doing at 
Vauclufe, apparently without any profeffed objeCc five 
that of bathing. But the moft convincing fact of all 
remains yet to be dated. On the day the writer of this 
notice vifited the fountain, the water, in confequence of 
long drought, happened to be unulually low. Upon 
attempting to found its depth, however, we lowered a 
fathoming line of upwards of fifty feet in length, without 
finding any bottom. Thefe circumftunces, added to the 
evidences contained in the poem itfelf, totally deltroy the 
hypothefis of Voltaire, and tire hoft of critics who have 
contended that the poem Chiare Frefche was addrefled to 
the fountain of Vauclufe. 
The queftion then naturally arifes, to what fountain 
do the verfes alluded to in reality refer? This is ealily 
to be folved. At a (hort diftance from Avignon is a 
beautiful fpring, entitled the Triads, fo fituated as to cor- 
refpond in every particular with the defcription of Pe¬ 
trarch, where the ladies of the city were accuftomed to 
bathe in great numbers; and which .was in all probability 
the fcene of the little adventure introduced in his Can¬ 
zone, Nel do/ce tempo, fyc. To this fpring, and not to the 
fountain of Vauclufe, were Petrarch’s elegant lines indu¬ 
bitably addrefled. 
“ Voltaire cites this poem as a fpecimen of Petrarch’s 
manner, and calls it his fine Ode on the Fountain of Vau¬ 
clufe. As a proof, however, that notwithftanding ail he 
has been pleafed to (ay of the writings of the Italian fon- 
netteer, he never fo much as read them throughout, he 
terms this “ an irregular Ode jn blank verle, which (fays 
he) the poet compol'ed in order to avoid wearying himfelf 
for rhymes, but which is more erteemed than his rhymed 
verfes.” This is all very fine, and rounds his period ad¬ 
mirably; but unfortunately for Voltaire, it happens to be 
diametrically oppofed to (aft. The piece in queftion is 
not only rhymed throughout, but is moreover the moft 
harmonious and fuccefsful of ail Petrarch’s productions 
and particularly his rythmical ones. Thus it is that 
grofs errors are confirmed inftead of being corrected. 
Critics too often take that for granted which has been 
advanced upon fome great authority, and fo reiterate ab- 
furdities rather than take the trouble of examining for 
themfelves. In this fpirit Warton criticifes an inftance of 
falfe talte in Tafio’s Aminta, upon the authority of Pope, 
who (in one of his papers on paitorai poetry, in the Guar¬ 
dian) had cenfured the immortal Italian for an abfurdity 
which 
