Laura, descended from a family of ancient and noble extraction, was the daughter of Audibert de Noves, a Provencal nobleman, by his wife Esmessenda.  She was born at Avignon, probably in 1308.  She had a considerable fortune, and was married in 1325 to Hugh de Sade.  The particulars of her life are little known, as Petrarch has left few traces of them in his letters; and it was still less likely that he should enter upon her personal history in his sonnets, which, as they were principally addressed to herself, made it unnecessary for him to inform her of what she already knew.

While many writers have erred in considering Petrarch’s attachment as visionary, others, who have allowed the reality of his passion, have been mistaken in their opinion of its object.  They allege that Petrarch was a happy lover, and that his mistress was accustomed to meet him at Vaucluse, and make him a full compensation for his fondness.  No one at all acquainted with the life and writings of Petrarch will need to be told that this is an absurd fiction.  Laura, a married woman, who bore ten children to a rather morose husband, could not have gone to meet him at Vaucluse without the most flagrant scandal.  It is evident from his writings that she repudiated his passion whenever it threatened to exceed the limits of virtuous friendship.  On one occasion, when he seemed to presume too far upon her favour, she said to him with severity, “I am not what you take me for.”  If his love had been successful, he would have said less about it.

Of the two persons in this love affair, I am more inclined to pity Laura than Petrarch.  Independently of her personal charms, I cannot conceive Laura otherwise than as a kind-hearted, loveable woman, who could not well be supposed to be totally indifferent to the devotion of the most famous and fascinating man of his age.  On the other hand, what was the penalty that she would have paid if she had encouraged his addresses as far as he would have carried them?  Her disgrace, a stigma left on her family, and the loss of all that character which upholds a woman in her own estimation and in that of the world.  I would not go so far as to say that she did not at times betray an anxiety to retain him under the spell of her fascination, as, for instance, when she is said to have cast her eyes to the ground in sadness when he announced his intention to leave Avignon; but still I should like to hear her own explanation before I condemned her.  And, after all, she was only anxious for the continuance of attentions, respecting which she had made a fixed understanding that they should not exceed the bounds of innocence.

We have no distinct account how her husband regarded the homage of Petrarch to his wife—­whether it flattered his vanity, or moved his wrath.  As tradition gives him no very good character for temper, the latter supposition is the more probable.  Every morning that he went out he might hear from some kind friend the praises of a new sonnet which Petrarch had written on his wife; and, when he came back to dinner, of course his good humour was not improved by the intelligence.  He was in the habit of scolding her till she wept; he married seven months after her death, and, from all that is known of him, appears to have been a bad husband.  I suspect that Laura paid dearly for her poet’s idolatry.