The Secret of Petrarch. By Edmund J. Mills. (T. Fisher
Unvrin. 12s. net.)—Mr. Mills gives this title, taken from one of Petrarch's works, to the studies of the poet's life and character. In the first part he treats of the relation between Petrarch and Laura. The studies devoted to this subject are carefully worked out and complete. The proposition advanced by De Sado that Laura was a married woman he peremptorily rejects, just as Lord Woodhouselee did before him. De Sade seems to have been inclined to the belief by a certain genealogical vanity. He desired to make out that Laura was an ancestress of his own. The hypo- thesis that Laura was a creature of the imagination scarcely requires confutation. The rest of the volume is mainly occupied with some verse in which Mr. Mills endeavours to picture by help of Petrarch's own works the man's temper and ways of thinking. The verse is unequal, but often shows considerable merit. We cannot help saying, however, that we should have preferred prose. Finally, we have an appendix of Italian texts.
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