OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

319

comparable Ariosto . The merits of the lover1 am still less qualified to appreciate; nor am Ideeply interested in a metaphysical passion fora nymph so shadowy, that her existence hasbeen questioned ; b for a matron so prolific,'thatshe was delivered of eleven legitimate children ,'*while her amorous swain sighed and sung at thefountain of Vaucluse." But in the eyes of Pe-trarch , and those of his graver contemporaries,his love was a sin, and Italian verse a frivolousamusement. His Latin works of philosophy,poetry, and eloquence, established his seriousreputation, which was soon diffused from Avig-non over France and Italy : his friends and dis-ciples were multiplied in every city; and if theponderous volume of his writings f be now aban-

b The allegorical interpretation prevailed in the fifteenth century;but the wise commentators were not agreed whether they should un-derstand by Laura, religion, or virtue, or the blessed virgin, or-. See the prefaces to the first and second volume.

c Laure de Noves , born about the year 1307, was married, in Ja-nuary 1325, to Hugues de Sade, a noble citizen of Avignon , whose jea-lousy was not the effect of love, since he married a second wife withinseven months after her death, which happened the 6th of April 1348,precisely one-and-twenty years after Petrarch had seen and loved her.

4 Corpus crebris partubus exhausttim : from one of these is issued,in the tenth degree, the abbe de Sade, the fond and grateful biographerof Petrarch ; and this domestic motive most probably suggested theidea of his work, and urged him to enquire into every circumstancethat could affect the history and character of his grandmother (seeparticularly tom. i, p. 122-133, notes, p. 7-58, tom ii, p. 455-405, not.p. 76-82).

e Vaucluse, so familiar to our English travellers, is described fromthe writings of Petrarch , and the local knowledge of his biographer(Memoires, tom. i, p. 340-350). It was, in truth, the retreat of an her-mit, and the moderns are much mistaken, if they place Laura and anhappy lover in the grotto.

f Of 1250 pages, in a close print, at Basil in the sixteenth century,but without .the date of the year. The abb£ de Sade calls aloud for a

new

CHAP

LXX.